WHEN Michael Turner reminisced in last week's Looking Back about his connections with Bolton up-market store Richard Moyle Limited it was with a fondness that could not be disguised.

For Michael, who is now aged 87, grew up in and around the famous Bolton store that once stood on the corner of Great Moor Street and Bradshawgate and was a shopping heaven for women with money to spend.

It would open in the late 19th century to much excitement from Bolton women but closed in

With a furrier department, coat making and millinery this was a store on a grand and impressive scale the like of which has long since gone in the town.

Customers would be treated to afternoon tea as they tried on garments and were able to shop as long as they wished with staff only able to close the doors when the last customer had decided to head for home.

Cakes would be purchased from a confectionery shop across the road and served to the customer as she perused the stock.

Michael would spend many a happy hour at the store. "To while away the time I would sometimes peer through the dining room window at the busy street level below.

"I liked watching the trams — Great Moor Street being the terminus for them coming into town from Moses Gate and Farnworth. Passengers would alight and the conductor would step down from his cab to reverse the trolley . It was an easy task to release the contact wheel from the overhead wire by simply pulling the trolley rope downwards but to re-engage it for the outgoing journey was far more difficult.

"If a bad contact was made sparks would fly and this always fascinated me. Trams became an obsession for me," says Michael who took to sketching them on the backs of broken boxes in the stock room.

He played hide and seek with school pals in the store resulting in a young Michael once getting trapped in a glass-fronted showcase.

On another occasion it took the efforts of the manager and two porters to release cheeky Michael from the "ladies' lavatory" he recalls.

The arrival of a Bolton Evening News photographer — one Christmas in the 1930s — prompted Michael's father (who ran the business) to dress staff in Moyle's clothing and "pretend to be customers". When the picture appeared in the paper it prompted a Christmas rush — so had clearly done the trick.

At this time sales were, traditionally, a time when prices would be dramatically slashed and the winter sale always started on the first Saturday of the New year.

A crowd would gather waiting for the doors to be opened.

Moyle's had two sales — the other was after the annual summer holiday in July.

Both sales lasted a month and on the final day, says Michael, stock would be cut to half price.

"These half price days were held in the dress showroom on the first floor and all the departments had to transfer their stock there. The room took on the appearance of a penny bazaar and the customers loved it."

The main stock room on the top floor was Michael's favourite hiding place.

"My main interest in the stock room was an old travelling chest crammed with children's books.

"There was also an old acoustic wind-up gramophone, complete with a huge, blue horn and a collection of 78 rpm records.

"The instrument had been put to good use in the 1920s supplying background music for fashion shows staged on the main staircase."

Every Whit Sunday afternoon the Roman Catholic procession was held around town, recalls Michael. His father would open the shop to offer customers a grandstand view from the first floor windows.

"As the law stipulated in those days there should be no Sunday trading assistants were not required to be there" although some members of staff would help with seating arrangements.

Michael's mother had "poached" a maid from Hillside in Chorley New Road — the home of Fred Tillotson who owned the Bolton Evening News — says Michael. Her names was Alice Donnachie and she was a devout Roman Catholic of Irish descent who came from Whitehaven.

"This pleasant, middle aged woman kept the house scrupulously clean, she cooked and served the meals and looked after me while mother worked at the shop as the millinery buyer.

"Later on mother decided to relieve Alice by taking me to the shop.

"As the shop closed late I was picked up by Alice after tea and taken home for a bath followed by a glass of milk and a gingerbread pig or, sometimes, it might have been a gingerbread donkey."

Alice worked for the family for two years and was succeeded by her 16-year-old niece, Ann.

Michael explains that the majority of live-in maids would be paid miserable wages out of which a certain amount was taken for keep. They were allowed to have one half day off a week and time off for church on Sundays.

"They usually started work at 7.30am and finished after the evening meal which, more often than not, would be about 8.30pm.

"However by the late 1930s it became almost impossible to find anyone who would undertake the job so daily cleaners became the in thing," he says.

Moyle's closed in 1960 and became furniture store and a public house — although today is empty.

It is a sad ending for a building that clearly had such prominence in Bolton Town Centre for so many years.

If Michael's tales have stuck a chord with you do get in touch with Gayle McBain on 01204 537269 or email gayle.mcbain@nqnw.co.uk