JOIN the Bury Times as we travel back 50 years to the headlines on May 10, 1969, when the Tories' most successful polling day ever, a death trap wall and rescheduled horse races were the talk of the town. BRAD MARSHALL takes a look back in the archives...

BURY Conservatives staged their most spectacular polling day victory on Thursday when they made a clean sweep of all 16 seats in the town council elections.

Four Labour councillors toppled to them, and they also snapped up three newly created seats in Unsworth.

The Party is now in its strongest ever position on the Town Council, holding 42 of the 47 seats, thanks to a hattrick of successes in the last three elections.

Labour are left with only three representatives, two of them aldermen.

The Liberals have one and there is one Independent.

Labour fared even worse at Radcliffe losing five seats to the Conservatives, leaving the Tories to take control there.

Again there was a rockbottom poll in Bury with a turn out of only slightly more than a third of electors.

There Conservatives romped home in all wards and for the second year running and captured both Labour-held seats in East Ward ­— for years a Socialist stronghold.

But their greatest triumph of the day came in Unsworth where they not only unseated the sitting Labour councillor, but took firm command of the three additional seats which give the ward six-councillor status, the same as the town's five other wards.

CHILDREN on the Fairfield estate have a ready made playground, enough to make a health and safety inspectors head spin, when they climb about on a stone wall in Broad Oak Lane.

But their parents are not so pleased, labelling the part demolished wall a "death trap" which is a danger to the youngsters.

The residents of the estate are now getting together about the problem and have considered sending a petition to Bury Corporation asking them to take it down.

Father of seven, Mr Roy Greenhalgh, said: "That none has been hurt as a result of this death trap is a miracle."

His wife, Mrs Dorothy Greenhalgh, added that the wall had been partly knocked down to allow vehicles to get on to the field behind for gymkhanas held each month.

If the wall were completely knocked down, the residents would have a much better view in the summer months, she said, adding: "With that stone wall it is like being in a prison.

Other parents have also raised concerns about the threat of children being run over if they dash out into the roadway while playing on the wall.

A spokesman for Bury Town Hall said the wall belonged to the Corporation, and that demolition was being considered.

OPTIMISM has replaced the utter despondency following the rain-ruined Holcombe Hunt Races, cancelled a fortnight ago, as feverish work on the rearranged event nears completion.

There is in an enlarged entry for the race day to be cheery about, with almost all the original entries put in again alongside several new ones.

The races were washed out last month after a two-hour lunchtime deluge left parts of the course under inches of water.

With just 45 minutes to go before the first scheduled race officials called the event off, much to the upset of thousands of rain-coated spectators.

The rescheduled races are set to take place next weekend.

All the races need now is more fortunate weather and packed out crowds to be a runaway success ­— however they will be competing for attendees with the Rugby League Cup Final and Ramsbottom Carnival.