JOHN Tillotson founded the, then, Bolton Evening News with his son William Frederick Tillotson and the very first newspaper was published on March 19 1867.

It was the first halfpenny evening newspaper in England, totally unconnected with a morning or weekly paper, with the exception of a daily Shipping Gazette in South Shields.

The Tillotson family was well known in Bolton and beyond and for many years The Bolton News was affectionately referred to as Tillotsons.

Towards the end of the century The Bolton News became the first newspaper in the country to act as a syndication agency, supplying fiction to newspapers throughout the country.

Authors were paid for their stories by Tillotson, who then sold them on to other newspapers.

Of the many authors who wrote for the bureau the best known are Thomas Hardy, HG Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle, E Nesbit and Arnold Bennett.

In 1889 Tillotson commissioned a story by Thomas Hardy which was rejected on the grounds of blasphemy and obscenity — this turned out to be Tess of the d’Urbervilles.

For many authors this opportunity to publish their works to a mass audience provided them with a springboard to success.

In 1890 it became clear the paper had outgrown its premises in Mawdsley Street and a move was made to the Mealhouse Lane premises it would inhabit for almost a century. The Bolton News has always been at the forefront of innovation.

In 1894 it became the first daily paper in Britain to reproduce a black and white photograph by the half tone process and in 1962 was the first British paper to carry a full page printed in hi-fi colour in all its editions. In 1971 the Tillotsons’ long association with the paper ended when the paper was bought by the St Regis Paper Company of New York. In 1976 the old hot metal process of production was replaced by computerised photosetting.

Reed International bought the company in 1982 and in 1987 the paper moved to its premises in Churchgate. At the same time “new technology”

was introduced. The traditionally noisy newsroom of old — with the sound of typewriters clattering away — was soon to be gone, replaced by computers.

The paper became the first in the world to process electronically by computer from compilation almost to the point of printing. In 1996 the paper became part of Newsquest Media Group and in 2006 the title was changed to The Bolton News.