YOUTH culture met convention at a Swindon school this week in 1971, and youth culture came off worse.

We reported: “Four ex-pupils of Headlands School, Swindon, were banned from receiving their A-Level certificates from Swindon MP Mr David Stoddart at the school’s speech day on Friday…because their hair was too long.

“Instead the four, three of whom are at university and one at a polytechnic, had to sit and watch as their friends received the school’s acclaim.

“They collected their certificates when the ceremony was over. The ban was imposed by the headmaster, Mr Thomas Magson, and the boys were ‘inspected’ at the beginning of the evening by the deputy head, Mr D Glover.”

Mr Magson had said in a speech: “Overlong hair is not worn mainly because of its association with less desirable elements in society.”

One of the young men in question, 19-year-old Reading University estate management student Stephen Glover, said this claim was nonsense.

Ironically, David Stoddart had railed against attitudes such as Mr Magson’s in his own speech day address.

“I’m concerned about what is underneath that hair,” he said.

“This is what is important. If you have a person who is sensitive, kind and thinks about other people, isn’t that much better than a person with short hair who is prepared to put his hobnail boots into somebody?”

The following day the school governors took the rare step of publicly announcing that they had been completely in the dark regarding the headmaster’s conduct, and had launched an investigation.

Headlands featured in two other stories that week, neither of them controversial.

The school was a port of call for a group of American gospel singers called The Forerunners, who were touring the town.

If a surviving picture is anything to go by, at least one member had longish hair and a beard, but no objections from Mr Magson were recorded.

We said: “The leader of the group had very blue, slightly manic eyes, and wore multi-coloured jeans.

“He was charming in an American way, tall and good-looking as a Coca-Cola advertisement – and so where the other seven members of his group.”

Their repertoire included not just hymns but Walk on By, Bridge over Troubled Water and plenty of other contemporary pop hits amenable to Christian interpretation.

“Some members of the audience walked out, bored after the first few numbers, but most stayed, unwillingly entertained,” we added.

Our third Headlands-related story was about a pupil called Kelvin Griffin, who had created an exquisite model of St Sampson’s Church in Cricklade.

The 16-year-old had used a total of 9,488 matchsticks.

Returning to music, a great deal was riding on a new composition co-written by David Myers, who had lived in Stratton St Margaret before moving to London.

As we have mentioned before in Rewind, he and writing partner John Worsley were awaiting the Eurovision Song Contest, due to be held in Dublin the following month.

Northern Irish singer Clodagh Rodgers had been chosen to sing their composition, Jack in the Box, and would come fourth on the big night.

Mr Myers had attended Upper Stratton Junior School and his father had once worked for Plessey, but we have been unable to discover much more about him.

Another story was about a breed of dog which was as unfairly vilified in certain hysterical corners of the media as Rottweilers would be in the 1980s - and Rhodesaian Ridgebacks, Akitas and various bull terrier varieties would be in subsequent decades.

We wrote: “They say that a man’s best friend is his dog, and they are often right. But many people are struck with apprehension whenever they see someone else’s best friend approaching, especially when the friend is a large one – like an Alsatian.

“Every Friday night, in the basement of Trinity Presbyterian Church, Swindon, a group of Alsatian owners congregate with one object in mind – to try to repair the suspect reputation of the dog that, to them, is the greatest four-legged creation of them all.

“They are the Swindon Alsatian Training Club. Their aim is to train their dogs to become ‘responsible citizens’ and by so doing to impress upon others that the Alsatian is not a vicious dog.”

One owner, a Mr Freeman, had some truth to share: “Alsatians have active minds, and they will turn sour only if they are not used.”

Major railway news was usually guaranteed a space on our front page, and the announcement of a new locomotive more than qualified.

It had been several years since British Rail locos had been built in Swindon, but the Works still played a vital repair and servicing role.

Sadly the new engine would fall victim to a malady not even supreme Swindon engineering skill could cure – irreversible total image failure.

Beneath a photograph of a sleek, futuristic mock-up, we said: “British Rail’s unique concept in high speed transportation, the APT, is designed to have up to 150mph capability on existing track without the need for having capital expenditure.

“But for new rail routes the technology gained in developing APT could be applied to produce running speeds in excess of 250mph.”

Examples were built, but political delays and problems with the tilting mechanism supposed to allow high speed cornering put paid to the project within 15 years or so.