1940 - Hitler claims Bristol has been completely destroyed following a night of intensive bombing on November 2 in which 5.000 incendiary and 10.000 high explosive bombs are dropped on the centre of the old city. On November 24, the entire area that is now Castle Park is destroyed in a bombing raid. During World War Two 1,299 people in Bristol are killed by German bombing. About 3,000 buildings are destroyed and 90,000 are damaged.

1941- The infamous Good Friday air raids on Bristol see more destruction in the centre ofthe city plus major damage to Knowle, Hotwells and Filton.The last air raid on Bristol is on April 25, 1941, when Brislington, Bedminster and Knowle are badly hit. Prime Minister Winston Churchill visits the devastated city on April 12,1941 and is booed by crowds amid rumours that the city’s air defences are not being properly managed.

BRISTOL BLITZED

The Second World War involved the entire nation. For the first time war with another state brought the civilian population into direct contact with the enemy on the Home Front, and people found themselves participating in the defence of their city.

Bristol’s civil defence involved the creation of volunteer forces of air raid wardens, street fire guards and, in case of a land invasion by the Germans, local platoons of an auxiliary force — at first known as the Local Defence Volunteers; it soon became better known as the Home Guard. Voluntary medical services such as St John’s Ambulance Brigade and the British Red Cross Society also played a major role in attending to the wounded. Civilians, therefore, found themselves working alongside the armed forces, the police and full-time fire brigade in the defence of the city.

But everyone in Bristol — as in other large cities — was a target as the Germans attempted to destroy civilian morale by night-time bombing of English cities during the bleak winter of 1940/1.

The announcement by the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, on 3 September 1939 that a state of war existed between Britain and Germany at first made little difference to most Bristolians.

Street lighting was extinguished and motor cars forbidden to use their headlamps, which led to an increase in road accidents and of people falling into the docks, but there was no immediate German attack. This was the period of the ‘Phoney War’.

Hitler had been taken unawares by his own success and had made no preparations for the invasion of England. Throughout the ensuing months the strengthening of air defences which had begun in 1937 continued: anti-aircraft guns, searchlights and barrage balloons were deployed around the city.

The fear of a gas attack had resulted in the general issue of gas masks in late 1938; they had to be carried at all times and drills on their use were regularly carried out. Surface air-raid shelters were built and Anderson shelters — named after Sir John Anderson, the Home Secretary were issued free to those with an income below £250 a year.

Bristol’s civil defence was co-ordinated by the ARP based in Broadmead, and the backbone of the ARP was the wardens’ service , which was under the direct control of the Chief Constable.

The first air raid in the Bristol area occurred on 25 June 1940 when the Luftwaffe bombed St Phillips, St Pauls, St James and Brislington although they were actually aiming to destroy the works of the Bristol Aeroplane Company at Filton.

There was little major damage although five people lost their lives. Several other relatively minor attacks occurred through the summer of 1940, but a serious attack on the aircraft factories at Filton took place on the morning of 25 September.

One Heinkel bomber was brought down by anti-aircraft guns at Portishead the first of only two enemy aircraft brought down by Bristol’s anti-aircraft guns during the war. The other raiders reached Filton and within forty-five seconds had wrought major damage to the plant: ninety-one employees of the Bristol Aeroplane Company were killed and the development of the Bristol Beaufighter, a new fighter plane, was delayed.

With unsustainable losses being suffered during daylight attacks on Britain in mid-October 1940, the Luftwaffe turned to the night bombing of cities, and Bristol suffered its first major raid on 24 November, a Sunday evening. From about 7.00 pm until midnight 134 German aircraft dropped high explosive bombs and incendiaries on Bristol.

Fire raged across the city, lighting up the sky and betraying the position of Bristol to enemy air crews from up to 50 miles away. Seventy-seven fire brigades were sent into the city to assist the Bristol force in fighting the fires. The next morning, shattered and dazed, Bristolians walked through the ruins of once-familiar streets filled with the acrid smell of burning, masses of broken glass and the melancholy drip of water.

