Looking Back: Bolton's original electric vehicles seen on St Helens Road

Taken in March 1950, this was St Helens Road at Daubhill looking towards the town centre.

The double decker was one of a fleet of trolleybuses, this one operating on the Bolton to Leigh route. The buses were powered using overhead wires making them early examples of electric vehicles which are a hot topic today.

Trolleybuses were replaced by a diesel fleet in Bolton in 1958.

The street sign you can see on the left is for Blackledge Street. And you can see workmen laying flags in front of the terraced properties flanking St Helens Road.

Source

My Aunty was living in Blackledge Street at the time this picture was taken and I'm pretty sure my mam was even born in Blackledge Street if I remember correctly.

The street sign on the picture is on the side of the Oddfellows Arms pub.



Seems the pub didn't re-open following the Covid lockdowns.

The name of the pub might seem a strange one to many no doubt but in fact there is a long history behind it, being something like the freemasonry or the Order of the Buffaloes - a men's 'membership' club so to speak.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odd_Fellows

As a little boy taken to visit my Aunt (in fact she was my mam's Aunt, making her my Great Aunt) I well remember my dad often going for a 'swift half' in the 'Oddies' leaving my mam and aunty to babysit me.

Happy days, long gone now...