CHEMIST Harry White has retired as manager of an Atherton pharmacy after 34 years -- with a few tales to tell.

Harry, of Upton Road, Atherton, who will continue at the Church Street branch of Cohen's Chemists on two days a week, recalls the time he used to make up exclusive chlorine gargles for Dr Deakin.

He said: "He was the only doctor to prescribe this for sore throats. It gave off gas and tasted like Atherton baths. I don't think many patients actually used it but imagine how we went on making it up."

Harry, who was born in Westhoughton, was a Rivington and Blackrod Grammar School boy and qualified as a chemist at Bradford University.

He started his career as assistant manager at Timothy White shops around Bolton but his first managership was at the Railway Road, Leigh, branch in the Sixties.

He moved to Chorley then returned to Atherton when the pharmacy was owned by Hepworth and Hall.

Harry, who is married to Elaine, and has a daughter Barbara, also remembers being presented with a black edged funeral card with a request for 3d of liquorice and chlorodyne and bearing the slogan "Safely sleeping in God's keeping".

A rail fan, he will now spend more time doing more voluntary work on the Welshpool and Llainfair Railway, gardening and walking.

He can still be seen in the Atherton chemist's on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.