SNJ reporter Eddie Bisknell takes a look back through the decades for some Stroud nostalgia.

1967

PLANS for a new through-road in Minchinhampton were being fought by residents and Stroud Rural District Council.

The new road would link Dr. Brown’s Road and Bell Lane in a bid to ease congestion coming from Well Hill.

Their opposition was on the grounds of danger to school children due to the increase of traffic in the vicinity, due to the proposal of a new school to be built in the area the following financial year.

THE brewing and kegging of beer on the old Stroud Brewery premises at Rowcroft were due to come to an end.

For the first time in over two centuries the familiar cent of malt and hops was set to leave after a change of the “current policy or re-organisation and rationalisation” of Whitbread and Co Ltd and the acquisition of West Country Breweries in 1963.

A total of 54 employees would be affected by the closure which would not involve the Salmon Springs bottling department.

1977

SEVEN families living in a tiny hamlet near Painswick welcomed news that they would be getting a mains water supply.

Residents of Madam’s Wood told the SNJ that they had been without a reasonable water supply for 12 months because their local spring had dried up and the pump was broken.

They had been made to use rainwater when possible or take five-gallon containers at a garage.

SDC’s environmental and health committee supported the new scheme after hearing the situation “has now become critical, and there is significant risk to public health.”

FINGERS were crossed that plans for a travelling cinema would be approved.

Jan Bogdiukiewizi from Whiteshill, aimed to provide showings in Bisley, Oakridge and Cashes Green, old people’s homes in Stroud and Standish Hospital.

1987

SELSLEY Common was officially ownerless.

After legal wrangles during which parties including Stroud District Council laid claim to the land, the commons commissioner decided that the commons belonged to no-one.

However, the land would remain under the protection of SDC as it had since 1942.

A STROUD artist was given the rare honour of designing a new label for a bottle of French vintage wine.

Terence Millington was commissioned by the owner of Chateau Leoville Barton to design a label for his ’85 vintage.

He was the first British artist to be commissioned since Henry Moore designed the Mouton-Rothschild label in 1964.

1997

A UNIQUE 60-year-old order made by an army major gave residents in Stonehouse fresh hope for stopping Cristie Electronics’ plan for a business park on the edge of town.

The covenant made by Major Claude De Lisle-Bush in 1938 looked certain to spark a massive legal battle with national ramifications.

Residents and countryside groups were to join forces to stop the plan.

PUPILS at a school left homeless when its playground slipped down a hill were set to move into new facilities.

The first phase of a £400,000 move to Castle Street for Stroud Valleys School was set to begin after plans were submitted to Stroud District Council.

A landslip was caused by the demolition of the former Holloways factory to make way for 22 starter homes below the school.

2007

CONTROVERSIAL artist Damien Hirst had outraged residents in Dudbridge with plans to build an art studio which uses animal carcasses for art, just metres from their doorsteps.

Mr Hirst, whose sculptures include a dead shark in pickled formaldehyde and a severed cow’s head being attacked by maggots and a rotting cow and a bull which was banned from an exhibition in New York by public health officials, had already been granted permission to build a factory-style studio at the site in Dudbridge Road, Stroud.