THE life and times of one of Bolton's most famous sons has caught the imagination of a top national daytime radio show.

Radio 4's Making History, presented by Sue Cook, reacts to listeners' queries about their family histories, focusing on links with famous people of the past.

Next week the programme tells the story of Bolton's Samuel Crompton, whose life reads like a film script.

The query about Crompton arrived at the radio station from a Shropshire listener, Jane Bozian. She believes she is related to the inventor.

She wrote to the show saying: "Perhaps you would like to explore the life of my ancestor -- the inventor of the spinning mule, Samuel Crompton. My grandmother's maiden name was Crompton so we are not going back too far. It is quite a sad story as far as I know, but I would love it confirmed."

Nick Patrick, one of the show's producers, came to Bolton Museum and Art Gallery and to the Hall i' th' Wood Museum this week to get to the bottom of the fate suffered by Crompton.

He said: "There is little evidence to connect Jane Bozian with Samuel Crompton. The name Crompton is quite a common one so it does not necessarily mean a connection.

"But what we are particularly interested in is telling the story of Samuel Crompton. And that is what we are here to do. We hope to bring his history to life.

"The programme is one of the most popular daytime ones on Radio 4. We get a complete cross section of e-mails, letters and phone calls. Any information we uncover gets passed on to the person who makes the query in the first place, and our website does go into greater depth for them.

"Investigations we have carried out have ranged from pre-historic times to just 10 or 20 years ago." Sean Baggaley, keeper of social history, was among those interviewed by Nick.

He confirmed Jane Bozian's claims about Samuel Crompton's background. Crompton developed the prototype of the spinning mule in 1774 before taking a further five years to bring it up to his required standard.

Cotton merchants and their spies then arrived from throughout Britain to try to discover the principle of the mule, resorting to drilling holes through walls and putting ladders up to the window to catch a glimpse of the invention.

Crompton then opened a subscription scheme in which firms and individuals promised to subscribe. But when details of his machine were made public many went back on their word.

The Spinning Mule made an enormous contribution to England's prosperity, with 40 million pounds of cotton wool produced, bringing £350,000 into the Government in duty alone. But Crompton received a grant of just £5,000 from the Government, out of which his expenses had to be paid.

While the radio show, which is due to be broadcast next Tuesday at 3pm, will be able to confirm the history of Samuel Crompton and his invention, listener Jane's final query is likely to remain unanswered.

She asked: "Are the Gibbs of the Bee Gee fame related to Samuel Crompton? I'm told Andy Gibb once appeared on a Noel Edmonds show when he said he was related to the inventor."

Anyone who would like to contact Making History can e-mail making.history@bbc.co.uk or use the audio-line on 08700 100400.