Back Through the Pages

SECOND EDITION — COUNTY BENCH.—This Day.

Before A.B.Heath and C.F.Randolph, Esqs.

A WARM SEAT.—Job Band, of Stockbridge, a felmonger, was charged of being drunk on the 9th March.—P.S.Nunn proved the case, and said the summons could not be served on defendant as he had kept out of the way, and defendant not appearing to know anything of it, except that there was a bit of bother at his house, was fined 5s. and 6s. 6d. costs.—The officer had found defendant sitting in a chair which was on fire. He was helplessly drunk, and the women with whom he lodged put him into the street when he was disorderly.

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO — 20 NOVEMBER 1914

BILLETS

Last week the military made a survey of the town to see how many men could be provided with sleeping accommodation in the centre of the borough. Their ideas seemed to be very much at variance with those of the solicitous inspectors and doctors who supervise the prisons and workhouses of the land, for they allotted four adults to rooms of very limited cubic space, and when they further announced that the men would do their own cooking it was the final blow, for turned out of her kitchen where indeed can woman show her superiority over the inferior sex. However, as good progress is being made with the streets of huts at Perham, Shipton, and many other spots on Salisbury Plain, it may not be necessary to lodge many in Andover and the ladies will therefore lose the opportunity of seeing breakfast prepared by military chefs.

HATHERDEN — BELGIAN VISITORS

There is now in residence at Hatherden a Belgian family from Antwerp, considting of Mons.and Madame Bertels, sen., Mddle.Bertels, Mons.Leon Bertels, with his wife and infant. They are living in one of the new houses built by the nlate Mr.Butterworth, whose executors have lent the house free of rent. The house has been suitably furnished, and the necessary expenses have been guaranteed. The collection made in the village, which realised £2 8s. 2d., has been placed towards the purchase of articles required in the house.

SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO — 24 NOVEMBER 1939

MR.DONNER ON ACTIVE SERVICE

During the week-end Mr.Patrick Donner, M.P. for the Basingstoke Division of Hampshire, visited his friends in the Andover district, chatted with them, and enquired how things were progressing since the commencement of the war.

His constituents have become accustomed to seeing Mr.Donner in civilian clothes. He has laid them aide now though, and has donned the uniform of an officer in the Royal Air Force, serving at a ground station somewhere in England. Having given his home to be used in the national interests, he has now adopted this further means of helping his country in its time of need, and all join in expressing the hope that his military duties will not be of too long a duration, but that he will soon be able to resume those duties at Westminster, which he has been carrying out so successfully.

FIFTY YEARS AGO — 20 NOVEMBER 1964

THE EDITOR’S POSTBAG — “HAS THE GOVERNMENT GONE MAD?”

... asks Mr.G.B.Jobson, of Hill Crest, Whitchurch, in this letter concerning M.P.s’ salaries: The above question must by now have been asked all over the country, and very obviously the guiding principle applying to salaries and wages has been blown out by another “wind of change.”

What other body of people could have received such an astounding increase in their emoluments without raising one little finger in additional effort to justify it? One cannot but reflect that if many of our scientists and technicians had been so easily practically to double their salary the “brain drain” would have been stillborn.

We surely have now the right to expect that future M.P.s will at least measure up to some minimum standards of qualification for the position they apparently almost fell over themselves to attain, and not, as in the past, allow any Tom, Dick or Harry with a flair for soapbox oratory, and £150 entrance fee to take up a post of such responsibility, with remuneration much more than they now accord to the commander of one of H.M. most modern and complex frigates.

And how are they going to deal with the wave of increased wage demands is certainly beyond comprehension.

Many will say that I am not “with it”—I only wish I were!

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO — 24 NOVEMBER 1989

PROTECTION CASH PLEA THROWN OUT

In the week which saw a bomb attack bid on Tidworth’s Lt-Gen Sir David Ramsbotham, the Home Office has rejected a Wiltshire County Council plea for financial aid towards the cost of protecting public figures in the county from terrorists.

Gen Ramsbotham and his wife Susan are now under heavily-armed military guard at their Tidworth home.

A security squad provides round-the-clock protection for Defence Secretary Tom King who lives near Chippenham, Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Brooke who lives near Devizes, former Prime Minister Edward Heath who lives in Salisbury and others.

The appointment of Mr Brooke as Northern Ireland Secretary immediately drained police resources by a further £571,000 on top of the cost of protecting other public figures.

But Wiltshire County Council must shoulder the financial burden alone.

10 YEARS AGO — 19 NOVEMBER 2004

END OF AN ERA AS LAST GALLON SERVED

Probably the last filling station in Britain dispensing petrol in imperial gallons has served its last drop of fuel in Stockbridge.

It marked the end of an era for John Stokes who has manned the pumps in the village high street for 40 years.

The pumps were the last in Hampshire using overhead arms which have been outlawed by new regulations.

“They won’t transfer the licence to someone else unless there is a lot of expensive alterations but they allowed me to carry on because I had been here for so long,” said Mr Stokes who is 75.

“I’ve enjoyed everything apart from continually having to change the prices.”