HOW many Walkden locals know the Swan With Two Necks? They would need to go back a very long way.

The pub, standing at the centre of Walkden, and now known as The Stocks, has been there since the early 18th century. But it changed its name to reflect the appetite for public humiliation when the stocks were erected outside its front entrance.

This and many other gems of local information are contained in a new book by Glen Atkinson, Philip Hagerty and Blackleach Warden Annie Surtees, called 'Blackleach and North Walkden'.

Sprawl

The book traces the history of North Walkden from its rural isolation, to the urban sprawl and industrial pollution of the 20th century, and finally to the creation of Blackleach Country Park.

But the book's anecdotes, photographs and illustrations, many of them amusing, are well balanced by its real life stories of local people, like the disaster of 1877 at Farnworth's Roscoe and Lord pit that killed 18 men and boys, seven from Little Hulton.

The book has been produced for the Blackleach Voluntary Group, and all proceeds will benefit the Country Park. It is on sale at the Country Park Cabin, price £4.75. Church will be on song LITTLE Hulton's St Andrews Church will be host to the Farnworth and District Ecumenical Choir a week tomorrow from 6pm.

Cyril Harrison will conduct the choir through a production of John and Leslie Jackson's 'Creation Rejoices'. All proceeds will go the Christie's Hospital, and admission is £2 including refreshments. Groups on the web LOCAL community groups wanting to jump on the new technology bandwagon now have a free Salford website to publicise their activities.

The web site address is www.salfordspeaks.org.uk where groups can invite members to join, publicise an event, or even develop their very own web site. Contact Mike Benjamin on 0161 793 2996 for more information. Church tour DON'T miss a guided tour of Worsley Church on Thursday, hosted by Eccles Heritage. The tour starts at 2pm, and there is more info on 0161 789 2820.