A VILLAGE school's artefacts, including two canes used to mete out punishment, and the book where pupils’ misdemeanours were recorded, form part of an exhibition at Goosfest in Goostrey on Saturday.

The focus of the display by Goostrey Parish Archive will be the pupils in albums of photographs from the Victorian era to the 1920s and more recently as a variety of old documents, pictures and relics reflecting activities in the village's community life and primary school.

One document discovered in the archive is a poster announcing Goostrey Wakes, when a pound of tea, then worth 12 shillings, was the prize for the winner of a tea-drinking contest among the 12 oldest ladies.

The Crown Inn, where the exhibition is being held in the conservatory area, will also feature historic pictures of the 17th-century pub down the decades.

The popular inn also served in living memory as a farm, and was originally called the Mainwaring Arms after one of the parish's most affluent landed families and benefactors.

The exhibition follows a successful display at the village hall when the archive hosted a meeting of Cheshire Local History Association, the first time members had visited the venue for one of its

regular meetings.

Archive chairman and founder member Roger Burgess provided an insight into the work of the archive in a talk to the association, and stressed the importance of preserving aspects of life in the village as it was lived in the past to modern times.

He said he was delighted that with new members of the 10-year-old archive the group was able to provide a valuable service to people with an interest in Goostrey.

"To date it has provided family trees and photographs for people researching their family histories, documentation of buildings and pictures of people who lived in them, including poor houses, past vicarages and, of course, the large number of farms," he told the local historians.

" A recent researcher into the development of Morris dancing in Cheshire is now dedicating a chapter of his book about the Goostrey troupes that were trained here and which competed around the country following the wealth of material the archive provided."

Speaking of the display at the Crown Inn, he said: "There will be an album of professional photographs of everyday activities at the primary school in the mid-1960s so a number of people still living in the village can be identified and will be encouraged to share their memories.”

The exhibition at the Crown Inn is free to visitors, and runs between 10am and 4pm.