A FAR cry from Mayfair and Park Lane perhaps, but Oldbury Power Station was an equally romantic venue for the national Monopoly championships, held there in October 1977.

Two years previously it had been held at Fenchurch Street Station, and in 1977, Waddington’s, the makers of Monopoly, chose the power station as a suitably exciting representative of the Electricity Company and they cannot have been disappointed.

For though it was a gigantic public relations exercise for Waddington’s and the Central Electricity Generating Board, nevertheless sitting on top of the nuclear power cap certainly added a new dimension to a quiet family game.

One of the many budding property magnates giving themselves an outside chance was 12-year-old Justin Palmer from Greenhill Down, Alveston.

“I’m nervous,” he said, flicking through a wad of notes, and studying opposition towering two feet above him.

Having got hold of Park Lane, Mayfair, all the oranges and others, Justin looked well set , but no sooner had he collected the rent than he was forking out himself.