25 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, April 23, 1973

THE toast was the same all over Bolton - Wanderers, the Champions! There was jubilation at Burnden Park after Bolton Wanderers beat York 3-0 to clinch promotion and the Third Division Championship. The team did a lap of honour, accompanied by hundreds of fans, manager Jimmy Armfield congratulated skipper Warwick Rimmer, and the 20,000 crowd hailed Mr Armfield. Outside the ground fans sang and danced long after the final whistle.

50 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, April 22, 1948

SIR,- We all welcomed the donkey rides and the donkey cart 'bus service' which gave our children much pleasure in Moss Bank Park during local 'stay-at-home' holidays, but why turn our beautiful natural park into a Coney Island with its merry go-round and swing boats - threepence per trip - and private enterprise too. Did the Corporation ask for tenders for these amusements?

I went with my family for a quiet Sunday afternoon walk (I hoped) only to be bothered by the kiddles for 'just another ride'. Many family men by-pass the park on account of the 'fair'.

Yours, etc., Little Arthur.

125 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, April 23, 1873

ON Monday, the Rev. J.F. Moody, formerly stationed at Farnworth, but now of Glasgow, delivered a lecture on 'Babylon' in the Wesleyan Chapel, Radcliffe Bridge, before a numerous audience. In acknowledging the vote of thanks accorded to him, he said: 'Some six years have passed away since I last had the pleasure of addressing you. Then my sphere of labour was the Bolton Wesley Circuit, and my residence was at that wonderful Moses Gate. I have often wondered why it was called Moses Gate. I fancy that some old lawgiver must have lived there at some time, who was called Moses, yet I always felt interested in Farnworth. I felt it was one of those localities that would rise. The businessmen of the place were full of enterprise, were men who, supported by their own earnest will, resolved to get on, despite the difficulties that surrounded them; and I feel fully persuaded that in course of time Farnworth will become a town of great importance - a centre of social and political, and, best of all, religious influence.'

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