REPENT: A £1 postal order with a scribbled message was received by The Mall newsagent Alan Booth. The message read: "This £1 for 2 boxes of chocs lifted at Christmas."

Mr Booth said: "It was a real surprise. I hadn't a clue the chocolates had gone. I suppose it partly restores your faith in people's consciences."

GOING, GOING . . . A slice of old Bury, the former Gladstone Liberal Club in Gladstone Street, was in the process of being gobbled up by the bulldozers.

Demolition of the imposing Victorian building, constructed in 1888, began this week after Bury Council decided against renovation.

In its hey-day the club was mainly frequented by radicals who believed that Queen Victoria's court was spending too much money. HERO: Eight-year-old Duncan Holland saved his neighbours' house from severe fire damage while they were out. The youngster was playing football in the back garden of his house at Manchester Road, Bury, when he noticed flames coming from the sitting room of the adjoining house. He ran to tell his father who alerted the fire brigade.

SIEGE: Young cadet nurse Jeanette Hamilton, was held for over two hours at knife-point in her West Drive home in Seedfield. As police and three flat mates waited anxiously, the 16-year-old kept her cool and gradually calmed the attacker before he allowed her to take the knife from his hand. Still in her night dress, she ran downstairs and handed the blade to police officers who rushed up and subdued the man after a brief struggle.