Meet the Wingates newspaper 'family'

Twenty three years later Tillotson's, its publishers, moved to specially built premises in Mealhouse Lane in the town centre.

In 1971 the Tillotson group was bought by St Regis and 11 years later the group was sold to Reed International. In 1987 the printing operation was moved out of the town centre to Lostock and the rest of the business moved to new offices in Churchgate.

In 1996 there was a management buyout and Newsquest was formed. And two years ago Newsquest became part of American company Gannett.

THE Bolton Journal is a free weekly newspaper delivered to homes in the metropolitan borough.

It covers events in Bolton, Farnworth, Kearsley, Little Lever, Horwich and Westhoughton.

The Journal started life, however, as a paid for weekly on November 4, 1871 published by the Tillotson family and was the first of the Lancashire Journal series. It became the Bolton Journal and Guardian from 1893 to April 9, 1976 when it was closed.

The closure was said by its then proprieters St Regis Newspapers to have been brought about by rising costs and in the light of difficult trading conditions prevailing generally.

The paper was relaunched by owners Reed in 1985 as a free, operating from offices in Bridge Street, Bolton, moving nearer the town centre in 1991 into Corporation Street premises.

Later the Journal was moved from there into the company's main offices in Churchgate, Bolton from where it is now published.

The Bolton Journal became part of Newsquest which is now owned by Gannett, the American radio, TV and newspaper group which is now one of the biggest newspaper publishers in the UK.

It is 130 years since the first Journal was published and the newspaper continues to go from strength to strength as sister paper of the Bolton Evening News.

EAST Lancashire titles published at Wingates are: The four-edition Lancashire Evening Telegraph covering East Lancashire including the boroughs of Blackburn with Darwen, Hyndburn, Ribble Valley, Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale along with parts of South Ribble, Chorley and the Todmorden area.

It was launched as the Northern Daily Telegraph in 1886 by a young newspaper manager from Middlesbrough who took his wife on a trip to Blackpool and found he could not buy an evening newspaper at railway stations on the way home through East Lancashire.

The Lancashire Evening Telegraph remains based in Blackburn and has district offices in Burnley, Accrington, Darwen and Nelson.

The Citizen group of free newspapers is made up of the Blackpool, Preston, Chorley, Blackburn and Burnley titles.

This group also began in Blackburn with the launch of the first title, the Blackburn Citizen, by a group of five newspaper people in 1978. Because of a hitch in completing details of the lease for their launch base -- the Refuge Assurance Building in Ainsworth Street -- the very first copy was actually completed from the Woodlands Hotel in Preston New Road.

THE Leigh, Tyldesley and Atherton Journal has been providing an in-depth news and advertising service for more than 127 years, covering an area which encompasses parts of Wigan, Salford and Warrington.

Founded by Tillotson's, the proprietors of the Bolton Evening News, as the Tyldesley Weekly Journal in August 1873, Leigh was added to a revamped publication in January 1874.

Since then the title has been a major source of information to an area which includes more than 60,000 households within our circulation area, from Boothstown in the east, to Golborne and Hindley in the west, northwards to the Bolton boundary and to Culcheth and Croft in the Cheshire belt.

Leigh is at the heart of Wigan borough and grew with the mining, textile and engineering boom of the last century, just like near neighbours Atherton and Tyldesley.

The decline of these industries has coincided with an upsurge in the area's desirability for people seeking to relocate in the north west. And the Leigh area boasts a wide range of property opportunities with two up and two downs dating from the mine and mill days to bespoke detached homes in prime locations with major cities and the region's motorway network literally on the doorstep.

The Journal provides the best medium to help you enjoy life, keeping you informed with all the latest news and the best in advertising and promises to continue to do so.

THE Mid Cheshire Guardian series is made up of the Northwich, Winsford & Middlewich and Knutsford Guardians.

The Northwich Guardian was established in 1860 and has an average weekly circuation of around 16,500.

