25 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, March 10, 1974

ST Barnabas Church, Chorley Old Road, Bolton, built in 1913, will close this year if proposals now being advertised by the Church Commissioners are approved. The well-built brick church, in good condition, is a casualty of inflation and population movement away from the town centre. It may be sold and continue in use.

50 YEARS AGO

CRITICISM has often been made of the tea-drinking habit in offices and works, and we are all familiar with the ridicule poured on the Whitehall tea-brewers by stage comics; but the tea break continues and even grows. Works canteens have made it possible nowadays for the denizens of the works proper to enjoy the same privilege as the office staff, with no detriment to production.

125 YEARS AGO

WHEN it was notified to the people of Chorley that Mr Richard Smethurst was appointed to the office of High Sheriff of the county palatine, the people were exceedingly rejoiced, and there was a unanimous desire on the part of the public to mark their sense of the honour conferred on the town, by having a great demonstration. This event came off on Saturday, and, in its proportions, exceeded the most sanguine anticipations. The town was en fete, the mills were all stopped, and the inhabitants displayed intense zeal to do honour to the occasion. A great procession was organised, and it extended from a mile and a half to a mile and three quarters in length. The High Sheriff and Mrs Smethurst invited upwards of 100 guests to breakfast, these including most of the local clergy, gentry, and manufacturers. In the procession the High Sheriff, in full uniform, rode on horseback, the state carriage, with fourteen javelin men on each side, bringing up the rear. The procession moved through the town and thence to the railway station, where his worship took a special train to Lancaster to meet the judges. The streets were thronged throughout with many thousands of sightseers, and on the train leaving the station the High Sheriff was greeted with hearty acclamations, as he had been throughout the entire route.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.