Monday, November 21

1950: At the height of the storm the main street in Wanborough near Swindon was a raging torrent, described by one villager as unsafe to cross. Traffic had to be discarded. About a mile away a woman had to abandon her car on the Upper Wanborough Road. Later a milk lorry was also stranded. Outside Moorleaze Farm the street flooded to a depth of up to four feet and, at the farm itself, a bull was standing in water up to its stomach.

1960: The BBC is beginning tests on two alternate sites in Swindon for a low-power TV station. The Director General of the BBC, Hugh Carleton Greene, told Swindon's Labour MP, Mr F Noel-Baker, in a letter, that the range of the Swindon station would be limited to a mile, but it would improve reception for about 72,000 viewers.

1970: The first major event, run by the Swindon Branch of the British Heart Foundation, was a ball held in the ballroom of the Goddard Arms Hotel. There were 160 there dancing to music from the Pentagon Show Band and watching a cabaret from Bristol group Three's A Crowd. Mayor and Mayoress of Swindon Ald and Mrs John Pass were special guests.

Tuesday, November 22

1950: A large audience attended the police exhibition in Swindon Town Hall, and witnessed a demonstration of how wireless aids the detection of crime. An Evening Advertiser reporter was a passenger in one of the police wireless cars when the 'emergency' call came through from the exhibition at 8.23am. The police car was in Cricklade Street and at 8.25am they were outside the town hall showing how quickly they could respond.

1960: As part of the £9,350 widening scheme being carried out at the top of Victoria Road, Swindon, two pedestrian crossing are being provided. One of the crossings will be from the side of the museum to the other side of Victoria Road, near the traffic lights, and the other will be near the traffic lights on Bath Road. A Ministry of Transport grant will make up 60 per cent of the cost of the widening scheme and the Wiltshire County Council will raise the rest.

1970: A long fight had just come to an end at Marlborough, a fight to get somewhere for the young people to meet. The Marlborough Youth and Activities Centre has now been opened. Scores of people have sat on youth centre development committees and the new building, looking over the Recreation Ground, in Salisbury Road, is the result.

Wednesday, November 23

1950: The almost magical effect of floodlighting has transformed three landmarks of Swindon, the town hall, the war memorial and the parish church. Now, on a rain-swept Monday night the town hall in inspiring and the war memorial rising above the poppy wreaths had a new dimension as it was bathed in the shafts of light.

1950: About 50 Swindon school children who took part in Swindon Schools Musical Association's production of Patience celebrated a successful three-day run with a social and dance at the Drove School. The MC was Frank Armitage, who took the part of the colonel in the play. Co-producer, Mis E S Parker was presented with a compact from the cast.

1960: A Blunsdon woman, who won a pram race in 1923, will be appearing on television, as she is now. The Bristol studios put out a call for the winners of the race at Plymouth to get in touch. The appeal was spotted by the sister of Beatrice Cox of Ermin Street. She contacted them and Beatrice was then invited to appear alongside Johnny Morris on the BBC programme.

1960: Public library members in Swindon have snapped up all 12 copies of Lady Chatterley's Lover by DH Lawrence on the day they arrived in the town. The Borough Librarian Harold Jolliffe said that all the people who reserved the book would find it available as soon as a copy was returned. But in Swindon bookshops it was a story of long waiting lists. The full order of 350 at W H Smith was not expected to be cleared until the end of December.

1970: Actor Jack Watson who goes back and forth to Hollywood for his fifth film, is about to move from his home near Bath in the West Country, where he has lived for the last 21 years. He has bought a 15th century cottage in the picturesque village of Biddestone, after his wife fell in love with it. The cottage is having a £6,000 wing built to accommodate Jack's son and two daughter. He has been filming The Day I Shot Down The Red Baron, a First World War drama where he plays the Red Baron.

1970: One of Andrew Hake's early memories of Swindon is accidently pulling the communication cord in a train near the town. Now as community development officer for Swindon he will still be involved in communication. The Rev Andrew Augustus Gordon Hake took up his new post after coming from the University of Sussex where he was a visiting fellow.

Thursday, November 24

1950: A leaflet advertising an American Fair, which was to be held in Swindon in 1888, has been found by a Bath Road resident in a cranny in her fireplace. The leaflet asked for all housekeepers to bring items such as dish covers, pieces of carpet or matting, and chipped jugs to sell at the fair. It said it would keep the costs low to bring them within the means of the poorest.

1950: Members of the scouts group committee at Stratton St Margaret, Swindon, are making ready the new headquarters, a converted Army hut at Kingsdown. Members are undertaking painting and decorating while the women stand by with buckets and scrubbing brushes ready to supply the finishing touch.

