A TINY twig stuck between cobbles in Bolton 65 years ago has blossomed - into a huge oak tree.

Schoolboy Jim Glover was just 12 when he "planted" the branch for a joke in his back yard in Tonge Bridge, Bolton, in 1933.

The schoolboy later grew up to be a policeman and left his Gurth Street home to emigrate to Montreal, Canada.

But Jim, now 77, was amazed on a recent trip back to town to find that his inadvertent seedling had blossomed into a sprawling 35ft-tall oak tree - twice the height of an average house.

He also learnt that the twig had survived:

BULLDOZERS demolishing his house, back yard and his entire street;

COMPLAINTS from neighbours calling for it to be chopped down;

STORMS which felled stronger trees.

Jim's sister Mary Donning, of Breightmet, who kept a watch on the branch's progress while her brother was abroad, today hailed a "miracle" tree.

She said: "It's incredible.

"They knocked down the street, but left the tree alone because it was starting to grow.

"Then when it started shedding leaves neighbours complained, but the council said it was too nice to be chopped down.

"Now it's a lovely, fully-grown oak tree and the family looks on it as a memorial to our late mother."

Bolton Wanderers fanatic Jim, who is now back home in Montreal, was "thrilled" when he returned home to find his tree.

He told family friend Joan Hudson in a letter: "I remember planting that tree as if it was yesterday.

"It was Guy Fawkes night and we had been out gathering wood for the bonfire when we found this very big branch in a field.

"As we dragged it by our house I ripped a small branch off and threw it into our back yard.

"Why I did this I don't know, but the following day I just stuck it in between cobblestones in the back yard."

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