Past and present staff of the Grantham Journal returned to the Lincolnshire market town to mark an anniversary of one of their biggest stories.

Their reunion coincided with the tenth anniversary of the Beverly Allitt trial, coverage of which earned the Journal the honour of being named Newspaper of the Year.

Dee Smith, formerly Dee Williams, said: “Although most of the group kept in touch with one or two people, we had to rely on the grapevine to keep in touch with who was doing what.

“We hadn’t been together since the early 90s and, as this was the tenth anniversary of the Grantham’s biggest story we thought now was as good as time as any.”

So she put together a mock-up of a Journal front page with the splash being a story about the reunion.

She added: “We embarked on a pub crawl around our old haunts in Grantham.

“Sadly our favourite old haunt – and chosen starting point – was in the middle of closing down and were running down on their stock. We therefore had the dubious honour of literally drinking a pub dry.

“It was a wonderful night out, catching up with what everyone was doing and reminiscing about the past. We’re now going to make it a regular event rather than waiting another ten years.”

Among the guests being reunited were: