WITH the first crucial year of publication over, the Bolton Evening News's proprietors decided that if pressmen they were going to be, then they would do the job thoroughly.

So, in 1868, John Tillotson and his son, the BEN's creator William Frederic Tillotson, became founder members of the Press Association, a body which began as a co-operative of newspaper owners and is today the biggest news-gathering operation in Britain.

In 1871, William Brimelow became the BEN's first editor; he was later to become WF Tillotson's partner.

On November 4 of that year, WF Tillotson realised his ambition to found a weekly paper and the Bolton Journal began to run alongside the evening paper. Over the next four years, he acquired the copyrights of the Farnworth Observer, the Leigh Journal and Times, the Tyldesley Weekly Journal, the Eccles and Patricroft Journal and the Pendlebury and Swinton Journal.

All these publications sold for a penny apiece and were soon known for their serialised stories by famous authors.

The firm prospered and, in 1884, pioneered another newspaper, the Football Field and Sports Telegram, which sold as far afield as Chester and Liverpool and was later renamed the Cricket and Football Field, which continued until 1915 when it was superseded by The Buff.