10 years ago

POLICE uncovered a massive car theft ring thanks to a state-of-the-art tracking device.

More than £80,000 of dismantled vehicles were discovered in the Blackburn lock-up garage after officers traced a car stolen in Merseyside using the tracker.

The Vauxhall Calibra's high-tech transmitter led police to the garage where the dismantled car was found among hundreds of other parts.

25 years ago

DISTURBING new evidence of black magic practices in East Lancashire was unearthed after a Clitheroe shopkeeper admitted she had been inundated with requests for occult items.

Betty Pinch, who ran Witchcraft souvenir shop, said customers often asked for incense, Tarot cards and ouija boards. Two months earlier local clergy warned against dabbling in the occult after a blood-stained cloth was discovered at St Michael's Church in Whitewell in the Hodder Valley.

50 years ago

A ROW erupted between Blackburn residents and councillors over the spelling of a new road sign. Residents in Cut Lane, Rishton, opposed the new sign, saying they had spelled it Cutt Lane for years.

But thorough investigation by two Rishton councillors found there was no evidence of it ever being spelled like that throughout history and the sign stayed.