THESE amateur models posed for an Adver photographer nearly 65 years ago.

Are you one of them, or perhaps a family member?

The spot where they gathered is these days somewhere in a popular Wetherspoon’s pub, probably not far from the front doors.

The photograph originally appeared in the top left corner of our front page on Tuesday, October 19, 1948. It was headlined: “Swindon Girls as Fashion Models.”

We wrote: “Kathleen Bex, Gwyneth Williams and Jeannette Holley help to arrange Peggy Smith for her turn to display fashions for Messrs Anstiss, of Regent-street, Swindon, on the stage of the Savoy Cinema last night.

“These four Swindon girls are acting as mannequins for the fashion display throughout the week.”

Anstiss, as readers with a grasp of Swindon’s history will know, stood near the town’s other prominent department store, McIlroys, opposite what is now WHSmith. Anstiss would survive until 1968, when it was wrecked by fire.

People who turned up at the Savoy for the fashion show during that chilly week in 1948 could also watch the current film, Bond Street.

Now forgotten by all but the most ardent of British cinema history devotees, it consisted of stories about various bridal items. The cast included Jean Kent, Roland Young and Kathleen Harrison, and the film was billed as: “Another outstanding all-star British hit.”

The cinema advertised a week-long special attraction it called the Bond Street Fashion Parade, making the live show an early example of a movie tie-in.

Slipped into our archives alongside the original photograph of the four women and the Adver cutting was a short handwritten note.

It says in part: “All the girls are from the fashion shop floor with the exception of Gwyneth Williams, who is the daughter of the then manager Mr Williams.

“The girls were not paid for doing this and had no training.”

Our small picture story was one of the few cheery pieces of news on the front page that day.

The lead story was about the death of 29 sailors when a boat ferrying them from Weymouth to HMS Illustrious sank in foul weather, while other stories ranged from a potato shortage to the continuation of petrol rationing.