Monday, March 14

1949: Swindon Rotary Club sent a stronger representation to the 10th District Conference of Rotary International of Great Britain and Ireland, held in Bath, than any other gathering of a similar nature. Of particular interest to Swindon was an appeal of interest to be taken in boys' homes.

1959: Midnight struck, tanks ground to a halt, cavalry mounts were unsaddled and the dust settled on memories of soldiering days in battle, at the reunion dinner of the Old Comrades Association, Swindon Branch, of the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry. 50 old comrades, including some from the Deserts Rats and some from the 1914-18 war, met in the Kings Arms Hotel in Swindon.

1979: One of the world's most celebrated unknown cops, Swindon-born Det Sgt Julie Taylor, has been nabbed herself - by a fireman. Julie's name was stamped on the operation to smash a multi-million pound narcotics racket, sending six masterminds, of the world's biggest drugs ring, behind bars. Now Julie is quitting the force to marry West Country fireman Alan Pictor at Swindon Register Office.

Tuesday, March 15

1949: The Old Headlands Association fifth reunion and the Old Euclidians 23rd reunion were held jointly in Swindon. Old pupils played against current school teams in football matches, netball and hockey clashes followed by an evening concert.

1949: The end of clothing rationing had no sensational effect in Swindon, with shop keepers agreeing that a lack of money would prevent people from buying more clothes. Messrs McIlroys were pleased by the end of of rationing, saying it would enable them to give quicker service to their customers.

1959: The Royal Military College of Science presented a double bill feature in this year's Swindon Drama Festival. The entries were Hands Across The Sea by Noel Coward and A Phoenix Too Frequent by Christopher Fry. The judge was John Izon. Three final plays will close the festival tonight.

1959: It's the first time in many years that two engineering students at The College, Swindon, have gained Technical State Scholarships. Principal Mr W Gillespie announced the successes at the annual prize distribution in he Methodist Church Hall, Swindon. The numbers of students increased by 200 to 3,652 in 1957-58.

1979: Up and coming Swindon rally girl, Janet Brewer, 32, has just scored a success in a major driving event in the desserts of Kuwait. Jan, whose parents live at Westlecot Road, Swindon, is taking part in the Kuwait International Rally, part of the Rothman's Challenge series.

1979: Thamesdown Voluntary Service Council now have a special £6,500 minibus for the disabled, thanks to fundraising campaign by Swindon Rotary Club. The minibus was officially handed over by Rotary president Alan Beard to Joel Joffy, TVSC chairman in the Goddard Arms car park.

Wednesday, March 16

1949: Elizabeth Blochmann, German tutor and Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall in Oxford, visited Swindon at the beginning of a tour of Women's Institute groups. Her home was in Welmar until Hitler took her job away and she fled to the UK in 1934. She will tell her story.

1949: A 500-strong crowd gathered in Swindon's main street when a three-ton elephant arrived. It was waiting to be hung with posters announcing its presence at a Swindon theatre. It took 20 minutes to hang the banners and it took Jumbo one jerk with his trunk to sweep the banners into his mouth. His Indian keeper stopped him from eating them.

1959: Swindon competitors were well to the fore in the BR (Western Region) for Music and Drama Festival at Reading. Choirs did particularly well with the Swindon Staff Association Club taking first place in the mixed choirs class and the Sanford Evening Institute Choir winning the choir for women.

1959: Cliff Curtis (Swindon and District ABC) holder of the title has won his way through to the semi finals of the Junior ABA Championships at the Royal Albert Hall in London. In the most exciting bout of the quarter finals at Chelsea Barracks, Curtis out-pointed Noel Kearney (Ipswich Lads Club).

1979: Councillors are going in to secret session to discuss the controversial proposed development of Swindon's Old Town area. Thamesdown Borough Council's development department sub committee, the press, the public are to be excluded while they have a debate on the development of land to the North of Wood Street in Old Town.

1979: A Cool-It skin costing £11,000 is going to be put over Swindon's Brunel market to save traders melting moments in the summer. Angry councillors believe it is a waste of money. One suggested a bucked of green paint would serve the purpose. Part of the £18m prestige shopping complex, the market, gets too hot with the sun beating down through the perspex, resulting in rotting food and melting cosmetics.

Thursday March 17

1949: Highworth Rural Council agreed to rehouse all the squatters, and urgent cases in the villages, within its district. They agreed to press for 102 houses to be in the next allocation as an immediate programme. The surveyor Mr F Davenport said of the present programme of 252 houses, that 154 had been completed, 98 were being built and 32 yet to be started.

