STALLHOLDERS in Bolton Market Hall look to have had an enjoyable social life in the 1950s.

Mr Herbert Whalley of Brook Gardens, Harwood popped into our office with these pictures which belonged to his late mother, Kathleen Whalley.

Mrs Whalley and his grandmother, Catherine Bearder, both worked on Walsh's Fancy Goods Stall.

Mrs Bearder was the owner at one stage and her daughter later took over.

Mr Whalley remembers talk about them both going to Market Hall dances.

"There was quite a big social side to it," he told me.

The pictures were probably taken on Wednesday afternoons after the stalls were shut and staff gathered for a trip out -- maybe to Blackpool.

Mr Whalley remembers some of the businesses -- Walco Leather, Toy & Book, Johnson's shoe stall and Turner's tool stall.

A souvenir booklet produced for the centenary of the Market Hall in 1955 notes that the Market Hall tenants, in spite of the varied nature of their wares, have always had a community of interest from the very first days.

One article says: "For many years the Market Hall Tenants' Association has looked after their collective interests.

"Numerous shopping exhibitions and advertising schemes have been arranged in which all have joined and the social side has not been neglected. This community of interests has done much to make the Market Hall an excellent shopping centre."