LAST week's picture featuring the stuffed polar bear in Victoria Square was of great interest to Alan Edwards of Windrush Drive, Westhoughton.

He was the young chap sitting on the bench - supposedly unaware that the bear had crept up on him.

Alan, who was 16, was working in the Time Office at the Bolton Evening News in Mealhouse Lane when a photographer roped him in for an unusual task.

They collected the bear from the museum and carried it across the square - in the snow - to position it for the photograph.

Alan, who now works at our printing plant at Wingates, said: "We got one or two queer looks from people doing their shopping."

I bet they did.