Archive

  • Home side rescued by the elements

    Worcestershire, leading Division Two of the Frizzell County Championship and bidding for a first appearance in the top flight, had victory over Gloucestershire in sight when the weather intervened decisively and left the match drawn. Rain, which had completely

  • Gladiators slay dragons for top

    Gloucestershire went top of the National League table with a seven-wicket win over Glamorgan Dragons at Cheltenham. Set to get 198 in a game reduced to 38 overs, Gloucestershire Gladiators got there with seven balls to spare. Matt Windows clinched their

  • Journal backs winner

    SALISBURY Racecourse stages its ninth meeting of the season tomorrow eve-ning and The Journal is among a number of local companies helping the venue celebrate what is already a highly memorable season by sponsoring a race. The Salisbury Journal Maiden

  • Cash Crunch!

    MARK DEVLIN has moved quickly to assure supporters that the club is not about to be plunged back into financial chaos after it was given a five-day ultimatum to pay £100,000 or face a winding-up order. Under the terms of the Company Voluntary Arrangement

  • Helping to bring history to life

    ORGANISERS of the Wiltshire Archaeology Festival say the study of ancient finds has captured the public's imagination. Throughout this week a series of exhibitions, displays and talks are being held across Swindon and Wiltshire in a bid to introduce people

  • Police investigate sudden death of woman

    POLICE have launched an investigation into the sudden death of a woman at a house party in North Star, but stress there are no suspicious circumstances. The unnamed 28-year-old from Swindon attended a party at the house in Ferndale Road on Saturday night

  • How could they do it?

    THIEVES have made off with a pot of money used to fund day trips and special events for disabled people and pensioners in Cricklade. The collection jar clearly labelled Cricklade Disabled and Pensioners' Fund was one of a number of items stolen during

  • 300 get in the saddle to cycle for life

    AROUND 300 men, women and children gathered at a sun-kissed Lydiard Country Park to participate in the Swindon Cycle for Life. The annual event enables many people who have lost friends and relatives to cancer to put something back by raising money for

  • Found: £2.5m

    THE chance discovery of a "missing" council bank account containing £2.5 million smacks of incompetence according to the leader of the opposition on Swindon Council. The surprise discovery of the money came after the account, one of a number set up specifically

  • 'Everywhere we skate we just get kicked off'

    Young skaters in the town say they are excited by the project, as there is currently nowhere in the town to go. Nathan Stacey, 18, of Moredon, has been skating for two-and-a-half years, but says there are few facilities. He has even been banished from

  • We mean business

    Swindon skateboarders have united in a final push for a skate park in the town. But this time their plan is bigger and bolder than ever. Not content with attempting to establish small ramps in outlying areas of town, the skaters have set about forming

  • Posters about chemical site put up

    POSTERS have been put up around Cricklade town centre opposing plans to store toxic chemicals at a nearby industrial estate. The plans, submitted by Thor Developers Ltd, include 10 warehouse units with associated access and car parking at the Chel- worth

  • Car firm helped teenage Betty get a job

    Betty Winslow of Rosewood Court, Liden, remembers a member of the family more clearly than she recalls the family's Ford motor dealership. As 14-year-old Betty Randell, who was about to leave Ferndale Road senior school, she wrote to Lilian Preater, one

  • Swindon became a ghost town

    BACK in 1934 few Swindonians went anywhere even to the seaside without wearing a hat. This picture, taken in July that year, shows some of the railworkers and their families who left town to spend Trip week on the south coast. The Great Western Railway

  • Helping to bring history to life

    ORGANISERS of the Wiltshire Archaeology Festival say the study of ancient finds has captured the public's imagination. Throughout this week a series of exhibitions, displays and talks are being held across Swindon and Wiltshire in a bid to introduce people

  • Success on a key issue for council

    SWINDON Council has achieved one of its key improvement plan targets six months early. External auditors have confirmed that the council has put the right foundations in place to work with the new Government Standard on Equalities. This was one of the

  • Plan aims to protect historic heritage

    English Heritage has launched a campaign to save Wiltshire's archaeological sites from the farmer's plough. Ripping Up History aims to highlight the dangers of modern farming methods in a bid to preserve thousands of fragile remains throughout the UK.

  • Fire in ice rink row

    BUDDING figure skating champions have accused Swindon Council of putting their potential careers in jeopardy. The council has changed the way that skating coaching is booked at the Link Centre in West Swindon. But members of the Swindon Figure Skating

  • Football team scores in mini Olympics

    A SWINDON school football team has won gold at a mini-Olympics for children with special educational needs. Crowdys Hill School, in Stratton St Margaret, beat competition from all over the South West to take championship medals at the Western Counties

  • It's so NICE to be here

    AS thousands of Swindon people head to France for their holidays, Swindon has proved a hit as a visitor attraction to a woman from Nice. Monique Espanol, a 55-year-old English teacher, has spent a week's holiday at Lower Shaw Farm, the popular visitor

