A FORMER reporter with the Bolton Evening News group of newspapers has died aged 83.

Harold Williams, who lived with his wife Joyce in North Road, Atherton, was a member of the editorial team based at the Leigh, Tyldesley and Atherton Journal.

He was born in Glossop, Derbyshire, and his family moved to Atherton when he was 10.

At 16 he became a reporter with the Eccles Journal, but after wartime service with the RAF he took a clerical post at Greenhalgh's Atherton foundry.

At the age of 40, he returned to the Journal, and retired as senior reporter from the Railway Road office in Leigh at 65, later returning on a part-time basis.

Harold used to joke that he once turned down the chance of writing a story about the Beatles.

When their manager Brian Epstein popped in one day in 1963 and said "We've got the Beatles at the Casino" and asked if he'd like to do a story, Harold promptly turned him away.

His funeral took place on Wednesday. The service was conducted by the Rev Brenda Catterall, who worked with Harold during her time as a reporter.