25 YEARS AGO

work to provide an open-air leisure centre including the development of a park has started along part of the old Adlington to Wigan railway line, at Adlington, at the side of the Jubilee Playing Fields.

A SHRUNKEN human head believed to have been brought from a Pacific island to England by Capt. James Cook has been sold for £250 to a construction firm called Spooks to use as a mascot at its Shrewsbury headquarters.

50 YEARS AGO

'THE water position in Bolton is pretty grim' was the comment today of Ald. Hewitson, chairman of the Waterworks Committee. An appeal made recently to the public of Bolton to use less water has had 'no response whatsoever' and if this continues, said Ald. Hewitson, the committee may be forced to take drastic steps. 'We have only 48 days' supply left, as compared with 117 days' supply this time last year,' he said.

125 YEARS AGO

THIS morning considerable amusement was created in the neighbourhood of the Police Station, Darley-street, Farnworth, by the flight of a lithe young man chased by somewhat heavy officers in blue. Many rumours soon gathered currency, one to the effect that he was Campbell, the murderer missing from Liverpool, another that he was a deserter from the 12th Lancers. Whoever the man was cannot be determined, but it is evident the sight of a police officer recalls to his recollection that he is 'wanted' somewhere, and for some purpose or other - maybe for very little, and maybe for much. It is said that suspicion haunts the guilty mind, and as such would seem to be a veritable fact in the case of the man in question, for no sooner had Mr Inspector Wilkinson set his foot upon the threshold of a tinner's shop opposite the police station, and where he was going to make enquiries concerning a deserter, than the man, who was then in the kitchen of the shop talking to the 'missus', bolted through the back door, through the yard and into the street. Having a clear course before him, and whilst the police were wondering wheat was the matter, the man wended his way with all haste down Market-street, and ultimately vanished out of sight in the neighbourhood of Bircle House, the residence of W.B. Whittam, Esq., one of Her Majesty's justices of the peace. The police followed after for some distance, but scarcely knowing what they wanted him for, if even he was wanted at all, they gave up the chase in a short time, leaving him to be captured on a more seasonable occasion. The sight of a blue coat and metal buttons has such a terror in the eyes of 'some people' that the police are somewhat accustomed to impromptu flights as the one above recorded.

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