MY article on when bowls were made in Bolton seems to have created quite a lot of interest. Someone who says "my name is irrelevant" writes: "In the 1920s, as a boy, I lived at the bottom of Flitcroft Street, and Peter Boardman's "works" was in the backyard of 43 Rupert Street. The side of the backyard was in Flitcroft Street.

"As an apprentice joiner (early 1930s) I remember being taught that Lignum Vitae (that's the wood bowls used to be made of) translates as 'The Wood of Life', and derives its name from the fact that it was the kind of wood from which the Good Friday Calvary Crucifix was made."

Then came some e-mails, the first from John Jenkins, of Merehall Close, Bolton, who tells me that he has a set of double nine dominoes made by Peter Boardman (you may recall that in the article, I said that in summer the firm produced bowls, in the winter dominoes).

John writes: "The dominoes were won in a raffle for six pence old money (2p in decimal) by my late father-in-law many years ago. They have coloured spots and are as good as the day they were made."

Then Frank Macdonald told me: "The workshop was behind the house on Rupert Street which was the last house before Flitcroft Street. There were double gates in Flitcroft Street leading into the workshop.

"I lived in Flitcroft Street in the 1930s and 40s, and used to go to Boardman's for sawdust, made from the cutting of the 'woods', to use for bedding in the rabbit hutch. Mr Boardman would let you in through the gates past piles of logs of Lignum Vitae, and allow you to shovel sawdust into a sack for the rabbits. Happy days."