MARY Hamer was a pioneer rock climber and one of Bolton's first women motorists.

Her remarkable life story -- told in pictures -- is part of a fascinating exhibition of bygone Bolton being held this month at Bolton Museum and Art Gallery.

Hundreds of poignant pictures, memories and stories of life in the borough are on display after a six-month search to uncover treasures of the past.

The Bolton Revisited project, launched last September, has put together a combination of words and photographs to build up a picture of life in the town during the last century.

The extensive Mary Hamer collection was donated by local historian and family friend Jean Howarth.

Born in 1900, Mrs Hamer began a driving career which spanned nine decades when she was appointed her family driver at the age of 16.

Photographs in the display show Mary, who lived at the Willows, Sharples Park, with a selection of the 32 cars she drove through the golden age of motoring before she stopped driving at 94, just three years before she died in 1997.

Snaps also show her in service with the Watermillock Volunteer Ambulance drivers during the Second World War.

Her family's love of the outdoors also saw Mary become a pioneer climber and one of the first women members of the almost exclusively male Fell and Rock Club.

Images show her on climbing trips in the years between the First and Second World Wars. Regular visits were made to Britain's highest war memorial on Great Gable in the Lake District, which was erected by the Fell and Rock Club as a memorial to their members killed in the First World War.

Bolton Revisited's Ken Beevers said of the unique collection of pictures: "The pictures came from Jean Howarth because she was a family friend of Mary and ended up with the pictures.

"The exhibition is about ordinary people, but Mary was quite remarkable in the fact that she certainly would have been one of the first women drivers in Bolton and for a long time she was the only female member of the Fell and Rock Club. If the pictures hadn't have been in the exhibition, then they probably would never have seen the light of day."

Previously unseen photographs and memories in the nostalgic exhibition date back as far as 1890 and include recollections of mill life, transport, schools, leisure and wartime.

Project worker Jackie Taylor said: "There's a huge amount of interest in local history in Bolton and this gives people the chance to put some of their memories on display."

Hundreds of people have also been able to gain new IT skills at free training sessions held alongside the projects.

The workshops will continue to run at Deane and Derby Learning Centre, Broad Street, between 7pm and 9pm on Tuesdays; at New Bury Learning Centre, Buckley Lane, between 7pm and 9pm on Wednesdays; and at Brownlow Fold Learning Centre, Eskrick Street, between 11.30am and 1pm on Thursdays.

Anyone who has pictures or stories to donate to the project can contact Ken Beevers or Jackie Taylor on 01204 332149.

The exhibition will run until April 30.