Rewind...June 2-7 1969: Youth had something to say

The consequences, many years down the line, included a staple of the ‘dad-rock’ music genre and countless atrocities committed in the name of karaoke.

Yes, it was the summer of ‘69.

A few dozen miles up the space where the M4 would eventually be, the Beatles were recording Abbey Road, the Woodstock music festival was being planned in New York State and young people all over the world were being asked for their thoughts on drugs, sex, war and just about anything else imaginable.

In Swindon, as with many other smaller communities in those days, opportunities to turn on, tune in and drop out were a bit limited. That’s why a group of young people here found themselves being interviewed about the borough planning strategy.

To be fair, they had some interesting things to say.

Our ‘down with the kids’ vox pop was prompted by the announcement that building would go ahead on the 800 acres of South Dorcan.

We wrote: “In less than five years South Dorcan, which became part of the borough two months ago, should be established as a flourishing community.

“The total resident population will top the 11,000 mark.”

The young people we spoke to included Denise Miller, 16, who worked at The In-Scene Boutique in Regent Street, which we’d love to see photos of if any reader has some.

She said: “I don’t really take a lot of interest in these plans, but I think it’s a good idea.

“At the moment Swindon is a bit of a dump, there are no real quality discotheques, not enough big stores and a limited selection of goods.

“If I thought that expansion would mean improvements of this sort, then perhaps I’d take a bit more interest.”

A rather less charitable view came from 17-year-old Heather Simmons of Walcot: “I’m not interested in expansion because I know it won’t work.

“They’re silly even to hope that there’ll ever be a big town.

“I’m getting out of here in two years’ time to go to college, and I’m not coming back – except to see my parents.

“You can’t change the atmosphere of the place, nor the type of people who live here.”

Rick Wheatley, 16, of Eastcott Hill, said of the expansion: “it’s a bit drastic here in Swindon at the moment, but of course there’s no guarantee that it would improve as the town got bigger.

“Anyway, by the time anything does happen we’ll be too old to enjoy it.”

The week also saw us send a reporter and photographer to Greece in search of former Swindon Labour MP Francis Noel-Baker, who had resigned his seat that March, months after announcing his plans to do so.

Mr Noel Baker had gone to tend his family’s 2,000-acre estate on the island of Euboea – in fact, he’d been criticised for spending much of his final year or so as Swindon’s MP in Greece.

Our reporter described the 49-year-old former politician, who would live for another 40 years, as being “...as cool as a cucumber.”

He insisted that the health problems he’d cited on announcing his resignation back in 1968 were real, and added: “I underwent a period of rest and convalescence in Austria and during this time various inaccurate and malicious stories were published by newspapers who pestered me and my family.”

Of his departure from politics, he said: “I feel like a boy let out of school.”

No year in the life of any regional newspaper is complete without a summer story about chest-high grass on a verge, and in 1969 our tale was of Donnington Grove in The Lawns.

These days all is shipshape there, but 45 years ago it was a jungle.

Residents raised a 16-signature petition, only to be told by the old Swindon Council that the grass was cut regularly – twice a year.

Another type of story familiar to Swindon Advertiser readers involves campaigns to raise cash for medical facilities, so local patients won’t face gruelling journeys for treatment.

In 1969 Swindon Trades Council said it would try to raise the £1,200 needed to install a kidney machine at Princess Margaret Hospital.

A consultant who was called Mr Paul Denton had told a meeting at the hospital that patients were currently forced to go to Oxford or Bristol, and that there was no reason why Swindon should not have its own machine.

In fact, it was to be about 30 years until Swindon had its own machines, following an Adver campaign.

Another feature we ran that week was a picture-heavy one about the new Swindon Police HQ in Princes Street, whose site is now part of the massive town centre improvement project.

The photos included one of a giant recording machine like something from Star Trek, and one showing recording machines for police reports.

These seemed to use wax discs the size of old LPs – can a former police officer of that vintage enlighten us?

IN OTHER NEWS...

MONDAY, JUNE 2, 1969: “A QUIET lyrical film that took 10 years to make carried off two of the three major awards on Saturday at Swindon Film Unit’s festival. The festival, at the Arts Centre, was organised by the film unit and attracted a record number of entries. The Swindon Trophy for the best all-round film and the Wyon Cup for the best photography we won by Mr Bill Andrews of Christchurch, near Bournemouth, with his entry entitled Do the Trees Remember? The film was a study of the seasons, culminating in autumn with the trees shedding their leaves.”
TUESDAY, JUNE 3, 1969: “A planning application to convert the ground floor of a semi-detached house at The Pitchens into a launderette has been refused by Wiltshire County Council. The county council’s planning executive sub-committee have decided that, although there is no objection in principle to a launderette in Wroughton, the site proposed is not suitable. It would be situated away from other shops in Wroughton and would be inconvenient for members of the public to use.”
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 1969: “THREE Swindon husbands and their wives got a hint of how much they knew each other when they appeared on the Harlech Television quiz programme Mr and Mrs last night. The three contesting couples were newly-weds Ross and Janey Wheeler, of Whitworth Road, long-distance lorry driver Tom Munday and his wife, Dawn, of Wheeler Avenue, married for 13 years, and Ted and Gwendoline Bray, of Rodbourne Road, who were married 21 years ago. None of the couples won the jackpot, which rose to £90 during the programme, but they all went home with some cash – £5 for each question answered correctly about their partner.”
THURSDAY, JUNE 5, 1969: “CONCORDE 002 was cleared yesterday to visit the Paris International Air show at the weekend. During a flight lasting 1hr 40mins from RAF Fairford, an Air Registration Board Pilot travelled on 002 to see if the aeroplane could be cleared to visit the airshow. The British Concorde prototype is expected to make an appearance with its sister aircraft 001 on both Saturday and Sunday.”
FRIDAY, JUNE 6, 1969: “THE shilling we slip into a jukebox or offer for a bus ride across Swindon could buy a week’s essential food for one child in another part of the world. ‘Let no-one belittle the shillings and the sixpences,’ said Mr William Crockett, Oxfam’s regional organiser for Wiltshire and Dorset, speaking to voluntary workers for the organisation in Swindon last night. He was encouraging the expansion of the Oxfam Pledged Gifts Scheme at a meeting at the Vicarage in Bath Road.”