From the Evening News, January 8, 1904: FEARS entertained in some quarters in Horwich of a further reduction of hands at the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Works, have proved only too true.

It is now stated that about 130 employees have been selected for dismissal. It will be remembered that some time ago a reduction in working hours was made and a number of men were dismissed, the reason assigned being a desire to curtail expenses consequent upon the decreased receipts from passenger and freight traffic. With regard to the men who are affected in the present instance, it is understood that those least likely to feel the dismissal - although, of course, it must keenly affect them - have been selected.

Much dismay has been created throughout the town.

From the Evening News, January 8, 1954: FIELD-Marshall Viscount Montgomery visits Bolton next Thursday.

He will arrive in Bolton at about 10.30am and will be met at the Town Hall by the Mayor, Ald J. Parkes, and the Town Clerk, Mr Philip S. Rennison. Shortly before 11am he will leave for Bolton School, where he will speak to boys before returning to the Town Hall for luncheon with members of the town council and guests. The Field-Marshall will also visit Walkers' Tannery and the Bolton Lads' Club.

From the Evening News, January 8, 1979: house prices in the Bolton area rose by an average of 24 per cent in 1978, a year which also saw the advent of the £60,000 house as "reasonably commonplace." It is likely that there will be further "brisk increases" during the coming year. These startling figures emerge from an analysis by one of Bolton's leading estate agents, Graham Ball and Partners (formerly Crankshaw, Graham Ball and Partners) of more than 1,000 house sales during last year.

CABINET ministers were meeting today and regularly during the week to discuss how to handle the twin crises of the strikes by lorry drivers and petrol tanker drivers. Between them the strikes threaten virtually to paralyse road traffic, halt Britain's industrial production and strip supermarket shelves of food.

From the Evening News, January 8, 1994: A CONTROVERSIAL councillor wants to see Bolton's mayor in the 21st century become more of a "man of the people." Long-serving Labour member Peter Johnston has again turned down the chance of being the town's first citizen this year. The bearded councillor, who has been known to wear skimpy shorts for committee meetings in hot weather, feels he would not fit in with the present image.

POLICE launched a murder hunt after it was revealed that an elderly woman found dead in Bury had been strangled. The pensioner, whose naked body was discovered in public toilets at the Bury Interchange rail and bus station early yesterday, has been named as Shirley Leach, aged 66, of the Brandlesholme Road area of Bury.