From our Files: Tree thieves...knock-and-run fine...silver dumped
The keys to Highcliffe Castle have been handed back to contractors after contractors carrying out the £5.2 million restoration completed their work.
All the external works have been finished and the building is now in the finest condition it has been since it was built in the 18th century.
Cllr Bob Nicholson said: “We have been waiting since 1966 for this to happen but we always believed this magnificent building would rise again from the ashes.”
75 YEARS AGO
An octogenarian Darby and Joan couple who live in Ashley are still seething with indignation after dealing with the action of some hooligans.
On the birth of the newly born Prince the loyal old couple hoisted a Union Jack flag in their garden. But on going out that evening to take it down found the flag staff had been broken in half.
The flag had been torn into four pieces and tied to the gate. The incident is said to be the latest in a series which have been attributed to a gang known as the ‘Ashley Hooligans.’
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A man who was fined 30s for ringing a doorbell then running away told Lymington magistrates “Yes I did it, there is nothing else to do in this rotten dump.”
The owner of the house where he rang the bell had taken the defendants bike after seeing him ring the bell and refused to give it back. Police were called and arrested the man who became abusive to the officer.
He was also fined 17s for having ridden a bike with no lights.
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New Forest keepers and police are on their guard against Christmas tree thieves.
Recently there have been several hauls in the Brockenhurst, Lyndhurst and Burley areas.
The Forestry Commission have already sold all their Norwegian spruce this year, around 16,000 trees, to regular local customers.
50 YEARS AGO
Claire Puzey the four year old who endeared herself to commuters on the Southern Region and travelled 600 miles a week with her mother from Christchurch to Guy’s Hospital, London to spend ten hours on a kidney machine has died.
Claire who became known as the “Sweetheart of the Southern Region” was voted Miss British Rail Commuter 1973. She had had both her kidneys removed earlier this year necessitating the three journeys a week to the hospital.
Claire’s gaiety and courage endeared her to everyone involved on her regular trips on the 6.24am. It is believed her death was due to a blood clot.
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A party of 56 trainees and 14 escorts from the Hampshire Training Industries Centre, Christchurch, went through the ordeal of being asked to leave the Southern ITV recording studio Southampton minutes before the talent show ‘Opportunity Knocks’ was due to be recorded.
The trainees from the Endeavour Club comprised disabled children from all over the area. Just before the show was supposed to start a staff member told the group that host Hughie Green refused to put on the show with an “untypical audience” because it was unfair on amateur acts on whose performance this show might depend their livelihoods.
The group had to leave. For them it was an extremely disappointing, embarrassing and humiliating experience.
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Charged with keeping a car on a road without an excise licence a Pennington man told Lymington magistrates that the car did not have an engine or any front seats.
But when questioned he admitted that he had intended to refit an engine in the car.
He was found guilty of the offence and fined him £1.
25 YEARS AGO
An 8-year-old boy who punched a referee after he was sent off during football match has been displaced by his club.
The Highcliffe Hawk player was playing in a match against Jubilee Rangers at Sway.
Witnesses said the boy tried to attack the referee after he was sent off for hitting an opposing player.
The boy was suspended from playing for the rest of the season and “severely warned” about his conduct with the club saying: “We have sympathy for his age, but not his behaviour.”
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A rabbit has been stolen from a house in Lymington but her brother was left behind because he “bites badly” says their owner.
‘Jet’ named because of her colour was taken from the back garden of a home in Kings Road.
His 10 year old owner is ‘distraught’. But he was glad Jack, Jet’s brother was left behind.
He said: “He is quite vicious and if you went to pick him up he’d bite you.”
Jet on the other hand answered to her name. The rabbits were in an enclosed run when she was taken. A £10 reward has been offered for her return.
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An Aladdin’s cave of valuable silverware has been found stashed in the undergrowth of a car park in New Milton.
Five black bin liners of silverware were found by the same man in almost the same spot in Pig Bush car park five days apart.
Police have so far been unable to tie the silverware to recent burglaries and believe it could have come from a break-in somewhere else in the country.
The haul includes a silver platter, a fruit bowl and a table pan with bone handle.
