The Oldham Evening Chronicle is getting ready to mark its 150th birthday with a month-long series of celebrations.

An exhibition, roadshow, special supplement and staff party will all form part of the festivities as the paper commemorates 150 years as The Voice of Oldham.

The first issue of the title – which was then a weekly paper – hit the streets on May 6, 1854, and a special birthday Chronicle and supplement is planned next week to mark the occasion.

The paper is also hosting a special roadshow in the town centre on May 6, with a band, magician and give-aways, as well as a birthday cake which will be cut by the mayor of Oldham, Val Sedgwick.

An exhibition, charting 150 years of the Chronicle, is also being held next month at Gallery Oldham on Union Street, giving visitors an insight into how the paper and the town have changed over the years.

And following a civic opening on May 7, the exhibition will be open to the public from May 8 to 22.

Staff at the Chronicle will also have their own evening of celebrations at a party held at the Pennine Way Hotel on May 8 – and readers can get in on the act as the paper launches the Birthday Present Game, with a month-long series of prizes to be won.