SNJ reporter Saul Cooke-Black looks back at news from across the decades.

1967

STROUD Rural District Council voted to object to plans to reduce the bus service from Stonehouse to Chalford, via Stroud.

By a vote of 14 to ten, the council voted against proposals by the Bristol Omnibus Company which would mean less frequent services.

The council heard that since the abolition of the railcar, the bus was virtually the only public service in the area.

Mr W Maddock said councillors should shows ‘very great alarm’ if the service was seen to be slashed.

PLANS to build around 200 homes on 20 acres of land between King’s Stanley and Leonard Stanley were rejected.

The county council originally turned down Stroud Rural District Council’s plan over fears it could create urban sprawl and a loss of identity.

After the Rural Council appealed, the Minister of Housing and Local Government agreed with the Inspector who said that the appeal should be dismissed.

1977

THE longest serving worker at Air Plants in Brimscombe received a special gift to mark 50 years of service.

Cyril Hislop, 65, from Stroud, was presented with a gold watch by the managing director of the company at a ceremony.

He started at the firm as an apprentice plater in 1926 when the company was called Abdella Mitchell, before working his way up to becoming works manager.

Apart from one break in the Second World War when he worked in the ship yards in Dartmouth, he had been with the company since he was a boy.

A STONEHOUSE woman who left a teaching job in Kent to take a three-week touring holiday of Europe came home for Christmas – four years later.

When Frances Bamford left for a hitch-hiking trip around Europe, taking in the sights, she was 23.

But her journey was to include student riots in Pakistan, helping Irish nuns teach English in a convent in Karachi and riding the Smugglers Train from Pakistan into Iran, before finally ending at an Iranian Air Force base in Tehran.

1987

AS STROUD shivered in the grip of a mini Ice-Age, villagers in Chalford Hill and Chalford were left without gas when supplies had to be cut off.

A jump in demand, coupled with the Wickwar gas main building being out of action after an explosion, led to a drop in pressure and fears that pilot lights could go out, leading to gas building up in homes.

Gas board officials disconnected homes and worked late into Monday evening to get supplies back to normal the next day.

COUNTY councillors were accused of exploiting the cleaners who kept Shire Hall spick and span.

The claim came from Stroud councillor Maureen Rutter whose comments followed those of Keith Waldon at a council meeting.

He said cleaners were working for ‘slave labour rates’ and earning 30 pence an hour less than if they were employed directly by the authority rather than a contractor.

In response, Jeremy Hilton said 27 extra jobs had been created and staff were being paid 50 pence an hour more than was usual for the work.

1997

STROUD police were celebrating the first success of a new CCTV system in Stroud town centre.

Officers using the technology on a training session spotted three youths acting suspiciously in the High Street and St John area.

An officer was sent to apprehend the youths and three people aged 10, 14 and 17 were cautioned.

A Stroud dentist was named as the best in the country at teaching youngsters how to look after their teeth.

Ewa Rozwadoska, who practiced at Cotswold House in London Road, won the award after judges heard how the surgery is transformed for two weeks of the year, when it opens just for kids.

2007

A LUCKY couple won £2.5million on the Lottery – but all they wanted was a caravan in Burnham-on-Sea.

Bryan Crook, 65, and Janice Giles, 69, from Stroud, had played the lottery since 1994 and always chose the same numbers.

Janice’s birthday and the day Brian’s best friend died matched the winning numbers drawn.

Bryan, a retired maintenance man and former pupil at Rodborough Secondary Modern, said they would buy a new mobile home in their favourite holiday destination, Burnham-on-Sea.