GLENNIS Aston was thrilled to see the pictures of Great Lever Park in last week’s Looking Back.

“My great uncle Billy Openshaw was the park-keeper there for many years, and he and my great auntie Minnie lived in the Park House,” she says.

As a child in the early 1950s Glennis visited her aunt and uncle on a regular basis and loved going out into the park and “helping” her Uncle Billy with his gardening jobs.

“I particularly remember planting out the flower bed shown in your photo with red geraniums.

“I have loved them ever since, and always have lots in my own garden.

“I think the man shown digging in the photo is in fact my uncle.

“I remember going to watch the bowling on the immaculate green, and being given Uncle Jo’s Mint Balls by the old men who sat around watching the games,” she explains.

Her uncle had a private garden behind the house, where he grew vegetables.

“The house was wonderful to me, a child from a terraced house with no garden.

“It was a single house in a whole park,” which was an amazing thought for a young child, she recalls.

When she was was about eight-years-old Glennis recalls she caught chicken pox.

“ I was sent to stay with Auntie Minnie and Uncle Billy in the Park.

“It was a real holiday for me — and in term time too.”

Glennis has, in later life, become a keen gardener and poignantly still uses her Uncle Billy’s spade and fork which he gave to her when he retired.

“Perhaps he is using these very tools in your photograph.”

Other parks in Bolton have been loved and enjoyed by many of our readers over the years.

Moss Bank Park was once a haven for small animals but sadly the mini zoo has now gone.

There was a time when parks and places of relaxation provided a break from the daily toils experienced in the mills.

If workers were lucky enough to get a Sunday away from their looms then they would head for one Bolton’s many parks — in the early part of the 20th century there were many more than there are today.

A walk in the park was something to be looked forward to by all the family.

Sundays were meant to be days of rest and no shops or entertainment establishments, including theatres, would be open.

There was little else to do than attend church — again there would b very many in Bolton and its surrounding towns and villages — and then head for the park for a walk with the family.

Few people had cars so were unable to head out of town for their weekend enjoyment and the furthest they would travel would be, perhaps, to Barrow Bridge where they could enjoy a row on the water and tea in one of the little refreshment areas opened, often, by local villagers keen to make some money from the thronging visitors.

Life was filled with simple pleasures but people worked hard to enable them to enjoy those simple pleasures.

They would spend hours in noisy and dirty mills where the work was relentless.

Small children were often employed — today we would be horrified to think that youngsters could be put to work rather than enjoy their school days.

Life was very different.

Do you have memories of enjoying our parks in the past?

Get in touch with Gayle McBain on 01204 537269 or email gayle.mcbain@nqnw.co.uk with your own memories