A LOOK back at some of the articles published in The Radcliffe Times includes a blaze that ripped through a park pavilion, and the town's annual arts festival on course to be sell-out event.

PART of the pavilion in Coronation Park, Radcliffe, was extensively damaged in a fierce blaze which swept through the building in the early hours of Wednesday morning. It is thought the fire was the work of vandals.

Thirty pairs of bowling woods worth about £10 a pair were destroyed and lay in charred heaps outside the pavilion. The bowling house, where the woods were stored, was gutted, the roof collapsed, and only a shell of brickwork remained.

In the centre part of the pavilion, furniture was destroyed along with plant bulbs and other goods stored there. Mowing machines were badly burned and the roof was fairly badly damaged although it did not collapse.

Luckily a storeroom where a five gallon tin of petrol and a cylinder of calor gas were kept escaped the fire. Fire crews said they could have caused a large explosion if ignited.

A 12-MONTH-OLD mongrel dog had the fright of its life but escaped with only a few scratches when it smashed through a window at its home in Church Street, Radcliffe.

Teddy, who belongs to newsagent Geoffrey Wood was trying to leap on to a window sill when he misjudged the distance and smashed right through a downstairs window on to the pavement outside.

Mr Wood was making a telephone call when the dog ran past him and hurtled through the window at the shop.

He said: “I was afraid that he might have hurt himself and that he might get run over. I chased him and eventually caught him.

“He had a lucky escape and his injuries were confined to a few scratches.”

BEST ever bookings - that was the news as organisers completed arrangements for Radcliffe’s sixth annual arts festival which starts tomorrow.

All available tickets for the two brass band concerts were bought some time ago and near sell-outs are reported for concerts by the Lancashire Youth Orchestra and singer Thomas Round, and the talk on antiques by television personality Arthur Negus.

Borough librarian Frank Sunderland, who is in charge of bookings, said that a small number of seats had been reserved for all performances for sale on the night, including a few for the band concerts.

The organising committee is delighted with the public response so far.