PENSIONER Elsie Mullineux got a taste of how people in high places really feel - when she was hoisted more than 50 feet to make her own mark on local history.

Elsie, who is in her late 70s and is the Worsley area's best known historian, was chosen to place the final bolt in a replica of a famous local clock at Walkden's new Ellesmere shopping centre.

The clock - a hi-tech replica of Worsley's famous 13-chime Lady Bourke clock - has been set into the shopping centre's landmark tower.

Elsie climbed into a steel cage and, with a cheering crowd looking on, was hoisted high above the centre to do the honours yesterday.

The clock is a copy of one which was installed in the Bridgewater Trustees offices in Walkden 95 years ago.

Like the clock in Worsley Parish Church, it had 13 chimes to signal 1pm.

And the legend is that the 13 chimes were incorporated so that workers at the former Bridgewater canal yard who had clocked off for lunch when they heard 12 chimes for noon could not use the excuse that they had failed to hear the single chime at one when they were late back to work.

Shopping centre officials said Elsie, a prolific local history author, had been chosen for the ceremony because of

her indefatigable efforts to ensure the history of Worsley is recorded.

Adrian Dunning, chairman of Worsley Civic Trust, said: "We are delighted that the tradition of the chimes of the Lady Bourke clock will once again be heard in Worsley. We are pleased that the Ellesmere centre have so faithfully recreated part of our heritage to complement the character of the centre."

Centre manager David Allon praised local people for their patience during the three year refurbishment of the centre. He said the scheme was now nearing completion and major new retailers were preparing to open.

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