SNJ reporter Saul Cooke-Black looks back at news from across the decades.

1966

THIEVES targeted the home of Stroud MP Anthony Kershaw for the second time within a few weeks.

Raiders gained entry to the MP’s London home by removing the glass from a back door.

They took a television, a bronze statue, Mr Kershaw’s tiepins and tried to steal a chandelier which was badly damaged.

The burglary cost the Stroud MP around £250.

BOXER Henry Cooper lived in Stroud during the war years, it was revealed in his autobiography.

The boxing champion who passed away in 2011 was due to fight Cassius Clay at Highbury in May 1966 for the world heavyweight championship.

In his life story, which was serialised in a Sunday newspaper, Cooper revealed that his parents had earlier come to live in Stroud, and that his father worked at a firm making corrugated asbestos.

Universal Asbestos Manufacturers, based in Chalford, confirmed a Henry Cooper had worked for them between 1940 and 1942, and that he had lived at an address in Coppice Hill in Chalford.

RESIDENTS in Frampton-on-Severn were set to benefit from a free to use 20-acre lido.

Villagers would be able to use the lido for swimming, fishing and sailing.

Frampton Court Estate, which was establishing the lido for the village, hoped for it to be ready within 12 months.

A shelving beach was also being made to ensure that bathing would be safe.

1976

A VICAR hit out at plans to ban wooden memorials in cemeteries.

The Rev Peter Minall, from Stroud, said the proposal by Stroud District Council would mean ‘the loss of a freedom which had been exercised for centuries.’ Under the plans, only hard stone memorials would be allowed in council owned cemeteries in the Stroud district.

A STALWART member of the League of Friends of Stroud Hospitals was made the society’s first life member.

Fred Warren, general secretary since 1969, was given life membership at the league’s annual meeting after he announced his retirement.

The move meant Mr Warren would be able to give advice to members of the League of Friends and that he would be kept in touch with activities and events at the society.

1986

PARENTS in Stroud were being urged to strap their children into car seats as a £120,000 national advertising campaign was launched.

It came after figures showed more than 1,000 children were killed or seriously injured in crashes each year because they were not properly restrained.

Children and adults were by law obliged to wear seat belts if in front seats, and the campaign urged those in the back seats of cars to also be properly restrained.

LABOUR members of Stroud District Council called for urgent protests to be made to the Prime Minister after an American attack on Libya.

Councillors were calling for an emergency debate to discuss the attack and the use of refuelling aircraft from Fairford.

Members called for representation to be made to the PM to prevent the Fairford Base being used in future raids.

A proposed motion said the council was ‘deeply concerned’ that Stroud could become a possible target for reprisals by foreign extremists due to the Stroud District neighbouring the Cotswold District.

1996

A STREET entertainer was on his way to Weymouth to unveil the world’s first barn dance for people on folding cycles.

John Mills, from Bussage, was busy devising the square dances which delegates would do at the world’s first Forum for Folding Bikes.

Mr Mills, whose bike folded to fit into a medium-sized suitcase, came up with the idea by accident.

He said: “I offered to do an ordinary barn dance but due to a misunderstanding organisers billed me as staging a folding bike barn dance.

“I thought about it, and realised it could be done, just with a bigger area.”

He appeared on Channel 4’s Big Breakfast show with fellow folding bike riders ahead of the event.

2006

POLICE hailed a new dispersal power which was being trialled in Stonehouse.

The dispersal order allowed officers to break-up unruly gangs of youths by moving them on from an area where they may have been causing trouble.

It was introduced on a trial basis in Stonehouse- the first town in the Five Valleys – after a rise in ‘loutish’ behaviour.

Since then police patrols had been stepped up and officers had warned some about the new power, although nobody had been arrested under the order.

PAGANHILL Post Office was set to move to its new home in Maypole Hall after months of hard work by the community to save the service.

A £54,000 grant from the South West Regional Development Agency was to be used to regenerate the building.

The post office was set to open in its new location on June 23.