June 19, 1968

A CLUB has vowed to carry on despite damaged estimated to run into thousands of pounds resulting from an early morning fire.

Firemen were called to the Bury Railwaymen's Club in Glenmore Street on Sunday, after a passing taxi driver spotted flames rising from the building.

The club's concert room was gutted by the fire, and part of an outside wall was damaged.

The blaze is believed to have been started by a naked light dropped near the building.

LITTLE Nigel Lees went literally head first through the garden gate yesterday and ended up trapped by the wrought iron work.

How the two-year-old got his head between the bars remains a mystery, but firemen were called to the rescue and freed Nigel by prising the bars apart with their bare hands, not needing the cutting equipment sent.

His mother, Mrs Coralie Lees, said: "Nigel had his head trapped for at least 10 minutes, but how it happened I do not know. I was attending to the baby when a neighbour called me. Nigel was very frightened."

After freeing Nigel the firemen bent the bars back into position and neither Nigel nor the gate were any worse for the experience.

UP to 200 workers may lose their jobs at the co-operative Wholesale Society Cabinet Works in Dumers Lane Radcliffe as part of a nationwide plan to overhaul the redevelop the £3.5 million furniture group.

The work's 320 staff were given the news at a meeting at the factory on Wednesday following consultations between management and the unions involved.

All departments will be affected after is was decided that the Radcliffe cabinet factory will now focus on upholstery and bedding.

DISABLED horse riders dazzled the more the 200 spectators gathered to watch them at a special equestrian event on Sunday.

Ponies and their riders came from many parts of Lancashire and Cheshire to take part in the gymkhana at Smethurst Hall Stables in Jericho, organised to introduce friendly competition to the horsemen and women from numerous riding establishments.

Six events were held over the day and girls from the Smethurst stables gave an impressive riding and jumping display during an interval, before rosettes were presented to the talented winners.

MORE than 600 people in Bury have signed up to give blood, bringing the borough's campaign to within sight of the halfway mark of its 1,500 donor target.

Campaign organisers, the Manchester Regional Blood Transfusion Service, have set up their headquarters in a caravan near the open market and posters are being used to drum up support.

Each day four nurses from Bury hospitals will be helping the campaign in a bid to reach meet the annual need of their hospitals — who alone require 3,200 pints of blood each year.