WHEN a correspondent asked me a couple of weeks ago where the name Hunger Hill originated, I said that it was originally Hanger Hill.

I had got this information from a newspaper cutting from March, 1947, in which Quidnunc (he with answers to everything, if you remember) said : "A reader has inquired why Hunger Hill, Deane, is so called. Contrary to popular supposition, it has nothing to do with hunger or the 'Hungry Forties'. The name was originally Hanger Hill, on account of the trees that grew there, for "hanger meant then, as it still does, a wood on the side of a steep hill."

My answer was followed by an e-mail from Mrs Jennifer Blackshaw, of Tempest Road, Chew Moor, who has lived in the area for 35 years (and for a long time had a shop in Hunger Hill) who said: "I was under the impression that Hunger Hill meant exactly what it suggested - a place where livestock went hungry because of poor pasture - and that Chew Moor at the bottom of the hill meant again what it suggested - good pasture where the livestock was well fed because of lush grass. This was told to me by an old farmer friend Mr Jack Howcroft, who has now passed on."

Well, I have since tried to confirm either statement, and have failed to do so, but I must say that Quidnunc was a great authority on local history and would not have included his answer unless he was sure it was the case. Perhaps other readers have their thoughts on this matter.

Incidentally, you may have noticed in Quidnunc's answer the term "Hungry Forties". This probably referred to the early days of Queen Victoria's reign which were noted for the distress in Britain. The distress in Bolton was referred to on a number of occasions in the house of Commons, and MPs were told that a man who had visited the town, who had seen much of war on the Continent, said he had never seen such wretchedness as in Bolton.

"In many of the streets there was not a single inhabitant, and many of the inhabited houses were without any furniture whatever. Hundreds of families slept on the ground without any bed or bedding, and there were thousands who had no supply of daily bread to keep existence together," said one MP.

One of Bolton's MPs, Mr Peter Ainsworth, said there were about 1,500 or 1,600 unoccupied houses in the borough. There were 10,000 people in the town at the time living on parish relief.

In the "Hungry Forties", Bolton was one of the worst hit areas in the country, so much so that authorities in London and the local magistrates were in constant touch, fearing an insurrectionary movement in the town.

But, in spite of the distress and appalling conditions, no open revolt occurred, and the town eventually weathered probably the harshest times in its history.