10 years ago

SCREAMING teenage girls were an everyday sight in Rossendale after a member of boyband Take That moved into the area.

Hunky Howard Donald moved to a house in Whalley Road, Shuttleworth, near Ramsbottom, and was plagued by hundreds of fans after school and on weekends. The girls, some whom travelled from as far as Sweden to camp outside the home, would wait for hours hoping to catch a glimpse of Howard.

25 years ago

AN anonymous telephone pest was making life a misery for a number of Blackburn councillors.

For six weeks the councillors were woken as often as five times in the middle of the night by calls from a mystery hoaxer.

They would answer the phone only to have the mystery caller say nothing and hang up. The calls were mostly made to members of the transport committee who thought it could be a reaction to one of their recent decisions.

50 years ago

A BLACKBURN man escaped a prison sentence after his wife pleaded with the court.

The loyal woman told them although her 22-year-old labourer husband had broken into a house and stolen a watch, he was a good husband and father.

Judge F Raleigh Batt said he would give the man another chance to go on the straight and narrow.