Only a skeleton structure of charred wood remained of the Dutch House; St Peter’s Hospital, the jewel in the crown of Bristol’s old timber framed buildings, was gone and the Upper Arcade between The Horsefair and St James Barton was destroyed; several medieval churches were badly damaged — St Peter’s church, St Nicholas church, St Mary-le-Port church — although their towers all survived; several almshouses were also destroyed.

Most of the shops in Wine Street and Castle Street were wiped out and Mary-le-Port Street was totally destroyed; there was also extensive damage in Victoria Street, Redcliff Street and Thomas Street. Clifton also suffered extensive damage:

St Andrew’s, the parish church, was bombed — although again the tower survived — only to be demolished in 1954. Queens Road, Park Street and Park Row saw extensive damage: the Prince’s Theatre was destroyed; so too was the Museum and part of the Art Gallery.

There was also damage to the University, including the Great Hall, and Lennards premises on Queens Road was reduced to a pile of rubble. Houses in Bedminster, Knowle and St George were also bombed. The official casualty list included 200 people killed, 163 seriously injured and 526 slightly hurt.

The assertion in a German newspaper, however, that Bristol had been wiped out as a major industrial centre was a huge exaggeration, but the scale of the damage revealed how vulnerable the city was to air attack.

The Luftwaffe exploited the inadequacy of Bristol’s air defences over the following months, with bad winter weather the city’s only effective defence. The next major raid occurred just over a week later, on the night of 2 December, when 167 fires broke out across the city: the Bishop’s Palace was destroyed, 156 people were killed and another 149 were seriously injured.

The third large air raid took place on the evening of 6 December, and again caused damage to buildings in the centre as well as several industrial sites, including Parnall’s aircraft works at Barton Hill.

This raid killed 100 people and seriously injured eighty. The New Year began with a large-scale attack by 178 aircraft, which lasted nearly all night. Temple Meads railway station and the City Docks suffered much damage; the Corporation Granary on Princes Wharf was destroyed and St Augustine-the-Less was badly damaged.

This was also one of the coldest nights of the year, and fire-fighters and other units had to combat the fires in biting cold and ice. Avonmouth was attacked on 16 January but worsening weather then forced a halt for a while, and the next major raid was not until 16 March. This raid, by 167 aircraft, hit parts of the centre which had previously escaped, and also caused extensive damage in the industrial suburbs of East Bristol; as a result, the casualties were higher on this night than at any time during the war: 257 were killed and 391 were injured.

Another raid took place on 9 April and then the last large-scale raid took place on 11 April — the so-called Good Friday raid when 153 German bombers attacked the city, causing extensive damage in areas close to the City Docks and also resulting in the destruction of Cheltenham Road public library and Colston Girl’s School opposite.

The Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, was on his way to Bristol when the Good Friday raid took place, and had to delay his arrival until it was over. As Churchill toured the bomb-scarred city he was booed by some Bristolians who blamed the government for their predicament. Morale was at an all-time low after so much death and destruction during a bitterly cold winter.

That Bristol suffered there can be no doubt; the Germans reckoned Bristol was the fourth most bombed city in England. Until September 1941 the enemy killed more civilians than combatants in England, and although morale in Bristol held out — just — many people suffered from considerable stress during the blitz.

From the spring of 1941 the Germans began to turn their attention towards Russia and the heavy raids stopped. There were a few sporadic attacks during the summer of 1941, but they were mainly small-scale affairs. In August 1942 a single bomb from a Junkers 86R flying largely undetected at high altitude fell on Broad Weir, killing forty-five people.

The following year passed without a single raid and the final attack by the Luftwaffe on Bristol occurred on 14 May I 944. In over seventy raids on the city 1,250 people were killed, 3,000 were injured and 89,000 properties were destroyed or damaged, but Bristol survived, and industrial production increased through the war years. In May 1945 the people of Bristol celebrated victory and turned to the task of rebuilding the city.

1940s - 1950s - Bristol's Pollution

It's interesting, but not really surprising, to find that 60 years ago the weather - in another gloomy November week - was dominating the headlines. Fog enveloped Bristol - or at least the Eastville and Fishponds areas of the city - (aided, no doubt, by pollution from the many coal fires) almost paralysing transport.

