25 years ago from the Evening News January 28, 1980

THE heaviest snow of the winter caused mayhem in Bolton yesterday afternoon as thousands left work early to try and make a quick getaway.

Roads were littered with abandoned cars as many decided to try and get home on foot.

Mrs Sharifa Patel, aged 31, of Gibraltar Street, Bolton, had a healthy baby girl in the back of the car when it became stuck in traffic chaos in Derby Street.

TANKER driver Christopher Hopkins, who has been playing the organ since he was 10, is to fulfil a lifetime's ambition when he sits down at the keys of the famous Wurlitzer organ in the Blackpool Tower ballroom.

Christopher, aged 28, who lives in Little Hulton, was lost for words when his girlfriend, Jeanette Pugh, told him that she had spent three months fixing a date for an hour of musical delight.

25 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News

January 28, 1980

BOLTON Wanderers today sacked manager Ian Greaves - the man who said he would never quit.

The shock decision by the Wanderers board came just 48 hours after Bolton had reached the fifth round of the FA Cup, beating Halifax Town 2-0 in what was only the third win of the season.

STRIKING employees from the Bolton factory of Beloit Walmsley escalated their 13-week-old action today when they occupied parts of the Crompton Way factory and offices.

Works convenor David Crausby said: "We will continue the occupation until the dispute is settled."

The 400 shop floor workers are refusing to adopt new working methods proposed by the American owners.

50 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News

January 28, 1955

NEARLY 40 per cent of the coal produced at the 64 collieries in the North-west during 1954 was mined at 17 pits in Bolton, Leigh, Atherton Tyldesley, Walkden and Pendlebury.

North-west miners set up a post-nationalisation record during the year with an output of 15,646,760 tons.

Of this total 5,898,672 tons was produced within a few miles of Bolton.

Mosley Common colliery is still the biggest producing unit in Lancashire, with Bickershaw (Leigh) not far behind.

A leading figure in the cotton industry, Mr W. A. Grierson, told a Bolton meeting last night that the Lancashire cotton industry needed 250 of the countys best spinning mills to work double shift instead of the present 500 spinning mills working single shift.

Mr Grierson spoke to about 400 people who attended a meeting in Bolton Technical College organised by the Bolton and District Productivity Committee. He also said the cotton industry needed to be modernised if young people were to be attracted.

100 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News

January 28, 1905

TO carry out the recommendation of the Physical Deterioration Commitee, Dr Macnamara has presented in Parliament a bill to provide for the prevention of juvenile smoking.

The measure provides that any person selling, giving, or supplying tobacco for the use of any person under the age of 16 shall be liable to a fine and, on a third conviction, the vendor shall be deprived of his tobacco licence for five years.