SMOG made the headlines today, with East Lancashire folk warned to ensure they had masks on during the winter of 1959.

The worst fog of the winter clamped down over the area this morning, mixing with the industrial smoke to create conditions which were harmful to those with bad chests.

And though it thinned slightly during day light hours, experts warned that it would be dense again tonight.

Conditions were so bad that many people in Burnley, where visibility was no more than 15 yards – and similar in Blackburn – tied handkerchiefs round their noses and mouths to act as improvised smog masks.

There was advice to “chesty” folk and the elderly in Blackburn from the Medical Officer Dr V Thierens to stay indoors.

“This sort of stuff will get the old people down,” he declared.

“Though up to now, thankfully, there has been no undue amount of respiratory deaths, but this chesty weather is getting worse.”

Thousands of people were late for work throughout the area, with buses on many routes slowed to a crawl and train services experiencing some difficulties in running to schedule.

Blackburn Rovers who were to travel by road for their First Division game the following day at Wolverhampton changed their travel arrangements to go by rail this afternoon and stay overnight in the Midlands.

In Manchester, the smog turned day into night and engineers were dispatched to turn street lights on by hand as drivers crawled virtually blindfold along the roads.

The Telegraph’s front page image today, showed children from St Stephen’s C of E School, Blackburn, get a helping hand across road from their lollipop man.

Michael Riley, and Nadine Catterall, both 9, were both well wrapped up against the conditions.

In other news we reported that Douglas ‘Jock’ Winton, the Burnley FC full back had been transferred to Aston Villa.

After an approach by Joe Mercer, Winton told Burnley FC manager Harry Potts that he was prepared to make the move.