25 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, January 14, 1974

I THAY, parrotface, did you hear the one about the Bolton budgie and its new cage? It's a sad tale, but true. For the local man who rang the town's Trading Standards' Department wanted to complain about what happened when his pet budgie had its first flutter in its new home. The perch fell off, hit the budgie on the head, and killed it.

A BOLTON father was sent to prison for two months today for wilful neglect of his children. The Borough Court was told that the father was lazy and indifferent. He did not give his wife any housekeeping money, but bought the food. While his wife was in hospital recently, he sold all the furniture. The income of the father, who was suffering from a septic arm, consisted of eight shillings a week in respect of serving three nights in a public house, £2 9s 6d sickness benefit, and 10s family allowance.

125 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, January 14, 1874

THE well-known refreshment caterer, Mr Rostron, of the Railway Refreshment Rooms, Bolton, has just completed the wedding cake for the marriage of England's sailor Prince, the Duke of Edinburgh, to the Alexandrovna Maria, the only daughter of the Czar of Russia, and it is today on view at the Refreshment Rooms of the railway station. The cake itself has been photographed, and is a marvel of the confectionery art. Mr Rostron will leave Bolton (in charge of the cake) on Thursday morning, and will travel via London, Dover, Ostend, Cologne, Berlin, Konigsberg, and thence to St Petersburg.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.