TELE-graf!" "Last Sports!" "Read, all about it!" Remember all the characters who sold newspapers in Blackburn Town centre?

They all had their individual cry - Cassy, Snotty, Tommy, Les Pollard.

Pollard was the king - his pitch was on the "Big Bull" corner. He was well dressed and sold a large variety of publications on two window ledges.

All the others knocked around the streets and pubs till they had sold up, shouting the news - "Beer up a penny!" "Tel-eee-graf!" "Rovers draw at Old Trafford," "Murder in Darwen," "Tel-eee-graf!" "Last Pink!"

What would these old-time paper sellers shout today? Perhaps they would shout these headlines: "Wealthy fraudster released six years early!" "Single mother jailed for no TV licence!" "Top executive gets half a million for two-day week!" "Workers wanted - 80p an hour!"

"Tel-eee-graf!"

MAURICE McHUGH, Marlowe Crescent, Great Harwood.

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