Monday, September 5

1950: Lydiard Millicent Parish Council meeting decided to purchase a piano, about 40 chairs and six folding tables for the Reading Room. A letter, read by the clerk from the South West Gas Board, said that proposals for supplying gas to Washpool and district will be submitted to the Divisional Executive Committee.

1960: There were 11 finalists who took part in the Miss Garrard 1960 contest, which was held at a Garrard Athletic and Social Club dance in the McIlroys Ballroom in Swindon. Miss Rosemary Patterson was crowned the winner.

1970: Andrew Williams of the Wool Lecture Service talked to the Electrical Association of Women on the craft of knitting, at their monthly meeting, in St Aldhelm's Hall, Swindon. He illustrated his talk with colour slides.

Tuesday September 6

1950: Leaving from Southampton in the liner Capetown Castle for Durban is Mrs Bithiah Kenniford, a Swindon-born woman who has been living in South Africa for 30 years. She came back three and a half years ago to nurse her sister in Marlborough Road, Swindon. She left Cricklade for South Africa after the 1914-1918 war, to marry. She helped with entertaining the forces in South Africa, during the last war. She was looking forward to going home to South Africa.

1960: There were more than 200 entries at a crafts and horticultural show at the George V, Swindon, Community Centre. It was organised by the centre's horticultural section and had 73 classes for flower, fruit and vegetable and home produce. The judges were Messrs W Wintle and S Fisher.

1970: Swindon's St Mark's parish will welcome a new deacon, Kenneth Daubney, of Cuddesdon College, Oxford. He was ordained at Bristol Cathedral and he and his wife will then be living in Avenue Road, Swindon.

Wednesday, September 7

1950: A six year old cart horse, saved from the knacker's yard when it was two years old, gained first prize as the best working cart horse at the annual Marlborough Horse Show at Ogbourne St George. Captain was one of a batch of 22 animals awaiting delivery at the knacker's yard when his present master, Mr R Bomford of Draycott, bought him for £40. Ever since he has won prizes.

1950: Former town councillor Mr H Vernon Kirby, who lives in Marlborough, is about to take up a position on the African Gold Coast as an engineer in the Post-Telegraphy Department (Colonial Postal Service). He is a former Marlborough Grammar School boy.

1960: It will cost Swindon Corporation £66,000 to make Coate Water safe. The council decided to spend this amount to carry out the works which must be completed before it can be granted a safety certificate. This is £31,000 more than the original estimate in 1958. The additional work is necessary because it has been discovered that the main north Dam is composed of fine silt.

1960: Members of the Swindon and District Dahlia Society were successful at the National Dahlia Show in London, Mr B Blandchard won a second place for six vases of small poms. Mr H Hawkins won two seconds for his vase of six small poms and Mr J Dawson won a third for a vase of medium poms. His yellow miniature decorative Heather's Delight was accepted for trials at Wisley in 1961.

1971: About 21 hospital laboratory technicians in Swindon held a two day token strike for more pay. The men say they want to draw attention to low levels of pay. They are all members of the Association of Scientific Technical and Managerial organisations. This strike is held as part of a national strike order given by the Union. Swindon hospitals that were effected were Princess Margaret Hospital, the Victoria Hospital and St Margaret's Hospital in Stratton.

1971: A Swindon couple have danced their way to a chance of winning the Butlin National Amateur Valeta Challenge Trophy. They are Bertram and Leslie Williams, both 50, of Wiltshire Avenue who won a place in the next area finals by winning the contest at Butlin Minehead Camp.

Thursday, September 8

1950: The second annual reunion of the 5th Battalion the Wiltshire Regiment will take place in London. Last year 106 attended including 10 from Swindon, but arrangements are being made for double that number this time.

1950: A student at Swindon College Art School for the past four years, Keith Tyler, aged 19, of Roseberry Street, Swindon has gained his National Diploma in Design illustration section. He had a lithograph and two wood engravings on show in this year's exhibition by the Swindon Artist's Society.

1960: Because the town council has refused to meet a deputation to discuss putting handrails on the steps leading to Swindon Corporation properties in Westbury Road, Penhill, the tenants have decided, at a meeting, to petition the Queen. At least two people are known to have fallen down the steps leading to their front doors.

1960: BBC television viewers will be able to watch a greyhound, owned by Penhill green grocer Wally Bush, going through his paces at White City. The Green Fairy is one of six dogs in the race entitled Animals In Sport.

