Mr Harold Owen of Armadale Road, Bolton, has written to tell me that his memory was stirred by the series of local political pictures which appeared on this page recently.

He writes: "One day in the early 1930s I was crossing the Town Hall Square on my way to the Library (the one recently pictured as Victoria Restaurant). Outside the library the Unemployed Workers' Union were preparing for a demonstration and a march. They carried homemade banners with the message 'Half a crown for bobby's bike - two shillings for unemployed man's child.'

"The police had just set up a Cycle Squad and officers volunteering for the squad got an extra half crown (12 p) on their wages.

"A man on unemployment benefit was allowed two shillings (10p) to keep a child for a week!" Mr Owen says he does not think he will ever forget that message.