25 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, October 13, 1975

AN 80ft. tower at Bolton Royal Infirmary which has become the home for hundreds of pigeons, is to be pulled down at a cost of £7,500. Bolton Area Health Authority decided to knock down the 100-years-old brick tower despite a plea from Bolton Council's Planning Department to have it preserved. The department said the tower 'forms a significant feature in the townscape of Bolton.'

VANDALS are wrecking one of Bolton's oldest churches. Many of the windows at the 102-years-old Independent Methodist Church in Noble Street have been smashed. About 40 people still attend services despite the conditions.

50 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, October 13, 1950

'EXCELLENT. Very nice. Very friendly', was Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery's verdict on Lancashire mill girls after he had visited the Sunnyside Mills of Tootal Broadhurst Lee today. He made a full tour of the mills, inspecting the spinning rooms and weaving sheds, and chatting with the workers. Last night he presented the prizes at Bolton Lads' Club, agreed to a request that the building should in future be called Montgomery house, and promises that next year he would make two further visits, unless there is a European war - 'and we'll put that off'.

125 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, October 13, 1875

THE audience at a theatre in Ohio lately witnessed an unexpected rendering of the opera 'Faust' by members of an Italian lyric company visiting the place. Everything went on as usual until the scene in which Faust fights with Valentine, and the latter is slain by a thrust from the infernal rapier of Mephistopheles. On this occasion, however, Valentine no sooner emerged from his sister's house than he engaged, not Faust, but Mephistopheles in a single combat. Both actors fought with such remarkable spirit and dexterity that the audience applauded frantically, till suddenly, Mephistopheles, contrary to stage tradition, received a terrible thrust from Valentine, and, so far from retaliating with demonical sang-froid, by a stoke of his magic sword, fell back into the arms of Faust. The affair was, in fact, a preconceived duel, and the baritone had killed the bass before a host of unconscious seconds. The two singers were rivals in the good graces of the prima-donna, and to add to the distressing nature of the incident, the Mephistopheles, whose name was Guilo, was the preferred suitor of Signora Arabella, whose lamentations added to the scene of confusion on which the curtain fell. It remains to be seen whether this exotic variety of the duel will take its place among the many methods of settling a difficulty still extant in the State.