December 1986

IN RESPONSE to the alarming high levels of acid in rain, a unique project is about to be launched and carried out by thousands of children throughout Britain, including Northavon.

The project, Watch Acid Drops ’86, has been cleverly masterminded by the Royal Society for Nature Conservation’s junior branch Watch and will involve several Watch groups from Avon.

FOUR MEN from British Aerospace at Filton were getting over the shock this week of winning £753,000 on the pools.

The four travelled to London’s Savoy Hotel to receive the money – they each get £188,000 – from TV star Jan Francis of Just Good Friends.

TWO Northavon school cooks won prizes in a competition at The Bristol Exhibition Centre on Tuesday.

Mrs Paula Bruton, of the Manor Church of England Primary School, Coalpit Heath, won the first prize in the gateaux and torte section, while Mrs Pamela Millard of the Siblands School, Thornbury, was the runner-up in the same section.

DECEMBER 1996

A PACKAGE mysteriously delivered five times to the wrong Yate address finally found its way to its rightful owner this week after the Gazette took over where the Post Office failed.

Five-year-old Callum Davies of Littledean was delighted to finally reveive the competition prize he has been anxiously awaiting for a month.

EVERY day, 25,000 children in the Third World die from diseases caused by unsafe water supplies.

This is the sort of statistic which in 1986 inspired a few members of the congregation of Zion United Church in Frampton Cotterell to raise funds for WaterAid, a charity which helps to provide clean water to communities in developing countries.

They have since raised thousands of pounds for safe wells for 4,000 people in Uganda, West Bengan, Sri Lanka and Ghana.

Fundraising events included barn dances, garden parties and coffee mornings.

DECEMBER 2006

YATE is to have its own community hospital in less than two years after government health chiefs gave the project the thumbs up.

LOVING homes are wanted for numbers of dogs stuck in South Gloucestershire kennels this Christmas.

Dog wardens are searching for potential owners for half a dozen dogs, including two female Dobermans found recently wandering near the motorway.

SNOW lay all around in the Gloucestershire countryside when Tony and Glenys Hopkins tied the knot on Boxing Day, 1956.

Weather conditions were less harsh this week when the Thornbury couple celebrated their Golden Wedding anniversary amid family and friends.

“It was a happy day 50 years ago but we can do without the snow these days,” said Mrs Hopkins who met her husband during a visit to Thornbury’s picture house.