From the Evening News, June 10, 1992 - ONE of the most violent thunderstorms to hit Bolton in years left behind a trail of destruction and chaos last night.

Lightning struck buildings, and blacked out homes and a hotel. Houses, a hospital ward and roads were flooded. It struck first in Farnworth and Kearsley, and then moved towards Leigh. In Kearsley, a huge section of the front wall of the Man and Scythe on Manchester Road collapsed, and landlord John Murman described how the force of the lightning flung him to the floor as he opened up the pub.

25 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News,

June 11, 1977

AN INCREASE in violence has put Britain's police forces with their backs to the wall, and the burden is increasing, said Mr James Anderton, Chief Constable of Greater Manchester, today. It may get worse before it gets better, he warned. He said delinquency was generally related to the conduct of young people, when it was a term which could more aptly describe the ineptitude and moral degeneration of a large part of the adult population.

50 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News,

June 11, 1952

IN the first five months of the recession, the producing sections of the Lancashire cotton industry lost 41,000 workers, or 11 per cent of their total labour force at the end of November. However, with the total at 329,000 at the end of April, this was still well up on the post-war figure of 250,000 envisaged by the cotton working party.

100 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News,

June 11, 1902

THE Borough Coroner's inquiry into the burning fatality by which Annie Coffin, the four-year-old daughter of William Henry Coffin, labourer, 44, Chapel-st., lost her life on Monday, was held at the Town Hall on Tuesday afternoon.

The mother of the deceased child said that about twenty minutes past four on Monday afternoon she left the house to go across the street to do some washing, the deceased and the baby, two years old, being left in the house. Witness did not lock the door, but closed it, leaving the key on the outside.

A few minutes later, a neighbour informed her that the deceased had lighted some paper. She immediately proceeded to the house which she found full of smoke after experiencing some difficulty opening the door. A few minutes elapsed before the deceased was found lying underneath the table, and she was picked up by a man named Standish, who ran with her to Dr Hottom's surgery. The doctor was not in and the Fire Brigade Ambulance was called for and conveyed the child to the Infirmary. Dr Munro stated that there was no hope from the first, deceased being badly burned all over the body.

The Coroner remarked that there was no one to blame, in fact they must sympathise with the woman who had to help eke out a living. Verdict: Accidental Death.