SNJ reporter Eddie Bisknell takes a look back through the decades for some Stroud nostalgia.

1967

THE £50,000 road extension planned for Merrywalks was postponed.

Gloucestershire County Council aimed to install traffic lights to alleviate some of motorist’s problems.

They were to be installed at the crossroads formed by Merrywalks, the extension road and Cainscross.

The extension would cater for two-way traffic and filter in travel from the Painswick end of Stroud through the town.

TWO unexploded shells that were handed in at Stonehouse Police Station were taken away to be exploded by a team from the Southern Command Bomb Disposal unit.

The shells were found by two boys from Wycliffe College Junior School at Ashton Down Aerodrome.

They carried them back to the school on their bicycles and handed them over to their headmaster, who took them to the police station.

1977

A £200 MILLION plan to meet the needs of a rapidly increasing elderly population and have a much greater emphasis on health care at or near a patient’s home was set in motion by a regional healthcare authority.

The South Western Regional Health Authority set out its 220-page strategic plan, which would affect the lives of all three million people in the region.

It would also examine the needs of the health services and propose a £200 million spend on improvements by 1986.

MCEVOY OILFIELD Equipment Ltd in Woodchester were set to build a 7,000 square foot extension to their factory, which would cost £300,000.

The extension would allow the company to research and develop ‘subsea’ oil well control equipment in the North Sea.

Building work was expected to completed by the following October.

1987

WAITROSE clashed with Stroud District Council over plans for building right on the old brewery site between Merrywalks and Rowcroft.

Their plans were announced as an attempt to lift Stroud out of the doldrums, but SDC clashed with representatives of the supermarket at a public inquiry.

The council believed that the plans could jeopardise the multi-million pound Union Street shopping complex.

Waitrose felt that the two schemes could coexist.

WHITESHILL Parish Council changed its name after committee approval.

The council would be called Whiteshill and Ruscombe after district councillors on the policy and resources committee approved.

1997

PENSIONERS who feared they might be huddled behind drafty and leaky windows until the Millennium had their wait for double-glazing cut in half thanks to the Stroud News and Journal.

A report in the SNJ revealed how pensioners in sheltered housing at Ringfield Close in Nailsworth were concerned about the health and security failings of their tired and old metal-framed windows.

Norman Kay, district councillor for Nailsworth, said he would be recommending that the policy should be altered to give vulnerable residents in sheltered housing priority for improvements.

2007

POLICE believed a pair of big puma type cats were prowling in woodlands near Stroud after the remains of three deer were found in two weeks.

Dog walkers had reported finding skin and bones near the railway line in Cowcombe Wood, where deer were believed to congregate.