From the Evening News, February 15, 1992

A STORE boss narrowly escaped being blasted in the head during a daring £26,000 raid on a Farnworth supermarket. Kwik Save manager Noel Ward was lucky to escape with his life as a shotgun was accidentally fired at him at point blank range. The blast missed Mr Ward's head by inches.

FARNWORTH fishmonger Darren Wakefield has netted himself a top quality award for the second year running. Darren, who sells up to 20 varieties of wet fish on his stall at Farnworth Market, is the only independent fishmonger in the Bolton area to hold the coveted Sea Fish Industry Award.

25 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, February 15, 1977

EIGHTY workers were evacuated from a six-storey Bolton factory today when a blaze broke out on the fifth floor. Flames up to 30ft. high shot through the ducts on the roof of tannery firm William Walker and Sons in Thynne Street. Firemen and workers fought the blaze and managed to save thousands of pounds worth of equipment and leather. Nobody was injured.

50 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, February 15, 1952

BENEATH the silken banners of the Knights of the Garter, of which Order he was sovereign, King George Vl was laid to rest in the royal vault of St George's Chapel at Windsor today. The ceremony, which lasted for 26 minutes, had all the simplicity of the Church of England burial service, and at the same time it was a spectacle of colour and pageantry which has long been associated with this Garter Chapel. In London, women wept openly, as with in the muffled toiling of Big Ben combining with the bells of Westminster Abbey, the cortege moved through the city on its way to a train which bore the coffin to Windsor. Queen Mary, the King's mother, did not attend the funeral -- she is 85 -- but watched the procession from a window at her home, Marlborough house.

100 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, February 15,1902

Dear Sir.-- Writing as a woman in this controversy, I think that if, as "A Mere Man" suggests, every woman tried to keep herself "bright, sparkling, cheery and pretty", the sex would be far more deeply appreciated. At the same time, "A Mere Man" forgets that women have not the physical strength to bear the common ailments which afflict humanity with the same ease as men.

Can their lot be made lighter in this respect? I have proved that it can. Women readers who have tried them will bear me out in the statement that Chas. Forde's Bile Beans are nature's greatest remedy for headache, fretfulness, nervousness, that "run down and don't care sensation", and for other common ailments which go to make the woman in the home cross and unattractive. Bile Beans I have found to so tone up the nerves that one does not get "bothered to death" over household details, and they so improve the system that ones strength is duly renewed, and hard work does not rob one of the pleasure of living. They are not expensive, and if introduced into every home would, I believe, make the woman of the house more appreciated because they would make her more healthy, more attractive, and more even tempered. Yours, One Who Has Proved Them.