By 11pm visibility at Filton was down to five yards, with traffic almost at a standstill on the Gloucester Road. But while the city suffered, the Bristol Evening Post said that many country areas were clear. Despite this, the Aust ferry - which carried passengers and cars over to Chepstow - was cancelled indefinitely. Dense fog was reported at Portishead. No aircraft were arriving or leaving from Whitchurch airport and there was a complete hold-up of sailings from both Avonmouth and the City Docks.

ON THE BUSES

Trains were arriving from London up to half an hour late and city businessmen were taking an unprecedented 50 minutes to get to work from places such as Clifton and Henleaze. It was chaos. Other news of the week concerned bus drivers and conductors (they were the ones who took the money and gave you tickets in those far off days) who were due get a pay rise of 11 shillings a week (just over 50p). Maintenance workers, however, were only to get eight shillings and 3p a week more. The unions had been asking for between 16 and 33 shillings. As it was estimated that the rise would cost the Bristol bus company an extra £100,000 a year, guess what? Yes, you're right - fares went up by 2p and 3p the following week.

You'll no doubt be pleased to hear that busmen of all grades would now be getting between £7 and £8 a week - with drivers getting £7 and 18 shillings. That, incidentally, was about the average wage in those days. Of interest - if only because it's recently been announced that it's on the way back - was the Corporation's collecting of kitchen waste to use in pig swill. The average weekly collection totalled 300 tons which, after 'treatment' yielded about 260 tons of so-called 'Bristol pudding', collected by farmers and used for pig food. Only five other cities in the country had such a service, and Bristol's was considered to be the best. Chief credit for this, said the Post proudly, were the city's housewives. Each week they filled 130,000 specially- provided bins. People were being asked politely not to put their cutlery in the bins - the pigs didn't like it.

'She'll love a Hoover Steam Iron for Christmas'

Still on the subject of housewives, many of them (if not all) were delighted to hear that purchase tax was to be withdrawn on household brushes, brooms and mops (remember them, the stringy ones?). The idea was to help the trade, rather than the household purse, especially as many blind and disabled persons derived their living from it. Still, people must have been revelling in domestic bliss back then - one festive street ad suggesting: 'She'll love a Hoover Steam Iron for Christmas'. Such a wonderful present at only £4 19 shillings and 6p. Want a tip? Don't take that advice today.

Hogarth Altar Piece

Some items of great concern for those interested in this great city's illustrious past popped up in the Bristol Evening Post 50 years ago. One was a story about the Hogarth altar piece, three oil paintings commissioned by the Vestry of St Mary Redcliffe some 250 years ago. This triptych - which had been in store for some 80 years - was being handed over to the Corporation of Bristol to be hung on public view in the City Art Gallery. So where, you are entitled to ask, is this rare item now? As far as I know (and I might very well be wrong) it's still languishing in the abandoned St Nicholas church museum, locked away from public view. Bristol's reverence for its past was also revealed in a story about the last service to be held at the Old King Street Baptist Church in Broadmead. This chapel had a longer history than any other Baptist church in the city - it was founded at Quakers Friars in 1640 and it moved to Old King Street in 1815 - so of course it was being demolished. The reason? It was in the way of the 'new' Broadmead shopping area.

'savage assault' Southmead

The congregation moved to Redland. Another one of Bristol's treasures, on the other hand, was getting a thorough inspection. Brunel's suspension bridge was closed for the week to all but pedestrians while workmen began examining and testing one of the two cross-girders. The old one, removed and taken away to be tested 'to destruction', was to be replaced by one coated with zinc A shocking Bristol court case that made the headlines 50 years ago concerned a 'savage assault' allegedly made by a 35-year-old Southmead man on his wife using a broken milk bottle. The couple, the court was informed, had been married 15 years and had three children, aged six, 12 and 14. Their life together had not been happy, and three months previously the man had put his wife 'out of the house'. She had moved into lodgings, but then resorted to prostitution. There was evidence, it was said, that the husband had received some of the money earned this way. On the evening of the alleged assault, the couple had been out drinking.

