This week's pictures from the past

Ludlow Rugby Club is celebrating its 75th birthday this year, although we hasten to add that these gentlemen are not from the earliest teams – they are in fact a line-up from the early 1980s.

The photo was loaned by Lawrie Wallace of the club. Birthday celebrations are starting on February 14 with a reunion of former players. Any former players wanting details should contact Lawrie on 07870 588139.nextpage

Here's quite a busy street scene from Albrighton from yesteryear. The Crown pub is on the right, and the people outside may be waiting for a bus.

This view probably dates from the 1930s – it is a Raphael Tuck postcard, and that postcard firm was destroyed in the Blitz.

Picture: Ray Farlownextpage

There is a sad story behind this photograph, which shows a group mostly from the Williams Wynn family on the banks of the River Vyrnwy, near their home outside Meifod.

It was loaned by bestselling author Robert Harvey, who says: "Second from left is my great grandmother, Maud Williams Wynn. On the left is my grandmother, also called Maud Williams Wynn. Third from left is Nesta Williams Wynn, my great aunt. My grandmother married a Harvey. Second from right is my great uncle Charley Williams Wynn and on the right is a family friend called Pemberton – I don't know his first name.

"The poignant part of it is that this would be just before the 1914 war in which Charley was killed in the first battle."

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission website records that C W Williams Wynn, a Second Lieutenant in the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards, died on October 29, 1914, at the age of 18.nextpage

These houses were going up in the Cuckoo Oak area of Madeley in early 1964 – the date stamp on the back of this print from our files is February 4, 1964.

The notice says "Sir Alfred McAlpine & Son . . . Borough of Wenlock – Madeley Ward (within Dawley New Town designated area), 485 dwellings and 26 shops, Cuckoo Oak estate – Hills Lane estate . . ."nextpage

A road gang is at work in Montford Bridge, using a rather magnificent old steamroller. We don't have the date – 1920s maybe? The picture was loaned by Mr Jim Kelsall, of Oswestry, who once had a craft centre in Montford Bridge. He says the little girl on the far right became Mrs Price – he does not know her maiden name – and the man is her father. They used to own a travelling shop, he says. On the print the building in the distance far right is marked as "the old toll house", although we have digitally removed the words for publication.