THIS year's council-run Bolton Show is at Leverhulme Park on August 21 and 22.

There will be spectacular acts in the main arena: a music stage, radio roadshows, a funfair, children's entertainment, craft stalls, a dog show and a Saturday night firework display.

It is a popular annual event which was established in something like its current form in 1981.

The original idea was to revive the old agricultural show which had last been held in the 1950s.

Since then it has evolved into the popular entertainment it is today.

Over the years there have been all manner of attractions, including parachutists, motorcycle display teams and even Rod Hull and Emu.

It has been badly hit by rain a few times, but the event is firmly established on the local calendar.

Estimates of the numbers of people attracted each year seem to vary between about 60,000 and 120,000.

Pictures

Top - Chauffeur driven? Children enjoyed a donkey ride around Leverhulme Park in August, 1982

Left - Hanging tough: Lee Cunliffe, aged 13, is pictured here leading his "squad" through an army assault course in 1984

Right - Is it a bird? is it a plane? I cannot be certain, but my guess is that parachutists were descending to the showground in August, 1984.