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

March 1977

PLANS to extend the Student Christian Movement conference centre at Wick met with opposition at a town council meeting.

Residents told Northavon District Council that the access to Wick Court, where Tatlow conference centre is sited, was too narrow to cope with extra traffic. They said that noise was a particular concern.

A LEG of pork was stolen in a break-in at the Salter Street Abattoir at Berkeley.

The raid occurred following a forced entry to the building.

The joint, valued at £7, belonged to George Richings of Howmead, Berkeley. 

March 1987

YOUNG people who climbed the fire escape of the town hall in Berkeley to get onto the chapel roof were criticised by a resident.

It had cost the chapel £1,000 to get one of the roofs repaired recently and they could not afford to do it again, Beryl Rebbeck told Berkeley Town Council.

The youngsters were caught climbing the fire escape onto the wall, climbing down the drain pipe and onto the chapel roof. 

Mayor Gilbert Reeves said that the Town Council would assist with putting up barbed wire as a preventative measure.

GRATEFUL passengers on a bus that caught fire while passing through Almondsbury paid tribute to the driver that saved their lives.

The Badgerline bus, carrying mainly Thornbury passengers into Bristol, caught fire in March 1987.

Anthea Sturgess, a passenger on the bus at the time, described the incident: “I smelled smoke and, as I turned around, a teenage boy came running up from the back seat to tell the driver about the smoke. He pulled in immediately, right on the roundabout. 

“If he had driven any further, we might not have got out alive.”

While getting the fire extinguisher, driver Phil Bailey, of Redfield, Bristol, cut his thumb – the only injury caused by the incident.