A £1,000 reward has been offered if the vandal who wrote off six cars by splattering paint stripper on them is arrested. Paul Titcombe, workshop manager at Greenmeadow Service Station in Thames Avenue, Greenmeadow, said he is offering his own
TWO young girls whose scooters were targeted by thieves will take to the streets again thanks to a generous grandmother. Last week the Adver told how Mollie Aplin, 7, and her sister Phoebe, 4, had their toys stolen and would have to wait until Christmas
YOUNG people in Broadgreen will be given the chance to help shape the future of their community. A Broadgreen Youth Community Council is to be set up by local residents in collaboration with nearby schools Churchfields and St Joseph’s.
The Arkell family brewery has been a feature of Stratton St Margaret for 166 years and with more than 100 pubs, its name is well known in Swindon. But it could have been a very different story. John Arkell was born in Kempsford in 1802, the son of
CHILDREN from Even Swindon Primary School are looking forward to meeting World Cup legend Sir Geoff Hurst. The England hat-trick hero will be attending the Blunsdon Colts football festival at Isambard Community School, north Swindon, on Saturday. The
SWINDON Council has been picked to lead a national push to tempt college drop-outs back to education and training. The council is one of 11 local authorities chosen to trial a flagship Government policy to keep young people learning until 18
SURELY any doubts that UKIP is now a major threat to the established parties has been removed by the legal ruling that we must repay £350,000 in donations made by Alan Bown, a British subject who has lived in Britain all his life and only made a mistake
NEXT year the men and women of Britain will vote in a general election. Regarding the women of Britain at the 1999 Labour Party Conference Tony Blair informed delegates; “To us today, it almost defies believe that people had to die to win votes
154,000 failed asylum seekers are to be given an amnesty under the European Human Rights Act. The Human Rights Act has come into play due to the British Government’s delay in processing the asylum applications. This is further evidence that Gordon Brown
RAIL campaigners are calling for £33m of regional funding which had been earmarked for a rejected road scheme to be used to restore double track on the main railway line between Kemble and Swindon. A Westbury bypass plan was turned down in
COUN Bluh writes about entering the era of ‘business unusual’. I would have thought he of all people should have recognised the need for entering this zone at least 12 months ago. Acknowledging now that there is a crisis is simply a little too late in
IN the General Election 2005 all major political parties promised to have a referendum on the new EU Treaty. This treaty became the Lisbon Treaty, but the promise to hold a referendum was not kept. A fraud has been committed against the voters, who
EMMERDALE’S Nathan Wylde – Swindonian actor Lyndon Ogbourne – last night confirmed himself as Britain’s biggest and baddest soap villain. With his cynical seduction of a hapless and drunken Leyla Harding, played by Rokhsaneh Ghawam-Shahidi, he secured
A WROUGHTON musical group will be at the forefront of a service to honour Britain’s war dead. The Annual Concert and Service of Remembrance will feature the Wroughton Silver Band and Tony Hurst on the bagpipes. It will be held at Malmesbury Abbey on
I FIND it disingenuous that the Tories defend their planned inheritance tax break to the rich by saying it is a funded policy being the receipts from a new claim on non-domiciles as if source justifies destination. Once the money has been collected
A FUNDRAISING event for youth projects at the Wyvern Theatre is hoping to raise much needed cash. The Wyvern Theatre Foundation will hold an antiques fair on November 8 and a race night on November 28. June Weller, fundraiser for the foundation and
AIRMEN have been reunited after 50 years apart. Jim Ryan, John Forbes, John Baskerville, John Carey and Hugh Curran all enlisted for a career in the Royal Air Force in the 1950s and were trained at RAF Hereford. They met for the first
ON Saturday, October 17 Swindon Vegetarians/Animal Concern held a street collection in Swindon centre on behalf of Campaign Whale. A total of £151.25 was collected and hundreds of people signed our petition asking Japan to stop their fishermen
ONE can only sit open-mouthed at the insouciance of the Wiltshire council spokesman who suggests that for road safety measures to be effective "they must be controlled and managed through the Wiltshire and Swindon Road Safety Partnership as part of a
AS there has been some snidey comments on line about the safe route to school I would like to point out to your readers that the issue of 'safe route to school for Penhill children is only one of the issues that local people, quite rightly in my view,
B TOMLIN "Was wondering how long it would be before someone from Wootton Bassett would bring up the subject of outsiders attending the repatriations." I thought that I had my habitat as Purton! I had lived in Wootton Bassett for 46 years until 1988.
AS the saying goes, there are two certainties in life, death and taxes; and some people spend their life trying to avoid both. In his conference speech, David Cameron reminded us of the old 98 per cent tax band for the ‘Super Earners’ in the 1960’s.
