From the Evening News, September 26, 1976

25 YEARS AGO: A GROUP of angry residents are claiming that "unbearable" noise is coming from a garage which has a round-the-clock breakdown service. Among 16 people living in Chorley Old Road, Bolton, also say the nearby Old Links filling station becomes unsightly when smashed vehicles are brought in. They have signed a petition and sent it to MP Mrs Ann Taylor. But garage proprietor Mr John Boardman accused the residents of "acting like a load of kids". He said: "There is not excessive noise coming from the garage. We have had officials from the Environmental health department taking decibel readings, and they have cleared us."

SOME opticians are charging too much for glasses, says a Price Commission report today. An average pair, costing less than £4 to make, can mean an £18 bill for the patient. And charges for identical spectacles can vary between £22.90 and £64. The report blames the lack of any real competition among opticians for prices which, it says, "may often be higher than is necessary."

50 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, September 26, 1951

WHO is the man who has threatened to shoot the great crested grebes, the rare birds which have made their home on Doffcocker Lodge this year? News that a man had threatened to shoot these birds reached the ears of Mr F.A. Lowe, 2, Lightburne-ave, president of Bolton Field Naturalists Society, who immediately got in touch with the secretary of the Bolton Anglers' Association in the hope that anglers who fish regularly at the lodge would keep an eye out for anyone trying to shoot the birds., which are protected by law. The anglers have promised to keep a vigil.

The great crested grebes first came to Doffcocker Lodge about 1930, and after nesting for a couple of years, they moved elsewhere. A couple re-appeared this year, and they have reared a chick.

125 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, September 26, 1876

ABOUT four o'clock on Wednesday morning, the Rochdale Canal burst its banks at Middleton Junction, and the result was a very great destruction of property. The event created an indescribable sensation in the neighbourhood. The rent in the side of the canal was a chasm of about 10 feet wide. Three mills within a stone's throw of each other were all laid under water, and numerous hands will be thrown out of employment until the damage is repaired.

A TRAGIC event has just occurred at the Stifzer-Joch in the Tyrol. A lady of English birth, Mdme de Tourville, was found dead at the foot of a rock.

Her husband stated that she had been seized with sudden giddiness, and had fallen down the precipice. Rumours, however, got afloat that her death was not the result of an accident, but of crime.

The English police, whose suspicions were aroused, gathered fresh information about the husband. Henri de Tourville had previously passed under the name of Henri Perreau. His first wife was a woman of ailing constitution, who died in a shooting accident with Perreau holding the gun.

Perreau was not prosecuted and inherited £40,000. Shortly afterwards he changed his name to de Tourville and married a second wife with a fortune of £70,000, and persuaded her to make a will in his favour.

They then went travelling and did not return to England. It is not known whether the Austrian police have taken any steps in consequence of the information furnished by the English detectives.