JOIN the Bury Times as we travel back 50 years to the headlines on July 4, 1969, when the rescue of four children from a fire, a continuing canteen boycott and a school's springclean were the talk of the town. BRAD MARSHALL takes a look back in the archives...

FOUR children, including four-year-old twins, were carried to safety from a scorching, smoke-filled bedroom when a fire broke out a house in Chesham early yesterday.

As husband and wife Bill and Pat Crawford were sleeping in the front bedroom of their house in Bedford Terrace, they awoke to choking smoke which was coming from under the bed.

Mr Crawford said: "The window burst in and flames spurted from the floor. I tried throwing water in the blaze but it was no use."

While the 29-year-old Mr Crawford rushed next door to phone the police dressed only in his underpants, Mrs Crawford took twins William and Chris, their eight-year-old brother Martin and five-year-old cousin Robert to safety.

Fire crews received a call shortly after 5am and rushed to the scene.

A team of firemen fought the blaze which gutted the the front bedroom and caused hundreds of pounds worth of damage.

The firemen ripped away the floorboards under the bed where the seat of the fire was, but the cause of the fire is unknown.

Mr Crawford added: "We would have choked to death before being burned.

"It's a good job we woke up when we did. Another half an hour and there could well have been a tragedy."

A BOYCOTT of a hospital canteen by 200 nurses is still on after claims that worms and greenfly were found in the food.

Complaints about the bad food have been raised by nurses and student nurses at Bury General Hospital, with one nurse saying she would "rather starve than go in that canteen".

But hospital officials say the complaints are being investigated.

Chairman of the hospital management committee, Colonel Geoffrey Allen, said: "You can rest assured the problem is in capable hands."

ONE of Bury's oldest schools has been given a springclean look.

With nearly 50 years of grime sandblasted from its stone walls, Holy Trinity School stands out as bright as the new buildings springing up around it on The Mosses.

Next month decorators will move in to carry out the second part of the £900 facelift.