From the Evening News, September 7, 1976

25 YEARS AGO

A BOLTON five-a-side soccer league may have to disband because officials say the cost of playing at the Silverwell Street Sports Centre has become "ridiculous".

Since forming last season, the Bolton Winter Fives League has seen the hourly cost of soccer at the centre rise from £2 to £6. The latest rise has forced them to postpone the kick-off of their second season, due next week, for at least a month, in the hope that another venue can be found.

BOLTON licensees are fully in support of the latest idea to stop bar room brawls . . . by using the woman's touch. The licensees are among 8,000 who have been told by their brewery, Whitbread, to send in the wife to stop pub punch-ups. "A drunk who would not think twice of lunging at a male licensee will often react differently to a woman," says the brewery's group magazine.

50 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, September 7, 1951

PEOPLE who were drenched in the heavy storms that descended on Bolton during the past month may derive some consolation from the fact that rainfall in August was rather above the average for the past 60 years. The total amount registered was 5.28 inches. On the other hand, it was considerably wetter in August, 1950, when the monthly total was 7.5 inches.

IN contrast with some other towns and cities in the North of England, Bolton is not experiencing a shortage of milk. Local farmers told the Evening News today that there was sufficient milk to supply consumers in Bolton and district with their usual requirements, but warned that the shortage might develop during the coming winter.

Bolton is fortunate in that there are many farmer-retailers coming into the town. The present milk shortage is expected to affect bigger towns where customers did not come into direct contact with the farmers.

125 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, September 7, 1876

A explosion of gas occurred at the Tong Colliery, the property of Mr Jethro Scowcroft, on Monday, resulting in injuries to nine men. The pit is 110 feet deep, and has been considered so safe and free of gas that the men have been permitted to work with naked lights. At six o'clock in the morning 90 men and 16 boys descended the shaft, and very shortly afterwards the explosion took place in the down-brow leading to the Three-Quarters Mine.

A miner named Ralph Holt, who lives at Tong-fold, was about to work at this spot, which he approached as usual with his Davy lamp. Finding no traces of gas he lit a candle, a procedure immediately followed by the explosion. Fortunately the injuries sustained by Holt were not dangerous, his face and hands being slightly burned. Men working in the neighbourhood of the explosion suffered from the after-damp, and an exploring party which was organised on the pit bank on the explosion being known, also suffered, being rendered unconscious and brought to the pit bank in that condition.

The utmost anxiety was manifested by relatives and friends of the miners working in the pit, as to the condition of the men. The injured are progressing favourably towards recovery. The men employed at the colliery it is expected will be at their posts on Monday next. One portion of the workings, namely that near Tootil Bridge, smouldered until Thursday, when it was extinguished.

It is stated that it is twelve years since an explosion occurred in this mine.