LIKE the rest of the country, Swindon was in the grip of what would become a legendary heatwave this week in 1976.

The baking temperature prompted at least one Swindon dining venue to try a Continental approach to seating customers, but without much success.

“The Champs Elysees touch at Regent Circus?” we said.

“It shows traders, at any rate, know we’re in the Common Market now. This café proprietor took advantage of warm sunny afternoon to give things a Continental air.

“But what about the customers? Oh dear, no. The square, backward Briton won’t play. All the customers are sitting inside.

“In fact, the place is full. It’s hard work getting a seat.”

We speculated that while sitting on a public bench outdoors might be tolerable, British reserve simply made the consumption of food and drink outside impossible – unless at a picnic, of course.

The café wasn’t named, but at a guess we’d say it occupied the Regent Circus premises now home to Rudis.

If Swindon failed to embrace one foreign trend, it was among the pioneers in embracing another.

In fact, we were such pioneers that the trend in question, which would be big by the end of the year and enormous a few months later, hadn’t even settled on its final name yet.

Trendsetting young people, we informed our readers, were taking to the pavements on strange-looking devices.

We said: “Take a piece of chip-board, two pairs of wheels from a roller skate, fix them together and you have the equipment for the latest craze.

“It is the ski-board – the kids’ delight, which has finally hit the Swindon area after sweeping America.

“Apart from the home-made ski-board, there is another kind which can be bought for between £5 and £20, depending on the model of board required.

“The ski-boards wave has arrived in the shops and people are already buying.”

One of the early adopters we spoke to was 14-year-old Peter Rowlands of Park South, who had learned his skills when living with his family in Canada.

Still in the realm of physical endeavour, a Swindon man called Chris Park took several days to travel from Swindon to Liverpool.

Although the 200 miles or so could be driven in about three hours, Chris made the trip on foot and raised £500 in sponsorship for Park Boys’ Club.

Chris was greeted at journey’s end by the Lord Mayor of Liverpool, Raymond Craine, to whom he delivered greetings from Thamesdown Mayor Les Gowing.

Back in Swindon, the Mayor and Mayoress were joined by a well-known regional TV presenter at the Blunsdon House Hotel.

The occasion was a reception to celebrate improved reception of a different kind.

The BBC and HTV had jointly placed a new transmitter on top of the Seagry Court tower block in Penhill.

Alan Taylor, best known as presenter of the regional version of gameshow Mr and Mrs and Saturday morning children’s show Orbit, was called in to host the event. He was photographed sharing a joke with Mr and Mrs Gowing.

The transmitter was to serve more than 5,000 viewers in Penhill and Haydon Wick.

There was controversy Swindon’s Museum and Art Gallery, where an Arts Council exhibition of contemporary pieces left many local people distinctly unimpressed.

We selected a work by Manx artist Bryan Kneale, a collection of vaguely bomb-like black objects attached to a frame.

Mr Kneale, the organiser of the exhibition, wrote in the 50p programme: “I hope you will take the time to look at these works. The experience they offer can be a rewarding one.”

In the interests of fairness we reported the fact that the visitors included a student who spent a full hour gazing at the exhibits, although we described some of the other verdicts delivered by members of the public as unprintable.

In Liden, many families had more to worry about than the nature of contemporary art.

They feared their homes were falling apart.

We said: “More than 50 council house tenants on a new estate at Liden, Swindon, are fuming over faults with their houses.

“Massive cracks in the plaster, doors that will not close, cupboards and banisters falling from walls and – outside – a jungle of overgrown weeds are just a few of the faults that have developed over the past two years.

“The houses are at White Edge Moore and Edale Moor, Liden, where tenants are paying nearly £12 a week to the council.”

White Edge Moor resident Keith Markey, who had moved in with his family in 1975, said: “First we found doors would not close and then other faults started to appear.

“When we talked to neighbours a complete picture of faults all across the estate began to appear.”

The council, which had bought the 56 properties from a developer in 1974, said it had taken the matter up with the developer in question and was awaiting a response.