From the Evening News, February 8, 1992

CARS are to be banned from a stretch of Farnworth road - to stop thieves using it as a quick getaway. Harper Green Road will be blocked off for 35 metres south of the junction with Doe Hey Road.

A BOLTON lay preacher claims a local school has stopped staging Nativity plays - for fear of upsetting ethnic minorities. Former Wigan headmaster Bill Edney refuses to name the school, and is backed by the Vicar of the Anglican St Margaret's Church, Halliwell, in his condemnation of the alleged policy. "I am sure that this does nothing to help good relationships, rather the reverse," he said.

25 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, February 8, 1977

A WESTERN fan has threatened to burn a top author's books if her hero does not get married in his next story.

The reader, from the Bolton or Bury area, has warned action as drastic as a Dodge City dust-up in an anonymous letter to author J.T. Edson.

She told J.T. that she will burn his books in her back garden if handsome gunslinger Mark Counter does not "meet a decent girl to settle down with" in his next book. Unless her demands are met, she says she will start reading novels by another western writer Zane Grey.

50 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, February 8, 1952

THE Royal Proclamation was read from the steps of Bolton Town Hall today by the Mayor (Ald Dunning) before a silent crowd of several hundred people. After the reading the crowd sang the first verse of "God save the Queen". Men in the crowd removed their hats and stood bareheaded while the scarlet-robed Mayor read the proclamation.

The King's body will lie in state in Westminster Hall from next Monday until the funeral on Friday.

A message from the Earl of Derby, Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire, issued today, states: "The Lord Lieutenant wishes it to be known that in Lancashire the appropriate form of loyal toast is: "The Queen, Duke of Lancaster."

100 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, February 8, 1902

SIR- Will you kindly allow me to state through the columns of your valuable paper how some six or seven occupiers have been treated in Churchgate. On rising on Saturday morning, we were surprised to find that our water supply had been cut off. I sent a messenger, at noon on Saturday, be without any effect. Monday dinner time we were still without, when I wrote to the Superintendent, and in the afternoon it was turned on.

Surely ratepayers ought to have some redress for this neglect on the part of the officials. I may say I never received any reply. How different the paying of our water rate! On the demand note it states in large letters the last day for payment. I posted a cheque some months ago at 1.30pm on the last day of payment, but as the cheque was not in by 2.30 pm as stated in miniature on the demand note, I was charged the additional tenpence, and informed if the same was not paid, the supply would be cut off, although it was in the office on the last day of payment. This department is the only one where such an injustice is done to the ratepayers at large. I hope this may meet the eye of those in authority. - Yours, etc., G.B. Douglas, 51, Churchgate, Bolton.