1953

JANUARY

2 pics? (Jan 3) Dursley cinemas' junior clubs Christmas parties - Victoria and Regal

Dursley area needs a hospital - for the population of the rural district of Dursley, numbering approximately 17,000. Members of the Rotary Club of Dursley met at the Old Bell Hotel, suggesting a site at Drakestone, off the Dursley/Wotton-under-Edge road. The hospital would include a maternity block, and employ trained nurses already living in the district. Although Berkeley is comparatively near, the bus service is very poor.

Children aged five had to be refused admission to the Church of England School in Yate, because there was no room for them. Yate Parish Council points out that when older children transfer to the proposed new secondary modern school at Chipping Sodbury, there will be empty classrooms; and in the meantime, there is space at Yate County School to accommodate the youngsters.

The fog and cold soon made a prisoner from Falfield prison without bars regret his bid for liberty - two hours after his getaway, he walked into Thornbury police station some five miles away and gave himself up. He told the police: "I am the man you're looking for - I've been lost in the fog, and I'm fed up." He was taken back to the prison by the police, still wearing his regulation blue overalls.

FEBRUARY

Dursley Parish Council has an annual budget of £2,000 - the normal cost of maintenance of the Recreation Ground involves a twopence halfpenny rate, and the cost of the Boulton Hall to the town is equivalent to three quarters of a penny.

Within the space of four hours a fierce fire, the origin of which is unknown, completely destroyed one of the loveliest mansions in the Severn Vale, built in 1856 - Old Down, Tockington. Thornbury Fire Service attended, supported by crews from Patchway, Chipping Sodbury, Stroud, Bristol and Bath. The bitter cold added to the firemen's difficulties - one fireman had his hands frozen to the nozzle of his hose. Col Turner, his wife and staff escaped, as did two prize hunters and four dogs.

Headmaster of Chipping Sodbury C of E School, Edmund Leigh, suggests the 'fancy stuff' is cut out of schools and children given more of bread and butter education in the basic 'three Rs' subjects. He said: "In my home, on special occasions, we have fancy food and rich food, but our staple diet is bread and butter." He thinks there is much good in both old and new teaching methods - could not the two be joined together? Mr Leigh is also president of Gloucestershire County Association of the National Union of Teachers.

MARCH

Pic? (March 14) After receiving the CBE from the Queen at Buckingham Palace, AH Topham, managing director of Mawdsley's Ltd, Dursley (and his wife and brother)

Fears are expressed about the leaning tower of Dursley - the tower of St Mark's Church, Woodmancote, is cracked and beginning to lean at a greater angle each month.

Miss A Higgs has been appointed head teacher of the proposed new Secondary Modern School at Wotton-under-Edge. The school, which, it is expected, will be ready by September, will cater for the 11 plus children of Wotton and surrounding parishes.

Chief Constable of Gloucestershire, Col WF Henn, is quite sure the remedy to juvenile crime lies in the hands of the parents and the influence of the home.

A Yate man home on holiday after living in Canada for 42 years, remarked he could see a vast difference in Yate. "When I was here there was nothing on the left hand side of Station Road facing Sodbury. "You knew everyone and everyone knew you - now you don't know anyone and no one knows you."

APRIL

A £13,000 scheme for giving water to Sharpness Docks is going ahead - Thornbury Rural District Council has submitted a requirement for the laying of the requisite water main.

A man from Iron Acton was fined £5, at Sodbury Magistrates Court, for stealing a piano accordion - from his brother-in-law. The two families live in the same house.

Members of Leyhill Dramatic Society presented RF Delderfield's three act comedy, 'Worm's Eye View', at Leyhill prison - in the spacious and well appointed new theatre. The cast was all-male, including three men who played female roles.

MAY

The curative work done for handicapped children at Thornbury Park and Thornbury House is still all too little known in the town and district. A packed meeting heard Dr Karl Konig speak on his work. The Shieling curative schools carry out work similar to that done in Scotland at the Camphill Rudolph Steiner schools. At the schools, the staff live with the children as parents.

A dog is discovered living in a hollow elm tree in Dodington Park, near Chipping Sodbury. She had disappeared from her home in Old Sodbury, and apparently given birth in the tree - the owner will now feed her in the park until she's ready to go home.

Sir Percy Lister, chairman of Lister and Company Ltd, has been appointed a part-time member of the new Iron and Steel Board - it will supervise operations of the industry under private enterprise following de-nationalisation. Sir Percy has just returned to Dursley after a business trip covering nearly 40,000 miles.

