A regional daily is to publish a Sunday edition this weekend to mark the 150th anniversary of its first ever issue.

The Bolton News will celebrate the milestone with a 48-page souvenir edition focusing on the history of the newspaper from its 1867 launch.

It will feature pieces from all six of the the paper’s surviving editors- Les Gent (1979-86), Chris Walder (1986-92), Andrew Smith (1992-96), Mark Rossiter (1996-2001), Steve Hughes (2001-2008) and the current editor Ian Savage.

It will also highlight the paper’s role in showcasing the work of famous authors such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Thomas Hardy and Robert Louis Stevenson through its ‘fiction bureau.’

There will also be a reproduction of the very first front page, photographs from the archives and headlines from the big local news and sport stories down the years

Ian, who has edited the paper since 2008, said: “It is a momentous occasion to be celebrating 150 years of The Bolton News and I am very proud.

“I am lucky to have a fantastic team working with me and everyone has worked extremely hard to put this commemorative edition together, which for the first time that I can remember will see us publish on a Sunday, which is the actual date of our anniversary.

“I am sure the special edition will be very popular; it is a fitting tribute to a strong, independent newspaper that has been at the heart of its community for a long time.”