OH rats! Yes, we are back to that subject again, and the story of the rats moving en masse across town to the new market in Ashburner Street when the Fish Market in Bridge Street was closed in the early 1930s.

"I was particularly interested in the letter from Mrs B. Brownlow, of Bedford Street, Egerton, who had witness this phenomena after working late at the Aspin Hall, and was on her way down Bridge Street to try to get a taxi home," writes Miss Audrey M. Kaye, of Parkgate Drive, Bank Top, Bolton.

"Mrs Brownlow has very vivid memories of what happened, but I hope she will forgive me if I correct one small detail of her story.

"As this extraordinary event happened in 1932, which is obviously not in doubt, then she could not possibly have been going to the Silverline Taxi office for her transport home, because this business was only opened, by my late father, Bert Kaye, on September 1, 1938, and unfortunately closed down a year later at the outbreak of the war.

"My parents and myself, still a schoolgirl, lived 'over the shop', at No 45 Bridge Street, and the old Flax Mill chimney was in the yard at the side of the business.

"As a matter of interest, the taxi fare at the time was 8d per mile, and the charge for a wedding was 10s (50p) per hour, with the majority of weddings being covered for the princely sum of £1, and that included the cars, which were Ford V8 Pilots, being dressed with white ribbons, from the windscreen to the radiator; white covers inside the car; pink carnations in a 'silver' vase on the dashboard, with the drivers wearing white coats, and clip-on covers over their peaked caps."