Getting ready for the jump. A previously unpublished image.

Nine Burnley Post Office workers were up in the clouds on Sunday morning, 1st June 1975, savouring the heady heights of a new venture - but they soon came down to earth with a bump! The heady height was in fact 2,500 feet above Preston where they were trying the ups and downs of parachute jumping. The men from the Post Office Telephone Department, made their first attempt after just a few hours' training the day before. The only casualty of the day was Mr David Wakefield who had organised the jump, but sprained his ankle when he was landing.

Afterwards they described the jump as a "terrific experience" and one of them, Mr Ken Marsden, waited and had a second successful descent in the afternoon. Parachutist Peter Platt said he felt "quite happy" because of the day's training, and because "there wasn't time to worry once they'd jumped." The other six parachutists were Stephen Pate, Steven Naylor, Kevin Whatmough, Allan Stephenson, Brian Thurston and Peter Skeath. Mr Wakefield organised the jump with the North West Parachute Centre at Preston, after he had read of two other Post Office workers from Carlisle having their first taste of parachuting.