There was a quarrel on the way home and the man told his wife: 'I'll rip your face so that no man will look at you.' She was crying when they reached the house, so their 14-year-old daughter made a cup of tea. After using bad language, which the daughter tried to stop, the man threw his cup of tea over his wife. 'As she stood up he punched her hard in the mouth with his left hand,' said the prosecution. 'She fell back against the wall.

Then he picked up a milk bottle, smashed it against the wall and took hold of his wife by the back of the head. 'Holding her with his left hand, he struck her repeatedly in the face with the jagged glass, causing very severe injuries. She was taken to hospital and had 16 stitches inserted, 14 in the face.' In evidence, the wife said that while they were walking home her husband said 'I'll 'chiv' you'. During the alleged attack she felt a sharp pain and everything went red. She told the court: 'He was saying 'I'll finish you off' and dragged me up by my hair and slung me around the room.' A policeman said that when he went to the house the woman's face was badly cut and bleeding. 'All she could say was, 'take him away, he's mad'.' In his defence, the husband said that he had told his wife that if she did not change her ways he would change them for her for the sake of the children.

He had made allegations against his wife, and his eldest daughter slapped his face. 'She started to yell and shout and I lost my temper and struck her,' he said. 'She fell face down among the glass from the broken milk bottle and that was how her face got cut. 'I did not actually intend to cause the injuries - I threw the milk bottle at her and it smashed against the wall. While I was punching her, her face was twisting about and must have been going into the broken glass.' The man was committed for trial - on a surety of £100 - at Bristol Assize (the old Crown Court). The jury found him guilty.

1945 - Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Chancellor of Bristol University, receives the freedom of the city.

1947 - Some Bristolians begin to complain about an odd buzzing noise and the Bristol Hum is born. According to the five per cent of people who can hear it, the hum sounds like the dull drone of a distant aircraft. It varies in intensity from a soft background noise to an overpowering onslaught and causes headaches. nausea, dizziness and even muscle spasms.

1949 - The Bristol Brabazon, the world’s largest passenger airliner, makes its maiden flight from Filton on September 5.

1952 - Following the failure of the Brabazon prolect, the Bristol Britannia makes its maiden flight from Filton. It goes on to become the first plane to carry 100 passengers non-stop cross the Adantic.

1956 - Queen Elizabeth II opens the new Council House on College Green.

1957 -The Duchess of Kent opens Bristol Airport at Lulsgate.

1958 - On December 5, Queen Elizabeth II makes the first trunk dialling call in Britain from Bristol Central Telephone Exchange.Trunk dialling is making a long-distance call without the aid of an operator. She calls the Lord Provost of Edinburgh. Her call lasts two minutes five seconds and costs 10p.

1959 - Bristol’s first curry restaurant opens. The Tal Mahal in Stokes Croft is run by Mr Ahmed, a Bengali. It is the the first Indian restaurant in the West Country.

'Three Steps To Heaven'

1960 - The death of a rock and roll legend on the local scene didn't even make page one of the Evening Post on April 17th, 1960. Whoever was in charge of choosing that day's main stories for the Post had never heard of 'Summertime Blues', 'C'mon Everybody' or 'Three Steps To Heaven'. And the name Eddie Cochran clearly rang no bells at all when the morning news conference was called.

Although one of the most influential figures in late 50s teen culture and later a hero of the great hall of fame of young, dead rockers like Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Otis Redding and John Lennon had died in a tragic road crash on the Post's 'patch', the event was only given sparse coverage. Turn to Page One that Monday and you'll search in vain for the tale of Cochran's death. You have to turn the pages to find the news, and even then Eddie Cochran's demise isn't the introduction.

'Two American recording stars, Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent, who headed the bill in a rock'n'roll show at Bristol Hippodrome last week, and were due to fly home to America, were involved in a crash yesterday. 'Mr Cochran died, without regaining consciousness, at St Martin's Hospital, Bath yesterday afternoon. Mr Vincent, with a fractured collarbone, is still detained there. 'Within an hour of leaving Bristol for London after the last performance on Saturday, the hire car in which they were travelling collided with a lamp standard at Rowden Hill on the outskirts of Chippenham.

