THIS week in 1972 preparations were made for the funeral of a monarch and Britain was gripped by panic.

Our anguish was not caused by the death of the former Edward VIII who abdicated rather than be separated from American divorcee Wallis Simpson, however.

Instead we tormented ourselves with our terror of killer beans.

The beans in question were in fact peas – poisonous precatory or rosary peas from Mexico, Africa and Asia.

Some of the pretty ladybird-patterned beans had found their way on to bead necklaces, which were then thought to have been brought to Britain and handed out as free gifts by unwitting travelling salesmen.

A front page picture showed Swindon’s District Public Health Inspector, a Mr BR Marshall, wearing plastic gloves while handling a necklace as if it were a venomous snake.

We said: “Two ‘killer’ beans were among the suspect necklaces handed over to Swindon Police after a warning had gone out, it was learned today.

“The people who handed them in were visited today by senior public health officials and warned just how deadly they were – one contact with the mouth can kill.

“The names of the people concerned have not yet been released.

“Mr Ivan Thompson, Swindon Corporation Senior Public Health Inspector, explained that late last night two beans were identified at Bristol as of the precatory type, which meant they were the ‘killers’ being searched for.

“He said that altogether five necklaces had been handed to the police and the public health department.”

Beans had also been found in Liverpool, Oldham, Rochdale, Bolton, Accrington, Blackburn, Middleton near Manchester and Northampton.

The potentially lethal legumes jostled for front page prominence with photos from a pram race which formed the finale of that year’s Wootton Bassett Carnival.

“It was more like an assault course,” we reported.

“But that’s how hundreds of people got their laughs in Wootton Bassett last night in the carnival ‘fun last night.’

“Despite fearsome obstacles, the only casualties in the race were the prams, most of which finished in a very sorry state.

“The course included speeding up ramps, across rough ground, over bridges and water.”

The winners were twins Ian and Hamish Keith of Wootton Bassett Rugby Club, who were awarded cans of beer.

There are fewer pram races today, but that is because the prams of yesteryear were large enough to accommodate fully-grown men and women.

Another race taking place that week was The Tour of Britain. The UK’s counterpart of the Tour de France was known as the Milk Race as it was sponsored by the Milk Marketing Board.

We said: “Crowds lined Queen’s Drive, Swindon, yesterday as Holland’s Jo de Boer 21, sprinted first through the finish line on the first stage of the Milk Race.

“After battling head winds for over four hours on the 105-mile run from Brighton, de Boer broke away from the bunch a few hundred yards from the finish.

“At mid-day de Boer, wearing a gold jersey denoting his first-stage win, left Penhill High School on the second, 49-mile stage, to Tewkesbury.”

The race was eventually won by his countryman, Hennie Kuiper.

Singers Frankie Vaughan and Jacqui Voltaire announced they were in negotiations for a Wyvern Theatre appearance later that year.

Vaughan is remembered for being Britain’s answer to the likes of Dean Martin while Voltaire’s name is hardly known here.

In fact, this daughter of Malmesbury hoteliers was a major national celebrity – but in another nation.

We said: “Jacqui has arrived back in England at the same time as her first long-playing record in this country is released.

“She may not be a household name in England but in Mexico she’s a star in her own right in Mexico.

“Jacqui, 25, has her own TV series and has appeared in 13 films.

“She arrived home in time to help her parents – Mr and Mrs John Hickson – cope with the weekend rush at the King’s Arms Hotel.”

Jacqui told us: “I have to be back in Mexico at the end of July to fulfil a contract for another TV series and also to make two films. One is a comedy and the other a kind of Western thriller.”

According to multiple online sources, Jacqui went on to even greater fame in Mexico and died of cancer in 2008.

Acclaim of a rather more formal kind found a man called William John McKanan Jones.

In addition to being headmaster of Wroughton Junior School, Mr McKanan Jones had been a member of Highworth Rural District Council since 1961.

His long years of public service were rewarded when he was made an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.

In addition to his various general, responsibilities, we said, he had played an active part in promoting schemes for the welfare of elderly people in Wroughton.