From the Evening News, August 14, 1976

25 YEARS AGO

"The great riot of weather" that brought a drought to Western Europe and torrential rains to Eastern Europe is nearing its end, according to two Soviet cosmonauts They have been carrying out observations for five weeks aboard the Salyut-5 space lab, and say the stable conditions that led to the drought have given way to turbulent conditions that will bring storms across Europe and south into Northern Africa.

GOVERNMENT plans for rating reform, based on the capital value of property, would be costly to implement and would encourage home owners to let their properties run into disrepair, says Mr Geoffrey Mercer, chairman of the Bolton Metropolitan Area Ratepayers Action Group. "The policy will discriminate against those who look after their homes and try to improve them," he says.

50 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, August 15, 1951

SPACE flight enthusiasts expect the first piloted return flight to the moon to take place before the end of the present century. The British Inter-planetary Society made this prophecy today.

SIR,- Pig Bins are certainly a danger to health, especially that of children. My child said a toddler was seen to eat a cake and another some peas from a bin. What do the inspectors think of this? Is it cleanliness to dump rubbish at the street corner? Yours, Just a Mother.

125 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, August 15, 1876

ON Wednesday, the Blackrod Gas Company held their sixteenth half-yearly meeting in the Gas Offices, situated at the Works, Grimeford-lane. The accounts showed an increased profit, although there had been considerable leakage in the pipes, and consequent loss of gas, owing to the sinking of land from under which the coal has been worked.

By the terms of the new Act, the company are empowered to supply with gas the townships of Blackrod and Anderton, and also the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Co. in Adlington.

ON Saturday last, the opening day of the shooting season, the Rev. T. Sutcliffe, Dr Wolstenholme, and John William Roberts and James Roberts, Esqrs., met for shooting on Rivington Moor, and succeeded in bagging 21 brace of game.