Not a lot of activity on the memories board recently - so I thought I would share NWN's review of the 1960s, as printed in January 1970. 1960 Railway enthusiasts came from long distances for a sentimental journey on the last passenger train on the Lambourn Valley branch line. The date was January 2 and so many wanted to make the trip that the passenger train was the longest seen on the line for many years. Six carriages were booked up and for good measure a horse box was added, carrying a horse from Ireland to Lambourn. [FGW take note - more passengers, add more carriages] On March 5 the lights went out on the Newbury-Winchester line when a five-coach train drawn by a 19th century locomotive puffed out of Newbury Station. Mr Edward Terrell, QC, Newbury's Recorder, looked back over 25 years when a dinner was given at the Chequers to mark his silver jubilee as Recorder. Among those present were Lord Carnarvon, the High Steward, the Mayor and Mayoress (Coun and Mrs J M Freeman), members of the legal profession and local magistrates. [Newbury had Quarter Sessions in those days, as well as two magistrates courts] Damage estimated at £200,000 was caused by a fire at James and Co (Hungerford) Ltd's Great Western Mill in Church Street. The mill was burnt out, together with machinery and the stock inside. Almost an inch of rain fell in 25 minutes when Newbury was hit by a thunderstorm in September, Park Way and Kimber's Corner were flooded several inches. [Flooding due to global warming?]
1961 A former St Bartholomew's Grammar School boy, Supt E R Clarke, who was born at Inglewood, Kintbury, was appointed Newbury's police chief. He joined the Berkshire Constabulary as a civilian clerk in 1933 and became a constable at Reading in 1934. He reached the rank of Superintendent in 1958. [Do we still merit a Superintendent these days?] Sir David Eccles, Minister of Education, opened Downs Secondary School, Compton. The school which cost £118,000 was the seventh of nine to be built in Berkshire. A big fire gutted The House of Toomer's main shop and basement and burnt out the offices on the first floor. Damage was assessed at £40,000 in stock alone. Thursday, June 22, was a red letter day in the history of the Newbury Weekly News. A new £10,000 printing press was switched on by the Mayor (Coun H K Potter) and for the first time the paper carried news on the front page. Racehourse owner and breeder, Mrs Vera Lilley, of Woolton House, Woolton Hill, won the St Ledger with Aurelious, ridden by Lambourn jockey Lester Piggott. Thirty-six members of the local branch of the National Association of Schoolmasters held a one-day protest strike in support of the association's demand for an independent inquiry into teachers' salaries and conditions of work. The strike meant a day's holiday for 1,200 children. [36 teachers strike, 1,200 kids off school. The pupil/teacher ration must have been massively higher then]
1962 Prince Charles made the headlines throughout the world in February when he was rushed by ambulance from Cheam School at Headley to London with appendicitis. The 13-year-old Prince was accompanied on Newbury ambulance's 60 mile dash to the operating table by Mr John Joyce, Newbury Hospital surgeon, and Dr Basil Phillips, of Bishop's Green, the school doctor. He returned to school in March but three weeks later came the end of term and Prince Charles' last day of his five years at the school. On Good Friday came one of the Aldermaston marches in which 20 local supporters joined the 14,000 who filed out of a field near the AWRE on the first leg of a 50-mile nuclear weapon protest trek to London. Also in April Newbury Town football club played their last match in the Metropolitan League before joining the Hellenic League. About the same time the Town started building their new headquarters near the present relief road. On September 8 and 8.07 pm the last passenger train on the Newbury-Didcot line pulled out of Newbury station. People in the wayside cottages waved Union Jack flags as the train passed. The guard draped his cap with a black shawl and carried a small 'coffin' labelled ' Didcot-Newbury line, died September 8 1962, from an overdose of Beeching pills'. Police made 342 arrests during a weekend demonstration outside the USAAF air base at Greenham in June. The 'ban-the-bomb' protest, organised by the Oxford Committee of 100, cost the demonstrators over £2,000 in fines. Boys from the Archaeological Society at St Bartholomew's Grammar School spent many hours of their summer holidays excavating the Roman Villa uncovered by a gravel digger at Hamstead Marshall.
