Boy finds buried treasure
Seven-year-old digs up gold coins from reign of James 1, April 23, 1949 OLD MEMORIES REVIVED Extracts taken from past columns of the Newbury Weekly News
150 years ago April 16, 1874
Choir on song
ON Wednesday evening, a concert was held in the Church Schoolroom, Compton Parva, near East Ilsley, in aid of funds for the Church choir.
The choir were kindly assisted by friends who came from afar. The schoolroom was quite filled, over 170 people were present, some few having to be turned back as a consequence of there being no more room. This happy meeting concluded with Auld Lang Syne and God Save the Queen and the people then dispersed.
It was indeed fortunate that the evening for the concert was arranged for Wednesday instead of for Thursday, as the rain on the latter night would have much interfered with the proceedings.
125 years ago April 27, 1899
Bradfield matters
BRADFIELD parish council annual meeting was held on Friday last.
On the motion of Councillors Henwood and Wise it was resolved that the clerk write the district surveyor and ask that some sort of pipe be substituted for the gutters in Scratchface Lane and that the obstructing boughs, bushes and brambles by its side be trimmed off.
Messrs Hancock and Simmons’ account for the footway bridge at Buscot Bottom, and for services as returning officer at the late uncontested election respectively, were put in and ordered to be paid.
The passbook showed the balance in the treasurer’s hand would be under two pounds.
On the proposition of the Chairman seconded by Councillor Jas. Johnson it was unanimously resolved that in the interests of the residents and property owners in the Valley of the Pang and neighbourhood, it is desirable that a light railway be constructed from Hampstead Norris to Theale.
100 years ago April 24, 1924
Sidecar smashed
THE dangerous corner when Park Street joins High Street was the scene of a collision on Sunday evening about seven o’clock, the parties involved being a motor mail van belonging to Messrs Parker and Stow and driven by George Hall of Hungerford, and a motorcycle combination driven and owned by William Frank Redman of Hungerford. The motorcycle and sidecar was proceeding in the direction of Salisbury from Newbury and the motor mail van was turning the corner from Park Street into High Street.
Both vehicles swerved and there was a crash.
The damage to the combination was front wheel mudguard and front forks completely smashed, front car and windscreen damaged.
The mail van had its front axle, radiator rods, tool box and rear off-side mudguard smashed.
The driver of the motorcycle received cuts of the hand and was severely shaken.
75 years ago April 28, 1949
Treasure trove
FIFTY one gold coins minted in the reigns of James I and Charles I, found recently in the bank of a hedgerow on Lye Farm, Woodlands St Mary, are believed to have remained buried since the troublous days of the Civil War, about 300 years ago.
Nine jurymen summoned to an inquest conducted by Mr JP Ross Orminston, district coroner, at Woodlands St
Mary Parish Hall, on Monday, found that the coins were treasure trove.
Thirty three of the coins were found by a seven-year-old boy, Thomas Arthur Smith, of Lye Farm Cottages on April 2.
First he saw two on the bank at a spot where the earth had been disturbed when trees were felled last autumn.
He got a pickaxe and dug until he found the others. They were loose but all together. He ran with them to his father, Mr Leslie E Smith, a tractor driver, who three days later took them to Lloyds Bank, Hungerford, where he learnt the coins were gold and belonged to the reigns of James I and Charles I.
He then handed them to the police.
50 years ago April 25, 1974
Model citizen
ONE of the few surviving members of the Royal Flying Corps who were mustered in 1917, Mr Ian Bradley of Hungerford is, at 74, also one of the world’s leading authorities on model engineering workshop techniques.
His 18 textbooks on various aspects of the craft have won him an enormous following. Even more avidly read have been the several hundred articles he has written since 1920 for such magazines as Model Engineering.
Still active in the elaborately-equipped workshop of his home on Park Street, Hungerford, Mr Bradley is, perhaps, even better known locally as the organist for three nearby churches.
For the last 20 years he has been helping in the campaign to restore the organ at St Swithun’s Church, Wickham. He has been playing the organ since he was seven and this talent was soon pressed into service when he became a student at Harrow.
Mr Bradley remembers how the music master at the public school often did not appear at chapel, leaving him to officiate at the organ.
In retrospect, Mr Bradley said: “This may have been a great tribute to my ability to play the instrument or the master’s way of throwing me in the deep end.”
25 years ago April 22, 1999
Vodafone hope
VODAFONE says it has overcome at least two of the four major obstacles standing in the way of its £120 million headquarters plan.
It is now counting on councillors to say it has done enough when they make a final decision on the plan in five days time.
On Monday at a special environment committee meeting, chairman, Mr Chris Marriage (Lib Dem, Cold Ash), used his casting vote to recommend the plan in its current form be turned down by the council next Tuesday. But Vodafone says it was encouraged by the closeness of Monday’s vote when six councillors voted in favour of the plan, and six voted against. Mr Mike Caldwell, Vodafone’s corporate communications manager, said he hoped the council’s transportation committee chairman Mr
David Becker (Lib Dem, Hermitage) would now back Vodafone at next week’s vote. Mr Caldwell said the two sides had held constructive talks on another key issue – improving the company’s travel plan for employees – earlier this week. The breakthrough follows the statement by Mr Jim Sherry, the council’s chief planner who two weeks ago recommended the plan for refusal, that Vodafone’s recent pledge to stay on the Shaw site site until at least
2010 had removed “perhaps the most fundamental obstacle to granting planning permission.”
10 years ago April 24, 2014
Chip shop blaze
FIRE gutted a Thatcham takeaway food outlet and forced its temporary closure. The blaze broke out in the Best Fry fish and chip shop and takeaway in the Burdwood Centre last Wednesday.
Green Watch manager at Newbury Fire Station,
Richard Young, said two pumps were called at 10pm to the takeaway, which is situated in a row of shops. “The chip shop was alight with 3ft-high flames coming out of the front door,” said Mr Young.
Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus extinguished the blaze.
Four staff had earlier evacuated the premises and no one was hurt in the incident. The cause was attributed to a faulty fryer and firefighters left the scene at 12.30am.
It has been claimed that, on the day the fire broke out, a customer found a metal screw in a portion of chips bought from the shop.
THIS picture of Shaw School pupils was taken in 1930.
The curriculum was a bit different to that of today’s children.
There was an emphasis on the three Rs – reading, writing and (a)rithmetic – but there was also nature study, singing and weekly country dancing lessons. Sewing, knitting, woodwork and cookery lessons were taught to older pupils as well as a personal hygiene once a week.
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