OUR main picture shows some early residents of what is now Royal Wootton Bassett.

The image is among several in an Adver file from 1995, detailing a wrangle over a geological feature like no other in Britain.

The first cutting, from September 9 of that year, begins: “Experts are hoping to probe an apparently bottomless pit that oozes slime and swallows farm animals.

“The pit is at Templars Firs near Wootton Bassett, and previous investigations have come up with no answers as to what it might be.

“Some people say it is just a smelly old bog that oozes grey, muddy slime, and others believe it is a unique and so far unexplained phenomenon.”

We added that the springs were on county council-owned Scotland Farm.

Subsequent research suggested the scientific consensus seems to be that the pit is a conduit to waters lying beneath the thick layer of clay on which much of the area lies.

This accounts for the excellent state of preservation of the fossils regularly cast up from the depths and deposited in a nearby stream.

The ones pictured here are the remains of ammonites, ancestors of the modern octopus and squid which loosely resembled another modern creature, the nautilus.

According to fossil records, the last ammonites roamed the oceans 65 million years ago.

The pit which regularly spews their mortal remains first came to official notice in 1974, when a group of workmen probed one of a number of large bubbles in the earth at the site.

According to some accounts, the bubble burst with considerable force, showering the surrounding area with fossils and animal bones - prompting the pit’s reputation as a swallower of beasts.

The Adver’s updates on the investigation continued for the next couple of months, and included a desire by some local residents, fearing the danger of having an open mud pit on their doorsteps, to have it filled in.

That was reputedly easier said than done. In one previous attempt, 100 tonnes of rubble were pitched in only to vanish without trace. This didn’t bode well for the county council’s wish that the land would be developed.

There was also talk among some local people of turning the place into a tourist attraction, although nothing came of the idea.

In 1997 the pit was officially designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest.