THIS week 46 years ago, Swindon learned it was to be twice visited by leading beauties.

One was Jackie Stevens, 23, who was described by us at the time as one of the world’s highest-paid photographic models.

We said: “She recently returned to this country from modelling assignments in Holland and Germany, accompanied by fashion photographer Joe Bangay.”

And the purpose of her visit to Swindon?

“Model Jackie will be giving her ultra-professional opinion in the Plessey-Garrard-Square D Personality Girl contest on Saturday at the Kingsdown Sports Ground.

“This year’s Personality Girl contest will, as usual, bring cash awards for the first, second and third placed contestants.”

We can find no information in our archives about the model’s career, but photographer Joe Bangay went on to photograph many celebrities including a young Madonna.

That week in August of 1970 we also announced: “The new Miss United Kingdom, who will open the gala day of Swindon’s Expo, Swindon in the Seventies, on September 4, was picked at Blackpool last night.

“She is the former Miss England, Yvonne Ormes, a 21-year-old blonde, of Nantwich, Cheshire.

“Yvonne (36-24-36) who was chosen last night from a short list of 16 girls, will crown the Miss Swindon Beauty Queen.

“The Swindon Expo and Trade Fair is designed to boost Swindon’s image. There will be displays and flypasts by the Royal Air Force, the army’s crack parachute team The Red Devils, the army helicopter display team the Blue Eagles and other attractions.”

In a complete change of mood, another of our stories hailed the end of an era in Swindon’s railway history. “A little part of Swindon where the 20th century came to a halt,” said our headline as we reported the impending demolition of the old Swindon station.

“Soon it will be little more than a memory,” we wrote.

“The cheerless waiting rooms, the hideous decaying platforms, the dripping twilight of the tunnel, all of which combined to make Swindon’s railway station a sheer misery – a misery that has stood for 125 years and whose days are now numbered.

“The demolition men are due to move in at the end of the year and from the rubble will rise a £1m development the planners hope will be the pride of Swindon.

“From the outside it will not even look like a station. The façade presented to passengers approaching the enlarged forecourt will be the rising office block fronted by landscaping.”

Still in the world of transport, the ongoing building of the M4 meant plenty of changes for the road system around Swindon.

One of them was at Badbury, where drivers on the road between Swindon and Aldbourne pass through a tunnel beneath the busy motorway.

In August of 1970 the tunnel was still under construction, and its familiar shape can clearly be seen in the images we ran of its concrete sections being assembled.

Also under construction was the Wyvern Theatre, which would be opened by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh in September of the following year.

Its first boss, Brien (CORRECT) Chitty, had already been appointed, and is still remembered with respect for establishing an ethos which served the fledgling theatre well for many years.

He had worked at the Newcastle Playhouse before joining what we called a brain drain from the north.

He told one of our reporters: “We will probably try a regular pattern and see how it works. Films for one week each month, music for a week and professional drama for a week.

“The fourth week would be for amateurs, and the best of the societies would be expected to take their place in the programme.”

Mr Chitty later moved to the Oxford Playhouse, and later still to theatres in London and elsewhere, as well and spending time running a hotel and a pub.

He died in 2001, aged 67.

Toward the end of the week, workers at the Vickers Engineering plant in South Marston blocked the road outside and caused a 20-mile morning rush hour tailback.

The cause of their anger was no ordinary industrial relations issue.

“The protest,” we said, “was the culmination of 16 years of campaigning for safety moves outside the factory at rush hours.

“Shop floor and white collar workers have combined to form a joint trade unions committee to press for major improvements.

“A newsletter distributed to all workers deplored nine serious accidents, including two fatalities, in the last 20 months.

“It drew attention to a ten-point safety programme calling for a speed limit, traffic lights and a pedestrian subway among other measures.

“The safety message was underlines by white placards held aloft as workers started to gather at 7.30am.

“At 7.45am the demonstration was on. The workers, continually reinforced by new arrivals, moved out into the road in a solid mass.

“The effect was immediate. Queues of traffic piled up in both directions. Buses, cars and lorries slewed across the road and some were able to reverse out before they were hemmed in.

“Horns blared and there were angry shouts from drivers.”