Monday, January 11

1949: Regimental Sgt Major, William T Hatton, from Ledbury Road, Marlborough, is serving with the RASC, Water Transport Company in Singapore. He is in charge of a tank landing craft, which has several times been involved in operations along the Malay coast, landing police and infantry to take part in offensives to sweep through the jungle in search of bandit hideouts.

1959: The two-day search of a petrol leak, which threatens Faringdon, may be solved. A well containing 50 gallons of petrol has been unearthed. The well, which is 15ft deep, was discovered by workmen digging at the side of the Swan Hotel, Bromsgrove, where petrol is flowing into the cellars. Work has started pumping petrol out of the well.

1979: Garrard, the Swindon-based hi fi company, are now recruiting - only weeks after making 1,250 workers redundant. About 15 youngsters are being taken on and trained for full time jobs in the motor assembly section in Newcastle Street. The move has angered former Garrard workers, who furiously condemn the company.

Tuesday, January 12

1949: Those babies born in Swindon on November 14 1948, the same day as Prince Charles, are eligible to receive gift parcels, from Princess Elizabeth. All the information about the parcels and how to apply for them can be found at the Advice Bureau in Swindon.

1959: Nearly 100 children of Wroughton Conservative Association members enjoyed a party at the Ellendune Hall. The children, aged between three and 12 years, saw a film show, had tea and played games.

1979: Judith Bede, one of Mollie Tanner's former pupils, who lived at Lennox Drive, Swindon, is one of three girls chosen to appear in the Muhammed Ali Show at the London Palladium this week.

Wednesday, January 13

1949: Clothes-hungry flocks of women left their house-work early, on a trek to Swindon's Regent Street, where Messrs Morse's annual sale opened. Manager Mr H Hornsby described it as: The biggest rush in the firm's history. Determined to buy a fur coat, Mrs Butler of Bright Street, started the queue at 11pm last night. She got her coat.

1959: Swindon's Richard Jefferies Society had its first meeting in the new Highworth Rural Council chamber. From its formation, the society has met, free of charge, in the council chamber, as a mark of the council's interest in Richard Jefferies. At the meeting Paul Casimir said there was a need for a new critical biography of the writer.

1979: Swindon now faces a major jobs disaster as the lorry drivers strike bites even harder. At Pressed Steel Fisher more than 5,000 employees could be thrown out of work, and the pickets stranglehold threatens hefty lay-offs at other factories.

Thursday January 14

1949: Thirty-eight locomotives of Castle Hall and 2-8-0 Consolidation classes were converted by the GWR to oil burning as a means of saving coal. Now under Government ownership they are in the process of being reconverted to burn coal because of the shortage of oil.

1959: In the last four years nearly 100 Polish families from refugee camps have been given houses by Swindon Corporation. Sir Geoffrey Hutchinson called on the Mayor of Swindon Ald F J King to say: Thanks. Many of the Polish men are already employed by the Corporation, and qualified in the normal way under the expansion scheme.

1979: A young Stratton St Margaret girl was spellbound when she found herself the guest of The Magic Circle. Katherine Cousins of Grange Drive, Swindon, enjoyed her day of magic and mystery as winner of a competition run by Look and Learn magazine and the Magic Circle. She met children's writer Peter Eldin and watched the Magic Circle Show at the Collegiate Theatre, before meeting the stars.

Friday, January 15

1949: About 60 attended the first social and dance organised by the Swindon branch of the Labour League of Youth in the East Street Co-operative Hall, Swindon. Entertainment involved dancing games, competitions, community singing and a solo item by Mr Cox.

1959: Gorse Hill Community Centre panto, Jack and the Beanstalk, received good wishes all the way from Port Elizabeth, South Africa, where a theatre was producing the same panto, with singer Anne Zegler, leading the cast. The prompter of that show, Nanette Walker, recently stayed in Gorse Hill with friends, and upon her return she sent good wishes, plus the programme of the South African panto, signed by Anne Zegler.

1979: Stephanie Thompson, 20, of Lilac Tree Court, Pinehurst, has been awarded a Rotary Foundation Graduate Fellowship. She will take up her award in September when she will start a year's post graduate study at the University of Victoria in Canada.

Saturday, January 16

1949: Santa Claus was heralded by bagpipes at a children's party, organised by the 651 Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment RA (TA), held in the Prospect Hill Drill Hall, in Swindon. The piper was Mr C Harvey Webb. The air pistol range for older children was the highlight of the party.

1959: Since the amalgamation of the three Swindon churches, Swindon Methodist Church Circuits, the Bath Road, Prospect Place and Regent Circus Circuit, in 1955, the Swindon development programme has progressed tremendously. Now negotiations have begun to buy a site on the south side of Moredon Road, to build a new church uniting Moredon, Haydon Wick and Rodbourne Cheney.

1979: The work of early New Year blizzards in Wiltshire will cost the County Council more than £200,000 almost half the total spent during the whole of last winter. The blizzards lasted eight days involving 400 men, 240 special salting, snow clearing vehicles and equipment.