ALTHOUGH this photograph was taken in Deane it could well have been of many areas around Bolton in the early 1960s as the traditional mill terraces came down.

Taken in the Gate Street area in 1962, clearance is well underway but you can make out the back yards of all the houses complete with what would have originally been their outside toilets.

Defiantly Croal Mill which once gave employment to those who lived in these houses stands firm as though resisting the march of progress. In some ways it did, continuing to operate as a spinning mill until 1967 and then as a distribution centre for mail order giants Littlewoods until 2005.