INSTEAD of rewriting history a Radcliffe man has come up with his own way of spicing up his home town's story - he has invented a whole new version!

When Chris Nagle moved to the mill town 10 years ago he eagerly set about discovering more about the area's past.

But the 44-year-old Metrolink training officer soon became disappointed with the lack of juicy historical happenings.

Then two years ago, while sitting on a beach in Italy and studying a map of Radcliffe, he hit on the idea of creating a whole new identity for the town.

The idea soon became an obsession, with Chris spending hours producing travel posters and pictures for the fictional Radcliffe, which now lies on the Irwell Riviera. Chris took his inspiration from the inter war period when travel was glamourous.

"It started off as a joke but I have ended up with quite a big collection of memorabilia," said Chris.

"Radcliffe is somewhere quite insignificant and I wanted it to have a higher profile."

In Chris's historical Radcliffe there was a Casino, a Cafe Royale, an international aerodrome at Coney Green, a mountain railway and a marina.

Airships regularly landed there bringing tourists from abroad to enjoy the facilities and the area has also hosted a round Britain air race, football cup finals and an international boat race. Chris says he will often stay up late at his home in Shetland Way to work on the latest project he has for his upmarket Radcliffe.

"I will get an idea and start giggling like an idiot," he said.

"It is a consuming passion and when I get a good idea I can be working on it at 2 o'clock in the morning. My wife, Marie Anne, thinks I am completely mad."

Chris "borrows" the names of real places in the town for his fictional landmarks and even his pals end up as the contact names on his travel posters, many of which belong to the Radcliffe Air Navigation Company (Associated Tours), or RAINCOAT for short.

Chris has now created more than 80 posters and pictures of his trendy town and is hoping to stage an exhibition or produce a book of Radcliffe's alternative history featuring them.