HEADLINES today told of a gang of dog snatchers who were impersonating RSPCA officials and operating in the Burnley area.

People were warned to take special care of their pets by secretary of the Burnley auxiliary of the organisation Angela Hallam-Baker.

Society officials believed that the dogs were being taken from the streets to be sold for scientific experiments.

Alsation type dogs had also disappeared and it was believed they were being trained as guard dogs and sold for £50 each.

Mrs Hallam-Baker said: “Quite recently, some-one approached me and said how glad they were that the RSPCA were going round the town picking up stray dogs off the streets.

“Men in uniforms had been seen taking animals away and I was shocked because the society does not do this.”

Three pedigree Labradors had also disappeared on one day from the Foulridge area.

Celebrating on this day in the pub with his family was the Burnley man who had won more than £95,000 on Littlewoods pools.

Michael Waite, formerly of Todmorden, who had moved into the Stoneyholme area, two years earlier, had collected his cheque from pools’ officials at Barclays in Manchester Road, and immediately gone to celebrate with a pint.

Winning his treble chance with just a 45p stake, he had already finished his job as a railway painter.

Our front page picture today showed Rossendale company chief Gerald Rothwell and his wife Mary, who were to take part in the London to Brighton veteran car run.

The boss of G H Taylor in Waterfoot, mill furnishers and engineering suppliers, Gerald was planning to make the trip in a 1901 Cudell de Dion Bouton, known as a Voiturette, thought to be the only one of its kind in working order.

It was driven by an engine with a capacity little bigger than the motor mower he used to cut the lawns at his home in Hoghton.

He had started his yesteryear rallying with a three litre Bentley, one of 100 built before W O Bentley’s firm was taken over by Rolls Royce, which shared pride of place next to an 18 horsepower Argyll from the Edwardian era.