Ivy rescued from loo!

Firefighters called to help woman wedged in duct, August 31, 1972 OLD MEMORIES REVIVED Extracts taken from past columns of the

150 years ago September 5, 1872

Prison tragedy

AN inquest has been held at the Portland Convict Prison on the body of Thomas Chapman, a convict, aged 27 years.

He had been convicted of wilful murder, but was undergoing a sentence of penal servitude for life.

He was admitted to Portland Prison on the 19th of June, 1871.

On the 12th August he threw himself from a landing into the hall, pitched on his head, and was picked up mortally wounded.

He died from his injuries about three weeks afterwards. The jury returned a verdict that deceased “did felonisously, wilfully, and if his malice aforethought, kill and murder himself.”

125 years ago August 26, 1897

Poison prices

SANFORD’S Rat Poison is said to be the best and most effective ever introduced. M Bliss, farmer, Helethorpe, Leighton, writes: “That from one dressing he found 136 dead rats next morning.”

Ald Ashton, of Huntington, said he killed 70 rats with 1s box of Sanford’s Rat Poison. J Long Esq, of Hungerford, states that he found over 300 rats killed by using a 10s tin of poison.

Price 6d, 1s, 2s, 3s and 5s per tin. To be had of all Chemists. Also mice poison, for dressing corn stacks, and poison for killing moles on land. 100 years ago August 31, 1922

Forty foot fall

A YOUNG man, named

EC Wheeler Cycle Works in The Broadway, Newbury, was doing a roaring trade in 1920.

The invention of the pneumatic tyre had revolutionised cycling in the early 20th century and business was booming.

Around 1911, Hercules Cycle and Motor Company Limited were producing 25 bicycles a week and by 1914 they were making 10,000 a year. Rivals Raleigh were even bigger, producing 100,000 annually by 1920. Despite having to halt production during the

First World War to make shells, by 1928 Hercules exported one in five of all of British bicycles. n To submit an image for this page, email editor@newburynews. co.uk or send it to: Local History, Newbury Weekly News, Newspaper House, Faraday Road, Newbury, RG14 2AD.

George Hayler of 22 Livingstone Road, Croydon met with a serious accident whilst working on the erection of Messrs Cropper and Company’s new factory at Colthrop on Friday afternoon. He was assisting in fixing a patent roofing when he suddenly fell through some glass to the ground, about forty feet below.

He was badly hurt and conveyed with all speed to Newbury District Hospital. It is understood that Hayler is about 19 years of age and supports his widowed mother. n The surveyor reported that the improvements at the Hungerford Sewage Beds had now been completed.

It was originally intended to renew the circular bacteria bed to a depth of about five feet but on excavating it was found necessary to renew the bottom of the bed 10 feet.

The total cost of the work was £129 13s 7d, the extra cost upon the provisional estimate being entirely due to the extra work and materials necessary.

75 years ago August 28, 1947

No holding him!

PROBABLY the youngest person detained in Winchester gaol is a 14½-year-old Hermitage boy who was sent there by the magistrates of Newbury Juvenile Court on Monday, because of his frequent escapes from juvenile institutions.

He is said to have absconded on three occasions in a month from an approved school at Portishead, Somerset, and twice within three days from a remand home at Kidlington, Oxford.

He is accused of absconding from the approved school and with stealing a pair of shoes at Newbury.

The boy came before the Juvenile Bench on Wednesday last week, and was sent to Kidlington remand home in order that he could be interviewed by a Home Office inspector.

He had only been there a few hours when he walked out. On Friday he re-appeared before the court and was again sent back to the remand home, but on Monday he was once more brought before the magistrates.

It was then stated that he escaped from the home at

5.30 on Saturday morning by jumping from a first-floor window clad only in his pyjamas.

The boy was found by PC Hall in a plantation at Hermitage on Monday morning, and, stated the constable: “I had to use force to get him to the police station.”

The policeman also told the court that on one occasion when the boy was being taken back to Portishead approved school, he eluded his escort by jumping from a train.

50 years ago August 31, 1972

Toilet humour

THREE fire engines, an ambulance and crowds of onlookers turned up the day 57-year-old Ivy Sampson got stuck in the lavatory.

She had been helping her husband Percy to screw a new toilet-roll holder to the bathroom wall of their old people’s bungalow at

The Willows, Weston, on Saturday.

One of the screws fell out of sight into a hot-air duct in the floor.

Percy took the grille off and tried to reach the screw but his arm was too big.

So Ivy had a go… and got stuck.

Her shoulder was firmly wedged in the hole and try as she would she couldn’t move it.

That was how firemen found her when they answered Percy’s call for help 20 minutes later.

Ivy said: “I was sprawled across the floor when they came in. I must have looked a proper fool.

“I laughed when they all trooped in with their helmets on as if there was a fire. “They brought in cushions for me to lie on and covered me with a blanket as they chipped away at the concrete around the grille.”

Firemen finally freed her using special cutting equipment.

Ivy was finally released after nearly an hour and a half and was taken to Battle Hospital, Reading, for treatment to bruises on her shoulder.

25 years ago August 28, 1997

Crash course

JAMES Bond-style action came to Burghfield Common last week when an 86-yearold driver battling to stop her runaway car smashed through the back of a garage and wrote off a second car in front of startled residents. Police said the pensioner, of Groves Lea, Burghfield Common, was driving her Vauxhall Nova along the Reading Road last Wednesday when her clutch stuck, making it impossible to disengage her engine.

She turned into Holmdene and drove into an open garage at the end of the road, hoping the rear wall would stop her, but instead crashed straight through it and on to the forecourt of a house in Thrush Close.

There, the Nova wrote off a Vauxhall Astra which householder Mrs Deanne Murray had only bought four weeks before, also damaging the house’s junction box and drainpipe.

“I heard a huge crash and thought the house was falling down. At first I thought it was a bomb,” said Mrs Murray.

“I was so shocked, I just stood in the crowd and watched. It was like something out of a Bond movie.”

10 years ago August 30, 2012

Driver’s heroics

A MAN is being hailed a hero after his quick thinking in moving a large pile of woodchips that were alight to stop a fire spreading.

Craig Sunderland, of Thatcham, was working at the Grundon recycling site in Beenham for subcontractors Good 2 Grow Recycling Ltd, when the large mobile shredding machine he was using caught fire, igniting a nearby pile of wood chippings.

Mr Sunderland used a JCB digger to move a huge pile of wood chippings out of the way to prevent a larger fire taking hold, suffering burns and smoke inhalation.

He was treated at the scene before being taken to the Royal Berkshire Hospital.