25 years ago

MURDER: Police launched a massive search for the killer of garage owner Tom Hewitt, 30, who was found battered to death at his Bright Street premises off Bell Lane. Nothing was stolen, and police speculated that the killer might have been a jealous boyfriend or husband of one of Mr Hewitt's many lady friends. They were keen to interview an angry man who twice called at the garage when Mr Hewitt was not there.

Cricket: Bolton Road cricket club offered a ten-week umpiring course leading to membership of the Association of Cricket Umpires. The fee: £1.50.

STORM: High winds and torrential rain caused flooding in Bury, and a chimney was blown off a house in Canning Street.

CAMPAIGN: The unsafe All Saint's church hall, under threat of demolition, would cost £9,000 to repair, said the parish council. They decided to launch an appeal for funds and ask Bury Council to help with cash. Bury Athenaeum Operatic Society had been forced to switch venues to Radcliffe's new civic hall.

CLEVER: Oxford student Susan Reynolds, 19, of Heys Road, Prestwich, reached the semi-finals of the Mastermind TV show. STRIKE: 37 engineering workers at Joseph Webb's downed tools. Skilled workers had agreed not to ask for more cash for 12 months, in return for a 17p- an-hour raise. But semi-skilled men were also asked to agree, in exchange for a 1p rise. The men decided to work to rule and to black two jobs. The management said they had to do the work they were paid for, whereupon the union declared a lock-out and the men went home. Pickets were posted three days later, but talks went on.

COST: Bury Council gave the go-ahead for £150,000 remedial work on three of their building projects. The work had been stalled because of a scare about high alumina cement used at Ainsworth Road, Freetown and Barlow Fold. Whitehall had given the OK to borrow the cash, but it seemed unlikely that any government subsidy would be forthcoming.

ELEPHANT: Mile Lane Clinic was called a white elephant - only in use for a fifth of the time - at a meeting of Bury Area Health Authority. After criticism that the £51,000 building would cost too much to run, the clinic's future was referred back to the area management team for more discussions about its future.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.