  • Tribute to care

    MAY I pay tribute to the staff at the eye department at GWH. I have recently had a cataract operation and the care and attention of Mrs Madhavan and her team were second to none. Staff nurse Patricia explained the procedure in detail and put us all at

  • Why improvements are just not helping

    With reference to recent letters about traffic congestion, as a bus driver for Thamesdown Transport I would like to add my opinion. (This is my own opinion, not that of the company). I know that most car drivers hate buses but, hey, we are providing a

  • Wiltshire's semi delight

    WILTS have reached the Middleton Cup semi-finals for only the third time in their history. They booked their place in the last four of the inter-county championship at Worthing at the end of August with a superb 27-shot victory over Oxfordshire at a rain-soaked

  • Area accused of being too dense

    NEARLY half the houses in the Northern Development Area one of the biggest development projects in the UK are complete, but building work and new projects are continuing apace. Swindon Council's planning committee has granted permission to build more

  • People want real steam at museum

    REAL steam will breathe life into the beleaguered Steam museum. That is the opinion of people who attended a 'have your say' day at the loss-making attraction over the weekend. Kenneth Brown, 71, from Rodbourne Cheney, said: "It needs a proper steam engine

  • Will it happen this time?

    Attempts to set up a skate park in Swindon have been going on for years, but are often quashed in the early stages due to opposition from people who do not want one near their homes:. 1987: Wootton Bassett youths begin a skate park campaign that is still

  • Four-goal Basingstoke clip Bluebirds' wings

    CHIPPENHAM Town's unbeaten pre-season run came to an abrupt end at Basingstoke on Saturday. The Bluebirds had not conceded a goal in their previous three games, but Tommy Saunders' side were handed a 4-1 drubbing by the Ryman Leaguers. The hosts went

  • Toomey homes in at Marine!

    DAVE Toomey celebrated signing a permanent contract at Swindon Supermarine by scoring in a 2-0 win over a young Leyton Orient outfit yesterday. The 32-year-old frontman has agreed a one-year deal at Hunts Copse despite interest from several other Dr Martens

  • Live poetry at the Ghost Train

    The Ghost Train, the pub which served Purton's old railway station, will host a live poetry event on Wednesday, August 13, from 8pm. Performances will be reviewed by Pulsar Poetry Magazine. There is also a live music option for singer-songwriters using

  • Sponsorship deal given to local station

    RADIO station Swindon FM has announced its first commercial sponsorship deal. Monahans, an accountancy firm based in Old Town, has presented the station with £1,000 towards its development. It currently broadcasts at weekends from 6am until 10pm, discussing

  • Life on the open road

    EARLIER this month we printed a photograph of HC Preater's motor showroom and service workshop, taken when Henry Ford's Model-T was still the runabout driven by smart young men about town. Among those who called us to say she remembered the showroom well

  • Clean up project is on the agenda

    There will be a full town council meeting at the Council Office, Ockwells tonight at 7pm. Items on the agenda include the Clean Up Cricklade project and policing in the town.

  • Scheme for new homes

    PENSIONERS in Cricklade are set to benefit if development plans at the Vale Hotel get the go-ahead. Proprietor Mark Ingle wants to build four pensioners' units on 400 square metres of land next to the hotel. He said: "I bought the land about a year ago

  • Herd the tail of the triplets?

    Joe Smith was midwife to an unusual birth this week. The organic farmer, of Redlands Farm, Wanborough, helped one of his cows give birth to triplets. "We've never had triplets here before," he said. "We've had twins, which are themselves few and far between

  • Smart move is a boon for firms

    A MULTI-million pound project could mean the wait is over for businesses and individuals campaigning for access to broadband technology in Wiltshire. Wiltshire and Swindon Smartplace one of the largest private and public sector partnerships ever seen

  • Hunt for family

    IN the 1960s my twin sister Valerie and myself would visit our relations, Betty and Harry Gough. They lived at 54 Bruce Street. They had a son either Royston or Gordon, who was older than us, married and in the navy. There were two sisters Irene and Shirley

  • He's no turkey!

    I have just sat through a thoroughly entertaining programme that your television page called Tonight's Turkey Fred Dibnah's Age of Steam. It was not only entertaining, but educational as well. It was also part of Swindon's history, or does the writer

  • A big thank you

    How sad it was to read Billy Cairns' letter regarding Wiltshire Ambulance Service and the need for us to write in praise of the Ambulance Service. All too often we appear to take these services for granted and forget to say thank you. I, for one, cannot

  • Criminals get off lightly here

    AS a Japanese student nurse living in Swindon, I am often asked by patients I meet on the ward what I think of England. I always say: England is a beautiful country and I do like living here (apart from food) but people seem to get away very easily when

  • What will we do when the shops go?

    I feel that I must write to give my full support to the traders in Gorse Hill, my local shopping centre, which I rely on for my supplies. My late wife always enjoyed taking both our children and grandchildren to Gorse Hill shops, where she could buy everything