25 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, August 27, 1971

IT must be the most sought after telephone number in Bolton. Dial a certain 21-figure number from any call box in town, press your 2p piece into the slot, and you're through to Los Angeles. It is to a telephone answering service, and the tape-recorded voice at the other end of the line - 6,000 miles away - belongs to a young lady called Suzanne. The sexy American voice invites callers to take part in "a beautiful experience you'll never forget."

The Post Office, not surprisingly, is "quite perturbed" about Bolton people being able to phone America for 2p, moral considerations apart. A spokesman confirmed that the number was for a Los Angeles brothel, which had gained wide publicity in a national newspaper.

50 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, August 27, 1946

FIVE families of squatters took possession of huts in the camp at Heath Charnock, near Adlington, last night, following the departure of the last of the Spanish Republicans, who were freed from there on Saturday. The first to commandeer a hut was Mrs Ethel Bradley, who had been living with her husband and son in lodgings at Chorley-rd., Heath Charnock. Mr Hadley works on a canal barge, plying between Leeds and Liverpool. Each of the huts has electric lighting and a slow combustion stove, but other essential services, such as water and sanitation, are not laid on.

125 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, August 26, 1871

THE thirty-fifth annual meeting of the shareholders of the Bank of Bolton was held yesterday, at the Bank. A report for the past year was read by the manager, Mr Ferguson, which showed that the paid-up capital amounted to £221,925, and the guaranteed fund to £71,818, and that the profit made during that period would allow a dividend of ten per cent for the year, leaving a small balance to be carried to suspense account. A cordial vote of thanks was given to the directors for their unceasing attention to the interests of the shareholders, and also to the manager and other officers of the Bank at Bolton and Framework.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.