'Mr Cochran's body will eventually be taken back to America for burial. 'There were two other passengers, Miss Sharon Sheeley (20), an American song- writer and Mr Patrick Tompkins (29), a theatrical agent of St James Road, Camberwell, London. 'They too are detained at St Martin's Hospital,in the city of Bath. Miss Sheeley with injuries to back and thigh, and Mr Tomkins with facial injuries and a suspected fracture of the base of the skull. 'Neither Mr Vincent nor his two friends were said last night to be on the danger list.

'The driver of the car, Mr George Martin of Bristol, was unhurt. 'There were no other vehicles involved. Mr Tompkins said: 'Just outside Chippenham the front tyre blew out and we skidded sideways into a lamp standard'. 'He added that he had been planning to take a train back to London from Bristol but Mr Vincent suggested travelling by taxi.' The Everly brothers, Don and Phil, were in Bristol the next day and were deeply shocked by the news.

They rang the Bath hospital to ask if Sharon Sheeley could receive visitors and later came to her bedside to comfort the gifted, sparky young songwriter who lay injured and devastated by the tragedy. She recovered and returned home. The taxi driver was later fined and disqualified for dangerous driving. As for Eddie Cochran, his reputation as rock'n'roll's equivalent of James Dean grew and grew. His small collection of songs are now regarded as some of the classics of early rock'n'roll.

1961-The Arnolfini is established by Jeremy and Annabel Rees above a bookshop on the Triangle. Clifton.

1962 -The skyline of Bristol, historic city of hills, towers and spires, changed dramatically in the early 60s. And 1962 was the year Bristol started to reach for the sky with the two first-ever 'skyscrapers' which would usher in two decades of building up and up and up. They weren't on the NewYork scale, but to Bristolians they looked like giants.

The printing company Robinson's space- age headquarters by Bristol Bridge was a whopper, a mega-block of light colour which stood out dramatically against its redbrick, low-rise neighbours. Clifton Heights on the Triangle wasn't as big, bulky or tall but its position on the Clifton hillside made it visible for miles around. High rise was a novelty when the Post sent reporter Roger Bennett to take a look at the two giants rising over the Bristol scene.

Colour bar against black bus crews

1963 - Paul Stephenson leads anti-racist protests against Bristol Omnibus Company following the company’s refusal to consider black people for jobs.

On the 30th of April 1963 local West Indian activists publicly exposed Bristol Omnibus Company's long standing colour bar against black bus crews. The bar was perfectly legal, for although an Immigration Act had been passed the year before, no law yet existed against racial segregation or discrimination.

The Bus Company initiated the ban after a union ballot of workers in 1955. The Passenger Group of the TGW Union in Bristol reportedly passed a resolution in January of that year that coloured workers should not be employed, as bus crews.

Ron Nethercott, the TGWU’s regional secretary, adamantly denied any decision to ban West Indians had been made: ‘...there is no colour bar. We have a lot of coloured members in Bristol, most of them on the labouring side.'

Strictly speaking, Nethercott was right. The TGWU as a whole did not operate a colour bar. Indeed, the Quaker owned Fry’s chocolate factory employed several hundred black workers who were bona fide members of Nethercott’s union. But what Nethercott ommited to explain was that the TGWU had not opposed their Passenger Division from passing a colour bar on the buses!

The bus company’s General Manager, Ian Patey was a bit more forthcoming. A few West Indians, he reportedly explained: 'were employed in the garage but this was labouring work in which capacity most employers were prepared to accept them.'

Malcolm Smith’s article concluded that a formal colour bar probably did exist on the buses, despite the denials of both union and management. Sometime in 1962, Ena Hackett, Roy Hackett’s wife, applied for a job as bus conductress and was turned down, despite the reported labour shortage on the buses: 'it always been in the newspaper, the Evening Post that, ‘we cannot run the buses because we haven’t got any staff ‘And at the time my wife had applied for a job on the buses. Unfortunately, it was always, ‘No, we can’t have you.’ Then there was no law against discrimination.' 'People tend to forget there were no laws against racism'

1965 -The Race Discrimination Act is passed by Parliament after Bristol East MP Tony Benn takes up the campaign started by Paul Stephenson.

