From the BEN files

THOUSANDS of workers in the North West were laid off today as Britain got its first taste of a three-day week. Many of them were still on an enforced holiday which started before Christmas and will not end until Thursday when their firms are able to use electricity again. Factories are only able to use electricity on three days a week specified by electricity boards.

From the Evening News, December 31, 1948

SIR,- I have in my possession a Christmas stocking, priced at 3s 6d (17p). It was bought in Bolton. Here is a list of the contents: Five or six pieces of cardboard, supposed to be games, a folded piece of tin to represent a whistle, a spool from the mill, and several pieces of rag to make up the weight. The whole lot is not worth twopence, and it is an insult to the mentality of our children. It is about time some of these 'rackets' were stopped. The very idea of paying tax on children's toys is wrong, never mind being swindled in the bargain. Yours, etc., A Working Man.

125 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, December 31, 1873

ON Sunday morning, about four o'clock, a young married man named Richard Halliday, aged 25 years, of Oldhall-street, Kearsley, was killed in a singular manner whilst trespassing on land at Dixon Fold. The deceased, along with two or three other companions, left their homes shortly before one o'clock on Sunday morning, having two dogs with them. Having mounted a fence bounding the railway land at Dixon Fold, he came upon a steep declivity, and, as is conjectured, slipping, he was sent at a terrific pace down the steep. Arrived at the bottom he caught his feet in the signal wires skirting the railway, and coming against them with the great force he did he was violently precipitated to the ground, his head striking one of the iron rails. His companions were speedily after him, but they only arrived in time to hear him sob twice before he died.

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