FROM THE EVENING NEWS, SEPTEMBER 9, 1995: TOPPINGS Bridge residents will soon be able to ride a horse into Kearsley or a bike to Oakwood Clough and miss all the traffic.

work has begun at Toppings Bridge on Phase Two of the Linnyshaw Loop Line Walkway.

The work involves extending the existing system of Loop Line Walkways. It will include the construction of footpaths, cycleways and a bridleway, linking up with the Blackleach Country Park area.

25 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News

September 10, 1980

HOUSEWIVES, workers on short-term and the unemployed are being given the chance to make use of their spare time by studying any subject they care to choose.

Bolton Technical College is not only issuing the tell us what you want offer to prospective students, but staff are also prepared to be flexible about times for courses.

VISITORS to the local studies section of Westhoughtons central library have had something unusual to study this week.

Its called as the Oxford English dictionary nearby confirms a HOLE, complete with rope enclosure and Danger Keep Off notice.

Visitors have been heard ignoring the normally sacrosanct Silence Please rule to make the new central feature a talking point.

Is it some form of abstract sculpture representing the working mans quest for coal? one asks with typically earthy Howfen humour.

50 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News

September 10, 1905

FIRE crews were today still tackling a fire which last night gutted part of Spring Water Mill, Whitefield, a government warehouse.

Police put a strict security guard around the mill following the alarm and reporters were not allowed though the entrance gates.

Firemen were under orders not to disclose the contents of the mill, believed to include magnesium, copper, lead and hemp.

DELEGATES to the Lancashire and Cheshire area of the National Union of Mineworkers, meeting in Bolton today, accepted a report from the Economic Committee and welcomed the decision to try and man the pits by British labour.

Mr E. Hall, area secretary, said after the meeting: We shall give all the co-operation we possibly can to bring about a situation where there would be no need whatever to close any pits in Lancashire.

100 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News

September 9, 1905

JOHN Davies, Wigan Road, Westleigh, was charged with stealing 6lbs. of veal from the Firs Lane Co-operative meat shop.

William Darlington, shop manager, said that on Saturday night the veal was in the window up to about 8.30.

Martha Greenhalgh said she and her sister were in the Co-operative grocers shop when Davies came in and bought some tobacco. Margaret Ann Williams said she saw him buy the tobacco in the grocers shop.

The prisoner came in, and as she got her meat, she saw him take the veal from the window board and slipping it under his coat, make off.