1971: A Swindon man, just back from working in an Indian Leprosy Hospital, has been inspired to start a fundraising campaign in the town to help lepers. Robert Dixon of Purton Road, Moredon, spent two years in India working with a Voluntary Service Overseas organisation in a 400-acre hospital in Wardha.

1971: Swindon Corporation is undertaking a drastic review of the running of its municipal bus service. The complete overhaul of the transport service follows pressure from various quarters over the inadequacies and irregularities of some of the town's bus routes. The proposals will have to be approved by the Western Area Traffic Commission.

Friday September 9

1950: Large crowds were at the Locarno Ballroom, Swindon, for the West of England Area Dance Band Championships held under the auspices of Music Express, in conjunction with the National Dance Band Championship 1950. Winners were Arthur Packman and his orchestra. Jack Baxter and his orchestra, from Swindon, came third.

1950: Soap rationing has ended after being in operation since February 1942, and in the two months since the Minister of Food announced the date of de-rationing soap-makers have been steadily building up their stocks. The matter of demand in Swindon will be vastly different to pre-war days as housewives have been used to the scientific advances in washing techniques and will not want to go back.

1960: A talented young Swindon pianist, Sandra Gilbert of Belmont Crescent, is making her first appearance at the Swindon Music Club's evening at the Swindon Arts Centre. Sandra became an ARCM when she was 17 and is studying at the Royal Academy of Music in London. She is on holiday in Swindon so will perform at the concert. She is the daughter of Mr S Smith, Swindon's number one Direct Inspector of Taxes.

1960: The little village of Chilton Foliat is served by a bus route from Swindon and is one of the attractions for historians visiting Swindon and the surrounding area. Henry V111 was Lord of the Manor at Chilton Foliat but gave it away three times to Katherine of Aragon, Anne of Cleves and Catherine Parr. His daughter, Elizabeth 1, was patron of the village church.

1971: Secretary of the Year, 21-year-old Carole Hofman, became top secretary in a competition organised by the Evening Advertiser and Manpower of Swindon. The Evening Advertiser advertisement manager, John Coles, read out the winner's name at a ceremony held at the Blunsdon House Hotel. The runner up was Janet East.

1971: The Wiltshire Association for the Care of the Blind held a fashion show in Swindon Town Hall. the proceeds will go to the Westlecot Home For the Blind, where the oldest resident Mrs Ellen James celebrated her 100 birthday recently. The Mayor and Mayoress of Swindon, Coun and Mrs Arthur Palmer, attended the show where the fashions were presented by McIlroys of Wootton Bassett. The show raised £30.

Saturday September 10

1950: Two prominent heavy weight wrestlers Martin Bucht from Estonia and Mike Marinio an Anglo /Italian will meet in competition at Prospect Drill Hall, Swindon. Also on the bill will be Cab Cashton a former film stunt man from Boston who will fight Len Britten, the man of a thousand holds.

1950: Major General Salisbury-Jones Deputy Commissioner in Chief St John Ambulance Brigade, accompanied by the Duke of Somerset, the Lord Lt of Wiltshire, carried out the inspection of the St John Ambulance Wiltshire at Swindon,. He stopped to speak to Private A L Douse.

1960: Most RAF stations have their own relay systems for carrying radio programmes to the billets of the airmen, but at RAF Compton Bassett their is a Broadcasting House in miniature. It is the biggest of its kind in the RAF. A staff of 20 airmen and airwomen operate the station, Compton Forces Network, from two sound-proofed studios.

1960: Alan Keith Bates, a school boy international, and for the last two years a player with Swindon Town Football Club, was married at Christ Church to Sylvia Selwood of Salisbury Street, Swindon. A reception was held at the Oxford Hotel, Swindon, and the couple flew off to honeymoon in Switzerland.

1971: Vickers of South Marston played host to a party of 15 Swiss engineering students and three of their lecturers from Bersdorf University. The students are on a technical study tour of Britain arranged by the Institute of Directors.

1971: Eighty-six Swindon women have asked Mrs Mary Wilson to intervene over TV programme changes. They want her to urge an ITV company not to change the time of its show Crossroads, the serial based on the daily life of a motel. The channel is Harlech TV whose programmes are seen by about half Swindon viewers. The women are all shop floor workers at Garrard Engineering in Newport Street.