25 YEARS AGO

THE Town Clerk of Horwich, Mr Alan Knill, whose annual income is about £2,900, is being offered £1,500 following the first annual review of his salary and conditions of service. The Town Council, who appointed Mr Knill last year after advertising for a part-time clerk at £1,200 have decided that he should no longer operate as Mayor's Attendant, a function which has enabled him to supplement his income.

50 YEARS AGO

THIRTEEN men whose combined service with the firm of James Hardcastle and Co., Ltd., Bradshaw Works, stretches back to 1232, when Henry 111, eldest son of King John, of Magna Carta fame, reigned, were presented with long service certificates yesterday. The presentations were made by Sir William Clare Lees, of the Bleachers Association, in Manchester. Sir William chatted with each of the long-service employees, from 74-years-old Ralph Derbyshire, with 64 years' service, the longest, to Henry Leather, with 51 years' service, the shortest.

125 YEARS AGO

SIR,- Permit me to call the attention of the public to the proposed erection by the Town Council of a disinfecting shed and furnace for burning diseased meat on School-hill. Are the ratepayers of West Ward quite aware what it is the Corporation proposes to do? - to bring into the centre of the Ward, and into a crowded thoroughfare an intolerable nuisance and subject the residents to the risk of fever and smallpox in its most malignant form! Are the public prepared to be poisoned by the disgusting fumes arising from burning bad meat, although it is intended to send them up a shaft 30 yards high? I cannot think so, and must express my surprise that none of the representatives of the ward, from Alderman Foster down to, or up to, the latest addition have without a sign or protest consented to the perpetration of such a work in the ward. A petition is in course of signature calling upon the Council to reconsider this matter, and I venture to ask all those with families resident in the ward who care one jot for health and comfort, to use every possible exertion by public and private pressure, to prevent the erection on School-hill of a building which would prove a deadly plague-spot for the whole locality. - Yours, B.