Monday January 4

1949: A five pound tin of biscuits of pre-war quality has been received by a member of the Evening Advertiser staff. The biscuits were manufactured in England and posted in Blackpool, and the entire transaction was legal. A relation in Canada paid the requisite dollars at a local shop, and an advice note was sent to the English firm, and they did the rest, using export quality standards, which means using their finest ingredients.

1959: A Swindon dressmaker, Marie Windnam, who was imprisoned in France by the Gestapo, during the last war, because of her family's friendship with men of the Wiltshire Regiment, is hoping to see some of them again. She has been invited to the ceremony at Le Marchant Barracks in Devizes, when two drums, left behind by the 2nd Battalion at Dunkirk, are to be returned to the Regiment. Marie has a shop in Wood Street, Swindon.

1979: Bank notes by the hundreds were hanging about in Wood Street, Swindon, but they were not up for grabs - they were dangling in the Nat West Bank on washing lines. The notes, of all denominations, got a thorough soaking when water from two burst pipes flooded the bank.

Tuesday January 5

1949: During the last five years Swindon Town Council has housed 3,307 people and built 764 new houses. Since the latter half of 1946 one house has been constructed in Swindon for each working day.

1959: Swindon Town Football Club's new stand will cost £27,000. Chairman of Swindon Town FC stressed that money received from Swindon Council was not a gift. It will have to be paid back in the form of rent.

1979: Temperatures at a Swindon old people's hospital fell below the 60 degrees F - the minimum required for factories and offices. Nurses had to pile on blankets on top of elderly patients in wards 3 and 4 at Stratton St Margaret Hospital to keep them warm. The crisis was caused partly by a lack of curtains.

Wednesday, January 6.

1949: Diana Dors of Marlborough Road, Swindon plays the slatternly maid, Charlotte, in the Cineguild's screen version of Dickens' Oliver Twist, showing in Swindon this week. Diana Dors is now signed to play the lead woman's role in Diamond City, a drama about the South African mines.

1959: Three Sunday school pupils at St Sampson's Church in Cricklade have used their Christmas holidays to good advantage. With the help of one of the Sunday school teachers they have dismantled an obstruction light on the church tower.

1979: The nuclear division of Vickers, based at South Marston, Swindon, has won a £287,000 order from Japan. The order is for slave manipulators, the equipment used to handle radio active material by remote control. It will be going to the Japanese Atomic Energy Research Institute of Tokai.

Thursday, January 7

1949: A school teacher at Ferndale Road School, Margery Howard, was presented with an hon. certificate of the Carneigie Court, at Swindon Magistrates Court, for her part in a bathing rescue at Sandown on the Isle of Wight.

1959: On the 1st Battalion's return from Cyprus, in the spring, the Wiltshire Regiment (Duke of Edinborough's) is to be given the Freedom of the Borough of Swindon. Swindon Town Council made the decision to confer the honour at a council meeting after the Mayor, Alderman F J King, made the proposal.

1979: A move to bring a breath of Los Vegas to Swindon depends on a few little words. Five years ago Swindon councillors decided only amusement arcades in the town should be allowed to boast more than one gaming machine. The council could not know that they were squashing a prestigious first for Swindon, as the Gaming Board of America Ice Cream Parlour, Cafeteria and Leisure Centre, planned for the Brunel Centre, could be the only one of its kind in the country. Councillors may rescind their decision.

Friday, January 8

1949: Swindon farmers learned about a revolutionary fluid for preventing rusting of farm equipment, which they watched on a film, where the product was demonstrated. It's primarily the displacement of any water from a surface on application of the oil, which then forms a protective shield. One farmer asked if it would take water out of beer.

1959: The most exciting moment for guests at the annual children's party, held by the Swindon Lodge of the Loyal Order of Moose, was when pirates sailed in to the church hall in Devizes Road where the party was held. The pirates distributed gifts from their treasure chests. There was also magic, marionettes and dancing to skiffle band, Variations Six, for the 75 guests who made it through the snow.

1979: Swindon Youth Band raised £175 when they performed for shoppers in the Brunel Plaza. The money is to go towards the Thamesdown Age Concern mini bus used to carry housebound old folks to lunch and other pensioners' clubs.

Saturday, January 9

1949: After the Evening Advertiser reported that the Swindon Corporation was to sell surplus goldfish from the Town Gardens pond, excited children were queueing with their jam-jars and bowls. By lunchtime, 120 fish had been dispersed at 2 shillings and six pence or five shillings each.

1959: The new dance, the Cha-Cha, was featured in a dance competition, the first heat of which was held in the Locarno Ballroom in Swindon. Two couples waltzed through to the finals: Sgt Rick Caselaw and Diana Hillier, Private Keel of the Royal Engineers and Mavis Smith.

1979: Stepping out to success in the world of dancing is Swindon's Julie-Anne Lister, who is launching her own dancing school. She will be teaching tap, modern and ballet to children of all ages. Julie-Anne of Maxwell Street, Swindon has been teaching at Ireland's leading dance school, the Joan Denise Moriarty Dance School.