From the Evening News, September 3, 1904: A GIRL employed as a servant at the Bowling Green Hotel in Holloway Head, Birmingham had an exciting experience early on Friday morning.

Snugly ensconced among the bedclothes in her room, she, it is said, indulged in the luxury of a cigarette before falling to sleep and failed to notice that the burning ash fell upon the sheets and smouldered. She woke up later to the fact that the bed was in flames and endeavoured in vain to check them. Meanwhile a policeman noticed smoke issuing from the window and in a few minutes the men of the Central Fire Brigade burst into the room and averted a serious conflagration. After vain denials she admitted that she had been smoking in the privacy of her room, advancing the excuse that she was suffering from toothache.

From the Evening News, September 3, 1954: LAST night was a night to remember for 34-year-old trumpet player Albert Ramsden of Breightmet Drive, Bolton. First of all, the band in which he is lead trumpet - the Jimmy Heyworth Orchestra of Rawtenstall - won the Melody Maker competition to find the best semi-professional dance band in the North of England and then, later in the evening at the Ritz Ballroom, Manchester, Bert was adjudged to be the outstanding musician in the contest.

CLLR Sir Robert Catterall said at yesterday's meeting of Turton Urban District Council that the council had decided to take part in the government's plan to encourage people to buy their own houses. The plan is that local authorities and building societies co-operate in loaning up to 95 per cent of the cost of a house.

From the Evening News, September 3, 1979: ORGANISERS have been surprised by the success of the Bolton Festival. It seems the prospect of a regular arts festival for the town - talked about so much two weeks ago - is much nearer to reality. The Leader of the Council, Cllr John Hanscomb, said: "The festivities have brought people together in the simplest way to enjoy themselves and the success of the venture has exceeded our wildest dreams. It has given the people of Bolton a new experience, something we can all be proud of."

ALTHOUGH the cigarette firms have long stopped putting cigarette cards in their packets, the North West branch of the Cartophilic Society is still going strong. They have just appointed a new secretary, Frank Wadsworth of Leigh Road, Westhoughton, to succeed Norman Pendlebury of Darley Street, Horwich. The group has staged several card exhibitions in Bolton over the years and all the information on the back can add up to a poor man's Encyclopaedia Britannica.

From the Evening News, September 3, 1994: CRIME in Bolton was reduced by 10 per cent in the first six months of the year. The reduction is the biggest drop reported in recent years for any six month period in the metropolitan borough. But Bolton - one of the biggest authorities in Greater Manchester - still recorded more homes broken into than any other town in the county.

THE housing market suffered a setback today when Britain's biggest mortgage lender revealed a fall in prices last month. The Halifax Building Society's monthly house price index, generally regarded as the most reliable indicator of residential property price movements, registered a 0.7 per cent decline last month to a national average of £62,903.