IT used to be a thriving place for farmers and miners, but now a couple born and bred in Little Hulton claim it has been left behind.

Ronnie White and his wife Jean, aged 77 and 78 respectively, have lived in Little Hulton all their lives and have seen it change over the years.

In their opinion, the area has seen little to no investment since the 1960s, which was when work finished on the shopping centre off Manchester Road East.

The final straw for the couple in Beechfield Avenue came when Bolton and Wigan councils announced a £132 million road network and Little Hulton's name was missing off the accompanying Spatial Framework map showing where houses could be built.

Mr White, a former heavy goods vehicle driver, said: “I saw that map in The Bolton News and a place like Over Hulton, which isn’t even a village, was on there whereas Little Hulton, which used to be as big as Walkden, was not.

“It is bigger actually in area and in population. All the houses that have been here are all council houses and in Walkden you get all these nice areas.

“Little Hulton has got smaller and the boundary has been moved from Tynes Bank, right next to Walkden, to right by Hilton Lane. Every day I pass the sign on the motorway. It says turn off for the A6 and Walkden but where has Little Hulton gone?

“People who want to go to Little Hulton will just drive straight through it and get to Walkden because there is no sign that says Little Hulton.

“It has never had any investment on infrastructure. The shopping centre is the same as it was in the 1960s when it was built.

“Places like Harwood have had the same type of centre as here but they have long gone and have been redeveloped.”

In the 19th century, the area had a number of mines including Madam’s Wood Pits, Brackley, Wharton Hall, Ashton’s Field and Peel Hall.

But these have since been lost as have a number of amenities, including Brackley Golf Club, which Mr White was the first captain of in 1980.

Mr White believes the Conservative Club is now one of the few places worth going to in the area.

Mr White grew up in Peel Park Crescent and met Jean at Birch Road School. The couple married at The Antelope pub in 1963 and moved to their current home in 1964.

Despite the Salford postcode, he considers Little Hulton to be a part of Bolton.

He said: “In the old days that’s the place we would go to and it's where we still go to.

“We would never go to Salford and I would never put Salford on my address. I put Little Hulton, Worsley, Manchester. I would say we are definitely part of Bolton.”