“NEW Look for the Thing,” said one of our front page headlines in the last week of April, 1971.

The Thing in question appears in Rewind quite frequently, but not as frequently as it appeared in the Adver throughout its relatively short but controversial life.

It was, of course, the object otherwise known as the Cube, the centrepiece of a water feature which was almost universally loathed from the moment it was unveiled in the the mid-1960s until its demolition toward the end of the 1970s.

Our story this week 47 years ago revealed: “The veils are off The Thing in The Parade.

“For the past month Swindon has waited to see what would be done with the object that even the Civic Offices cannot give a precise name.

“Now that the walls around the ‘water feature’ are removed, we can see that The Thing has been given a good wash.

“Cleaner, it looks better, and also shows a pebbled texture in the recesses of its cubic shape. Good so far. Though the passer-by’s unforgiving passing comment is still apt to be: ‘Imagine we paid all that money.’

“It looks better too, with its slightly higher brick walls, and the beds on each side waiting to be filled with flowers and shrubs.

“The water area is smaller and less accessible to deter adventurous toddlers.

“But it is still there, and on each side, between the flower beds, there are concrete slopes to invite children’s balls, ice cream and cigarette paper and the other debris that some folk always seem to feel is appropriate to water.”

On the subject of monstrosities which caused widespread consternation, Aldbourne was in the midst of its stint as sinister village Devil’s End for the filming of what is still regarded as a classic Doctor Who tale, The Daemons.

One of several photographs we ran was of the Jon Pertwee incarnation of the Time Lord being menaced by a group of murderous Morris dancers. Sadly, it was printed too small for reproduction here.

The dancers were played by the Headington Quarry Morris Men from Oxford, four of whom attended a 40th anniversary commemoration held in the village in 2011.

Although The Thing in The Parade was not popular, Swindon people of the time were not averse to looking at or creating modern art.

Local abstract sculptor Gordon Allen had developed his skills at forming objects during a 15-year stint in an engineering tool room. He had told us in a 1969 interview that on switching to an office job and soon realised that his earlier role had fulfilled an innate creative urge.

In 1971, for the second year running, a piece by him was accepted for the Royal Academy summer exhibition, perhaps the most prestigious show to which anybody outside the art establishment can aspire.

The work he showed, an elegant, intricate swirling creation called Windy Day, earned the praise of an Adver reviewer who was otherwise largely unimpressed by the exhibition.

He said: “This year’s Academy is undistinguished and more than a bit of a bore. There are old faces on view…the inevitable gaggle of pictures by established academicians whose names have studded the catalogue for so long.

“One is even tempted to wonder whether or not the painters of some of the Biblical scenes were actually present at the time.”

The last mention of Gordon Allen in our files is from 1978, when the 53-year-old artist was making a 14-foot aluminium cross for St Timothy’s Church in Liden.

Other branches of design also featured heavily in the Adver that week.

We ran a series of winning images from a local photographic competition, which included shots of the New Bon Marche – now Debenhams – department store and the various building projects under way near the law courts.

Another story, laden with pictures, took readers inside the new Roussel building, now owned by Patheon, on Kingfisher Drive.

Most exciting by far, though, was a project being put together by the team at Vickers in South Marston.

Next to an image of something resembling the skeleton of a space freighter from science fiction, we said: “Britain’s first 300mph hovertrain is taking shape at Vickers’ South Marston factory.

“It is due for completion in June or July and if all goes well with the tests Britain may have its first hover-rail intercity links within a few years.”

We added: “Made in aluminium, fibreglass and steel, this full-scale test vehicle will be taken up to 150mph on a three-mile test track just north of Cambridge.

“The hovertrain will ride on a cushion of air on a concrete beam just a few feet from the ground.”

As connoisseurs of engineering what-ifs will have realised, the machine was the RTV-31, which delivered promising test results before the project was cancelled in favour of more conventional new locomotives in 1973.

An example is displayed at Peterborough’s Railworld museum.