2020 marks the 40th anniversary of the Horwich Advertiser and we want to celebrate! The Advertiser has been faithfully providing Horwich with local news since 1980 and continues to thrive today. In this article, I will be taking you through the last forty years of Horwich history to celebrate the years the Advertiser has been dedicated to local news. From the under 16’s Sunday disco in the eighties to the Commonwealth games in the noughties, take a trip down memory lane to celebrate 40 Years of the Horwich Advertiser.
I spoke with lifelong friends Joanne Lawton and Jill Sherratt, who grew up together in the eighties and they shared with me wonderful memories of their teenage years. Eighties Horwich saw the closure of the Horwich Locomotive Works and the establishment of Horwich Heritage but these friends have very different memories of that decade. I asked about their most significant memories of eighties Horwich and without missing a beat Joanne said “the Sunday disco”. Joanne explained that this disco was held every week at Horwich leisure centre from seven until ten in the evening for under sixteens. She reminisced over the classic eighties music that they danced to, listing Whitney Houston, Madonna, Duran Duran, Michael Jackson, and Bananarama, and added that the DJ would play the music videos on a screen behind him – “that’s how we knew the dances!” Joanne explained with a smile. Jill also shared musical memories, describing the jukebox in the Temperance Bar café that was on Winter Hey Lane. She added to the list of eighties classics with the Thompson Twins, Yazoo, and The Human League.
I asked about what they remember being fashionable in the 1980’s and eighties Horwich more specifically. They once again were able to list memories: leg warmers, “choose life” tops (as famously modelled by Wham!), big, permed hair, electric blue mascara, ra-ra skirts, and neon clothes and jewellery. Joanne also fondly recalled Feretti’s café where her and her friends would go for a hot Vimto and Fox Street Youth Club where you could listen to music, play pool, socialise, and occasionally make popcorn and bake. They also smiled on memories of renting a VHS from Blockbuster, like Pretty in Pink, St. Elmo’s Fire, and The Breakfast Club, and watching the film with a jam toastie. Jill spoke about events they remember from their youth like the Easter fair that took place in Horwich as well as the scavenger hunt that took place the day before the carnival. She explained that shops in Horwich would place an item in their window that they didn’t sell and it was the children’s goal to find the items and fill it out on a map. Joanne recalled the day Live Aid took place. I asked if there were celebrations or events in Horwich to enjoy the event but she responded quite on the contrary: “there was nobody on the streets, everybody was inside watching it!”
The nineties marked a shift in industry and identity in Horwich with both the Bolton Wanderers stadium and Middlebrook retail park opening. This marked the transferal in Horwich’s main industrial income from the historical locomotive works to a retail and sport focus. In 1993, BWFC were promoted to the English Premiership and hence were tasked with improving their Burnden Park stadium or take up residence at a new one. After careful study of the stadium and rebuilding costs, Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council took the decision to build a brand-new state-of-the-art stadium – which we now call the University of Bolton Stadium. Middlebrook and the stadium were built on the land of what was formerly Sefton Fold Farm and items are on display in Horwich Heritage Centre that were found and saved by University of Manchester's Archaeological Unit who spent three weeks on the old farm site before its demolition. The year after Middlebrook opened, the opening of University of Bolton Stadium (then, famously called the Reebok Stadium) followed and was inaugurated on the 1st September 1997, when the first game between Bolton and Everton was played. Horwich also entered into a unique twinning arrangement with Crowborough, East Sussex which marked us as the first pair of towns to sign a town twinning charter!
The turn of the millennium changed our celebration of New Year’s Eve nationally and seemed to bring a decade of celebration to Horwich. Sports in Horwich, especially, was celebrated in 2002 with the new Bolton Arena facilities housing the badminton events with the Commonwealth games that came to Manchester that summer. The outdoor cycling events took place in Rivington, journeying up The Pike and circling around the Upper and Lower reservoirs. The games were hosted in the UK to coincide with the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II and both were celebrated in Horwich with performances and events at the RMI. The celebrations of sport didn’t stop in 2002 as the iconic Spirit of Sport was erected in 2005 to celebrate local, talented individuals who had contributed to Bolton’s thriving sporting life. This stunning piece of public art is approximately thirty metres tall and remains a landmark of Horwich today.
The most recent decade brought some exciting new developments to Horwich including the brilliant new Leisure Centre that opened in 2017. The Centre was not only revamped but rebuilt entirely, which now houses brand new equipment and facilities as well as a bright, open-plan gym. A year earlier, Horwich arts got its own celebration with the Music festival, established in 2016, showcasing a wonderfully varied line-up of musical acts including folk musicians like James Holt and Tori Woof and classical acts Jon Gjylaci and cello duo Cupid’s Bow. But this decade was also a time for thought and remembrance with the centenary anniversary of both the start and end of the First World War. Horwich Heritage commemorated the event by conducting research into the soldiers from Horwich who gave their lives in the Great War. They located where all 258 lived and took a poster to the current residents to honour them and provide thought-provoking and relevant contribution to the event. There were also performances to memorialise the event with the On the Go Theatre Company and music from the RMI Band and Horwich Community Choir.
Here at the Horwich Advertiser we thank all of our readers and celebrate the forty years we have been publishing and we are proud to still be providing the community with local news. We wish, going onwards, to continue contributing to local communities and news.