A VERY important member of the building team on Blackburn housing estate, back in the mid sixties, was four-year-old Paul Bolton.

He even had his own spade and barrow, as well as an enamelled tea-can for his brew-ups.

It had all begun the previous Christmas when his dad, Joe Bolton, who was building bungalows in East Lancashire Road, Brownhill, asked his small son what gift he would like from Santa.

Paul thought for a moment and then told him: "I want a pair of yellow boots, just like the workmen on the bungalows."

It was a tough task for his dad to find very small sized leather boots - the shops in Blackburn couldn't help - but after hunting across the north west, Paul finally managed to locate a pair.

After that Paul joined his father on site and was soon accepted by the workmen and when he took his own can for brew time, he immediately became a fully paid up member of the team.

Paul told the Telegraph back in 1967: "Between jobs he finds time to hunt about for bits of scrap metal and one day when he had a little heap, he was heard to mutter to himself 'that's for my holidays'.

"Afterwards he did take the metal to a scrap merchant, but rather than save it for his holidays, he blew it all in the nearest sweet shop."

Paul had his own little hammer, pincers and nail box and dad couldn't put his hand on any of his tools, he always knew where to find them!"

At the time Joe was standing as a Conservative candidate for St John's ward in the forthcoming municipal elections.