10 YEARS AGO From the Evening News, December 2, 1998 Bury-based First National Vehicle Contracts has hit the big time with a £10 million contract and leasing deal for two major water companies.

The Sankey Street company will supply 700 vehicles to Northumbrian Water Ltd and Essex and Suffolk Water over a four-year period, as part of a joint deal with Vauxhall and Ford.

25 YEARS AGO From the Evening News, December 2, 1983 Last-ditch talks aimed at stopping a 24-hour bus strike in Greater Manchester failed today.

The county’s 5,000 bus drivers and conductors will now take their vehicles off the road after their last journey tonight.

50 YEARS AGO From the Evening News, December 2, 1958 Three Bolton youths who admitted at Bolton Borough Court to-day complicity in the theft of a 7lb. bag of nuts from a Morris Green-lane, Bolton, shop, were interviewed by the police within an hour of the theft. They showed the police where they had hidden the nuts — under a haystack on a farm.

100 YEARS AGO From the Evening News, December 2, 1908 Two boys of ten and seven, named Harold and Thomas Henry Pilkington, 20, Peter-st., were committed to an industrial school until 16 years of age. Mr. J. Capes, chief school attendance officer, produced evidence stating that the children's parents were separated, and that the boys were not under proper control in the custody of the mother. They had been found begging in the streets at midnight.