1960: Ninety-three years ago a Brinkworth farmer, Thomas Richens, wrote a letter to posterity. He put the letter in a small corked bottle together with a copy of the local newspaper, pages from a hymn book, and a few grains of corn. Then he tucked it in the rafters of Church Farm, Brinkworth. Workmen renovating the 400-year-old farm discovered the bottle. The letter was a snapshot of life on the farm and the problems encountered because of the weather or disease.

1960: The people of Highworth will soon learn more of their own history thanks to the work of an American curate, Dr Harold Bassage, who is spending two years as curate of St Michael's Church. He has written a four-page history of the church and 2,000 copies will be distributed to the parishioners. Dr Bassage came from Missouri, and his history traces the story of the church from its beginnings including a tale of the church ghost.

1970: A home film service being operated by Wootton Bassett Church is enabling many parishioners to see religious films in their own homes and in the company of friends and neighbours. The scheme run by the Vicar The Rev John Biddlescombe provides modern, automatic projector, high quality films.

1970: Swindon Town Football Club are on the hunt for a new chief scout at the County Ground. There hasn't been a chief scout since Jack Conley resigned in 1969. Mr R J Jefferies, club secretary, said it was further move to intensify the club's youth policy.

Friday November 25

1950: Mr C Willmot of Akers Way, Swindon has received a letter from Princess Elizabeth's private secretary. It said the princess thanks Mr and Mrs Willmott for showing her round their home and said how much she enjoyed meeting them and their children, 1950: Miss Yvonne Towers of Chalbury Drive has been presented with ten guineas as first prize in a glamour girl competition run by Reynolds News for employees of Co-op Societies. She will compete in London in the national finals. The runner up Miss Betty Riddle was presented with two guineas by the retiring president of the new Swindon Co-op Society Mr C Thompson at a dance. The competition was judged by Richard Attenborough and Joan Greenward from photographs.

1960: Swindon Corporation's already fine collection of silver plate received glittering new additions, a silver salver measuring almost 2ft in diameter and weighing many pounds, and a pair of silver twin candelabra. They are gifts from Swindon industrialists and builders to mark jubilee year. The silver was presented to the corporation at a ceremony in the town hall.

1960: Members of the Swindon Camera Club met at Drove Road School, Swindon, for their monthly competition. There were 40 entries in the Attention To Light competition and Mr M J Penny presided as the judging was conducted by club members. Roy Selwood won the open class for monochrome prints.

1970: A £4,900 bus, adapted for use by handicapped people and paid for by the voluntary work of many Swindonians, was dedicated at the Whitbourne House Centre for the handicapped. A small congregation in wheelchairs, invalid carriages and on sticks attended the service in the sunshine beside the new bus. It was dedicated by Father R Toomey.

1970: Overcrowding is so bad at Lechlade Primary School that 34 children are having lessons in the corridor. Alarmed fire experts have condemned the corridor classrooms. Headmaster Eric Smart fears that he may not be able to take any more pupils. The answer is a £25,000 extension plan that includes two new classrooms and a hall.

Saturday, November 26

1950: Five boy scouts from Swindon went by train to London where they received their King's Scout certificate from Viscount Mountbatten of Burma at a ceremony at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich. The boys were Michael Crompton of Ipswich Street, Douglas Allen of Norman Road, Patrick Coslett of Northern Road, Ken Goddard of Wiltshire Avenue and William Bryant from Lyneham.

1950: The complete film of Swindon's Jubilee Year celebrations, made by the town's film unit, is now being edited and will be ready in the New Year. It will have a run at the Arts Centre and the four amateur cameramen who filmed the princess' visit will form the finale of the film with some delightful close-ups of Princess Elizabeth already seen in the rushes.

1960: A bazaar which lasted two days at Russell Memorial Methodist Church, Swindon raised more than £134 for church funds. The total included more than £5 that was collected in halfpennies by the Sunday School children. The bazaar ended with a concert and ballet show organised by Miss Sandra Tanner.

1970: About 250 people danced to the music of the Gordon Talbot's Orchestra at Swindon International Friendship League's annual People to People Week's dance at McIlroys. Special guests included the mayor of Swindon Coun Miss E C M Millin.

1970: Ald Mrs Margaret Leckie presented prizes at the Lawn Junior School, Swindon and said she was one of the few educationalists left who believe that prizegivings are worthwhile. She said that those who work hard deserve to be awarded prizes. The sports awards and trophies were presented by the Rev R Loxley.

1970: More than 2,000 Garrard workers voted to accept a £3 pay offer. They also accepted a minimum job evaluation rate of 15 shillings and they will receive their pay rise with back pay. The dawn meeting at the County Ground car park was a report back by union negotiators after two-day talks with the management.