Bolton

This collection of the newspaper reports of some of the town’s most shocking Victorian and Edwardian murders will transport the reader back to a time where horse-drawn carriages clattered through the streets of Bolton, and the town’s gin palaces and music halls teemed with thieves, drunkards and fallen women. In an age where the gap between rich and poor was enormous, crime was understandably rife – and the penalties for it dreadful.

In this book, the reader may walk through the vanished streets where shady characters lurked, or join the crowds outside the walls of the prison and watch the flag, ‘as dreadful in its significance as it was black in hue’, rise slowly to the top of the mast.

These reports, reproduced as they first appeared and richly illustrated with archive photographs and sketches, will amaze residents, visitors and historians alike.