Jet-setter Tony returns to his Longridge roots

Francoise and Anthony Oldcorn at his 80th birthday celebration with his sister-in-law Carol Oldcorn and Longridge mayor Coun Sarah Rainford.

But it’s one which a Longridge lad returning to his roots has done several times to see his younger brothers and sisters.

And this month Tony Oldcorn has completed the journey again but this time, with his wife Francoise, it has been to celebrate the major anniversary of his 80th birthday.

He grew up in Longridge at number 6 Lodge View, attending St Wilfrid’s and Alston Lane schools and Preston Catholic College before gaining a scholarship and then a BA(Hons) in modern languages at Oxford’s Worcester College, and in the USA an MA at the University of Virginia and a PHD at Harvard.

Brothers Tony - from Massachussetts and Bill Oldcorn - from Whittingham - enjoying ther reunion with four siblings for Tony's 80th birhtday.

This led to a glittering career in language and literature across the globe, but never in that time has he lost site of those roots.

So it was that Tony, his wife and special guest Longridge mayor Sarah Rainford, met up with his sisters Margaret O’Donoghue and Annette Hartley, his late brother Harry’s wife Carole and brothers Jim, John and Bill at the Italian Orchard in Broughton for the celebration birthday lunch before jetting back across the miles to the USA.