THE Looking Back phone has been ringing red hot since we published this photo of some Portland quarrymen taking a well deserved break as part of our tale of Portland stone series of articles.

A big thank you to Jim Hinde who got in touch after recognising his father in the photo.

Jim said: "I first put this photo into the public domain.

"This was a celebration for the forthcoming marriage of one of the quarry gang Leslie Pepperil

"The picture is dated 1934/5. In those days they often celebrated an event with a few jars of beer."

Jim's father Leslie George Hinde was just 14-years-old at the time the photo was taken.

He said: "In 1939 some five years later was called up for war service, he served in the Royal Artillery and went firstly to North Africa, then over to Greece.

"He was eventually captured in the battle for Crete and spent the rest of the war in a P.O.W. camp.

"When the war finished he went from country to country before he was finally repatriated in Odessa in Russia some months after the war had finished, causing his parents a lot of anxiety into his whereabouts."

Jim has very kindly named all the quarrymen in this photo.

They are, in the back row from left to right - Jimmy Duke, Bert White, (standing) George Connor, Pasha Baker, Leslie George Hinde (Jim's father), Les Pepperill, unknown, Fred Holley and Dick Croad.

In the front row from first left, Alfie Hart, Ralph Stone, Bob White, (with the hat) Dicky (Matchups) White, sat at the bottom right (Yarns) Pearce.

Jim has very kindly also enclosed a picture of his father Les with his mum and dad and three brothers and he also had three sisters.

Jim said: "In the back row from left to right are Les, Bob and Fred.

"In the front row from left to right are my father, William Flew Sampson (Bill) and my mother Annie Elizabeth."

And thanks to an anonymous caller who rang in to tell us he thought the photo was taken in 1936.

He said: "The men would have been having a beer because someone was getting married.

"The custom when someone would marry would be 'jumping the sticks', and I'm not quite sure what it would actually involve."

The man was able to recognise Tommy White in the photo who lived next door when he was a youngster and Yarn Pearce, a relative of one of his sisters.

Herbert Fall, the man who was getting married, was not in the photo.

*Looking Back would like to know more about the tradition of 'jumping the sticks', does anyone have any information about this?

Or do you have any photos or memories of the Portland quarrymen from years gone by?

If so we'd love to feature them in the Looking Back section.

Contact Joanna Davis by calling 01305 830973 or email joanna.davis@dorsetecho.co.uk