Back in the day: We delve into our archives to see what was going on 10 years ago, 25 years ago and 50 years ago this week
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10 years ago – September 18, 2014
Star Wars snaps
Not so long ago on a common not far away...
The Force is strong with Greenham Common after pictures revealed that scenes for the next Star Wars film are being shot on the former airbase.
Photographer Matthew Myatt snapped Han Solo’s prized aircraft, the Millennium Falcon, alongside an X-Wing fighter parked outside bunkers at the former Ground Launch Cruise Missile Alert and Maintenance Area site, while shooting promotional pictures for Airbourne Aviation based at Popham Airfield in Hampshire.
The 47-year-old simulations engineer said he was hanging out of the aircraft as it circled over the common when something on the ground caught his eye.
But it wasn’t until four days later that he discovered he had photographed the famous spacecraft.
He said: “I knew what it was, but it was a surreal moment of complete disbelief when you can’t accept what’s there.”
He called his eight-year-old Star Wars-loving son James to help him confirm what he was seeing, and the youngster was shocked to see that his father had snapped the iconic ships.
Mr Myatt said: “Who expects to find the Millenium Falcon on Greenham Common?
“Star Wars happens in a galaxy far, far away, not 10 minutes up the road.”
20 years ago – September 20, 2004
First festival
Organisers of last weekend’s first Newbury Real Ale Festival have hailed it as a success and hope to make it an annual event.
Saturday’s festival at Northcroft was organised to raise money for Newbury and Thatcham Hockey Club’s ambitious plans to build a new club house at Henwick Playing Field, Thatcham.
Visitors had a chance to sample 18 different ales and one cider.
Festival organiser and club member Simon Hannon said: “We weren’t trying to reinvent the wheel. We thought it was a good idea because Newbury doesn’t have a festival that we are aware of.”
He added: “It all went brilliantly. Bearing in mind it was our first time there were no security issues or anything like that. The clientele were extremely well-behaved.”
Although final amounts of money raised are not yet known, Mr Hannon estimated that the day had raised £500 for the club, some of which will be donated to children’s hospice Naomi House.
50 years ago – September 19, 1974
Save our cottages
A row of derelict cottages on which there is a demolition order could be preserved for posterity if a campaign by Thatcham’s county councillor Mrs Nancy-Mary McLean is successful.
She hopes to save five empty cottages in Chapel Street from the bulldozer and to see them renovated.
Mrs McLean has been holding talks with Berkshire County Council planning officer Mr E Harris in the hopes of having the centre of Thatcham declared a conservation area.
She wants to see Church Gate, the Broadway, the High Street and part of Chapel Street preserved as the historic heart of Thatcham.
The cottages she is fighting to save are numbers 19 to 27 Chapel Street, which she sees as a vital part of her proposed conservation area.
She condemns as “legal vandalism plans to demolish the cottages”.
She wants to preserve the old parts to help to give the people of Thatcham a sense of history and a sense of belonging.
“Yesterday, today and tomorrow we can and must stand side by side,” she claims.
