AS the 19th Century dimmed into history the lights of Leigh began to burn ever brighter, writes DAVID HODGKINSON

A bold new council embraced men of vision, knowledgable and audacious men who would, in the early years of a century of unimaginable change, lay the foundations for a town of which to be proud.

Through the first fifty phenomenal years the town of Leigh would, bolstered by the sound economical bedrocks of King Cotton and King Coal, develop beyond all recognition.

Today, on the Charter Centenary Day, we celebrate their efforts.

Festivities for the new century were barely over as John Fairclough, the town's first mayor (1899-1900), oversaw two major local government inquiries.

The first concerned extensions to the gasworks, the second led to an application to borrow £2,000 for a market.

In August 1900 Leigh Council, then led by Mayor George Shaw, decided to build a new Town Hall at the princely cost of £50,778.

At the November meeting it was announced Lord Lilford had given a site on The Avenue for a town infirmary; the following month came the first sitting of the Borough Court.

And in December a gold mayoral chain was presented to the town by George Shaw's relatives; in March the following year the ladies of Leigh presented a gold and jewelled chain of office for the mayoress. Exciting times lay ahead.

May 1901 . . . and the council decided to increase rates by sixpence to three shillings and sixpence in the pound!

The Church Street Gardens were opened on June 1 of that year. 1902: Turkish Baths were opened on February 27; the first trial run of trams through Leigh came on September 25.

1903: Sir Robert Ball opened the Marsh Gymnasium on February 3.

1904: The council decided on June 24 to build a municipal school in Windermere Road; the foundation stone for the Town Hall was laid on October 24 by Mayor Henry Cowburn.

1906: The South Lancashire Tramways Company tested motor buses in Leigh on February 10, a month ahead of the first service between Westleigh St Paul's and Leigh Cemetery; Mayor Thomas Greenough laid the foundation stone of Leigh's first Council School, which was opened on June 25 of the following year; Leigh Infirmary was opened by the mayor, William Smith, on October 27.

1913: A council proposal to borrow £23,556 for 120 municipal cottages led to a local government inquiry on December 19, and at the next meeting of the Town Council the mayor, Joseph Ashworth, announced that Lord Lilford had given Leigh a 38-acre park, mainly comprising Bedford Wood.

1914: Unemployment was rife and soon after the declaration of war the council formed a committee to deal with distress, later discussing relief works for the unemployed.

1918: The council was told of the gift of £10,000 by Mr R T Marsh for the public baths.

1919: The council accepted gifts of Fits Park and Pennington Hall, the hall grounds being reopened to the public on March 25 1921.

1921: The Corporation bus garage in Windermere Road was opened; the Girls Grammar School, built at a cost of £20,000, was opened on November 11; a new fire engine was christened by the Mayoress (Mrs George Holden); the council voted against Sunday games in the town parks.

1922: The first of six new Corporation motor buses came into service on April 3; a month later Firs Park bowling green and lake were opened.

1923: Borough librarian W D Pink gave 5,000 volumes for reference purposes to the Free Library.

1924: Miss Marsh agreed to meet the extra cost of £5,000 for the new baths, that in addition to the £10,000 given by her brother, the late R T Marsh; new wards and a Nurses Home costing £30,000 were opened at Leigh Infirmary, free of debt again thanks to the generosity of benefactor Miss Marsh.

1927: The new baths were opened on May 28; the council sanctioned £700 for adapting Pennington Hall as a museum and art gallery, and it was opened on June 9 the following year. 1928: Miss Marsh made a gift of £880 for dressing rooms at the Marsh Gymnasium.

1930: The old Town Hall in King Street was opened as a dental clinic; on November 30 a new bus garage, costing £18,000, was opened in Holden Road, and the next day automatic traffic control signals came into use at the Turnpike.

1931: The Town Council decided on February 10 to purchase The Firs for conversion into a maternity home, and it was opened on October 29; the foundation stone for Leigh's first senior council school on Manchester Road was laid on September 30; Miss Marsh's Christmas gift to the town was Westleigh Hall, the site to be used for playing fields.

1932: The senior school on Manchester Road was opened on September 21, and soon afterwards a second senior council school, costing £20,000, was opened in Westleigh.

1935: In July the education committee decided that in future women teachers should resign within a year after marriage!

1936: Mayor William Blackshaw opened new workshops, stores and testing rooms in Charles Street for the Corporation's electricity department; a suggestion from the council for a new library and civic centre, costing about £100,000, was mooted in March, but left in abeyance.

The winds of war were wafting around Europe.

In Spain blood was already being spilled as gunfire echoed around the mountains in the afternoon sunshine; in Germany the Berlin Olympics were overshadowed by the growing menace of the madman Hitler.

Three years later, on a balmy Sunday in September, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain made his crackling radio broadcast to a stunned nation. Britain was at war with Germany.

Peaceful development in Leigh and throughout the UK was temporarily suspended.

Our picture shows Alderman Harry Speakman and his wife leaving for Buckingham Palace, wher he was knighted in the earely years of the century

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