JUNE

Pic? (June 6) Queen Anne and Dursley Town Hall, with children being given souvenir mugs; or (if there's too much Dursley stuff) Lesley Newman conducting the Chipping Sodbury Percussion Band.

Carnivals and street parties are held throughout the district, celebrating the coronation of Queen Elizabeth 11.

The proposal of Dursley Rural District Council to accommodate old people in the ground floor flats of three-storey buildings to be erected at Woodfield, was strongly criticised by Cam Parochial Committee. "They would be the equivalent of bedsitting rooms, thoroughly disgusting, lowering the standard of living", a councillor said.

Thornbury Mop Fair is revived, to coincide with the Coronation festivities. Local sportsman and personality RA Leakey arrived by train, to open proceedings - the first passenger to use Thornbury station for many years.

A plague of earwigs has descended on Dursley. So serious has it become that people are obliged to shake every stitch of clothing before wearing it; they wake to find them crawling on the pillows and over their faces, and mothers have taken to stuffing cotton wool in their children's ears to safeguard them.

JULY

The plague of earwigs, at pre-fabricated bungalows, Woodfield, Dursley, has attracted considerable national interest. The BBC sent a recording van and interviewed several tenants on the estate. The 70 houses have now been fogged and sprayed with insecticide by means of an RA Lister 'Tifa' machine.

Wotton-under-Edge has experienced severe water shortages, particularly in Merlin Haven and Bradley Road - due, not to a breakdown of the pumping plant as at first thought, but to a shortage at the source of supply. This was regarded, by the Parish Council, as most remarkable in view of the extended rainy season. If further trouble is experienced, supplies will be delivered by Fire Service tenders.

The Berkeley Society's work has been explained, at a Dursley Rotary Club meeting. RA Davis said: "It was founded on December 3, 1890, and grew out of the Berkeley flower show and athletic sports. "An agricultural society does not exist merely to run a one-day show, but has work proceeding throughout the year."

AUGUST

Dursley Parish Council is seeking the view of other local councils about a new swimming pool. One councillor suggested using Coombe Lakes in Wotton-under-Edge, for the whole district; but another was sure "people on this side of the hill would never support it".

Among many English travellers affected by a French strike was a party of Chipping Sodbury grammar school pupils. They returned from holiday in Italy a day late, after being diverted.

SEPTEMBER

Explosives have been stolen from Wickwar Quarries, about a year after a similar theft.

A very difficult summer has been experienced by farmers in Gloucestershire this year - both for conservation of hay and for harvesting of most of the grain. It is estimated only half of the harvest will be saved.

Mawdsley's Flower and Produce Show was held this year in the factory extension which has just been completed.

Thornbury Swimming Baths will be extended - the length of the pool will increase from 59 to 66 feet. The anticipated cost will be £5,000. There are no other facilities for bathing nearer than 12 to 15 miles.

Regret is expressed by Wotton-under-Edge parish council that big boys are misusing the 'Ocean Wave' equipment recently installed at the Sym (sp as printed)playground. A councillor remarked: "No matter what is provided there are always some ready to abuse it."

OCTOBER

In an attempt to reduce the number of road accidents at the Cross-Hands crossroads, Old Sodbury, a temporary traffic island has been installed.

The County Education Committee is debating the issue of equal pay for men and women teachers.

Pic? (Oct 3) Giant puffball found in Berkeley

There does not appear to be any bright hope of getting approval to a pedestrian crossing in Kingshill Road, Dursley.

Many soldiers in this area are returning from Korean prisoner of war camps.

A shortage of bricks is blamed for the lack of progress on a council housing site at Townwell, Cromhall.

NOVEMBER

Yate Parish Council has been told that children are not being left behind at Yate bus stops - they had complained adult passengers were getting preferential treatment at school journey times.

Sheep worrying by dogs in the Cam district has resulted in sheep from three farms either being killed or having to be slaughtered as a result of their injuries - all were in lamb.

The business of Montgomery Brothers, founded in 1877 by WJ Grimes, is changing ownership. The new owners will carry on the business as Clothiers, Outfitters, Tailors and Footwear dealers - under the name of Maggs (Dursley)Ltd.

DECEMBER

Dr Dorothy Delbridge, from a well-known Thornbury family, will receive the MBE from the Queen. She is receiving the award for medical work - she is in charge of a hospital for Indian women in Fiji.

A lay-out plan on the airfield site at Yate provides for a block of eight shops and a space for a larger building such as a public house. At a Sodbury Rural District council meeting, it was said: "The need for shops in Yate is well-known."

English joints are absent from English dinner tables - butchers in the area are reporting that the majority of allocation from the Ministry of Food is imported frozen or chilled beef.