From Our Files: First for women...rail bosses’ binge...bowlers egged...cable death
50 YEARS AGO
A MIDLANDS businessman told a planning meeting that his plans for a 250-bedroom hotel at Milford would benefit residents as well as guests.
Dr Robert Pollock, chairman and managing director of Shorefield Holiday Camps Lts, said that the proposed bowling green, tennis courts, miniature golf course and swimming pool would be available to local residents at discounted rates.
He was appealing against New Forest District Council’s refusal of outline permission for the erection of the hotel on land east of West Road.
He said that there is a shortage of hotels in the village and residents had been “very upset” at the loss of the Camden Hurst hotel.
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FOR the first time in a 900-year tradition two women simultaneously occupy the offices of Lymington mayor and deputy mayor.
Mrs Doreen Rendell, 52, who runs the ladies’ fashion shop ‘Elizabeth’ in Whitefield Road, New Milton, was elected town mayor.
Mrs Henrietta Avery is deputy mayor who said she was hoping to “uphold civic traditions”.
25 YEARS AGO
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A TWELVE-hour drinking session by Railtrack chiefs in a Brockenhurst hotel has sparked public outrage and a major investigation.
The owners of the Balmer Lawn hotel are furious after 18 executives from the firm who were on a team building exercise went on a booze binge and walked around semi-naked.
The incident came a day after the inquiry into the Paddington rail tragedy which killed 21 people.
The company’s chief executive issued a statement saying: “This type of behaviour is insensitive and utterly unacceptable.
“It has no place in our industry and certainly no place in Railtrack.”
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BOWLERS at New Milton recreation park have been bombarded with eggs from the adjoining skateboard park by jeering youngsters.
It is the second time play had to be abandoned after some two dozen eggs were hurled at players. One player was struck on the neck, with an egg running down his whites.
Others were splattered as eggs were fired through the fence. The youngsters were aged around 12 and 13, and one was a girl.
Club secretary William Bickley said a lot of members were elderly and upset because of the “inane behaviour”.
Police say they have identified where the eggs were bought from and the store manager was helping identify who purchased them.
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A WRONGLY wired cable adaptor which was being used by a barefoot man who was mowing a damp lawn was the cause of his death, an inquest has heard.
He had been using the mower at his home in Lymington. An electrics expert found that the reversing of wires in the adaptor had proved fatal.
He said they were not marked as clearly as he thought they should be and he had also found two cuts on the cable of the mower.
The man’s daughter had found her father lying down on the lawn with sparks coming out of the cable connector which was in his hands.
