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 – January 15, 2015
Ghostly goings-on
There’s something spooky going on at Hungerford Arcade.
Who – or what – was the mystery figure spotted lurking in the shadows after the ancient building was locked up for the night?
For years there have been unexplained noises and objects apparently moving by themselves in the dark.
But staff really got the jitters when they spotted a phantom customer on CCTV screens.
Arcade co-owner Hazel Browne was locking up for the night with managers Rita Kibble and Alex Rogers.
Mr Rogers said: “Rita came rushing down from the office to tell me that she and Hazel had seen a man on the CCTV screen behind one of the shutters I had secured.”
Worried he had locked someone in, Mr Rogers re-opened the shutters and walked in to the area where the figure had been.
Mr Rogers locked up again and went up to the office to find Ms Browne and Mrs Kibble still staring at the CCTV screen.
He said: “They were adamant that they had both seen somebody on the screen and that he was there just moments before the shutters had been locked.
“I laughed it off and suggested that if they saw somebody then there would be footage of him on the computer.”
To put their minds at ease, Mr Rogers started searching through the recent footage with the ladies.
Mrs Kibble said: “We all saw Alex lock the shutter on the screen.
“Then, just as the time when we had seen the figure was approaching, the clock on the screen jumped ... a full 15 minutes of footage was missing.”
25 years ago – January 13, 2000
Ethelred unready
About 20 intrepid walkers, local people and enthusiasts from as far as Bournemouth and Buckingham, braved the January chill to join the Battlefield Trust in celebrating the anniversary of the Battle of Ashdown.
The encounter between the AngloSaxons and the Danes, in 871, supposedly took place along the Ridgeway near Lowbury Hill, on the Downs above Aldworth.
King Ethelred and his brother Alfred were retreating from an unsuccessful attempt to take back Reading, which had fallen to the Vikings.
The walk visited the strategic positions of Ethelred and his first eleven of Saxon kings on top of Lowbury Hill, with Alfred’s second eleven of earls on his right flank, facing the Viking advance along the Ridgeway.
The devout Ethelred was engaged in Mass at the time of the Viking push and it was Alfred, unable to wait, who began the engagement.
The battle was bloody and the site was marked by a single naked thorn, ‘Nachdedorn’.
50 years ago – January 16, 1975
Boy found drunk
Patrolling Thatcham on New Year’s Eve, a policeman came across a 13-year-old schoolboy in Park Lane collapsed drunk on the pavement.
Magistrates at Newbury juvenile court heard on Tuesday how the youngster could not stand without assistance and was unable to tell the policeman his name or address.
The boy was taken to Newbury police station and it was not until the following day that he could tell them who he was.
Admitting being drunk in Park Lane, the boy told the bench “I went to a private party and picked up a beer.
“I now realise that it must have had something in it like a spirit.”
The boy’s father explained that he thought his son was going babysitting.
But he became worried when the person who was expecting his son that evening told him the boy had not turned up.
After looking for the boy, he was about to ring the police when they rang him.
The bench decided to remand the boy for reports.
