FRIENDS reunited may have long since come and gone, but one former Wrexham schoolgirl is determined to bring her classmates back together, some 40 years after leaving.

Jill Povey, 56, who was originally from Gresford, but now lives in Surrey, said the idea to hold a reunion for the Darland Comprehensive (now High School) Class of 1979 was the brainchild of two former classmates; Suzanne Daulby (formerly Davies) and Heather Dunning (formerly McCartney).

Mrs Povey said: "We were all from Gresford and Heather and I were best friends at school. We felt we wanted to reconnect with old class mates - before it became impossible to track people down.

"We set up a Facebook group which currently has 74 members, although not all of them can make it to the actual reunion."

Jill, who went by the surname of Crosbie back in her school days, said a lot of people are still local to the area, but that others are coming from other parts of the country, including Gloucestershire and Yorkshire, while some are travelling from as far a field as Spain and Bulgaria.

She added: "After leaving Darland I went on to Yale Sixth Form College in Wrexham to study for A levels, as did others in the year, including Suzanne and Heather.

"After that, I moved away to study in Nottingham, then after 10 years there, moved up to Aberdeen to study for a PhD in microbiology."

Mrs Povey, who is married with three children, spent 25 years living in the Scottish city, including two overseas postings to Baku and Moscow due to her husband's job in the energy sector, but has recently moved down south to live in Surrey.

She said: "The reunion will be the first time in 40 years since I’ve seen a lot of my former school mates.

"It will be interesting to hear peoples stories and adventures in life. Many are now grandparents and some are already retired. Sadly, some people are no longer with us.

"Unlike today, there aren’t so many photos in circulation for us to look back on. With the kind help of one ex pupil (Dave Henrys) who is a photographer by profession, he is collating and digitising anything we have between us, so we will once again have something to look back on.

"We hope it will be an evening to remember and to make permanent reconnections."

The reunion event is taking place in Wrexham on Saturday June 1 and any former pupils from the class of 1979 wishing to attend can contact Jill for further details via e-mail on

jilldpovey@gmail.com

but are asked to do so by May 16.