BOLTON'S parks have always been a popular attraction for local families.

Back when George Horrocks was a lad — and just starting out in his career — the parks were filled with people enjoying the facilities they had to offer.

While the parks are still enjoyed today George believes that at a time when television was in its infancy, and certainly not the norm in local households, parks were a great source of entertainment.

George, who is now aged 68 and lives in Chew Moor, started work for the old parks department of Bolton Council at the age of 15.

He had worked, in his spare time, on a local farm and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. He was working for the farmer at Watergate Farm, Wingates while living with his parents, George and Mary, in Wingates Lane.

Young George was just 12-years-old when he started work on the farm where he tended chickens, helped with the cattle and sheep and even drove the truck around the 11 acre grounds.

He was bitten by the bug. "I decided I wanted to be a farmer," says George.

But his dreams of running his own farm changed when he spoke to a "youth employment officer" at Westhoughton Secondary Modern School for Boys (which would, later, become Westhoughton High School).

"He asked what I thought about gardening.

"I was not academic at that point and had always got As in gardening so decided to give it a go."

George had an interview with the deputy director of parks and, as a teenage apprentice, his career began.

He worked at three parks in Bolton — Queens Park, Haslam Park and Moss Bank Park — as well as working on the cemeteries and the landscape department.

George worked at Haslam Park when it was a fully functioning park with greenhouses where plants for all the annual borders were grown.

There were six people working in Haslam Park where the head gardener was Harold Evans, says George.

In the conservatory at Queens Park (which would later become Butterfly World before it moved to Moss Bank Park) tropical plants were grown and most of these would be used for civic displays. "There was also a fish pond in there at one stage," he says.

Bedding plants were grown at Moss Bank Park.

George also worked for a time on Bolton's three main cemeteries, Astley Bridge, Tonge and Heaton.

Plants grown at Moss Bank Park were mainly for the town centre and some would be used for schools as well as civic decoration.

At the age of 21 George "got the landscape bug" and went to work on the trees and landscape section.

"I was felling and pruning trees, mainly on housing estates and parks as well as schools," he explains.

George was particularly fond of Moss Bank Park and, in particular, the Rock Garden which has now been restored by a team of volunteers.

"It was particularly special. The rock was limestone from Silverdale which would not be politically correct today.

"It was the best rockery ever to look at. It was laid about 1930," he says.

The Walled Garden was another popular attraction at Moss Bank Park and one much admired by George.

"In my day it was known as the Old English Garden and it had been the kitchen garden to Moss Bank House.

"Peaches were grown in there as well as vegetables."

George also worked on motorway landscaping and landscaping in the Croal Valley.

"I took my grandson, James, to look over Darcy Lever and now it is completely wooded but 40 years ago we were just planting the trees," he says.

There used to be an aviary in Moss Bank Park — with cockatoos, parrots and Canaries — and there was a Pets' Corner in the 1960s before it was developed into a mini zoo and it became Animal World.

The "pets" included a wide variety of small animals including a trial of turkeys. "Unfortunately the turkeys were all stolen," recalls George — no doubt ending up on a dinner plates throughout Bolton at Christmas.

Another plan to introduce fish into the pond in the Rock Garden met with a similar fate although the fish were not taken by members of the public but by a rather sneaky heron who managed to catch every single fish but a tench at the bottom of the pond. Needless to say the pond was not re-stocked.

"They were very happy days and the parks were extremely popular. We had a large, dedicated staff and we loved our work."