From the Evening News, 1992 - TWO in three family doctors in the North-west have been attacked or verbally abused on home visits. And in some cases patients have become so aggressive, the doctor has ended up needing a doctor.

The shock new slant on violent Britain is revealed in a major nationwide survey carried out by "Doctor", the newspaper distributed weekly to more than 37,000 GPs. It says that "patient" is the least appropriate word to describe the people that busy doctors often have to deal with - particularly in areas that are blackspots for drink, drugs and deprivation-related problems.

25 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News,

November 11, 1977

GERIATRIC patients at Bolton General Hospital had to be evacuated from their ward this week when the ceilings started to cave in. A spokesman for Bolton Area Health Authority said that the ceilings were in "imminent danger of collapsing from age." He said that although bits of plaster and paint had fallen, the ceilings were still intact but sagging.

THE black pudding of the 70s isn't as good as it was. That was the verdict of judges of the Best Black Pudding in Great Britain competition staged in Bolton yesterday. They said some of the entries were "awful".

50 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News,

November 11, 1952

DID you ever know a man who really enjoyed doing housework? No? Then you must not have met Mr Jack Lewis, 4, Normanby Street, Morris Green, who today reported for duty with Bolton's 142 women domestic helps, and became the first male domestic help in the service.

A bachelor of 29, he lives alone and does all his own housework and cleaning. In his spare time he has been looking after an old blind neighbour, and has enjoyed this work so much that he decided to become a domestic help. His job will be to clean and do the heavy chores for six men, all over 70, who live on their own.

100 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News,

November 11, 1902

THE failure of the electric light supply for a few minutes on Saturday evening happened at a strikingly peculiar moment. A song entitled "Silver Chimes at Twilight" had just been announced from the platform of the new Independent Methodist Schools on Beverley Road when the illuminations gradually went dimmer. No one was for the moment alarmed, as it was imagined that the lights were being specially turned down to give suitable effect to the song; but such was not the case.

The room was packed. The Superintendent and Chairman (Mr Geo. Ryder) asked for order to be maintained, and the song was given to the accompaniment of a few flickering tapers. Curiously enough, the last chord had been struck by the pianist when the light re-appeared, as if specially intended to do so at the end of the twilight song. There was no further hitch. Friends from Noble Street School provided the whole entertainment, and the net proceeds will be over £7.