HERE we have two photographs showing different areas of Bolton town centre but taken decades ago.

The top picture was taken in 1988 and shows the final piece in Bolton’s roads’ jigsaw being put into place with the opening of the second carriageway to Topp Way and the link to St Peter’s Way.

It was a dream that had been nurtured for years and meant the town centre box was complete, taking traffic on primary routes around the showpiece pedestrian priority area.

An inner ring road to keep through traffic out of the town centre was first mooted in 1950 although it was not as ambitious a programme as the one achieved and it envisaged simply improving existing roads.

The other photograph shows Churchbank back in April 1967.

The area looks very different today.