Bolton is a town in Greater Manchester and one of the ten metropolitan boroughs of the county. A former mill town, it rapidly expanded in the 19th century, and at its peak in 1929 had 216 cotton mills in the town. Now the industry has practically ceased in the area. Some 185,000 live in the town itself, whilst the wider metropolitan borough has a population of just under 300,000 people.
Role in Coronation Street[]
In the early 1900s, when Ena Sharples was a little girl, she and her family lived in Bolton for six months as it was the only place that her father could find work.
In July 1963, smooth-talking Neil Crossley moved from Bolton to take over the management of the Weatherfield branch of Gamma Garments which was located in Rosamund Street. He was followed soon afterwards by Pat Lynch, an ex-girlfriend who, back in Bolton, had been seduced away from her fiancé by Neil and who had also sponged from her the considerable sum of £15.
In September 1972, the street residents went on a coach trip to the Preston Guild being held that year. Their journey took them through Bolton on the A675 and the Astley Bridge area of the town.
In early 1983, Len Fairclough carried out a job at the home of Marjorie Proctor in Dover Close, Bolton. A recent widow, he comforted her over her loss, and they soon became lovers, even though Len was supposedly happily married to Rita at the time. On 7th December, he was killed when he fell asleep behind the wheel on the motorway when he was driving back from a visit to Mrs Proctor.
In April 1990, Reg Holdsworth transferred store detective Renee Dodds from the Weatherfield branch of Bettabuy to Bolton, keen to get her out of the way as his illicit relationship with her had turned sour, in part due to both of their spouses discovering the affair. The following February, assistant manager Curly Watts used the same tactic to be rid of Kimberley Taylor, his fiancée who he discovered had slept with her second cousin Adrian Gosthorpe, but also to be rid of Kimberley's formidable mother Brenda.
In October 1993, Kevin Webster took wife Sally out for a romantic meal to celebrate their anniversary. Being misled by a garage customer that his Greek restaurant in Bolton was a classy affair, the two dressed up for the event, only to find that the establishment was a glorified kebab shop operating under the name of Burgermania.
In November 1999, Sharon Gaskell and her fiancé Ian Bentley looked round a posh house in Bolton with to a view to living there after they were married. The asking price of £90,000 seemed steep but Ian told her that they could afford it if Sharon sold The Kabin, only recently gifted to her by her old foster mother Rita. She disapproved of Ian as he had had a fling with Natalie Barnes earlier in the year and erupted with rage when she was told of the plan. She bought the shop back for £45,000 and the newly wedded couple moved to Bolton on the proceeds, but with the relationship between Rita and Sharon badly damaged.
In June 2002, Roy Cropper visited the home of Laurence Burford in the town. He was an English Civil War fanatic who hired out replica guns and Roy wanted a musket for a re-enactment of the war that was being held on the Red Rec to mark the Queen’s Golden Jubilee. On the way back to Weatherfield, he blithely popped into a supermarket with the weapon where he was mistaken for an armed robber and arrested by the police, spending the night in the cells and only just being released in time for the re-enactment.
In October 2005, Websters' Auto Centre mechanic Nathan Cooper recognised a customer who had pulled a scam on a garage he had previously worked at in Bolton. There the customer had used an accomplice who pretended to be his son and who took collection of a vehicle for which the work would be paid for later, only for the original customer to claim that he had no son and who then refused to pay the bill. After the same trick was tried at Websters’, fists flew before Nathan made the man settle the bill.
In February 2008 Kelly Crabtree set up an evening sideline of running knicker-selling parties and held one in Bolton but was disheartened when she failed to sell a single pair.
In November 2014, Rob Donovan was on the run after killing Tina McIntyre, a crime for which Peter Barlow was jailed. Guilt-ridden, he confessed the truth to his sister Carla Connor thinking she wouldn’t betray him, but she informed the police who attempted to arrest him at his wedding to Tracy Barlow. He rang Tracy from a phone box in Bolton, saying he was staying at a guest house just outside the town and asked her to bring him some money as his funds were running out. Instead, she betrayed his whereabouts to the police, and he was arrested.
In September 2015, Kevin made a trip to Bolton to pick up a part for the garage, being delighted with a surprise 50th birthday party upon his return. The following March, Billy Mayhew and Eva Price found runaway immigrant Marta Zarek living under a bridge in Bolton. She had been brought to the country from Poland as a modern slave for Underworld clients Richie and Julia O'Driscoll and was desperate to escape her captors and return to her native home. Billy and Eva were attempting to help her, stymied by the problem that the O’Driscolls supposedly held the girl’s passport, and they also had no real evidence to report them to the police. The issue came to a head when Marta was imprisoned in their house again and Billy effected a rescue which culminated in a fight with Richie, the timely intervention of Aidan Connor and the police finally being involved and ferreting out the truth of the matter.
In May 2018, Shona Platt visited Bolton and the premises of Waltham & Son Garage where mechanic Josh Tucker had once worked. He had drugged and raped her husband David after a night out in Manchester, and she was gathering evidence to try and bring him to justice. Although she found a fellow worker who had also been assaulted by Josh, David’s accusation led to no charges, and it was only in the July when Josh tried the same tactic with another man who beat him up so badly that he ended up on a life-support system that any sort of justice was served.
In May 2019, Steve McDonald made an illegal pick-up in a Street Cars cab, as part of an on-going turf war against rival firm GoLucky. His client, an old lady named Celia asked to be taken to Springfield Avenue in Bolton but upon arrival Steve realised that she had dementia and it was her childhood home he had brought her to. He had to clock off for several hours and stay with her at Weatherfield Police Station while the lady’s concerned daughter was located, losing him even more income.
Elaine Jones, Tim Metcalfe’s birth mother, who had abandoned her abusive marriage to Geoff Metcalfe when Tim was a baby, lived at 56 Earlstone Road, Bolton in Bolton. She came out of hiding in July 2020 to help Geoff’s third wife Yasmeen after reading that she was awaiting a trial on a charge of the attempted murder of her husband. After helping Yasmeen be found not guilty, she lived for a period in Weatherfield, but after another disastrous relationship with murderer Stephen Reid, she moved to Scarborough. Before Stephen’s crimes were discovered, and desperate for money, he worked for a matter of days in November 2022 for Six Fellas Takeaway in Bolton, making deliveries on a moped, but quitting after being robbed and crashing his vehicle.
Background[]
Bolton as it appeared in the 1990 title sequence.
- Several shots of Bolton featured in both the programme's 1990 title sequence and on ad bumpers until they were replaced after the advent of wide-screen television in January 2002.
- Two former courthouses in Bolton have been extensively in the programme for trial scenes since 2006. See Weatherfield Crown Court and Weatherfield Magistrates Court for more details.