From the Evening News, August 31, 1903: THE time-honoured Westhoughton Wakes were observed in the town in the usual fashion. It is made an occasion for family reunions, and there were many pilgrimages to the town from other districts to see old friends and relatives or the haunts of their former years.

Sunday afternoon and evening, although the weather was of a wild and threatening character, witnessed the usual parading of the principal streets, whilst scores of vehicles drove into the town, and many of the public houses, particularly in the evening, were crowded to overflowing. The decorated cow-head, which is said to be the coat of arms of the town, is on view at a number of the hostelries, and many hundreds of the "Wakes pasties", the favourite article of consumption associated with the carnival, were disposed of.

From the Evening News, August 31, 1953: A CONTRACT worth £160 to provide a pumping scheme to bring under cultivation 35,000 acres of underdeveloped land in the Blue Nile Province of the Sudan has gone to a Bolton firm, Robert Watson and Co. (Constructional Engineers), Ltd.

TWENTY four hours of rain nearly washed away the 18th Harwood Show on Saturday. Mr Elton F. Davies, the chairman, estimated the loss on the day to be £400, and described the weather as the "worst ever". It rained without stop 12 hours before the show opened, and continued in various degrees of intensity until nightfall.

From the Evening News, August 31, 1978: FORMER Bolton secretary Mrs Angela Dunn has won a gold medal for swimming in the first Olympic games to be held for kidney transplant patients. The games were held at Southsea.

Mrs Dunn, whose father lives in Albert Road West, Bolton, is married to an RAF navigator stationed at RAF Wyton , Cambridgeshire. She had her operation in 1970.

TINY button-shaped mushrooms, growing wild in gardens and the countryside in Bolton and Bury, are being sold as an LSD substitute on the black market for £40 an ounce.

From the Evening News, September 1, 1993: MORE than 200 residents attended a public meeting to protest about North West Water's plans to drain and develop Sweetloves Reservoir.

An action group has been formed by neighbours to fight the plans, which outline the development of a housing estate. Their complaints include the creation of traffic problems, atmospheric and noise pollution, and damage to both the ecology and the environment of the area.