From the Evening News, February 5, 1993: BOLTON father-of-two Rodney Stephenson, held hostage by rebel troops in Angola, is safe and well, and is expected to be released "in the next few days".

THIEVES met their match when they broke into a Farnworth pet shop and confronted Polly the parrot. The raiders grabbed the 19-week-old African Grey parrot, worth £650, from the B and M Berry store on Plodder Lane -- but left behind 40-year-old friend Polly. Owner Brian Berry reckons Polly took a dislike to the thieves, and would have attacked if they tried to grab him.

25 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News,

February 4, 1978

A TIDAL wave of concrete "surfers" poured into Britain's first indoor skateboard centre which opened in Bolton today. The Blackburn Road centre, which cost £60,000 to convert from the old wrestling stadium, aims to challenge the image of skateboarding from a pavement nuisance to a serious sport. Response has already been terrific. Promoters were boasting a membership of more than 700 even before the concrete was dry.

50 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News,

February 5, 1953

BOLTON is one of nine Civil Defence authorities in the country which have been supplied with the latest equipment for recording and detecting radioactivity after an atomic bomb explosion.

The instruments consist of a contamination meter, an individual dosimeter, and a portable doe-rate meter. The individual dosimeter is a small instrument -- something like a silver fountain pen -- and is used by a person for registering the total amount of radioactivity he or she has absorbed after an atomic explosion. In order to train volunteers in the use of this equipment, Bolton Civil Defence Corps has been provided with radio-active sources.

100 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News,

February 5, 1903

A SHOCKING fatality occurred this morning on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway line, about half a mile from Westhoughton Station, between that Station and Wigan. The body of a man named Michael Owen (55), a bricksetter's labourer of 9, Grundy-st., Westhoughton, was found lying on the line at 10.35.

His skull was fractured, both arms were cut off, and his right leg was severed from the trunk. No details as to how the unfortunate man met his death are to hand, but it was supposed that he strayed on to the line, and was knocked down and killed by a passing train.