1962 Prince Charles made the headlines throughout the world in February when he was rushed by ambulance from Cheam School at Headley to London with appendicitis. The 13-year-old Prince was accompanied on Newbury ambulance's 60 mile dash to the operating table by Mr John Joyce, Newbury Hospital surgeon, and Dr Basil Phillips, of Bishop's Green, the school doctor. He returned to school in March but three weeks later came the end of term and Prince Charles' last day of his five years at the school. On Good Friday came one of the Aldermaston marches in which 20 local supporters joined the 14,000 who filed out of a field near the AWRE on the first leg of a 50-mile nuclear weapon protest trek to London. Also in April Newbury Town football club played their last match in the Metropolitan League before joining the Hellenic League. About the same time the Town started building their new headquarters near the present relief road. .
Remember it well..I actually played against Prince Charles at rugby for St Barts around that time
1963 Onw of the heaviest snowfalls for many years disrupted traffic for a week. A party of 22 Great Bedwyn people, including five children, spent a night in a coach marooned in a snowdrift of the Wantage to Shefford road. Snow clearance in Newbury cost between £250 and £300 a day. Hundreds of men were thrown out of work. [And we moan about a lack of gritting] Four Newbury councillors together with four from Andover were joined by 130 Newburians and 80 Andover folk on a walk from Newbury to Andover. The walk staqrted as a challenge between the councils and when the next year over 700 walkers took part. Newbury British Legion's new £6,000 headwuarters in Pelican Lane was opened by the Mayor (Coun RWG French). The Regal Cinema in Bartholomew Street closed down. After over 50 years as the cinema's chief projectionist, Mr Leonard Taylor, retired. Last film shown at the cinema was Peter Seller's comedy 'The Wrong Arm of the Law'. Damage running into thousands of pounds resulted from a big fire at Inkpen saw mills. Berkshire County Council voted against flouridation of water in the county. In June, John o'Gaunt Secondary School costing nearly £215,000 was officially opened. The reconstructed swimming pool at Newbury's Northcroft was opened. Work started on a £60,000 scheme to cut across land and iron out the road danger on the Bath Road neay Kintbury crossroads. Wash Common was made a parish. Farmers worked desperately to save rotting crops in the fields. A low-loader blocked Northbrook Street for three hours when it grounded on the water bridge. Work started on the north-south relief road in September. The same month Newbury Town football club's new pavilion was opened. Newbury and Braunfels were officially linked at a special signing ceremony by the two Mayors. The last Elcot agricultural show was held with a record £22,000 crowd. There was a £6,000 fire at Enborne Gate Farm. The Queen gave a Bible to Headley Church, where Prince Charles worshipped while at Cheam School. Newbury's new £40,000 slaughterhouse opened.
1963 One of the heaviest snowfalls for many years disrupted traffic for a week. A party of 22 Great Bedwyn people, including five children, spent a night in a coach marooned in a snowdrift of the Wantage to Shefford road.
One of the lasting memories of my younger days. I was 13 at the time and we had been to the New Theatre at Oxford for the pantomime. We spent a very cold night in that coach until the following morning when we were rescued by a local farmer.
1964 This year heard the first whisper in March of the Ravenseft property deal to change completely the face of the Cheap Street-Market Street-Bartholomew Street triangle. Close on the heels of this news came the controversial plans for expanding Newbury into a city with an eventual population of 250,000. Three key shops in the Bartholomew Street shopping centre of the future fetched £150,000 at a London auction. Airmen from the Greenham Common USAF base packed their bags and flew home half-way through the year, following a farewell parade through Newbury. In the General Election Mr John Astor (Conservative) won but with a majority reduced from 9,916 in 1959 to 5,993. A frustrating year for traders with repeated delays in the building of the Cheap Street railway bridge. In January Newbury's Old People's Welfare Committee explored the possibilty of raising £30,000 for the building of Fair Close. A four-year-old Tadley boy who found golden guineas worth £75 in a rusty tin had them returned to him by the Basingstoke Coroner, who ruled they were not treasure trove. Team Spirit, trained by Mr Fulke Walwyn at Lambourn, won the Grand National and returned to a hero's welcome. A record crowd saw the Newbury Agricultural Show off to a good start at its new Henwick ground.
