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

March 1977

A NUMBER of cycle thefts in the Yate area were reported to the police.
A Raleigh chopper valued at £25 was stolen from the garden of a house in Cranleigh Court Road.

A child’s bike, worth £10, was taken from outside the Southwold Sports and Social Centre.

Bicycles were also reported missing from outside a house in Witcombe and from a garage at Badgeworth.

THE bomb disposal unit was informed after a workman discovered what was thought to be the solid head of an anti-tank shell.

The man was cleaning out an asphalt mixer at the Yate premises of R.M. Douglas Asphalt and Paving when he made the discovery.

AN empty wooden rowing boat that was found drifting on the Severn posed a Marie Celeste type mystery to the police.

It was found floating near Newport Deep, and taken to Sharpness by Robert Langford, master of the motor vessel Fulham.

The fourteen foot long boat had a red bottom with blue sides, and contained a black oilskin top, several empty shot-gun cartridges, a plastic bucket, two oars and was in good condition.

Nobody had reported the boat missing, according to a police spokesman.

March 1987

HUGE lorries were reported to be churning up the grass around the edges of the war memorial at Hillesley, Hawkesbury parish councillors heard at a meeting.

The green was said to have been eroded and damaged as a result of vehicles cutting corners.

Cllr Henry Tucker said: “The grass has been ground to the earth.
“These heavy lorries just go over the green and cut it to pieces.”

The council resolved to write to the highways department requesting that the edges of the green are rounded off to prevent further damage.