THE Swindon Advertiser has always prided itself on asking questions – including questions many people wouldn’t think to ask.

This week in 1970, for example, we asked: “If you walked to Southend and back in less than a fortnight, what sort of state would your feet be in?”

The answer came courtesy of a 25-year-old Swindon taxi driver called Mick Green, who’d just completed the sponsored round trip in aid of charity.

“Although he felt fit after his 270-mile trek to Southend and back,” we said, “his feet have been giving him trouble “The last three days of his walk ended with his feet bleeding and covered with enormous blisters.

“To make matters worse, during the last day on the road his hip and ankle were giving him pain.

“But his agony has not been wasted. For Mick, who lives in Cranmore Avenue, has been sponsored for every one of those miles and the sufferers of muscular dystrophy will benefit by about £150.”

This was no mean feat in 1970, when a person earning that much in a month was doing very nicely.

Another local person with an achievement to celebrate was Ken Ausden, who had been head teacher of Even Swindon Junior School since 1961 and would remain in the role until his retirement in 1983.

We said: “At his home in The Quarries – a quiet hideaway in the heart of Swindon – Ken has been busy fulfilling a cherished and lifelong ambition.”

That ambition was to be a playwright and Ken had just had an hour-long radio drama accepted by the BBC.

Called Full Time, it was about the lives of footballers and producer Brian Miller described it as the best contemporary play of the year.

Born in 1924, Ken was the son of a GWR clerk and was proud of his working class origins.

He told us: “I prefer plays because I prefer writing dialogue.

“It is so much easier to pick up speech patterns and rhythms than the novel writing technique.

“The jargon of football is the sort you find in any pub among normal working class people.“ Ken, who died in 2009, went on to write one of the first plays performed at the Wyvern Theatre, A Head Full of Steam. The performers included Anthony Booth, the Till Death Us Do Part actor best known these days as the father of Cherie Blair.

The BBC published two books of Ken’s short stories – Up the Crossing and Further Up the Crossing were fictionalised slices of his life in pre-war Swindon.

There was also a minor crime wave that week with vandals smashing their way into payphones to get at the two pence pieces within. The red phone boxes attacked included one on the corner of Victoria Road and Bath Road, one in Prospect Place and one in Cavendish Square.

In 2015, with most people not using phone boxes from one year’s end to the next, such a spree would not be regarded as a major problem.

In 1970, however, the first true mobile phone call wouldn’t be made for more than a decade – and millions of people didn’t have a home phone, so phone boxes were vital.

There was also only one telephone provider – the state – and it tended to repair things in its own sweet time.

A spokesman confirmed that at least one box had been out of action for three weeks due to a lack of spare parts.

Happier news came from Nythe, where residents of the newish estate now had their own pub.

The Worthington, which stood in The Drive, was billed by owners Bass Charrington as a ready-made local under the management of hosts Brian and Judy Boynton.

Photos show a typical new pub interior of the period, right down to the double-wide jukebox.

We said: “Both bars are lounges, with wall-to-wall carpets and comfortable seating. Both bars are tastefully decorated and furnished.

“If either of the bars is a ‘public’ bar it is the Tun Room, and has on the wall a print of one of the Worthingtons who founded the brewery, which is now part of the Bass Charrington Group.”

The pub was to become a central feature of local life, remaining open for more than 35 years.

This week 45 years ago also saw recruitment begin for a beauty competition. The advert, complete with an entry form to pop in the post, is a quaint reminder of a bygone age.

“GIRLS! GIRLS! GIRLS!” it said, “The search for Miss HTV West comes to Swindon.

“The local heat for Miss HTV West is now on. If you are over 16 and living in the HTV West region, you are invited to enter – it’s your free chance to appear on television and go through to the Grand Final with its fabulous FIRST PRIZE: £200 in cash plus a filmed scene with Stanley Baker plus your own personal copy of the film and a projector on which to show it.”

Stanley Baker, as fans of classic cinema know, was best known for starring opposite Michael Caine in Zulu.

The venue for the heat was to be McIlroys, and the advert cautioned: “Contestants must bring their own bathing costumes.”