25 YEARS AGO

TWO 700ft deep mineshafts at Farnworth are being filled in with concrete - more than 11 years after a bungalow plunged down one of them. At the time Coal Board workmen 'temporarily' filled in the terror crater on Worsley Road, and another nearby at Bloomfield Road, with 1,500 tons of coal waste. Now Bolton Council is filling in every cranny in the craters with tons of concrete.

ABOUT 32 men and women employed by the Bolton textile manufacturers Hot Hosiery Co. Ltd., are to lose their jobs because of a shortage of orders in the warp knitting section.

50 YEARS AGO

SIR,- Before the last general election there seemed to be much 'courting' of the Old Age Pensioners and what was going to be done for them by some of the major parties if they 'got in'. Since the election it seems to have all evaporated again and the old folk are once again 'forgotten'. There is one thing that needs doing (election or no election), by the political parties, that is, get around and learn the number of these old people who have hardly a decent suit of clothes or a frock. The price of these things doesn't allow the average pensioner a chance to get any.

We are not in an army where we can get a new uniform when the old one is shabby. There are many who don't like going to a simple little entertainment or party because their clothes shame them. If the pension can't be raised, it is time the question of clothes, etc., for the pensioner was looked into. We can't strike for higher wages or pensions, nor do all of us want to look like scarecrows. We need a scheme to get clothes., etc., if we can't get enough money to buy them. - Yours etc., John E. Pickering, 35 School-st., Little Lever.

125 YEARS AGO

THE inhabitants of, and immediately surrounding, the district once well-known as 'Slater-field', have every year more cause to hold in grateful remembrance the name of the late Mr Robert Heywood. Owing to that gentleman's beneficence, the Corporation were enabled to set apart the large plot of land which bears the title of Heywood Park and Recreation Ground, the value of which grows daily apparent. Hundreds of houses have sprung up all about it, and their number is being constantly added to, and with this multiplicity of residences there is an increase of population and large manufactories. When the grounds were opened in 1866 there were many open spaces in close vicinity which were made available without scruple as playgrounds, and with very little trouble a walk might have been enjoyed in green fields; but now blocks of buildings cover these spots. Thus the residents of this rapidly increasing part of the town, more especially the juvenile portion, are driven to these pleasure grounds, and any evening, except Sunday, can there be seen hundreds of youths and young men engaged in various games, whilst reclining on the seats or walking about in the park are the adults enjoying themselves in a less demonstrative way. The grounds have been far from fortunate in their establishment. The laying of them was retarded through several causes for some time, and they had only begun to assume a park-like appearance when everything was turned topsy-turvy by the making of the tunnel underneath for the new line to Manchester. Last year the Park had been levelled again, and the walks and plants got into something like order.