HUNDREDS of people crowded into Bolton’s Arndale Shopping Centre in 1971 to greet the centre’s newest star attraction - 40 budgies!

A large aviary had been installed in the centre and had previously housed a number of parrots. But when one of them became diseased, all the parrots had to be removed from the centre.

Manager Joe Ducker said that the cage had been given the all-clear and that it was safe for the budgies to be moved into their £1,000 home.

The birds were supplied by local breeder Mr A S Cooke who is pictured letting them loose into the main cage in the centre.

The centre had appointed a member of staff - Joe Howarth - as the man in charge of the new tenants.

“They seem chirpy enough,” he told an Evening News reporter as the birds were being introduced to their new home.