25 YEARS AGO

HUNDREDS of thousands of people could be forced to fetch their water in a bucket from communal street taps this summer. That is the fear of many of Britain's water supply chiefs as they survey near-empty reservoirs and wells run low. Weather forecasters hold out little hope. "It looks as though we are going to have a dry spring - and the odds are on a dry summer as well," said a spokesman.

BOLTON chess star Jeffrey Horner has won the Bolton Congress Open Tournament and the £100 first prize by beating Ron Doney in a tense final round. It was sweet revenge for Jeffrey. At last year's Congress the Stockport player deprived him of first prize by snatching a lucky draw in the last round.

50 YEARS AGO

AN American housewife who is at present running a home in Bolton had some interesting comments and comparisons to make when she addressed members of the Bolton Soroptimist Club this week. Keeping house for her school-teacher husband while he is in Bolton on a 12 months' exchange visit, Mrs Mildred Vess, from California, is missing some of the "gadgets" which make an American housewife's life so much easier - thermostatically controlled heating systems which operate at the turn of a switch, washing machines, electric mincers, and other such labour-saving devices which are considered necessities in every home, the other side of the Atlantic. "I've only just mastered the art of making a coal fire," said Mrs Vess. She thought American women led an easier life than English women, partly because men helped them more. Mrs Vess is nevertheless enjoying her stay in Bolton - even the weather, which she described as "interesting".

125 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News,

April 20, 1876

ON Thursday evening, about ten minutes to six o'clock, a fire broke out in the Mount Pleasant Mill, No. 1, Mill-street, and raged with intense fury for two hours, completely gutting the place. The mill is an old one, having been erected about 50 years ago. The premises, which cover a large area, had the misfortune about five years ago to take fire, and one mill was destroyed; and the premises now demolished suffered to some extent, but not seriously. The building destroyed on Thursday was six storeys in height, in addition to an attic. It contained over 23,000 spindles, and employed about 80 workpeople. The damage is estimated roughly at £26,000 or £30,000, the yarn in the warehouse being injured as well as considerable damage having been sustained to the machinery and material in the nearby new mill, which in some parts was completely saturated with water. During this morning, the ruin was visited by a large number of people.