People in Bolton are invited to help write a history of Manchester through its bygone shops.

An historian at Manchester Metropolitan University has taken a trip down memory lane to dig out some of his favourite shops and is asking local people to help and nominate their favourites too.

He wanted to involve the public in the quest to find the most popular local shops and stores.

The research will gather people’s treasured stores, whether it be still trading or one that closed some time ago, to be made into an interactive map and an exhibition at Manchester Central Library in spring 2019.

The mastermind behind 100 Manchester Shops is Professor Jon Stobart.

He came back to the city for the first time in many years when he took at a job at the University in 2015 and was struck by how much had changed.

He said: “I have a long-standing interest in retail history and these changes really stood out to me. “Exploring some of these through a study of the shops and shopping streets of Greater Manchester seemed an obvious and interesting way to re-familiarise myself with the city and its various boroughs.

“Rather than writing my own history of Manchester shops, I felt it would be more revealing and fulfilling to ask the people of Greater Manchester to write their histories, which is what this project is all about.”

To nominate a shop, people can visit the 100 Manchester Shops website. People are also able to leave comments on shops already placed on the map, adding their own memories, information and photographs.

Nominations are open from now until September 30.

Once complete, a panel at the University will decide the top ten favourite shops from across Greater Manchester to be placed in the exhibition.

Here at Looking Back we know how many local people remember, fondly, the shops and stores of yesteryear.