From the Evening News, March 25, 1992 - A COMPUTER blunder has left hundreds of Bolton poll tax payers wrongly threatened with a summons for not paying their bills.

Town Hall finance chiefs today apologised for the error which has hit people who pay their community charge by standing order.

HARD up council chiefs have come under fire for giving just £5,000 towards preventing Bolton Parish Church becoming a "ruin", and said the church should try to raise the cash by public appeal. The church was hoping for at least £50,000 towards funding vital repairs.

25 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, March 25, 1977

MANY undertakers barely make a living out of dying, says a report out today. But they are cheap, never nasty, rarely grasping, and their service is exemplary. These are some of the findings of an inquiry into the funeral business by the Price Commission.

50 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, March 26, 1952

IS there something fundamentally wrong with the methods of modern teaching? Ald Tonge (leader of the Council) raised the question at today's meeting of Bolton Town Council when he revealed that many children leaving primary schools for the Bolton County Grammar School "cannot write properly, cannot read properly, and cannot do arithmetic properly". Ald Tong said that secondary school authorities were very perturbed about the fact.

100 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, March 25, 1902

A WILD sensation has been created in Stoneclough on the report of the extraordinary conduct of two residents, James Leach and Albert Booth, who on Sunday night ran a terrible risk of breaking their necks by jumping from an express train.

They had, it is stated, been on a visit to Bolton during the day, and should have returned in time to commence work at Messrs. Fletcher's paper mills at midnight, but they boarded an express instead of the train which stopped at Stoneclough.

Their consternation was great on discovering their mistake, and Leach, opening the carriage door, disappeared from view just as Dixon Fold station had been passed. Booth followed suit, but a third occupant of the compartment showed commendable presence of mind by pulling the communication cord, and the train was brought to a stand. The men were found after a search.

Booth was terribly cut about the face, and Leach was entangled by the foot in the signal wires. Both were helped into the train, and at Salford were taken to the Royal Hospital, where Booth had his wounds stitched, and Leach was found little the worse, except for bruises. The men were afterwards removed home in a cab.