25 YEARS AGO

SPEND, spend, spend . . . that was the story today as shoppers packed Bolton town centre shops and stores. Despite the economic crisis, the only squeeze in evidence was in the shops. A spokesman for one store said: 'It is amazing. Everything seems to be going. Sales are definitely up on last year, particularly in the sweets and toys field.

50 YEARS AGO

BY this time Father Christmas will be on his way. By this time all should be safely gathered in - the holly and the mistletoe and the turkey, and the mince pies, and the tinsel, and the coloured string, and the Christmas pudding, and the balloons, and the crackers. This Christmas is a more plentiful one than any of its predecessors of the past 10 years. Despite austerity, Christmas has won back something like its old complexion. That puts new confidence into our hope of -

A MERRY CHRISTMAS

125 YEARS AGO

AT this joyous season of the year, additional preparations are made by the purveyors of creature comforts to meet the extra demand; and any person strolling through the magnificent market Bolton possesses - a market for neat arrangement, size, and proportions, that is not excelled in any provincial town of the size in the United Kingdom - cannot fail but notice the additional liveliness and briskness that pervades the whole scene, and more especially on the few days before Christmas Day. The market is in the morning by no means like it is at night. In the morning or afternoon, it becomes, as far as possible, a report of fashion; but at night it is well filled by good specimens of the English artisan and his spouse, doing their marketing, and making the best bargains they can according to their means.

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