From Our Files: Prison break, runaway tanker, protest march and school rivalry
75 YEARS AGO
AT their meeting on Wednesday, Lymington Borough Council were informed that the Ministry of Health are now prepared to receive the Council’s proposals for the erection of 16 houses at Milford, which comprise the balance of the approved Milford scheme and also the Council’s two-year housing programme.
The Ministry are now being asked to approve the allocation of these 16 houses to four contractors, to whom it is proposed to allot two pairs of houses each at a total cost of £18,764.
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PLATELAYERS of the Central Division of the former Southern Railway have been awarded prizes for the best kept lengths of the permanent way. This gang of four is responsible for the maintenance of the railway lines between Sway and New Milton.
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TWO prisoners serving sentences of penal servitude escaped from Winchester Prison in the darkness and blinding rain on Monday night by scaling a 20ft high wall. Fred Wells, one of the convicts, was captured in Southampton on Tuesday.
Thomas Laye, one of the convicts who is still at large, was sentenced to seven years at Hampshire Quarter Sessions in April last year for being concerned with others in breaking into Walhampton Cottage and stealing jewellery worth £125.
50 YEARS AGO
AN ICI tanker carrying 3,000 gallons of methanol – known as wood or methyl alcohol – went out of control at the bottom of Hoopers Hill on the main A337 road between Lymington and New Milton, on Monday evening. As a result, the road was sealed for 20 hours until the tanker was pumped out and towed away.
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PEOPLE who were objecting to the residential development of part of Highcliffe Castle grounds did not realise that they were faced with a choice of about 12 high quality residences or a County institutional building, which could be a mental home, deputy Mayor of Christchurch, Cllr. W. Bentley told the A&T this week.
If the owners were given planning permission for 2.3 acres – as they had asked – they would be sitting on land worth £80,000-£100,000 which would give them “a very, very nice profit”. It had been hinted that the remainder of the land, some 11 acres, would be passed to Christchurch Council at a “give away price”.
25 YEARS AGO
ABOUT 80 people took part in the wage freeze protest by clerical staff and allied grades of the Ministry of Defence Signals Research & Development Establishment (SRDE) at Somerford. Mrs Vera Rhind, secretary of the Civil & Public Services’ Association, said that although only 80 had taken part in the hour-long work stoppage on Wednesday in last week, “we have the support of the whole establishment”. The stoppage was part of a protest against the Government’s wage freeze policy by Civil Servants all over the country and about 40 workers from SRDE walked in a protest march to the Somerford Hotel and back, some carrying placards. (Photo: Nicholas Gossip)
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A DECIDEDLY uneasy truce reigns in the Hordle Walhampton School confrontation after 140 parents from the two pre-merger factions, the former Walhampton and Hordle House schools at Lymington and Milford, became embroiled in a vitriolic shouting match at a meeting on Sunday evening.
Some ex-Walhampton mothers left in tears, staggered by the ferocity of an ex-Hordle House contingent whose disruptive tactics meant scant attention could be paid to the intended agenda.
Nevertheless, in the face of so much opposition, millionaire Jamie Sheldon has tendered his resignation as a school governor, and this week many parents have informed the A&T of their intention to withdraw pupils from Hordle Walhampton.
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SEVENTEEN years ago, Spencer Lodge was opened as a Cheshire Home for people with varying disabilities in the centre of New Milton. But now these residents have been alarmed to learn that the Labour government’s financial restraints will lead to social services withdrawing its night-care service.
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THE Saxon Square shopping centre in Christchurch is in line for a major facelift after its acquisition by London and Associated Properties for £8m.
The centre comprises 87,000sqft of retail space including a supermarket, 22 retail units, nine kiosks and a restaurant, all of which are fully let and produce annual income of £770,000 net of ground rents.
