From the Evening News, October 4, 1976

25 YEARS AGO

YES, it has been Bolton's driest, sunniest, hottest summer on record. And there's still an Indian summer to come, says local expert George Wood. New heat records were set up in the latter part of June, with the mercury soaring into the high eighties on several days. July was even hotter, with 90F recorded on the third of the month. From June 1 to September 30, Bolton had 820 hours of sunshine, compared with the average of 615 hours over the past 30 years.

BRITAIN'S super train went into service today - and completed its journey four minutes early. The 125 mph train took just 92 minutes to get from London Paddington to Bristol.

50 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, October 4, 1951

HOW do you like to eat black puddings? Do you like the simple method of warming them in up in a pan, cutting them in half and slapping on the mustard? Or do you prefer some more elaborate preparation such as this?-

Par-boil the pudding whole, cut into slices at least in thick when warm, lightly fry in fat or oil, and serve very hot with parsley sauce, with small pieces of sliced lemon as garnish and fine shredded fried potatoes.

This recipe, which someone has suggested for this month's annual dinner of the Association of Lancastrians in London, sounds unnecessarily complicated, and obviously of south country origin, to Bolton connoisseurs of black puddings.

"Tell 'em there's no need to go to all that trouble," one Bolton man, who said he had been eating black puddings as long as he could remember, told me.

"Tell them to hire a man, dress him in a white apron, give him a big straw hat, a mustard pot and a knife, and they'll enjoy themselves all the more," he added.

125 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, October 4, 1876

A well attended meeting of the ratepayers in the neighbourhood of the New-road, Halliwell, was held at the Crofter's Arms, Halliwell, on Tuesday evening, to consider what steps should be taken to cause the cessation of the Turnpike Trust, so far as related to Halliwell-road toll-bar. Mr Jas. Ormrod was voted to the chair.

The Chairman said he came to that meeting for information. He was interested in the question as he paid 18s weekly in tolls.

Mr J. Kay said that the bar had long been felt by the ratepayers of the neighbourhood to be an injustice (hear, hear) inasmuch as they paid the same rates as the ratepayers in Victory and Brownlow Fold districts, and yet were extra taxed with the toll-bar. Every load of coal and other heavy burdens had to be paid for, making them to bear a double tax for the roads.

He understood that the Turnpike Trustees had paid off the money which was borrowed for the formation of the road, and he thought it now expedient that the meeting should say to them that the toll bar ought to be removed.

A SUNDAY School convention, consisting of representatives and friends from the Methodist New Connexion Sunday Schools in Bolton, &c., was held in Manchester on Saturday. Dr Crofts, chairman of the district, took the chair. A paper was read by Mr George Barlow of Bolton on "How is it we so soon lose our young men and women?"