In 1985 the closure of Swindon railway works was announced and in February 1986 workers began to leave the site, but some workers were involved in the close down of the works staying on for a year or two longer. We all appear to know far
SWINDON College Old Boys enjoyed a rampant weekend as the first and second teams totalled 199 points between them in comprehensive victories over Abingdon and Wootton Bassett 3rd. In the Berks/Bucks and Oxon Premier, Martin Peaple’s Old Boys fought past
FARMERS and landowners around Swindon discussed the prospects for agriculture under a Conservative government, as a shadow minister dropped in. James Paice MP, the shadow minister for agriculture, met farmers, producers and landowners from the area
SUPERMARINE coach John Godsell has warned his side that they are far from the finished article, despite their convincing 29-5 win at Corsham 2nd at the weekend. The South Marston outfit elevated themselves to midtable in the Dorset and Wilts One North
WOOTTON Bassett spent most of Saturday’s South West One East encounter with Bletchley battering their opponents’ defensive door. But, in a frustrating adhesion to routine, the visitors left the field empty-handed after a 12-8 defeat. Despite taking
NHS Swindon is supporting a campaign to highlight the harmful effects of secondhand smoke by encouraging more people to quit smoking. The “You Smoke, I Smoke” campaign was launched yesterday by Smokefree South West in an attempt to educate people across
A LAST-MINUTE goal snatched a 2-1 victory for North Wilts in their West of England Avon Division local derby against Wootton Bassett at Lime Kiln. Bassett started the game on the back foot with North Wilts applying the early pressure. However,
STUDENTS at one Swindon college will become politicians for a day with the help of three parliamentary candidates. On Friday, New College students will receive a talk from the North Swindon Conservative candidate Justin Tomlinson, South Swindon Green
If somebody had asked me two years ago whether a 10-day trip visiting one of the poorest countries in Europe seemed appealing, I would have probably said no. But in July 2009, 1 found myself at Gatwick airport boarding a flight to Romania with
BUS enthusiasts have been treated to a spectacular show featuring 80 single and double deckers. The 60th anniversary bash for Buses Magazine took place at Wroughton Airfield on Sunday . More than 2,000 people turned out to view a selection
THE COMMANDO principle of ‘never give up’ will be at the forefront of Daniel Hannon’s mind when he takes on the US Marine Corps Marathon this Sunday. The Ferndale resident and five of his Commando friends will run in the event alongside 103 other members
HASNEY Aljofree took his first steps back to regular action yesterday, admitting his career as a professional footballer hung in the balance over the summer. The centre-back has been sidelined since December with a serious knee injury - the same ailment
COMMENTING on your article about Goddard Park School’s head teacher and his advice that pupils should have a good breakfast before coming to school reminds me of an incident that happened in my first year of teaching. In September 1966 I was appointed
WE have now acted on feedback from Mr Horwat (SA, Oct 16) and others of our patients and simplified the self check-in system operating at Moredon Medical Centre. People are now asked only to type in the day and month of their birth. We hope that this
FOLLOWING the two letters in the Advertiser commenting on the excessive rate charged for one hour’s parking printed on the October 8 and October 14 I would like add these comments. I too was caught by the extra charge when I went into town. I went to
TOGETHER with many others I welcome any reduction in parking charges. However I think that the proposed reduction in charges for the Old Town area would certainly benefit traders more, if the first 20 minutes were free, then maybe £1 for the first hour
A TEENAGER left brain damaged in a hammer attack at his school yesterday relived the experience during a compensation hearing. Henry Webster was 15 when his skull was fractured by a claw hammer at a Ridgeway School tennis Court in January 2007
POLICE are hunting a camouflage-clad man who attacked another man in Highworth. The incident occurred in Turnpike Road between 8.30 and 8.45pm on Saturday, October 17. After assaulting the victim the offending man got into a red car – believed to be
IT was an assault which shocked a whole community. The vicious claw hammer attack on Henry Webster sent shockwaves among staff, pupils and parents at Ridgeway School in Wroughton, which has traditionally been regarded as one of the strongest
PUPILS had to be evacuated after a fire scare in a school yesterday. Crews from Swindon and Stratton were called to Churchfields School, Salcombe Grove, Walcot, at 12.20pm after alarms were set off by either ‘intense heat or flames’ within the building
MARK Allen was keen to take the positives from the performance that saw his Intel side run Wiltshire League Division One leaders Chalke Valley close on Saturday. A poor defensive clearance late on allowed Valley to score the winning goal in the latter
IT’S a year old and, according to Swindon’s mayor, is “a success story in anyone’s book”. Swindon Central Library celebrated its first anniversary yesterday with a small party where library staff dressed in a variety of book characters. The mayor
DANNY Wilson has warned his under-performing Town forwards that he won’t hesitate to wield the axe in a bid to finally end their striking blues. Billy Paynter, Alex Revell, Ben Hutchinson and Tope Obadeyi have only scored nine goals between them this
AGENCIES in Swindon were criticised for failing to properly investigate a claw hammer attack at Ridgeway School at London’s High Court yesterday. The multi-agency Swindon Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) has only completed a limited
Penhill Amateur Boxing club travelled to London where Kelvin Young moved up to light-heavyweight for his first bout of the season. He took on the experienced Mark McKiernan from Haringey ABC - a previous Haringey Cup Champion and junior ABA champion.
A packed Premier Club watched an evening of white collar boxing on Friday night with 15 excellent fights taking place. Watched by a sell-out crowd, the main event of the evening was between the sons of two of Swindon’s biggest boxing names Eddie Neilson
