THERE were tears of joy in the eyes of Jackie Larkworthy as she stood on the footplate of a steam engine at the Norchard Steam Centre last week.
For the 76-year-old was celebrating her birthday in a style which brought back some of the happiest memories of her life in an age when the railway was a lifeline for country folk.
"I remember it so well because the railway ran at the bottom of our garden and as there were no other girls of my age we used it to go into Ledbury or Gloucester to meet our friends," she said, recalling her teenage years.
"I had just enough time to do a little shopping and meet everyone. In those days we would give the drivers produce and vegetables and things and in return they would bring materials from the town for country folk – no money would pass hands.
"We got to know all the drivers. They were on six-week links, with six drivers to a link, and by the time their link was up we knew them all personally."
Jackie, who lived then in the hamlet of Tiller's Green near Dymock, has been at Hygrove residential home for the last two years, and says her surprise visit to Norchard made her very happy.
"I had a wonderful time," she said. "Of course, they weren't allowed to let me drive the engine – not officially, anyway!"