From the Evening News, October 26, 1976

25 YEARS AGO

SHOWBUSINESS has been Norman and Jeff Vernon's bread and butter for nearly 20 years - and now they are going into the butty business. Bolton brothers Norman and Jeff split up their comedy double act six years after they started in the business, but they're now teaming up again to open a lunchtime sandwich bar at Lever Chambers, Ashburner Street.

Although they've never been "stars", the brothers have earned a good living as cabaret support acts to personalities such as Tom Jones, Bruce Forsyth, Ken Dodd and Val Doonican. They are now tired of living out of a suitcase "on the road" seven days a week, and want to live like "normal people".

50 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, October 26, 1951

THE Conservatives have won the General Election. Mr Attlee is expected to see the King this evening on relinquishing office, and to be followed at Buckingham Palace by Mr Churchill on taking over. In Bolton, the Conservative-Liberal pact ended the six and a half years of Labour representation of the town in the house of Commons, and Bolton now has a Liberal MP for the first time in more than a quarter of a century. The people who had elected Mr Arthur Holt (majority 2,743) and Mr Philip Bell (majority 355) to Parliament did not stay up to hear the results announced locally, and the two MPs were not given a good hearing by those who waited on Victoria Square when the two new MPs were barracked.

125 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, October 26, 1876

FOR some time past (says the Sheffield Independent) four young persons named William John Gray and Martha Gray (brother and sister), Albert Keeton and Frances Keeton, also brother and sister, have been "keeping company", and Wednesday week was decided upon as the day in which they should consummate their happiness by marriage.

The morning came, and the nuptial knots having been successfully tied, all went well until the evening, when the happy pairs and their friends were enjoying themselves at the house of Mr Wm. Gray, the parent of two of them. Then it was that several of them felt a tickling sensation in the throat, and in a very few seconds the atmosphere became quite unbearable, and the faces of the whole party presented a very strange appearance.

All were coughing tremendously, and tears rolled down their faces in consequence of violent "retchings". An escape through the passage was attempted, but the fiery atmosphere rendered this impossible to the majority of them. Some rushed upstairs, to find things a little better, while others made their exit through an unused back door. It appears that someone had saturated a piece of cotton wool with cayenne, and, having placed it in the passage, lighted it. Mr William J. Gray, one of the bridegrooms, seized it and threw it outside, but in doing so he was so overcome that Mr Le Tall, surgeon, had to be sent for, and for some time the gravest fears were entertained for his life. He, however, subsequently rallied.

An infant child present in the company was very badly affected, and the whole company broke up in a state of excitement and alarm. The police were sent for, but were unable to discover the perpetrator of the very foolish trick.