WHEN a Bolton brickie wrote a love message to his sweetheart on a piece of wood used to build a community centre, he never imagined the interest it would create more than 40 years later.

Terence Salt scrawled the note when he was working on a building, now the Little Hulton Early Years Centre, back in 1962.

The message read: "My name is Terence Salt aged 23. Todays date is 20/2/62. My address is 11 Pemberton Street, Little Hulton, Walkden.

"I'm going out with a girl called Joyce Mills. No address sorry. When you find this, write and ask if I've married her."

Now the love message has been uncovered by builders working on the centre. And they were so intrigued by it that Mr Salt was eventually tracked down.

He is now aged 66 - and he did get his girl.

He and Joyce were happily marreid until she died of breast cancer in 1994 - never knowing about the special message hidden in the wall.

The note was left just a few weeks after Terry, of Heron Way, Bolton, had met Joyce at the Bolton Palais. They married in 1965.

Mr Salt, who is now battling cancer himself, said: "It was just a thing that young lads did. Very shortly after I met her, I knew she was the one for me.

"I'm just surprised people are interested in it because it was something personal to me at the time and I never expected to hear about it again. Not in my life time anyway.

"The message on the wood wood brought back many pleasant memories of when I first met Joyce. We were made for each other."

Now retired, Mr Salt was a builder throughout his working life. He and Joyce had one son, Anthony, who now lives with his father in Bolton.

In 1999, Terry found love again, but his partner Maz died of ovarian cancer three years ago. He now lives with Susie Karuasea, aged 36, whom he met in Thailand in May.