1965 A year of uncertainty and rumour. Newbury's future hung in the balance pending a Government decision on whether the town should remain a market centre or grow into a 250,000 city. Rumours that the United States Air Force might return to Greenham were denied by the Ministry of Defence in June. The north-south relief road through Newbury was opened in September, but immediately created traffic problems in other parts of the town. A working party was appointed by Newbury Divisional Executive in September to consider the reorganisation of secondary education along comprehensive lines. Combe gibbet was sawn down in March. Lord Hurd was appointed an Honorary Freeman of the Borough. In April Jay Trump became the third Lambourn hourse to win the Grand National in successive years. A plan by egg millionaire Jack Eastwood to turn the 2,046 acre Linkenholt Esatate into a huge egg battery farm was turned down. Work started on East Ilsley by-pass. Six hundred walkers too part in the Newbury-Andover walk. The Royal Agricultural Show was held at Kingsclere. Windsor & Neate's furniture store was burnt down. Arson was suspected. Work started on a new grandstand at Newbury Racecourse. The new St George's Church at Wash Common was consecrated by the Bishop of Oxford. Jewellry and furs worth £2,000 were stolen from the Speen home of jockey Joe Mercer in December. Combe Manor Estate was sold for £35,000.
1966 Swindon got the vote over Newbury as being the better place to develop the 250,000 population city. [Phew!] The big storm over comprehensive education in Newbury broke with the divisional executive's plans which were published in February. In June the controversy reached a climax when a bitter public meeting broke up in disorder. Baron Hurd of Newbury, MP for the division for 19 years, died on holiday in Antigua. Mrs Elizabeth Ganf became the first married woman to be elected Mayor of Newbury. Two racehorses valued at £10,000 died in a Lambourn racing stable fire. Anglo, trained by Fred Winter at Lambourn, completed a remarkable four-year Grand National winning run for the village. Peace and quiet returned to the accident-scarred village of East Ilsley in May with the opening of the by-pass. The Andover Walk drew a record entry - and the biggest rumpus when the first man home, an Andover walker, was disqualified for running. Extensions to Shaw House School, costing £170,000, were opened in July. St Bartholomew's Grammar School celebrated its quincentenary. Hungerford's 'grand old man', Mr Edward Payne, died aged 87. In October drastice railway service cuts at Newbury came into force. Ravenseft Properties Ltd assured the town council that they intended to develop the Cheap Street - Market Place - Bartholomew Street triangle. A Brightwalton farmer, Mr John Stephens, concussed in a road accident, was missing for 20 hours. There was a £10,000 jewellry haul in October at the Bagnor home of Mr and Mrs Billy Wallace. Oddest story of the year was a 'goose march' by a gaggle of geese across the Berkshrie Downs.
1967 September saw the first Newbury Festival since the 1953 Coronation. The retirement was announced of Mrs France Belk, who produced nearly 30 pantomimes in Newbury. Flying saucers were seen in both May and September. Mortimer engineer Mr John Searl claimed he launched the May one, and apprentices at Farnborough left the September one in a Welford field as part of a hoax right across the south of England. Americans returned to Greenham air base in January - for limited operations of storage emphasised the USAF. The Newbury Weekly News celebrated in February with a 32-page supplement. It was decided to close Newbury cattle market in two years. There was a severe fire at Eddington saw mills and in another blaze, tons of hay, worth £1,200 were destroyed in a barn at Chaddleworth. Thatcham residents agitating for a predestrian crossing on the A4 held up race traffic with a two-mile trek through the village. The first people moved into Thatcham's Waring Close for old folk. Newbury Town Council announced plans for a new town hall when Ravenseft released details of their development plans in April. Foinavon, a 100-1 outsider, won the Grand National and glory for its Compton trainer John Kempton. Berkshire combined with four other police areas to from the Thames Valley Constabulary. Two men pleaded guilty at Newbury to bugging the telephone of a Cold Ash man in what the prosecution called 'industrial espionage'. Publicans complained of a 50 per cent drop in trade with the new breathalyser law in October. In two raids on consecutive weekends at Littlecote House armour and other antiques worth £12,000 were stolen. The Queen Mother officially opened Fair Close old folks' day centre. Farmers took strict precautions after the outbreak of foot and mouth disease. Four RAF personnel were killed when a helicopter crashed at Brightwalton.
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