FIRE robbed Swindon of a landmark building this week 39 years ago.

For many years a modern office block has stood on the main Regent Circus ‘island’ next to the former cinema which is now the MECA entertainment venue.

From about the beginning of the 20th Century until the night of Wednesday, May 4, 1977, the large site was mostly occupied by the Methodist Central Hall, whose most striking feature was its domed tower. An extension fronting on to Regent Circus was added later.

By the early 1970s the hall had been sold by the church, and by 1977 it was a storage facility for goods collected by a charity.

When dawn broke on May 5 it was a smouldering ruin. The cause was unknown.

“Fire swept through the old Methodist Central Hall in regent Circus, Swindon, last night,” we said.

“The blaze, which broke out shortly after 8pm, completely gutted the main building which is used as a storehouse by the Shelter organisation.

“Police immediately set up roadblocks and diverted traffic while five fire tenders arrived on the scene. The fire raged through the ground floor, set alight to a balcony in the main hall and then broke through the roof.

“At one point it threatened to spread along the rooftops to adjoining buildings.”

Nearby, the Youth Enterprise Hall was due to host a concert by an up-and-coming punk band called The Clash. The band and crew were forced to lug their equipment to another venue, The Affair in Theatre Square.

Lead singer Joe Strummer marked the occasion by changing the title of classic song London’s Burning to Swindon’s Burning.

Earlier in the week a section of the A420 ran with lager after a Carlsberg lorry carrying about 4,300 gallons overturned.

The accident happened when the truck failed to negotiate a bend near a flyover on the Stratton bypass, which was still under development.

We said: “The result was traffic chaos over a wide area as police operated diversions.

“The driver, Mr Ronald Head, 55, from Northampton, was taken to Princess Margaret Hospital with minor injuries.”

The show at the Wyvern Theatre that week was a comedy called The Monkey Walk, for which tickets cost from 80p to £1.70.

Its leading lady was Diane Keen, who was a household name thanks to a sitcom called The Cuckoo Waltz.

She appeared opposite dancer and all-round entertainer Lionel Blair, who popped up on our front page in a story about a local connection with a lady called Doris Hancock.

We said: “They met purely by accident when Lionel visited Fleetway House yesterday.

“Mrs Hancock was housekeeper at the Foresters Arms in Fleet Street, Swindon, where Lionel stayed during his last visit to the town more than 20 years ago.

“Said Mrs Hancock: ‘I remember Lionel for his rows of shoes.’”

Away from showbusiness, we wrote about one of a diminishing band of artists of an entirely different kind.

Ted Tickner was a 72-year-old stonemason with 57 years’ experience who worked for Bartlett Brothers in Bath Road.

He was called to St Mary’s Church in Purton when two pinnacles – ornate spikes – on the top of the tower were blown down in gales after standing for 500 years. Pausing from his carving, he told us: “It’s like eating your dinner after all these years. I shouldn’t have stayed at it if it wasn’t.

“We make things to last. The man who makes a motor car hasn’t got it for five minutes.”

Master mason Ron Packer added: “They should be good for another five hundred years, provided the church is still there.”

Another building featured in the Adver that week looked as if it might not see another half a year, let alone half a millennium.

An empty terraced house in Manchester Road had become such a decayed eyesore that neighbours demanded action from Thamesdown Borough Council.

Large sections of the roof had come off and water was gushing on to the pavement and into adjoining houses.

Information about what had happened to the house and how councillors and council officers had allowed it to happen was held in a secret report. It was revealed, however, that the council was to spend £7,000 on repairs.

We won’t give the exact address of the property, but it was evidently repaired because it stands to this day and looks to be in good condition.

1977 was the year of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, and an early commemoration saw a British Rail Intercity train attempt to break the Bristol to Paddington non-stop speed record.

Earlier in the year the journey had been made in 71 minutes at an average speed of 99.5mph, but the latest run – with 400 passengers on board – took 68 minutes at an average of 103.3mph over the 117.65-mile trip.

The train was travelling at well over 100mph when an Adver photographer captured it roaring through Swindon.

Passengers were an eclectic group of enthusiasts including Harold Foot, landlord of the Running Horse in Wootton Bassett, and railway historian and author OS Nock.