I SEEM to be surrounded by rats at the moment. Nothing personal, of course! You will recall that on Wednesday I once again referred to my previous story of the rats moving en masse from the Fish Market in Bridge Street in 1932 to the new Ashburner Street Market.

Now I have received two further communications, one of them from the other side of the world. Ken Power, who in his e-mail describes himself as an "ex-Boltonian in New Zealand", had obviously seen my story on the Internet, and writes" "I recall my father telling me exactly the same story, although my father also said that the policeman who witnessed the 'emigration' jumped to safety, with the addition that he also snatched a young woman and held her up until the rats had passed. The passage of the rats was accompanied by a loud, indescribable noise, and they were led by a rat larger than an overweight tom cat." (If you want to contact Ken and Lynn Power, you can e-mail them at ken-lynn@ihug.co.nz)

Another letter has come from Mr Eric Wainwright, of Southgrove Avenue, Sharples, who says that the story is definitely true, "because my father was a bus driver for Bolton Corporation, and was coming along Deansgate on the last bus coming into town, and had to stop for the rats, with the king rat at the front. They crossed Deansgate and went down Mealhouse Lane. I was only a small boy at the time, and asked Dad why he didn't drive through them and kill a few. But he said they could have jumped onto the bus, and the conductor was on the back."

So there you are folks, even more proof that the story is correct. I SEEM to be surrounded by rats at the moment. Nothing personal, of course! You will recall that on Wednesday I once again referred to my previous story of the rats moving en masse from the Fish Market in Bridge Street in 1932 to the new Ashburner Street Market.

Now I have received two further communications, one of them from the other side of the world. Ken Power, who in his e-mail describes himself as an "ex-Boltonian in New Zealand", had obviously seen my story on the Internet, and writes" "I recall my father telling me exactly the same story, although my father also said that the policeman who witnessed the 'emigration' jumped to safety, with the addition that he also snatched a young woman and held her up until the rats had passed. The passage of the rats was accompanied by a loud, indescribable noise, and they were led by a rat larger than an overweight tom cat." (If you want to contact Ken and Lynn Power, you can e-mail them at ken-lynn@ihug.co.nz)

Another letter has come from Mr Eric Wainwright, of Southgrove Avenue, Sharples, who says that the story is definitely true, "because my father was a bus driver for Bolton Corporation, and was coming along Deansgate on the last bus coming into town, and had to stop for the rats, with the king rat at the front. They crossed Deansgate and went down Mealhouse Lane. I was only a small boy at the time, and asked Dad why he didn't drive through them and kill a few. But he said they could have jumped onto the bus, and the conductor was on the back."

So there you are folks, even more proof that the story is correct.