A lorry carrying salt and vinegar flavouring through Dursley crashed into the Whitbread New Inn pub 50 years ago this week, leaving Woodmancote ‘smelling like a packet of crisps’ for three months.

On Wednesday April 7, 1971, a lorry was transporting ingredients to Draycott for the company Spice and Flavour in Cam, which is now Lucas Ingredients, when it hit the New Inn’s wooden annex between 9am and 10am.

Ian Thomas, from Dursley, a paperboy at the time, saw the aftermath of the collision and described the damage and the mess.

“I went up the next day and you could see the annex had been pulled down and made safe after it [the lorry] hit the wooden annex rather than the pub,” said Mr Thomas, who was studying for his CSE exams in Dursley Secondary Modern School when the crash occurred.

“The road looked like when snow blows – when it’s fine and powdery – into the corners of the gutter. I can remember that pungent smell of salt and vinegar now. It was like having a packet of crisps up there for three months.”

One of Dursley’s two 1950s Commer fire engines attended the scene, pictured back left, on one of its last calls before being decommissioned in favour of a Ford model.

In the 80s and 90s, Mr Thomas went on to share a few drinks with friends at the New Inn, the annex of which is now a car park.