LOOKING back on some of the stories the Gazette has reported through the years...

August 1977

A DOWNEND pensioner turned firefighter when a pan of fat caught alight on his cooker.

Aldwyn Stocker, 71, managed to keep the fire in check as he awaited the arrival of the emergency services at his Chesterfield Road home.

Mr Stocker threw old carpets saturated in water over the burning fat.

“It put most of the flames out, but the smoke was terrible,” said Mr Stocker, who is almost totally blind.

Mr Stocker and his wife Alice, aged 66, had been eating a fish and chip supper when they heard a noise from the kitchen and found the room full of billowing smoke.

Fire station officer John Lawes praised Mr Stocker’s actions of using wet carpet to put out the blaze.

August 1987

PARENTS at Redwick and Northwick Church of England Primary School began the final stages of a self-help project to improve school facilities.

A team of have-a-go mums and dads got stuck in to help with the building work necessary to extend the infants’ classroom and provide indoor toilets.

The project was the result of three years of hard work by the parents in a school which was set to have only 51 pupils in the autumn term.

The idea was conceived primarily because of the antiquated outdoor toilet facilities, which often froze up in the winter.

As it was such a small school there was virtually no chance of the then Avon County Council education department being able to fund the extension programme, so the parents decided to do the work themselves.

Anybody with any skills related to building - even those with none - were enlisted to help construct the extension.

Even the neighbours joined in by providing refreshments.