From the Evening News, November 5, 1903: METHODISM in Bolton is truly a powerful factor in the spiritual life of the town.

If the great meeting held in the Victoria Hall on Wednesday evening may be taken as a criterion, there is manifest amongst its members that whole-hearted zeal and intense earnestness to promote the welfare of God's kingdom that the founder, John Wesley, strove so valiantly and successfully to promote. Rarely has the beautiful hall presented so brilliant and inspiring a spectacle.

The sitting accommodation was taken up some time before the meeting commenced and though chairs were placed on all available space, hundreds had to be turned away.

The occasion was the annual meeting of the Victoria Hall Mission, in connection with the sixth anniversary. Over a thousand people afterwards sat down to tea and as the congregation were assembling for the evening gathering a number of good old mission hymns were sung with great heartiness.

Preparations complete for Bonfire night

From the Evening News, November 5, 1953: WITH only a few hours to go, Bolton people rushed into stores to make sure that they had enough fireworks for the 1953 celebration of Guy Fawkes night.

Most shopkeepers have noticed that there has been a slight tendency towards buying the catherine wheel or the coloured spray in preference to the banger. All over Bolton, children have been towing large branches, lorry tyres and wooden crates to the many sites where their bonfires will blaze tonight.

Hundreds of mothers have been busily making treacle toffee for this is the first Guy Fawkes night since before the war with unrationed sugar.

Suberbs suffering roaring gangs

From the Evening News, November 4, 1978: MARAUDING motor cycle gangs and vandals have brought terror to the streets of what was once a quiet Bolton suburb. Residents in Tonge Moor say the gangs roar round the streets on powerful machines, swear and fight, scrawl "love" messages to each other on walls and doors and throw rotten eggs at shop doorways and windows.

THE news that the number of Americans without jobs dropped from six million in September to 5.8 million in October has cheered President Carter.

He said in Portland, Oregon: "We're not going to have a recession in 1979 -- we are going to fight inflation until we whip it."

Civil strike

From the Evening News, November 5, 1993: CIVIL servants took part in their biggest strike in more than 10 years today. Pickets gathered outside the tax office in Churchgate, Bolton and the social security office at Elizabeth House. The unions claim the Government's new market-testing programme is the beginning of a move to privatise government services such as social security and tax collection.

THE Consumers' Association's annual Good Pub Guide names the Black Dog, Belmont as the best for value in the whole country -- with a pint of Holt's bitter at 98p and mild at 92p.