In Looking Back we like to occasionally focus on the more unusual.

So for this collection photos from the archives we’ve decided to go shopping.

Shops are one of the things which we just take for granted and yet, they stir up very strong memories of a particular time.

All these photographs date between 1986 and 1988 and were taken for various advertising features in the Bolton Evening News.

They are all of shops in and around Bolton which we hope many readers will remember.

It’s interesting to note the diversity of the businesses featured here which very much reflect the time.

In the mid to late 1982, it was very much the video age, and the weekly trip to the video shop to select a film for that evening’s viewing was something so many of us did. Chances are that we would watch it on a rented TV and video recorder too.

Take a look at these photos and see how many of the businesses you remember.

If you have photos or memories of shops in and around Bolton, we’d love to share them with Looking Back readers.