Priest's battle with an evil spirit

A LOCAL parish priest spoke publicly today for the first time about the night he exorcised an evil spirit from his own vicarage at Ringley, near Farnworth.

The Rev. Brian Butterworth, of St Saviour's Church, Ringley, performed the ceremony in his attic after strange happenings had led him to believe that his home was haunted by a malevolent poltergeist.

50 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News,

January 16, 1952

THE discovery in recent years of drugs to conquer killing diseases has so lengthened the average span of life as to create new problems, says a well-known Medical Officer of Health.

He writes: "More than one third of the men and women of working age in Britain today are over 40 years of age. And by the turn of the century this may be as much as half. We have here a problem of considerable extent and complexity.

"Old age has come upon us so suddenly to have been adequately studied as a problem in social medicine. The expectation of life has advanced 20 years during the lifetimes of people living today.

"Down every street, one family in two has an old person in its midst. Many live in great loneliness and discomfort. This is one of the great sociological problems of our history, thrown into sharp relief by the decline in the number of young folk who must bear the burden."

125 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News,

January 16, 1877

AN amusing affair took place at Bedford, Leigh, on Sunday evening, a man named Joseph Hindley, fireman at a colliery, having deliberately made a present of his wife to one of his companions.

Hindley, it appears, is a young man of about 22, his wife, a prepossessing woman, who works as a weaver at the mill, being about 19, and there is a child about a year old issue of the marriage.

No allegation of unfaithfulness is made against Mrs Hindley, but the husband has frequently been heard to express regret at being married, and in the Millstone beerhouse on the night stated, he offered to make a present of her to a single young fellow named Peter Hayes, who is a moulder.

A long preliminary discussion ensued, both men, it is said by those present, being sober. At length, terms were agreed upon, which were that Hayes should have the wife, the household furniture in Thomas-street, besides two guns and the pigeon cote and pigeons, and a sum of five shillings.

At closing time Hindley took Hayes to his wife at home, where he duly introduced him as her new husband, immediately leaving Hayes in charge, and he remained during the night. A singular feature of the agreement was that Hindley should takes Hayes's home as his future lodgings, but the mother of the latter refused to permit this, and Hindley then went to the house of his own parents.

Hayes, on Sunday, after a night's reflection, said he intended to abide by the agreement, with which he said he was well satisfied. Hindley, when handing over his wife, signed a paper confirming the agreement to present her to his friend. Mrs Hindley readily consented to the transfer.