25 YEARS AGO

MOTHERS seeking a showdown over school buses took their secondary school children to primary school today. By 9a.m. about 100 children aged 11 to 13 had arrived at Blackrod Parish Church Primary School. But they were refused admittance because of their age. The mothers' action was taken as a protest against the lack of adequate transport for secondary school children who must travel considerable distances because no appropriate school is available in Blackrod.

MANAGER Nat Lofthouse, perturbed about nine bookings in nine games this season, is taking a tough line with future Bolton Wanderers' offenders. He said: "I have issued repeated warning to players about being booked for such offences of throwing the ball away, retaliation, talking at the referee or showing dissent. In future, anyone who is booked will be fined by me."

50 YEARS AGO

EVERYONE carries something in Berlin today, something to barter for food, or wood from the city's green belt or its wrecked buildings, for the coming winter. Through the shelled and bomb-cratered Tiergarten, grey-faced men and women push every type of handcart and perambulator, filled with fuel, along the city streets. The little cards in shop windows offer exchanges and fabulous bargains. One shows a grand piano for a winter coat; another a dining room suite for "a little food." 125 YEARS AGO

MR EDITOR,- It is well-known that the magnificent structure called the Parish Church, now nearing completion, is a splendid monument to the piety and munificence of a local gentleman. The tower of the new church would constitute a beautiful and fitting termination to the Churchgate view, but for some old houses now standing in the way. This has long been felt as a nuisance by those who have an eye for the picturesque. It would have been appropriate and graceful if the congregation, notoriously a wealthy one, had devised a scheme for acquiring such property as marred a vision of so much beauty, and by its removal not only added to the appearance of the town, but also proclaimed thereby the high estimation in which Mr Ormrod's princely erection is held.

Yet it is rumoured that the works necessary to place the church in the full light of day and all beholders is to be treated as of public importance and utility, and paid for by the Corporation. It is hardly possible that such a perversion of public funds to private purposes and ends could take place. Can it be true? If so, the ratepayers had better look out! Toryism, Corruption, and Extravagance are old allies. - Yours, &c., ALFRED WICKS

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