Cattle saved from blaze

Fire brigade turns up in nick of time to avert danger, April 17, 1924 OLD MEMORIES REVIVED Extracts taken from past columns of the

150 years ago April 16, 1874

Flower power

ON Easter Day the chancel of St Peter’s, Brimpton, was decorated with great skill and taste.

The east end was most elaborately adorned with trellis of moss, ferns, and flowers; a large moss bank was in the east window, with daffodils arranged in devices. The chancel screen was also very pretty, wreaths of laurestinas being thrown over in festoons with bouquets of flowers standing at intervals. The pulpit, the carving of which is very rich, was prettily picked out in gold, round the top a wreath of red flowers, while at the base were arranged great bunches of primrose etc.

The services of the day were choral and very bright, the choir, though only a small village one, usually doing their best with a hearty goodwill.

125 years ago April 20, 1899

Parish progress

THE Easter Vestry Meeting was held on Monday evening when the accounts were read and passed and the retiring Churchwardens, Messrs Wilshire and Geo Grace were re-elected, with Messrs Ratcliffe and Butcher as sidesmen.

The Vicar, who presided, referred to the many improvements effected during the past year; notably the appointment of an assistant curate (the Rev J Price Jones BA), the new beating apparatus for the church, and a marked increase both in offertories and congregations.

A new parish library had also been started, and the piping and drainage of the church were under order.

Besides this, £169 had been raised almost entirely within the parish, for the Church Heating and Improvement Fund; and there had also been the usual contributions to the school and choir treats, the coal fund, the nursing association, and parish funds. Altogether it had been a year of remarkable progress, more than they could reasonably expect, though much still remained to be done.

100 years ago

April 17, 1924 Farmyard fire

THE power crisis that delayed the start of Newbury’s biggest sale in1974 did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of the early bargain hunters.

Queueing started outside Camp Hopson 48 hours before the start of the sale, breaking all previous records, and when the doors opened for business there were hundreds of people waiting outside the store.

First in line were brother and sIster Steve and Katrina Matthews, who settled down for the start of their long wait by the store entrance at 8am on Thursday.

Katrina, of Craven Road, Newbury, had her eye on a three-piece suite which had been knocked down from £150 to £50, while Steve from East Ilsley fancied the rocking chair, which had been reduced by £25.

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AN outbreak of fire of considerable magnitude occurred on Tuesday evening at the Manor Farm, Bucklebury Village, in the occupation of Mr J G Troup. The fire commenced at about half past five, the cause being a backfire from a petrol engine.

During the day the engine which was in a shed with a thatched roof had been engaged in driving a chaff cutter.

It had been giving some trouble and Mr Troup was called to examine it.

While he was there some waste oil and petrol became ignited from the engine and in a few seconds the place was in flames.

The fire too was in the cow yard of the farm and just at the time over a hundred animals were in the building adjoining. Fortunately milking had just finished and the whole of the farm hands were available to drive the cows into the open. The frightened animals refused to leave the stalls and had to be forcibly pushed and pulled into safety.

They were all quickly driven into the meadow as were also the calves and yearlings from the sheds round the yard. In the meantime the outbreak had attained a very alarming magnitude.

Fortunately at this juncture the Newbury Volunteer Fire Brigade arrived, two jets of water were quickly playing on the fire and in a few minutes further danger was averted. The brigade continued to work for about three hours leaving when there was no chance for further danger, the damage was very considerable.

75 years ago April 21, 1949

Out on their feet

A TEAM of three Oxford cadets, who set off with 2s 6d each in their pockets on an initiative test to make their way to Weymouth and back over Easter, returned to their homes in the small hours of Monday – in a Newbury ambulance.

The boys were members of B Company, 6th (Oxford) Battalion, Army Cadet Force. They set off on Friday morning, reached Weymouth, and by Sunday midnight had returned as far as Newbury. One of them, 14-year-old John Boyles, of Oxford, then collapsed from exhaustion and was taken to Newbury police station.

The other two boys, L/Cpl Papps (19), Oxford, and Cadet G. Howard (17), both of

Oxford, were weary and footsore.

All three boys completed their test in the luxury of the Newbury ambulance.

50 years ago April 18, 1974

Worms’ turn

AS I drove into Great Shefford on Tuesday, it was clear that something was wrong, writes NWN reporter Nick Harris. I had come to attend the inaugural meeting of a new and important fixture on the international calendar of major sporting events.

Berkshire had beaten the world in being the first to stage such a contest.

But the motoring organisations had failed to provide their customary signs pointing the way to the village hall – the venue of the Great Shefford Worm Race Challenge competition.

Inside, race organiser Tony Houghton, who is presidentelect of the Athletic Worms Association, was explaining the rules to members of the Reading and Great Shefford Young Farmers’ Clubs.

The 21 worms were all firstclass racing material – the rules said they had to be British earthworms; imports were forbidden.

Red Rum, QE2, Streaker, Eatmoreclay, V1, Charlie Farlie and Percy (not forgetting Archibald, Thin Thing and Big Ed) were a few of the names that made history on that April evening.

25 years ago April 15, 1999

Holy goals

A NEWBURY vicar is swapping his dog collar for a football shirt this weekend at a special church service on the theme of ‘the beautiful game’. Newbury Baptist Church is kicking off its ‘Six O’clock Show’, a new kind of service designed to widen the appeal of the church, with an afternoon of music, drama and fun with a football theme. There will be contemporary songs, including football chants, a short drama called “The one where Beckham got sent off”, based around last year’s controversial World Cup incident and a penalty shoot-out in the church car park.

There will be free refreshments at half-time and people are being encouraged to wear their favourite team’s shirt to the service.

The Rev Jim Mc Naughton, who is a football fan himself and will be sporting Newcastle United’s colours on Sunday, insisted the day was not about ‘dumbing down’ religion.

“I’m just excited about it because the opportunity is there to enjoy being in church,” he said.

10 years ago April 17, 2014

Royal day out

ONE of horse racing’s most avid and knowledgeable fans chose Newbury to enjoy the first day of this year’s Flat racing season.

The Queen spent a sunny afternoon at the West Berkshire course, in a private capacity, on Saturday, but was not rewarded with a winner. The racecourse has been under the cosh recently, but for all the bad publicity it’s still a fabulous track attracting the best horses and jockeys.

With its long straight and topquality turf management it’s the place of choice for the best horses.

Regular visitor John Gosden has his horses in wonderful form and he now houses the new 2,000 Guineas favourite after Kingman smashed his rivals to pieces in Saturday’s Aon Greenham stakes.