A MAN has raised more than £600 for Bolton Hospice after painting two old photographs depicting snowy days of the past.

Bill Usher first created a painting of a tram stuck in a snow drift on Hunger Hill during a blizzard in 1940.

He has often painted during retirement and sells some of his products online, while others hang in local cafes.

He said: "I belong to a few Facebook groups and one of the local Westhoughton ones put a photo of a tram that had got stuck in a snow drift. One of the admins said that I should have a go at painting it.

"I got a lot of positive comments and I decided that as a lot of people liked it, I would put it up for auction.

"I wanted the money to go to a good local charity and settled on Bolton Hospice."

After deciding to auction it for the the hospice, he was inundated with bids from keen buyers.

Bill noticed that two bidders were battling it out for the painting and so proposed an alternative solution to the pair.

He told them that he would create another one using a similar photo from what appeared to be the same blizzard.

He added: "I found a photo and asked her if she would prefer for me to do that one and she said yes please. So she paid £310 for it, which is what the other man paid - as well as £10 for good luck. So the paintings raised £630 for the hospice."

Bill finished the photo just before New Year and the bidder pointed out an incredible connection - one of the children in the photo/ painting was her dad.

She circled out the figure, much to the delight of Bill.

He added that throughout January, he would donate any royalties from a website which sells prints of his paintings to the hospice.

The website, weallsendcards, provides an outlet for artists to sell prints of their paintings in various poster and art forms.

To view some of Bill's prints, visit weallsendcards.com and search for 'Westhoughton'.