FIRE!: Bury's firefighters were disgruntled with the condition of many of their fire engines.

One fireman said:"When drivers climb into their cabs they wonder whether the engines will start."

At a minor town centre fire, a Bury Times photographer reported seeing six firefighters push-starting and old Ford that Bury had "acquired" from Oldham.

MAGPIE: Eleven-year-old Nathan Moss found a friend for life in the form of a Magpie chick.

Nathan discovered the chick and its dead mother in a quarry near his Rochdale Old Road home in Bury. Nursing the bird back to health on a diet of bread and mile, the magpie, nicknamed "Jim My Lad", was now quite tame and hopped about on Nathan's shoulders.

BEEHIVE: It was a coincidence to match all coincidences when a coach carrying the ladies's social club from the Beehive Hotel in Hornby Street, Bury, broke down on its way back from Blackpool. For the coach crawled to a halt outside a pub in Horwich, named appropriately enough The Beehive. It was quite a sting in the tail for the ladies as the pub was closed. MILLION: A Bury firm clinched two major contracts worth a total of £1.7 million, one of which was the biggest single order the company has every won.

Henry Hargreaves and Sons Ltd, air-handling contractors and the leaders in their field in the country, gained orders from Lloyds Bank in London and the South Western Regional Health Authority.

MURDERS: Mother of four Phyllis Cooper was determined to ensure Moors murderess Myra Hindley would remain behind bars for life when she took to the streets of Bury with a petition opposing Lord Longford's campaign to have the evil child killer parolled.