From the Evening News, October 5, 1904: THE children attending the Chorley New Road Council School, Horwich, together with a fair number of parents and friends, assembled at the Mechanics' Institute in full force on Tuesday evening for the annual distribution of prizes.

Mr Farnham Slade, Chairman of the Local Education Sub-Committee, regretted the lack of interest in educational questions on the part of public men in the town, at present the work devolved on a few and it was like working the willing horse to death.

From the Evening News, October 5, 1954: "A SEAT By The Set" by Listener: "Under Milk Wood most richly deserved its rebroadcast, although in a shortened form, to Home Service listeners. "The brilliance of the language in this exultant poetry of Dylan Thomas was fully equalled by the exact and loving care which had gone into the radio production. "It was a triumph of wit and rhythm and word enchantment; the result, it seemed, of an unstinting effort to achieve perfection with material which was nothing less than ideal for the purpose."

SOME 36 more of Little Lever's gas lamps will be converted to electricity during the next fortnight. Nearly 150 lamps have already been changed to sodium lighting and it is planned to convert the remaining 130 during the next three years.

From the Evening News, October 5, 1979: BOLTON Bullfrog Bernard Wrigley has opened a new series of folk concerts at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester. Bernard, who has become a major figure on the Northern folk scene, is also a regular on television. He has appeared in three of Alan Bennett's plays and was in the recent "Mersey Pirate" from Granada.

BOLTON'S international athlete, Steve Kenyon, has received a letter from the United States presidential front runner, Senator Edward Kennedy. It thanked him for his part in helping to raise money for deprived children at a sponsored 10-mile charity road race in Michigan. Steve, who is 28, was the only non-American in the race and finished second, as he did last year. He won in 1977.

From the Evening News, October 5, 1994: A CONTROVERSIAL cloak and dagger operation - using children to check whether shopkeepers are selling fireworks to the under-aged - is to be repeated this year. Last year two Bolton shopkeepers fell into the trap as children went out with trading standards officers - both were prosecuted.

Some traders protested that the clandestine scheme was underhand and unfair.

JANE Panton, the new head of Bolton School Girls' Division, highlighted the tendency for people to point the finger at schools when things went wrong. "We are obviously here for the girls, but it should be in a supporting role," she said. "Parenting begins and ends at home."