A BITTER Anglo-French row, accusations about Dunkirk and a threat by a school vice-principal to shoot a reporter – it’s not often an education story is quite so juicy.

This week in 1980, however, it was all happening at Goddard Independent School for Boys and Girls in Bath Road.

We wrote: “An educational holiday in Swindon ended in a ‘running battle’ between French schoolchildren and a local headmistress.

“The Goddard Independent School in Bath Road became a hot-house of shouting, arguing and resentment between principal Mrs Edna Smith and about 50 French children aged between 10 and 16, it is claimed.

“It ended with the children being withdrawn from the school a week early.

“The children claim Mrs Smith called them animals and made their stay in Swindon a nightmare.”

The children had been placed with the school as language students by an organisation called the Oxford Intensive School of English, but after two weeks of rows they were transferred to St Joseph’s Lower School.

Goddard head teacher Mrs Smith claimed the French party smoked, stuck chewing gum to the bottoms of their desks and had been generally unruly.

The OISE countered that Mrs Smith had shouted at the children, said the French had betrayed Britain at Dunkirk, put them in tatty, smelly classrooms and accused them of everything from vandalism to fouling the lavatory floor.

OISE representative Anita Martin said: “I heard the headmistress shouting at the children for dropping sweet wrappers, and she said they should behave themselves as they were now in a civilised country and not in France.”

We approached vice-principal William Bullock for a comment and he gave one: “If this story is used and it appears in the Evening Advertiser I will personally come round with a 45 pistol and I will shoot you.”

As the reporters who worked on the story are alive and well, we can only assume he failed to make good on his promise.

The school, founded in 1869, was next in the news 11 months later, when a man jailed for robbing a Swindon Co-op of £3,431 was named in court as a governor. Mrs Smith claimed he was merely an odd job man. Mr Bullock, by then described as the former vice-principal, said the man was chairman of the governors at the time of the robbery.

The school, Swindon’s last private one, closed in 1984, a few weeks after being told by the Department of Education to improve or shut down. At that time it had 59 pupils and charged £300 per term.

It was not connected to any other school bearing a similar name.

In rather cheerier news that week 34 years ago, Britain’s answer to Evel Knievel was in town.

Eddie Kidd, who would be forced to retire after an accident 15 years later, was only 21 years old and at the height of his powers as a motorcycle stuntman when he visited Blunsdon Abbey stadium.

We told how with split second timing he soared over eight cars – most of which appear from the photo to have been Ford Cortinas.

We added: “It was nowhere near Eddie’s record jump of 190ft over 14 double-decker buses. But on the short straight of the Blunsdon speedway track it still looked mighty spectacular – and it had the crowd of more than 2,000 cheering and clapping.”

The next day we ran a story about some children who were inspired by the leap to do something many did at the time – but which would horrify plenty of adults today.

“You’ve seen Evel Knievel and Eddie Kidd... now let us introduce you to the Palmer brothers from Wroughton. Matthew is the high-flying eight-year-old who uses all the pedal power he can muster while brother Craig uses all his nerve to lay perfectly still for his brother to make his leap from a home-made earth ramp at home in Wroughton. But don’t try it without asking your mum and dad first!”

We also carried an interview with Dave and Amos, former Wills cigarette factory workers who’d gone professional with their comedy double act five years earlier.

Dave Wilson, who lived in Dover Street, and Amos Newson of Cricklade Road were at that time both 48 and had been working together for 25 years.

We revealed: “They’ve entertained the troops at Gibraltar, Germany, British Honduras, Sardinia and Northern Ireland, and have worked with a host of stars including Gene Pitney, Bernard Manning, Buddy Greco and Frankie Laine.

“The pair have been on TV in shows such as The Wheeltappers and Shunters Club and Opportunity Knocks, and were recently runners-up in the finals of the talent show Search for a Star.”

Dave said: “We just amble along having a few laughs.

“You’ve got to deliver the goods but we’ve had a lot of fun.”

The two continued their comedy careers, adding further locations such as the Falkland Islands to their touring schedule.

Amos – real name William – died last year at 81. Dave, of Rodbourne, said of him: “He was great fun. We laughed all the time. His life was laughter.

“I could see Amos’ face when we walked in the studio for Opportunity Knocks and he just looked amazed at all the lights and the cameras. He loved it.

“Comedy was our business – it was our life.”

IN OTHER NEWS...

MONDAY, JULY 28, 1980: “SWINDON bus fares are set to rocket – probably by almost 30 percent. A report out today predicts a staggering loss of £64,000 during the next two years. Bus fares will have to go up between 2p for the shortest journey and 15p for the longest in a desperate effort to keep the buses on the road. A grim recommendation by Thamesdown Council’s director of technical services, Mr John Dawes is for fares to go up by 28 percent – as soon as possible.”

TUESDAY, JULY 29, 1980: “A TOWN’S councillors are tearing their hair out over ‘man’s best friend.’ For dogs are raising howls of protest from residents living on Poets Field at the Coped Hall end of Wootton Bassett. The five-acre site, serving 1,500 homes, has become a communal canine loo for the town’s 2,000 dogs, forcing kids to quit the field or risk an unpleasant shock should they trip over during their games. The council has been petitioned to do something but all its efforts have come to nothing.”

WEDNESDAY, JUILY 30, 1980: “WILTSHIRE’S tallest commercial building, the David Murray John tower block, has dirty and leaky windows and constantly falling plasterwork, and residents in the luxury flats are fed up with it. They claim some of the windows have not been washed for a long time. Chairman of the residents’ association, Mr Martin Biermann, today said the tower was far from prestigious and was not even complete or fully operational. Mr Biermann claims workers have constantly been on the site and the outside window-cleaning cable equipment has proved ‘...notoriously unsatisfactory.’”

THURSDAY, JULY 31, 1980: “SNOBS who don’t want a bus service? You’ve got to be joking, claims Freshbrook housewife Sylvia Marshall. She was livid over the treatment Thamesdown and the Adver gave her and her neighbours in Liskeard Way over their petition to stop the buses. The suggestion from the busmen’s union was that residents didn’t want buses near their £40,000 homes for snobby reasons. But, says Mrs Marshall, that is far from the truth. ‘We made it quite clear to Thamesdown right from the start that Liskeard Way was too narrow for buses and our children would be in danger.’”

FRIDAY, AUGUST 1, 1980: “DON’T talk to Glynn Prince about keeping clean. In addition to his normal ablutions he gets a soaking every week from youngsters at a holiday resort in St Austell, Cornwall. Glynn, 19, of Highworth Road, Stratton St Margaret, is a Greencoat with responsibilities for keeping guests happy. They say never volunteer for anything, but Glynn did just that when there was a need for someone to take the part of Captain Blood, the cut-throat Cornish pirate. But he has no regrets. Glynn loves every minute of it.”