LEIGH is a town of different things to different people.

To some it was until recently a classic mill town with chimneys everywhere, to others a coal-mining town, although the mines have now gone forever.

To farmers the world over it was the home of Albion reapers and other agricultural machinery. It has been famous for silk weaving and the dairy farming that produced the Leigh cheese.

It has a place in the history of canals and a cultural history going back to the early days of theatre.

To most "Leythers" the town has a distinct atmosphere of togetherness. Despite a population of nearly 50,000 people there is a village feeling to the place.

Streets of terraced houses and small shops extend to the town centre. In 1974 Leigh became part of the present Wigan Metropolitan Borough, but succeeds in preserving its own historical and cultural identity.

That identity radiates from the images in a new book of images 'Around Leigh' by local historians Tony Ashcroft and Nicholas Webb.

PIctures from the Wigan Heritage Service collection show: civic pride and dignitaries, public amenities such as St Mary's Gardens, the Baths and even a soup kitchen for hungry children during the 1926 General Strike, the thriving market with its well known faces - Bob Rudd, Hilda Jones and Albert Green, "Son of Fish Lil", Manfredi's ice cream, Collier's "Duva" Bakery, William Brown, blinded when 21 but nevertheless busily employed making chairs, as a knocker-up and as the last town crier, weavers, work shops, mills and looms, Walking Day processions, Bullock Roasting on Westleigh Heath to celebrate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, The Mauviemaids, Hezekiah Close, the herbalist Charles Clement Abbott, and Anchor Cable.

One chapter is dedicated to Frederick Wynne, doctor, playwright and photographer whose lantern slides are the source of the prints in this section.

The book has been compiled using over 200 old photographs, most never seen before in print, that capture the spirit of the town, showing people at work and play, in public and in private.

Around Leigh - The Archive Photographs Series is priced £8.99 and available from March 11.

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