THEY say every picture tells a story and this atmospheric image certainly does.

We can all have our own theories of what was going on in this photograph, taken by a Bolton Evening News photographer in Rosamond Street but only the three women pictured really know.

The caption to the picture tells us very little — simply that it was taken in 1963 and featured a Mrs Regan although we do not have the names of the other two women.

They are obviously having a good natter with one of the women popping out onto her front step in her rollers to join in the gossip. Our guess is that the older woman is potentially the mother of the woman who is curling her hair.

In those days it would not be unusual for elderly parents to live with their children and streets such as this one would be buzzing with neighbours all keen to share the latest news.

The steps would have been cleaned with donkey stone — a type of scouring block, used

mostly in the mill towns of the North of England to clean stone steps.

It would be a matter of pride to ensure your own step was the brightest in the street.