LONG before the "ban the bomb" movement of the 1960s, there was a popular swell against nuclear weapons.

About 100 people attended a meeting in August 1954, in which a petition to the public of Radcliffe was presented.

The event had been organised by the Bury H-Bomb Campaign committee, and was held at St Thomas's church.

The petition asked the British government to do all that it could to ensure disarmament talks took place between the USA and USSR.

The Mayor of Radcliffe, Councillor F Holt, had been asked to chair the meeting after he mentioned the threat of nuclear weapons in his mayoral speech.

Speaking of the mutual suicide he believed any war would entail, he said: "It would be cold comfort to know the enemy were suffering as much as we were. If we put the same effort we use for wars into the drive for peace, we would obtain real peace in our time."

St Thomas's vicar, the Rev J.R. Smith, said that technical advances had served to increase the evil that was inherent in war.

He said: "I would rather die as a result of the enemy dropping the bomb on me than live in slavery by knowing that I had waged war by bringing this destruction to other people."

A new thermonuclear weapon that had been tested in the Pacific was 600 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, said campaign organiser Gordon Hargreaves.

That should be viewed as a turning point in human history, he said, and the madness had to end.

"So stupendous were the effects that the scientists who created this monster were confounded amongst themselves."

After the meeting, the petition was signed by some members of the audience with several volunteers offering to gather more names around town.