Everyone was having wheely good fun at Newbury's new skatepark in 1977, while villagers mop up after Lambourn floods 50 years ago

Old Memories Revived: A look back at the NWN archives

Skateboarders took advantage of the new skatepark in Newbury in December 1977.
Experienced skateboarders showed how it should be done on the steep gradient provided for experts and they were joined by plenty of other enthusiastic skaters.

150 years ago - May 21, 1868

Attempted drowning. On Monday afternoon a woman named Ellen Stanbridge, wife of James Stanbridge, junr, painter, was brought before JF Hickman, charged with being drunk and attempting to drown herself.
From the evidence given, it seemed that on Monday evening between eight and nine the prisoner had had some words with a relative.
Immediately after, she gave a shawl and a basket to a neighbour, saying that she should never want them again, as she intended drowning herself.
She went away in the direction of Northcroft, but was followed by the prisoner’s mother, who had been apprised in the meantime of her daughter’s intentions, who meeting with a draper’s assistant named Palmer, implored him to go and save her daughter.
He went to the place where the boys usually bathe, and dragged out the woman, who was then in the water up to her waist.
She however struggled and threw herself in a second time, and was again rescued, and a policeman coming up immediately, she was handed over to his custody.
The Magistrate pointed out the folly with costs. The money was paid, and she left with her mother.

125 years ago - May 25, 1893

Wedding blessing. The Lord Lieutenant of
Berkshire has called a meeting to be held at the Assize Court, Reading, on Saturday next at 2.30, to determine on a suitable congratulatory address, and to take steps towards raising a fund for providing a wedding gift to be presented by the County and Boroughs of Berks, to their Royal Highnesses the Duke of York and Princess May on their forthcoming marriage.

75 years ago - May 20, 1943

RAF fight back for victory. A large attendance in Victoria Park on Saturday witnessed the R.A.F defeat the ‘Wings of Victory’ XI by six goals to three, after being three goals down in the first half.
Some fine football was seen. The pace was undoubtedly the reason for their victory and the wildness in shooting by the local lads’ team.
Many noted professionals playing gave good displays of football and dribbling. The ball was autographed by the players after the game and a draw for it realised over £8.
Mr F Davis refereed the game.

50 years ago - May 27, 1968

Water, water everywhere. Hoping for balmy pre-bank holiday weather, residents ended up baling out their homes and pushing cars through floods.
Water reached heights of two feet in the centre of Lambourn, leaving householders with massive mopping-up tasks.
Mrs Sandra Nolan, her husband Jimmy and young son Craig, watched helplessly as water poured into their house and reached such a height it filled the bath in her downstairs bathroom.
Mrs Nolan said: “It started at about 7.45 when I heard what I thought was water coming through the roof, but it was coming in the front and the back door at the same time.
“The river overflowed at the back of the house and the road was flooded at the front.
“We just grabbed everything we could and waited to see what the damage was.
“The logs we had in the garage just floated out. There is nothing you can do with water when there’s nowhere for it to go.
“It’s no good crying over it.”
Nearby, the landlady of the Lamb pub, Mrs Elaine Cram, watched as floodwater ruined parts of the pub which has newly been
refurbished.
She had recently laid a new floor, as well as new carpets, and said the whole lot was ruined.
Firemen worked throughout the morning to pump out water, and Mrs Cram said she was hopeful of opening again by the evening.
Mrs Virginia Walwyn, whose husband Peter has his horses at Windsor House, Crowle Road, said the stable lads had blocked the doors of all the stables using straw bales.

10 years ago - May 22, 2008

Park Way progress. Builders will finally start work at Park Way in September, after West Berkshire Council’s ruling executive backed a project-saving deal to get the floundering regeneration scheme back on the road.
Newbury residents will see the first signs of change in July, with the redesign of the Robin Hood roundabout, heralding two years of building work in the town centre.
With the board of financial backer Standard Life Investments (SLI) giving its blessing to the project on Friday, May 9, the council vote last Thursday was the final piece in the jigsaw to save the troubled scheme.
To save the scheme, the council executive has agreed to hand over £900,000 of unallocated public money to SLI to reinstate the 37 affordable flats that were axed from the plans to cut costs in March.
The council will keep £300,000 a year from the new underground car park at the site, rising as tariffs increase – equivalent to the money currently pulled in from the council-owned Park Way car parks, which were ‘sold’ to the developer for £1 to make way for the new shopping complex.
However, if Park Way draws thousands of extra shoppers into the town when it opens in 2010, any increased profits from other Newbury car parks, including those in Northbrook Street and Pelican Lane, will be split 50-50 between the council and SLI for a decade.
The Newbury Weekly News has also been told that SLI will hand over £500,000 to improve the Robin Hood roundabout as soon as the final deal is signed in the next month, allowing work to start in July on the notorious traffic black spot.
The council says that extra lanes and a hi-tech signalling system will increase capacity at the roundabout by up to 15 per cent, making way for building work to start at Park Way in September.
Early on in the development’s two-year construction, a huge sewer will be diverted near Waterstones in Northbrook Street, closing the road for up to three months.
The council has also indicated that the road closure could mark the point when Northbrook Street becomes permanently pedestrianised and the buses are finally removed.
Mr Jones said: “That area has been a bomb site all our lives.
“There have been quite a number of attempts to redevelop it over a number of decades. Now it’s happening.
“We’ve now got a project we can take forward.”