THERE was no lack of enthusiasm when pupils at Barton Junior School at Headington, Oxford, put on their Nativity play.

As picture 1 shows, there was not a spare seat as children packed the school hall to watch the cast on stage in December 1965.

Picture 2 comes from Lynda Millin, of Weymouth, and shows a scene from the Nativity play at SS Mary and John infants’ school in East Oxford in 1956. She is second from the left in the middle row.

Others she recognises are Nicholas Pile and Jennifer Smith, on either side of her, and in the back row, Gregory Axtel, left, and Linda Smith, right.

Mrs Millin writes: “I’m sure some of your readers may recognise themselves.”

Picture 3 was taken at Rose Hill Junior School in December 1958.

The school’s Christmas play that year was an ambitious production of Dick Whittington, with 200 children taking part.

And picture 4 shows a Nativity play at Kidlington Nursery School in December 1963, with, from left, Anthony Haynes, as Joseph, Anthea Barnard, as Mary, Kathryn Hunt, as the Archangel Gabriel, and with the Three Kings played by Nicky Hutt, Philip Smith, and Steven Carrier.