1949: A familiar telegraph messenger's pill box hat and uniform will now die out, as the new Junior Postmen, 11 in all in Swindon's GPO, gradually don their new attire with peaked caps.The new Junior Postmen in Swindon have come in as part of the Post Office regrading programme.

1959: A concertina solo by Mr J Easley, 91, was one of the items on the programme of a meeting of the Lower Stratton Evergreen Club in the Methodist School Room. Guests were the GWR Veterans' Choir.

1959: Wendy Reed, 15, of Limes Avenue, Pinehurst, Swindon is to appear on TV. She has been chosen to appear on Carroll Lewis' Junior Discovery Show. Wendy won her first talent show at the age of five, and has since been pulling in trophies for dancing, singing, and whistling Cockney tunes. She leaves school at Easter to become a junior office clerk with Plesseys.

1979: Diver Mike Cameron arrived at RAF Lyneham from Panama - lucky to be alive. Mike, 35, from Marlborough, narrowly escaped death when an avalanche of five tons of mud nearly trapped him under water. He was part of Operation Drake Around The World Sailing Trip. He was one of the divers investigating the wreck of a 17th century merchant ship called Olive Branch.

1979: A thick blanket of summer time snow has covered Swindon today. Cars have been skidding off the side roads and a spokesman for Swindon's RAC Branch said the side roads are highly dangerous. "Motorists should take special care,'' he said. "It is ironic the snow comes now with summer time officially starting tomorrow.

Friday, March 18

1949: Doreen Gorsky, prospective Liberal candidate for Swindon, sharply criticised Aneurin Bevan's attitude towards the recent members Bill seeking to make it compulsory for women to be given relief from pain in childbirth by analgesia. Speaking at Regent Street, headquarters in Swindon Mrs Gorsky said: "He wants to be prime minister but his words make him a small time party hack.''

1949: About 200 attended the St Patrick's Night dance which was organised by the local council of the Knights of St Columba in Swindon Town Hall. Music was by the Johnnie Stiles Band.

1959: Twenty-eight banner carrying aircraft shop stewards travelled by coach from Vickers Armstrong in South Marston to the House of Commons for the start of a mass Save The Aircraft Industry campaign. The 28 stewards will lobby their MPs for support.

1959: More than £100 was raised during the 85th anniversary celebrations of the Trinity Methodist Church, Swindon. Mr W Barwick, the oldest member of the church, received from members their collecting boxes containing £60. Concerts were given by Immanuel Congregational Church Choir and sermons were conducted by the Rev H J Allner who was at the church 30 years ago.

1979: Thamesdown Age Concern Branch are in trouble. They have been told by the Borough that they must leave their council headquarters although they have nowhere to go. The council's general purposes sub committee went in to secret session to discuss an application for an extension of their lease on the hut in the grounds of the Civic Offices. The committee decided that the hut is considered substandard therefore has to be demolished.

1979: Clare French, 17, a Swindon dancer from The Lawns, is hopefully on her way to achieving her ambition - to be a principal dancer with the Royal Ballet Company. She is to star in the Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet's new production of Coppelia at Birmingham's Hippodrome. Clare trained with Mollie Tanner at the Tanwood School of Dance.

Saturday March 19

1949: Swindon's street lighting will be restored to full 100 per cent. Shops and theatres are now permitted to use electricity for advertising and display. They say this is a concession they will have difficulty taking up as their installations, long disused because of the war, will need attention before they can be operational again.

1959: Salary increases for its chief officers were represented to Highworth Rural Council. The increases are for the position of clerk, surveyor, senior public health inspector and chief fire officer. The committee also represented for the staff side of the National Joint Council seeking salary increases ranging from 6.2 per cent to 9.2 per cent.

1959: Highworth Rural Council received a bill for £4 16 shillings for eight chickens. The surveyor Mr F Davenport explained that the new Blunsdon sewer was put through a chicken run belonging to Mr W E Pithouse of Ermin Street, who was prevented from putting out some pullets and so they died in the cramped quarters.

1979: Barbury Castle, the Iron Age Fortress on the Marlborough Downs, at Wroughton, is to be painstakingly restored to its former self. Crumbling ramparts and earthslides have reduced the castle to an archaeologists' nightmare. But the diligent work of conservationists could have it back in shape within three years. Wiltshire Archaeologists Department is undertaking the 12-acre site restoration.

1979: Windows shattered and buildings shook as a mystery explosion hit Marlborough College, but pupils and staff narrowly escaped injury. Experts are trying to puzzle out what happened. It looked like a blast erupted under a large ash tree near at the home of the Master Roger Ellis. A large crater remains under tree. The college bursar said it felt as if the college had been struck by a thunderbolt.