From Our Files: Scooby crimebusters...stolen tree returns dead...rave thwarted
50 YEARS AGO
TRAFFIC overloading in Lyndhurst High Street is in the region of 100 percent or double that which it was designed to take when the road was constructed, Mr David Robbins, told the public inquiry looking into Hampshire County Council’s application for a by-pass around the south and east of Lymington.
Putting the case for the County Mr Robbins said that the volume of traffic was quite inappropriate to Lyndhurst and that the situation was regressing to that of 1960 when due to congestion a temporary one way system was initiated supervised by six traffic policemen.
The one way system was made permanent in 1966. Mr Robbins outlined the case for the County Council for the great need for a by-pass. Surveys showed that an average of 80 percent of traffic going through Lyndhurst did not stop there.
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A NEW Milton company director who stripped and swam to the rescue of two fathers and their children, trapped in a swamped speedboat has won a bravery award.
Mr David Aldridge, 34, of Barrs Avenue, swam 200 yards to the stricken speedboat and helped the children, aged six and nine, above water.
He was aided by a mystery man who with a rubber ring stayed with the waterlogged vessel until a dingy took its passenger to the beach at Milford.
One 43-year-old father whose six-year-old daughter was aided by the two men told the Royal Humane Society “They remained with us, holding up the children and giving us confidence.”
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A LYMINGTON clergyman has forecast that unless the church reaches out positively and at a cost to young families “five years will see the closure of church doors.”
Rev. John Presswell who has special responsibility for All Saints Woodside said: It is obvious to all that the average age of our congregations is steadily rising.
“To ignore this fact by stating that, after all, we live in a retirement area is only to underline the imbalance and the potential malaise of the community within which we live.
“Just as the town of Lymington must urgently provide housing in the area financially within the reach of young people and encourage various forms of industry into the vicinity so the church must reach out positively to them.”
25 YEARS AGO
BEAULIEU folk welcomed in the New Year by going back to school. At noon on New Year’s Day over 300 people took part in a special service at Beaulieu Abbey church and after it a marching band went through the High Street to the village school.
The old school bell, which has not been heard for at least 75 years, was then rung inside the new bell tower which is a replica of one which graced the church in 1854.
One of the oldest pupils attending the event was Lena King who turned up for her first lesson in 1921.
She said the bell remained silent in those days as there were fears that the weight of the tower had affected the roof timbers and it was too dangerous. So the headmaster would ring a brass hand bell.
The whereabouts of the original bell remained a mystery until recently it was realised it was being used as a door stop at Lord Montagu’s home Palace House.
It has now been returned to the new bell tower.
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PLANS for an illegal New Year’s Eve rave in a disused warehouse in Somerford were thwarted when local residents called in the police.
Officers rushed to the former Nurdin and Peacock premises in Somerford Road at around 10pm where a large group of youngsters had gathered.
The electricity supply to the building was switched off and the crowd dispersed.
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THIEVES who stole the Christmas tree from outside a Lymington Old People’s home dumped it back there minus the £40 set of lights.
Residents of Linden House were very upset when the eight foot tree disappeared two days before Christmas.
“I expect whoever took it used it themselves over Christmas and although they have brought it back it’s had two feet chopped off the top and it's dead,” said Margaret Lomax who is acting manager of the home.
Fans of cult cartoon "Scooby Doo" will be pleased to learn that Scooby and the gang are still going strong having recently frustrated a crime in Pennington.
Fancy dress fans Adrian Speed (Scooby) Julian Glasspool (Shaggy) Al Upton (Thelma) Ben Richards (Fred) and Jon Nicholas (Daphne) found themselves the unwitting foils to a theft attempt on New Year's Eve.
As the gang made their way to a rave they were alerted to a commotion in Bays Road, They were just in time to see a man running out of the property followed by a group of partygoers who were screaming at him to stop.
The man had gatecrashed the party and stolen the owner's jewellery. But the thief's escape soon turned dog eared as he was blinded by a torch the gang shone on him. As a result he got his feet tangled in Scooby's tail and fell to the floor scattering the jewellery.
He then ran off but the gang managed to get the jewels. Fred said: "The owner was just over the moon."