25 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, December 12, 1976

ICE, snow and freezing fog devastated the North-west soccer programme today. Games at Bolton, Bury, Rochdale, Oldham and Old Trafford were called off.

At least four people were hurt in a 12-vehicle fog pile-up on the M61 near Horwich this afternoon.

WITH only four days to go before the Chancellor's "Christmas Stocking" budget, Bolton shoppers are in the middle of a seasonal spending spree. As stores sold out of spirits, one Bolton wine supermarket said one customer placed an order worth £700, its biggest of the year. Shoppers believe that a increase in VAT is almost certain when Mr Healey announces his winter package on Wednesday.

50 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, December 13, 1951

A READER asks why Commission-st., which runs between Deane-rd. and the railway for some distance, was so called.

Like Fletcher-st. and other streets in this locality, the name recalls the enclosure of Bolton Moor in 1792. The historians tell us that the job of setting out, enclosing the disposing of the commons and grounds on the moor, under the Act, was vested in a body of three Commissioners.

They were Matthew Fletcher, of Clifton, Ralph Fletcher of the Haulgh, and David Claughton of Great Sankey. After naming the main streets which they planned, after the lords of the manor, they seem to have decided that they in their official capacity deserved the honour of being named. Or was it that the list of honour was going out, or inspiration running low? Anyhow, we got Commission-st..,

What about Mr Claughton? Sure enough, Claughton-st. is off Noble-st.

125 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, December 13, 1876

PERSONS afflicted with baldness will be glad to hear that a luxuriant growth of hair may be produced by a very simple process, described by Consul Stevens. In 1875 Consul Stevens' attention was drawn to several cases of baldness among bullocks, cows and oxen, and the loss of manes and tales among horses.

A former servant of the Consul's, prematurely bald, whose duty it was to trim lamps, had a habit of wiping his petroleum-be-smeared hands in the scanty locks which remained to him; and after three months of lamp trimming experience, his dirty habit procured for him a much finer head of glossy black hair then he ever possessed before in his recollection.

Struck with this remarkable occurrence, Consul Stevens tried the remedy on two retriever spaniels that had become suddenly bald, with wonderful success. His experience, therefore, induced him to suggest it to the owner of several black cattle and horses affected as stated above, and, while it stayed the spread of the disease among animals in the same sheds and stables, it effected a quick and radical cure on the animals attacked.

The petroleum should be of the most refined American qualities, rubbed in vigorously and quickly with the palm of the hand, and applied at intervals of three days, six or seven times in all, except in the case of horses' tails and manes, when more application may be requisite. This news will create a profound sensation in hairdressing circles, particularly among wig and chignon makers.