From our Files: Expensive bidding wars...long walk to long drop...millennium bug
75 YEARS AGO
DURING a case at Lymington County Court on Friday, the peculiar habit of some people in bidding at auctions just for the sake of outdoing their rivals, despite the value of the article, was commented on by his Honour, Judge A. H. Armstrong.
The second-hand value of carpets was being discussed and the Judge remarked that people often paid a large sum for an article at an auction, when they had only to walk down the road and buy a similar thing brand new for less money!
An expert instanced a case saying “If you get two ladies who want one article, they go on bidding against each other until one tires out.” “Ah, but they are not buying,” replied the Judge, “they are contesting with one another in a private match.”
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DURING last weekend 21 beach huts at Hordle were broken open, but as very few articles were taken from them it is thought that some hooligans out to commit wanton damage were responsible.
Further damage was done at Barton on Tuesday night, when windows of 14 huts were broken, while two kiosks on the cliffs at Naish Farm were broken open and a few articles stolen.
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COMPLAINTS that ice-cream cartons were being thrown away in Lymington High Street and they were afterwards picked up from the gutter by children who scraped out and ate whatever ice-cream remained in them, were made by Ald. E. H. Marshall at last week’s meeting of the Borough Council.
The question arose over a Public Health Committee recommendation of approval for an application of registration for the sale of ice-cream., Ald. Marshall said that ice-cream should be consumed on the premises where it was sold and he did not think they should issue any more licences. He asked what the Medical Officer’s comments were on the situation.
Dr E. Croft-Watts replied that it was a disgusting practice to throw these cartons in the gutter and for children afterwards to scrape them out.
50 YEARS AGO
Photo: Simon Rowley
SEEN holding, in right hand, part of a block of ice which fell through his roof early on Tuesday morning, Mr J. Batstone, shows the fragment which had been preserved in a neighbour’s refrigerator.
The ice, believed to have fallen from an aircraft, crashed through tiles near the ridge of his roof at his home, Cadnam, making a hole roughly 30 ins. Square. In Mr Batsone’s left hand is some of the debris from the roof. Police are investigating the incident with the help of airlines.
The most probable explanation for the ice, is that it formed on one of an aircraft’s leading wing surfaces due to climatic conditions at the height it had been flying.
Aircraft are equipped with means of breaking off any ice formation which forms and which could be dangerous to the aircraft.
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AND now the Parish Council are incensed over the long battle to provide public conveniences. They are dead against the planners’ latest suggestion that the toilets, to be provided in the Forestry Commission’s proposed car parks at the top of Queens Head Hill.
Said Mr J. Botterell at last Tuesday’s meeting of the Council: “It is ridiculous to expect people, especially the elderly to climb that hill to go to the loo”.
“We have been battling for three years to get toilets and we are reaching a stage, particularly during the recent hot spell, when there is danger of a health hazard”,
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WHEN a Milford man climbed on to his roof to rescue a cat, his good intentions went wrong, and, while the cat got down safely on its own, he found himself stranded and the fire brigade had to be called to bring him down!
He had used a ladder to climb on to the roof where the Siamese cat had apparently become stranded. But then he began to slip, and his wife telephoned for the fire brigade.
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A PLANT introduced to this country from America around a hundred years ago, as a garden shrub and possibly as pheasant cover, is becoming something of a menace in parts of the New Forest – so the Forestry Commision is carrying out a selective trial by introducing six pigs to see if they can control the plant. It’s Gaultheria shallon, locally known as American strawberry – it is hoped the pigs will rout around and destroy the plant, thereby reducing the need for herbicides on the Forest.
The pigs belong to Richard Stone, a commoner, Richard will make daily calls to feed and water the six pigs in the inclosure.
25 YEARS AGO
TERRIFIED shoppers looked on as a mink darted into a charity shop in New Milton. The mink, one of just over a thousand thought to be still free from the farm at Crow Hill in Ringwood, bolted into Help the Aged in Old Milton Road resulting in the store being closed for almost two hours while the staff waited for a keeper from the Forestry Commission to arrive to trap the creature.
“I was totally bemused that one minute I was trading and the next minute there was a mink running around my shop,” said its manageress Maureeen Dalziel. “We were wary of the mink and didn’t try to corner it in any way. We’ve got all sorts of weird and wonderful things in here and the mink was just sniffing his way around. It’s frightening to think that mink are not afraid of people and will not think twice about running in through an open door into a room full of people.”
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UNLESS computers and, just as importantly, electronically controlled equipment, are checked and corrected they could crash as 19999 turns into the year 2000.
This is the current message about the potentially devastating consequences associated with the so-called Millennium bug.
To help smaller businesses, the Government has made £26-m available to train their staff, assess their position and, if necessary, fix any Millennium bug problems.
Known as the Bugbuster subsidy, Hampshire-based employers can access this help through Hampshire Training & Enterprise council (TEC), supported by Business Link Hampshire.
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POLICE-INSP Geoff King, who took over control at Lymington police station last October, has asked to meet the Town Council over his suggestion of making the High Street one-way from the foot of the hill to Church Lane, east to west. On Wednesday evening the town councillors agreed they needed to consult traders, residents and visitors before meeting the Inspector. Maurice White stated such a scheme came up 17 years ago, when the then Police-Superintendent stated it would speed traffic by 15mph, “and while you can now walk away from accidents, you would then be picked up in coffins.” A full report will appear next week.
