On This Day...

Eighteen Years Ago

Search and Rescue teams brought in from a wide area were out all night, backed up by two coastguard helicopters from nearby Portland, when the small Dorset village of Affpuddle Fitzpaine was reported as missing, last seen the previous Thursday.

Ten Years Ago

Ambulances were called to the Parish Hall, Cleckersdyke, when three of the seven members in attendance at a meeting of the Policy & Resources Committee were found to have passed out from boredom. While paramedics saw to the casualties, plucky Councillor Ernest Bawdon battled on with the delivery of his 38-page interim report, adding an apology at the end for anything he might have missed out in the unforeseen circumstances.

Seventeen and a Half Years Ago

At a preliminary hearing before Swindon Magistrates’ Court, former contortionist Horace Furbidge pleaded guilty to two charges relating to an incident with a traffic bollard. He asked for a further 837 bollard incidents of a similar nature to be taken into consideration at the same time, before sentence was passed on the case.