From the Evening News, July 29, 1992 - A Halliwell shopkeeper says wreckers have made her life a nightmare -- and left her with a £1,000 bill.

Vandals have smashed the windows of Pam Burgess's wool shop three times already this year. Now she is calling for police to offer more protection to local shopkeepers. Pam and her husband Rodney live above the shop on Halliwell Road. But they say they are scared to leave the premises for what they may return to.

25 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News,

July 29, 1977

TELEVISION licences will be increased from £8 to £9 for black and white sets and from £18 to £21 for colour from midnight tonight.

RIVINGTON Parish Council today attacked the North West Water Authority for allowing rock fans to hold a four-day open-air concert below Rivington Pike. Hundreds of fans -- including mothers and toddlers -- began to pitch their tents yesterday in the Bungalow Gardens in preparation for the free festival, which got under way today. But residents were in no mood to join in the theme of peace and love. One said angrily: "We don't want all these weirdos tramping through our village. The water authority is to blame."

50 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News,

July 28, 1952

A BOLTON man whose family made clogs in the town for nearly 200 years has won a medal for clog-making craftsmanship at the Royal Welsh Agricultural Show. He is Mr John Henry Geary (68), who now lives in Anglesey. He left Bolton some years ago, learned the Welsh language, married a Welsh woman, and carried on making clogs.

Mr Geary, whose grandfather made the first pair of dancing shoes for the late Dan Leno, can turn out a clog in 2 minutes.

100 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News,

July 28, 1902

AT the Liverpool Assizes this morning, before the Lord Chief Justice, Thomas Bibby (60), engineer, Fourth Street, Barrow Bridge, pleaded guilty to breaking into two Nonconformist chapels and a school, in Bolton, in May, June and July, and stealing various articles. It was stated that he thought he had a grievance against dissenting ministers generally, and had committed similar offences 23 times. The medical evidence was that prisoner had delusions which were accentuated when he took drink, but he knew the consequence of his acts, and could not be termed legally insane. He had been dominated by ideas of persecution, but knew his actions were wrong. Prisoner was sent to hard labour for 12 months.