From the Evening News, April 17, 1992 - A GIPSY landowner has had another scheme for a Bolton beauty spot turned down by council planning chiefs.

Mr Laurence Doran wanted to build a stable block on green belt land at Scout Road on Smithills Moor.

Planning officers had recommended that it should go ahead, but councillors turned it down because "it would be a further intrusion into the Green Belt."

Mr Doran was involved in a bitter battle with planning bosses last year over a bid to set up a gipsy caravan site. The former Environment Secretary Michael Heseltine ruled that it was illegal, and Mr Doran had to move the caravans off the land.

25 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News,

April 18, 1977

A SECRET tunnel which a Bolton man believes may link two churches in the town could be brought to light in a planned dig. The tunnel, which could once have been an escape route for priests, is thought to lie between Bolton Parish Church and Deane Church.

Retired mechanic David Kemp, of Arundel Street, Bolton, now hopes to discover the tunnel, which he believes dates back to the 11th century, using old maps and books to help pinpoint the exact route. The Rev. Sydney Clayton, lecturer at Bolton Parish Church, said that rumours of the tunnel's existence had been explored in 1970, when the church floor had been removed for alterations. Nothing had been discovered.

50 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News,

April 18, 1952

HAVE you an old wringing machine that you don't want? An old iron kettle? An old bucket? A file? A hinge? A couple of nails? Have you, in fact, any old iron?

If you have, you have a wonderful opportunity in the next fortnight to help this country to earn dollars from exports by keeping the blast furnaces of this country going. At 8am on Monday, Bolton dustmen will start a fortnight's campaign to collect all the scrap iron that the public is prepared to put out for collection. The steel mills are crying out for scrap iron because imports have fallen considerably and the industry cannot for a long time provide its own pig iron.

Old scrap iron can be used to make cars or jet fighters. The little bit that you have may not seem worth handing over, but if every house in Bolton gave one pound of scrap iron - and that's a very small piece of iron - it would amount in all to nearly 30 tons.

100 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News,

April 18, 1902

ABOUT seven o'clock this morning, when one of Messrs Whittle's furniture vans, left in the lock-up yard in Topping-st., was opened, three youths were found inside asleep. The van was again fastened, and a horse being yoked to it, the lads were conveyed to the Town Hall and handed over to the custody of P.S. Clarkson. They gave their names as Thos. Shaw, labourer, 8, Heywood's Hollow; Thomas Kelly, piecer, 1, Back Raglan-st.; and Thos. Powell, piecer, 337, Halliwell-rd, and were later brought before the Deputy Mayor (Ald W. Nicholson) and Messrs E. Walker and J. Proctor.

The sergeant informed the Bench that Shaw had in his possession 10d, and said he was the cashier for the lot. Powell had several matches and a portion of a cigarette in his pocket, and as the van was filled with inflammable materials it was a dangerous thing.

Shaw, it transpired, had got beyond the control of his parents, and had not worked for five weeks, whilst Kelly, who had only recently left the Militia, had a good home to go to. The younger prisoner, Powell, had also given a great deal of trouble to his mother.

On Easter Monday he ran away to Liverpool, and had not been home since. He was remanded along with Shaw in order that Mr Burton could make further inquiries with regard to their home surroundings, and Kelly, who the Deputy Mayor described as a pest and a nuisance, was sent to gaol for fourteen days.