The Guardian covers the whole Northwich area including a number of villages ranging in size from large populations in Weaverham, Davenham and Hartford to the smaller Wincham, Great Budworth and Little Leigh.

Northwich is a market town in the borough of Vale Royal, in Cheshire. It was built up from the chemical industry, with giants ICI and Brunner Mond once the leading employers in the town.

It also suffers from subsidence with salt mines under the town, which are currently undergoing a £28 million stabilisation programme.

The Winsford & Middlewich Guardian was also established in 1860 and has a circulation of around 6,000. It covers two very different towns. Winsford, in Vale Royal borough is the leading producer of grit salt in the country and is the home to a large amount of industry. The town is also an administrative centre as it is home to Vale Royal Borough Council, Cheshire Fire Brigade and Cheshire Police are soon to build their headquarters.

Middlewich is based in Congleton borough, at a point where the Shropshire Union canal and the Trent and mersey Canals meet and is home to British Salt and Bisto Foods.

The Northwich and Winsford & Middlewich Guardians are produced by editor Nicola Dufty with a team made up of a sub-editor, chief reporter, sports editor and four reporters plus two editorial assistants and three photographers

The Knutsford Guardian was also founded in 1860 and now has an average weekly circulation of 6,500.

It covers Knutsford and surrounding villages Mobberley, High Legh, Chelford, Over Peover, Holmes Chapel, Goostrey, Allostock, Pickmere and Plumley.

Knutsford is a small market town in Cheshire and was once home to Victorian author Elizabeth Gaskell.

The heath witnessed the now legendary war of words between former Tory minister Neil Hamilton and ex-BBC war reporter Martin Bell in the run-up to the 1997 general election.

The Guardian is produced by editor Sue Briggs and a team of three reporters.

THE Congleton Guardian is a small weekly newspaper covering the busy South Cheshire town of Congleton as well as the surrounding areas of Biddulph and Alsager. It is delivered free to 20,423 homes and provides a healthy mix of community news, human interest stories, leisure and entertainment information, along with feature articles on people and places of interest and regular competitions.

In the sporting arena it keeps readers up to date with the exploits of Congleton Town FC, as well as the other local teams in Alsager and Biddulph. In summer it gives a comprehensive round-up of the local cricket scene.

Its classified ads section keeps readers up to date with the latest choice in private bargains, property and motoring including regular features.

The Congleton Guardian is based at 21a, West Street in Congleton town centre and also keeps its readers updated on a daily basis through its website at www.thisiscongleton.co.uk

THE Bury Times has been an institution in the town since local printer John Heap first published it from his offices off Union Square.

He was able to fulfil a long-held dream after the government of the day repealed the Newspaper Stamp Duty Act which had previously made newspapers prohibitively expensive . . . so expensive that most people had to visit the reading room of the town's Athenaeum to keep up to date.

That four-page first edition, a mixture of local and national news and advertisements, sold for one penny and started a tradition of newspaper publishing in Bury. Other titles have come and gone but the Bury Times remains. John Heap, who was to become an alderman and then mayor of Bury, died in 1887 and for the next 76 years the well-being of the Bury Times was in the hands of new proprietors, the Bentley family.

Mr Arthur Frank Bentley continued to develop the newspaper, launching a mid-week edition, progressively increasing the size of the weekend issue to 32 pages, and adding more local news. Today it regularly contains 120 pages.

A move from Union Square to Cross Street had occurred in the late 19th century and the Bury Times was published and printed in its new "home" until 1971 when the entire production was transferred to a former bakery in Market Street. By then the ownership of the Bury Times Group had changed hands again and it was to be sold once more before finally being bought in 1995 by present owners Newsquest Media Group. It also has a new headquarters in the town on a site next door to the now-demolished former Market Street building.

Only nine men have occupied the editor's chair in 146 years, at least two of those having a half-century of working association with the newspaper. Bill Allen is current editor in chief of the Bury Times Group, which includes the Bury Times Tuesday and Friday editions, the Radcliffe Times, Prestwich and Whitefield Guide and Bury Journal.