From the Evening News, - July 18, 1992 - TRADITIONAL Bolton holidays are to stay for the near future, despite persistent moves to being them in line with the rest of the country.

Education chiefs have agreed that in 1994 schools in Bolton, Farnworth and Turton will follow in the traditional summer pattern of taking the Bolton holiday and then returning to school until the summer term ends. Schools in Horwich, Blackrod and Westhoughton will close at the beginning of the traditional Bolton holiday in late June and return to school at the beginning of the Autumn term in August.

25 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News,

July 18, 1977

FAMILY doctors today joined the great pay chase by launching a claim well in excess of government guidelines. The decided to seek an interim rise of around £25 a week from next month - a 15 per cent increase.

A HOUSEWIFE who commandeered a hospital bed won her fight today to have a gallstones operation. Mrs Rita Ward, of Northampton staged her "lie-in" on Saturday when she walked into the women's surgical ward at her local hospital, got into a spare bed, and said she would not budge until after her operation. She claimed she had been in pain for 18 months, and faced a further wait of up to a year. A hospital spokesmen she had jumped a queue of 400 people, but "no other patients who were due to be operated on this week will have their surgery cancelled or deferred." The surgeon and anaesthetist carried out the operation in their own time.

50 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News,

July 17, 1952

BRITAIN'S health made a "brilliant" progress during the first 50 years of this century - deaths dropped by 57 per cent, the death rate of schoolboys by 76 per cent and of schoolgirls by 82 per cent. Scarlet fever and whooping cough, which caused 26,943 deaths in 1898, caused only 1,113 in 1948. These facts are disclosed by Sir John Charles, Chief Medical Officer of Health, in his 1950 report.

But, he says, the picture has darker aspects. Cancer, especially that of the lung, remains the greatest problem. Infantile paralysis and coronary thrombosis have increased. The "universal scourge - the common cold - still defies us.

100 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News,

July 18, 1902

IN the early hours of Sunday morning, the members of the Third Bolton Volunteer Active Service Company returned home from the front in South Africa after an absence of several months. Great disappointment was caused amongst their relatives and friends owing to the men not reaching Bolton at the hour expected. They were expected just after eight o'clock, and by that time thousands of people lined the route from the Station to Fletcher-st. Barracks. It was then announced that the men would arrive at ten o'clock, with the result that the crowd dispersed and re-assembled at the time named. At this time another disappointment was in store, with a statement that they would not arrive until midnight. They eventually reached Bolton at 1.15am, were greeted at the Station by the Mayor and other officials. The public by this time were not present in any great numbers.