THIS week in 1974 The Exorcist was doing the rounds of Britain.

Local councils had some surprising powers at the time, and Swindon’s was in the process of banishing the pea soup-drenched blockbuster from the borough’s cinemas.

Fortunately the Adver was on hand to make up for the absence with a spooky tale of its own.

“Weird lettering that has all the trappings of the supernatural are mystifying a Swindon man,” we said.

“The ‘message from beyond’ – white lettering against a glowing red panel – came suddenly as Ernest Coram was sitting in the living room at his home in Quarry Road.

“After an hour they disappeared, leaving no trace against the neat blue pattern of his wallpaper.

“The ‘ghost writing’ appeared for long enough to study it and to copy the letters.”

The story became even stranger – but not as strange as it was by the end of the week.

Mr Coram’s reproduction of the message ran: “GO-RG KON DO DO DOM SO SO BO NB SC D F61 700 DO RQ GO DO TO.”

He also noted astrological signs and reported that the glowing red light had since appeared in his bedroom in the shape of a cross.

We ran a follow up two days later, having been contacted by two British Leyland vehicle inspectors who said the message was a code used between insurance assessors.

They translated it as: “George, ring Ron, repeat, Zodiac Triumph two class condition. Bumper offside near boot sound condition. Registration DF 61 and 700. Door rear quarter light good condition. Repeat Roger out.”

The explanation seemed plausible – except for one crucial point. Such messages, the inspectors said, were transmitted by shortwave radio, but Mr Coram insisted that his appeared in the form of letters on a glowing red background on his wall.

He added: “It would have been physically impossible for me to have got pencil and paper and taken down the message from the radio.”

Messages nowhere near as mysterious but every bit as interesting came to light during renovations of the Patriots Arms pub in Chiseldon.

The workers found a note embedded in the plaster, left by men who had performed another renovation 59 years earlier.

It said: “The time of the European War. Opposing armies England, Germany, France – Austria, Russia – Turkey. Plastering done by A Giles; Carpentry done by J Howse; also work done G Curtis and J Tetting. April 24, 1915.”

A larger and older piece of history was undergoing repair at the Swindon workshop of stonemason Ron Packer.

The statue of Father Thames by Italian genius Raffaele Monti had been commissioned 120 years earlier for the grounds of the Crystal Palace, site of the 1851 Great Exhibition.

Many years later it was relocated to Thameshead, where it spent many years falling victim to the weather and vandalism.

Following repairs by Mr Packer it was taken for display at St John’s Lock in Lechlade, where it remains.

Mr Packer told us in 1974 that his work would include the replacement of a missing hand and dealing with severe damage to one foot and the figure’s face.

In the same edition of the paper we carried a front page picture of a man who looked a little like Noel Coward – or would have done had the late and legendary author and songwriter been fond of smoking a long-stemmed clay pipe.

We wrote: “The Cotswold Pipe Club Champion, Mr Neil Ricketts, kept a clay pipe of tobacco alight for 66 min 29 sec in the National Pipe Smokers Championship in London last night.

“This was for three minutes more than the time he clocked up in the area heats held by the Cotswold club.

“He was awarded a £10 cheque and a briar pipe as consolation prize.

“His time was about half that of the eventual champion, who kept one eighth of an ounce of tobacco alight in a clay pipe for 111 min 17 sec.

“It is the second successive year that Mr Ricketts, of Eveleigh Road, Wootton Bassett, has represented the Cotswold Pipe Club in the national final.

“There were 50 other contestants in this, the third annual competition.”

The week also saw the Swindon Advertiser look to the future in a front page story headlined: “Boom…That’s Swindon in 2001.”

We said: “A massive 57 percent population increase is planned for the Swindon area in the next 30 years.

“Experts forecast this huge jump from the 1971 census count of 210,000 to a turn-of-the-century figure of 330,000.

“The news is contained in a report out today from the South West Economic Planning Council.”

Most of the population increase, we added, would take the form of a huge westward expansion of Swindon.

The expansion came, of course, but turned out to be nowhere near as huge as the economic planning council predicted.