JOIN the Bury Times as we travel back 50 years to the headlines on May 17, 1969, when paper works plans, dashed gardens, twice cancelled races and two little boys' quiet adventure were the talk of the town. BRAD MARSHALL takes a look back in the archives...

A LARGE paper firm is considering plans to move to the borough and now awaits the outcome of panning talks.

Officials from J and J Maybank Ltd are currently involved in negotiations to take over the 35-acre ex-RAF Maintenance Unit site in Pilsworth, owned by the Ministry of Defence.

An application has already been made by the company for planning permission to use the site for warehousing, cleansing, sorting, grading and press-packing waste paper.

However, Bury Town Planning Committee has deferred making a decision until it has examined the proposals in more detail.

MR PERCY WARBURTON takes a break after a short gardening stint at his home in Bolton Road West ­— but he may soon lose the ornamental stream he has created, and the shrubs and flowers he has cultivated for more than 30 years.

This week a compulsory purchase order of the 74-year-old's home was published by the Land Commission, and if it goes through he will lose a third of his garden to an an access route for a proposed housing development.

Mr Warburton, a widowers and former principal of Bury School of Arts and Crafts is not taking the order lying down, and has contacted a solicitor to fight the proposals.

Gardening has been a lifetime's hobby for Mr Warburton, a close friend of Lancashire artist LS Lowery.

He said: "They say an Englishman's home is his castle, well it's about time I got the drawbridge up.

"It's scandalous that they should try to take away my land like this."

AFTER being trapped in a disused building and rescued by firemen, quiet adventurer eight-year-old James Birtwistle simply went on his way home from school.

Although looking a little worse for wear, he sat down to tea on Wednesday evening, and never even told his mother of his escapade.

He and his friend, seven-year-old Graham Bell had climbed into the disused Porritts and Spencer building at Mossfield Mill, Bury, through a hole in the roof.

However, Graham got so frightened and could not climb out.

Luckily someone heard the boys and called the fire brigade, who used a ladder to carry them to safety unhurt.

When the Bury Times called at James' home his mother, Mrs Ann Birtwistle, did not know about her son's adventure.

She said: He was as black as the ace of spades when he came home from school. But he never said anything."

THE rearranged Holcombe Hunt point-to-point races have again been called off at the eleventh hour due to the waterlogged and unridable state of the Nab Gate course.

The cancellations are the first in the event's 49-year history, and come just weeks after initial date had to be called off due to heavy rain.

Although the meeting was insured the sum will nowhere near cover the cost.

The organisers estimate they will lose around £4,000 from the two cancellations and it has been described as a disaster by race secretary Mrs Babs Cort.