25 YEARS AGO

TONS of masonry crashed into a Bolton road today as part of a 50ft mill wall collapsed in gale-force winds. The wall - at Delph Mill, Chorley Old Road - swayed crazily for several seconds before falling. Police had earlier sealed off the area after a danger warning.

BOLTON was faced with its worst traffic chaos for years after a giant tank fell off a lorry in Manchester Road. Queues of vehicles stretched from Green Lane to the town centre, and motorists said they could never remember the traffic being so heavy. 50 YEARS AGO

REPORTS from the seaside indicate that the process of 'staggering' holidays has been carried further than many of us imagined. Boltonians just back from Blackpool say that while it is easier to get a meal in a cafe there these days, travelling about from one part of the town to another is still difficult. Trams are so full, and queues for them so long, that the wisest policy is always to make for the terminus.

Some of these late holidaymakers may have been influenced by the publicity of the railway companies, who have been pleading with the travelling public to spend holidays in September and October instead of in mid-summer, but many of them have postponed their trip to the seaside until this late date because of circumstances. Often they have been unable to obtain accommodation sooner. The prospect of packed trains was also a consideration when people decided to forgo holidays in the summer. 125 YEARS AGO

MR EDITOR, - Can any of your numerous readers inform me how it is that there is no passenger train running yet on the branch line from Worsley to Little Hulton; or can they give me a reason why there should not be one put on without further delay? The line has been open for coal traffic for some time, and at a very small cost there might be a morning and afternoon train, say about 9am and 4-30pm, which would be of great service to the inhabitants of Walkden and Little Hulton.

Two thriving districts like Walkden and Little Hulton ought to have the greatest facilities possible for travelling from Bolton to Manchester. I do not think we are asking anything unreasonable. There is a line laid already, and therefore there is no extra expense in that direction.

Commending these remarks to those interested and more especially to the Board of Directors, - I am your, &c. GO AHEAD.

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