My mum grew up in Bolton in the 1950s. I find it strange to imagine those early post-war years with rationed food and very tight budgets.
My grandparents did well for themselves and left Bolton to move to Blackburn - seen as a move upwards then, I believe - to run a newspaper shop. Being shop managers was quite an achievement for two people born into poverty: Grandma in a back-to-back two-up, two-down in Bolton (demolished 1934 for being a slum) and Granddad from the toughest neighbourhood of Glasgow tenements.
These evocative black and white photographs published today by the BBC of 1950s Bolton inspire a sense of wonder in me: 60 years on we live in such a different world of technology and plenty, mechanisation and sanitation - would any of the people in the photos even recognise their home town?
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