NEWSPAPER stories of industrial unrest were common as the 1970s drew to their close.

Spiralling inflation meant wages didn’t always keep up with the cost of living, and workers and management often clashed.

This week in 1977 Swindon saw one of its most remarkable examples, when a lamination plant boss claimed to have been ordered from his own factory by trade unionists.

Harry Hirst of Linton and Hirst in Stratton St Margaret said a union official had told him: “Leave or I cannot be responsible for your safety.”

He also said other staff had told him: “Give us 20 per cent or we’ll smash you.”

Mr Hirst was so angry that he threatened to close the Swindon plant outright and switch the work to one newly opened in Liege in Belgium.

“I have got to the point where I couldn’t care bloody less,” he said. “I am sick to the back teeth with them.

“There are about half a dozen troublemakers. I want to pin it on the guys responsible. They know who they are and so does everybody else.

“Is it political? I don’t know what they are. Call them a load of bloody fascists if you like. They are wreckers – you can’t describe them any other way.”

He added that once production could be shifted to another location, the Swindon contingent could go to hell.

Fortunately the mood was calmer at an emergency meeting between workers and management later that week. The firm remained in Swindon until 1993 and still exists.

Employment news of a happier kind came from Crowdy’s Hill School, where pupils with learning difficulties were being prepared for the world of work with a special course.

A workshop was set up on the North Star College site for the project, which was headed by teacher Pam Myers and backed by headteacher Cedric Kearsley.

The unit was planned to employ up to 25 pupils and produce items ranging from plastic bags to electronic components.

Mrs Myers said: “Experience can’t be driven home in the classroom. It has to be as close to the real thing as possible.”

Until the recent shrinking of the job market, we said, nine out of 10 Crowdy’s Hill pupils secured work.

The difficulty they often had was in keeping a job, and the new project was intended to arm them with the necessary life skills.

Still in the world of work, there can have been fewer happier people in Swindon than Kate Hurst and Ann Davis, who’d just secured jobs which included a £90,000 world cruise on the QE2.

Kate, of Wood Street, and Ann, of Bath Road, were about to fly to New York.

We said: “After two Caribbean cruises on Cunard’s luxury liner, they will embark on a 90-day world cruise – selling flowers for Swindon florists George Davis and Son.

“For the Wood Street florists have won a unique contract to sell flowers on board the prestige liner.

“Shop owner Mr Ken Davis said he was ‘chuffed’ to win the contract.”

We daresay Kate and Ann felt the same.

The Adver has always liked running local-person-made-good stories, and an opportunity came courtesy of Gilbert O’Sullivan, who did much of his growing up in Swindon.

Although he’d achieved worldwide stardom earlier in the decade with hits such as Clair and Get Down, he never lost track of his roots and regularly visited friends and loved ones in his home town.

He had yet to perform a major gig here, but all that was about to change.

We revealed: “Gilbert O’Sullivan will be playing his first ever concert at Swindon’s Wyvern Theatre in the New Year.

“Pop star Gilbert (real name Raymond) will be playing a charity concert at The Wyvern on Valentine’s Day – February 14 – as part of a nationwide tour.

“Mother May Hartnett of Ham Road, Liddington, said today she was delighted with the Swindon booking.

“She said: ‘It will be nice to have him singing so near home’.”

Mrs Hartnett added that she was also looking forward to seeing him at Christmas.

A somewhat less prominent Swindon celebrity was also on the move, but in another direction entirely.

Dennis Kirkham, who has been mentioned in Rewind before, was a security officer with an increasingly successful sideline as a faith healer and psychic.

He had lately narrowly avoided being evicted from his housing association flat because of the crowds who visited in the hope that their illnesses and even disabilities could be cured.

Many reported that Mr Kirkham had indeed helped them.

His latest project was his most ambitious yet. An American called Randall Berry, millionaire boss of the Marauder Car Company, suffered lasting pain after a motor racing accident.

He had invited Mr Kirkham to stay at his ranch and try to relieve the agony.

Mr Kirkham told us: “I was staggered when he rang. He wants me to heal his knees and legs, which were smashed up in the accident.

“I have told him I will go on the basis of expenses only, and I will also hold a healing session for the people in the nearest town.”