From the Bolton Evening News, February 24, 1903: A CURIOUS trade dispute is now in full progress at Vienna. By the Austrian law all tradesmen are compelled to act in accordance with the direction of their guilds, and to confine their work to their own particular trade.

The Guild of Hairdressers had fallen foul of the Guild of Undertakers, claiming that by its charter it is entitled to shave corpses before they are put into the coffins. The case was submitted to the lawyer of the Chamber of Commerce and to the Town Council, who have given their decision in favour of the hairdressers. The undertakers, however, decline to accept this award. They intend to continue their shaving of corpses, and have expressed their determination to fight the point our in the law courts to the end.

February 24, 1953: 'SYNCOPATING' Sandy Strickland, the 40-years-old Bolton pianist, began playing a piano in a Plymouth hall today and will go on playing continuously, day and night, for 132 hours - unless he collapses. He hopes to beat the world record of 130 hours' continuous piano playing set up by the German pianist Heinz Arntz, last year.

While he plays, Strickland will live on tea and fruit juices. He smokes nearly 200 cigarettes a day.

February 23, 1978: THE North-west was on Orange Alert today as detectives hunted a crank who poisoned fruit with mercury. The warning came after the orange was found among a basket of fruit that was a bingo prize at a Wigan club.

A GOVERNMENT minister said today that he would like to see more working class children opting for university. Mr Gordon Oakes, Minister responsible for Higher Education, and former Bolton MP, said that figures suggested that too many young people did not regard higher education as the place to be.

February 23, 1993: MINDLESS vandals have wrecked a Bolton primary school - for the ninth time in five weeks. In the latest attack on St Joseph's RC Primary School last night the school's junior library was completely smashed by the thugs. In break-ins since January 16, at the school on Shepherd Cross Street, computers, printers, radios and a host of other valuable electronic equipment worth thousands of pounds have been taken.

YOUNG rogues under 20 years of age are responsible for 41 per cent of all crimes detected in Bolton. And according to police figures, teenagers 17 and under account for 19.9 per cent of crimes solved in the metropolitan borough.