BOTH in Looking Back and in my book Bolton Past (why miss a chance to plug it?) I have mentioned Prince Albert's visit to Barrow Bridge in 1851.

Miss Eileen Gray, of Crossdale Road, Breightmet, Bolton, has written to tell me a story of that visit - don't get the wrong idea, she wasn't there. She may not be as young as she used to be, but there is a limit!

"I had a Bolton friend called Miss Olga Snape," she writes. "She was born in 1890 and died in 1975, and was the youngest of seven children. Her maternal grandfather lived at Barrow Bridge, and it was arranged that during his visit Prince Albert would enter one of the employee's cottages, so that he could see what they were like.

"Olga's grandfather's cottage was chosen, and all the arrangements made. But on the day of the visit, Olga's grandmother went into labour with Olga's mother, and the authorities had to quickly choose another cottage."

Miss Gray also comments on local churches, mentioning, as I have already done in this column, that the Parish Church is 125 years old this year.

"As you know, though," she writes, "several of the churches in the town centre have closed over the years, and are no longer used for that purpose. I was christened and confirmed at St. George's Anglican Church, now the Craft Centre.

"But when St. George's was built in the latter half of the 18th century, it was surrounded by fields; and when the Holy Trinity Church (now closed, on Trinity Street) was built in the 1830s, cows grazed on Newport Street."

Thank you for those details, Miss Gray.

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