THESE pictures show a street in the centre of Westhoughton.

To anyone familiar with the town it will be one they have, no doubt, regularly walked down — Market Street.

Back in the 1990s when these photographs were taken, Market Street was just as busy as it is today.

Westhoughton has always been a very lively town with an interesting history.

People who live in Westhoughton have no doubt in their minds that they are from Westhoughton — not Bolton.

It has an identify all of its own.

This is partly down to the fact that Westhoughton was pretty much self-sufficient in days gone by. It had an industry that employed most of its families — the mining industry — until tragedy struck and the Pretoria Pit disaster decimated not only the industry but the families too. It also had - and still does - its own town council and sees itself not as a suburb of Bolton but a town in its own right.