25 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, December 9, 1976

MR Philip Gibbs, chairman of Bolton and District Pool League, has come up with an answer to accusations that pool is a "bad influence" on the town's youth. The game was attacked last week by the father of a juvenile who appeared in court. He said the games attracted young people into pubs and led to trouble.

Now Mr Gibbs has announced a junior section of the league to be formed -- using youth clubs as venues.

BOLTON Wanderers are assured of a place in Europe next season . . . if they win the Football League Cup. A Football League spokesman today denied reports that if the Wanderers win the Cup and are still a second division team, they will be refused entry to the UEFA Cup. He said the Cup winners go into Europe no matter what division they are in.

50 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, December 10, 1951

CALLED out on Saturday to their second big fire in successive nights, Bolton Fire Brigade were on the spot -- and in action -- within 10 minutes. And their speed saved money -- probably thousands of pounds -- for the owners of the cotton storehouse in Turton owned by T.E. Clarke, Ltd, Quarlton Bleachworks, Turton Bottoms.

As it was, several thousands of pounds worth of damage was done to the two-storey building, but firemen stopped the blaze spreading to a bigger three-storey building when they threw burning hanks of cotton from the top of the storehouse.

SIR,- May I tell you of a typical slum dwelling in Derby Ward, where each time it rains, water has to be baled out of the kitchen; where a gas jet illuminates walls patchy with damp and falling plaster; where the baby's cot has been vacated owing to the damp; where the walls are decorated with fly specks.

How many mothers must dread bringing the new arrival from the warmth and comfort of the maternity home or hospital to miserable hovels such as these. Why not give the slum dweller with babies or young children priority in the rehousing plan? WEARY

125 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, December 9, 1876

THE Children's Home is an institution which must command sympathy and support in proportion as the great and noble work it is doing becomes known. The movement was commenced seven years ago and, as stated by Mr Stephenson at the Albert Hall on Thursday evening, 88 children have been rescued from the ways of ignorance and vice, and are now being trained in paths of intelligence and virtue.

The Lancashire branch of the Home (at Edgworth) is realising eminently satisfactory results. There are 85 children there, "and", writes the Governor (Mr Mager), "all the bright and beautiful associations of the country act like a charm on the morbid minds and enfeebled bodies of the poor children who have hitherto been pent up in the squalid courts and alleys of our great towns." During the year 20 vacancies in this Branch have been filled up and "most of the children have come from the worst quarters of Bolton and Manchester; their cases have been pitiable in the extreme." We once more heartily commend this institution to public sympathy and support; and if any of our readers do not yet feel interested in it, we advise them to do as his Worship the Mayor means to do -- visit the Home, and see for themselves the good work it is doing.