THIS week The Gazette launched the new nostaliga page reporting on news throughout the decades.

Here are some highlights found in the archives between 1985 and 2005.

1985


The £69,000 Dursley Youth Centre in Castle Street was officially opened in April 1985 after five years of fundraising by the Youth Action Committee.
 Facilities included a large activity room and kitchen.

A former policeman returned to the Bell Inn in Chipping Sodbury for a pint after 40 years.
Richard Ford was a young sailor on leave on VE Day 1945 when he called in at the inn, and 40 years later he returned to the place, which had become the Royal British Legion Club. He was overwhelmed by the amount of drinks bought for him – at sixpence a pint.

Unemployment figures dropped in ‘job-starved’ Yate, falling by 76 to 1,835.

 

1995


Renishaw was defying the recession around this time with surprise plans for a £3million extension to its machine shop at New Mills in Wotton-under-Edge.
This would provide nearly four times the space of the existing machine shop, rising to 5,500 square metres.

The Sodbury Vale Musical Comedy group celebrated its 25th anniversary this month.
The group, which performed in Chipping Sodbury Town Hall, was renowned for quality productions.

Pupils from year 10 at Thornbury Castle School visited the Gazette offices to learn about the production process and talk to the editor at the time, David Cullimore.

 

2005


Dursley residents were given the chance to grill Stroud’s parliamentary candidates at a Question Time style event.


Around 100 residents gathered at Dursley Tabernacle to quiz representatives from five political parties.


The candidates included David Drew (Labour), Neil Carmichael (Conservative), Peter Hirst  (Liberal Democrat), Martin Whiteside (Green Party) and Edward Noble (UKIP).

Yate Shopping Centre was put up for sale.
Owners Bourdon Partnerships, which bought the centre in 2003, announced  that they were planning to sell the centre despite it receiving a record number of visitors in the previous year.