The Cumberland Basin road and bridge scheme opens

1965 - Wednesday April 14th The Cumberland Basin road and bridge scheme opens. It should have been a day for motorists to celebrate in road-crazy Bristol. After all, the city's leaders were demolishing Georgian relics on the edge of Broadmead as fast as they could to clear the way for the Bond Street dual carriage-way. Old Market was being dismembered for the great slice of underpass and bridgework to make Temple Way a swifter journey for the motorist.

There were firm plans to send a four-lane a motorway charging through inner suburbs like Totterdown, Clifton and Cotham. And Bristol's proudest achievement, its very own spaghetti junction to make life easier for the commuters pouring in from the new satellite towns of Nailsea, Portishead and Clevedon, was being opened by Transport Minister Mr Tom Fraser. Mr Fraser, however, wasn't in cel bratory mood. . .he sounded more like a prophet of gloom.

'Transport Minister Mr Tom Fraser warned motorists that he is considering a congestion tax' to beat city jams. 'He is planning further steps to discourage people from using cars in and around city centres. 'Parking controls, loading and unloading and no waiting restrictions have to be used more strongly in the future, he said.

1966 -The Queen opens the £10 million Severn Bridge on September 8.

Bristol's Mecca Centre Opens

1966 - Thursday May 19 is a glittering night in Bristol when 800 of the West Country’s VIPs are invited to the opening of the city centre’s brand new £32 million leisure complex on Frogmore Street With a dozen licensed bars, a casino, a cinema, a night club, an ice rink and a thousand plastic palm trees, this is the biggest entertainment palace anywhere in Europe and somewhere to rival the West End of London. There are girls! In bikinis! There’s even pineapple! On sticks! Drivers park their Hillman Imps in the multi-story car park!

And, amazingly enough, the venue has been an entertainment centre ever since.

Bristol . . . entertainments capital of the South West, and one of the entertainments attractions of Europe. That was the talk of the town when Mecca moved into Bristol, splashed out a fortune and began building the New Entertainments Centre in Frogmore Street, towering over the ancient Hatchet Inn and the Georgian and Regency streets nearby.

The New Entertainments Centre wasn't just big, it was enormous and it was what 60s leisure and fun-time were all about, Mecca promised. Here, slap bang in the middle of Bristol, the company was creating the largest entertainment centre in the whole of Europe. A dozen licensed bars, an ice rink, bowling lanes, a casino, a night club, a grand cinema, asumptuous ballroom and, naturally, a multi-storey car park to accommodate all those Zephyr Zodiacs, Anglias, Westminsters, Minis, Victors and Imps etc which would come pouring into town bringing the 5,000 or so customers who would flock to the centre every day.

London might have its famous West End. Bristol had its Frogmore Street palace of fun and the opening night of the biggest attraction of all, the Locarno Ballroom, on May 19th was the Night To Crown All First Nights, the Post proudly announced. Sparkling lights, plastic palm trees in shadily-lit bars, a revolving stage, dolly birds in fishnet tights and grass skirts . . . this was glamour a la mid-60s and Bristol loved it.

Horace Batchelor

1966 - KEYNSHAM became a familiar household name to millions of Radio Luxembourg listeners across Europe in the 1950s and 1960s — thanks to a local betting expert.

Self-styled 'football pools king' Horace Batchelor helped punters win a total of more than £12 million between 1948 and 1971 at a time when £75,000 was a fortune and his series of radio ads always mentioned mentioned Keynsham, which Horace would then spell out.

Customers followed his unique 'infra draw' tip system, which forecast which matches would be drawn in the pools. He put the otherwise little-known town on the map by spelling out its name letter by letter so listeners would address their applications correctly when ordering tips by post.

His ads included genial patter such as: 'Hello, friends — this is Horace Batchelor, the inventor of the fabulous Infra-Draw system. You too can start to win really worthwhile dividends using my method.'

Members of the system clubbed together to enter very large permutations with a good chance of winning the pools and then sharing the takings — though each individual only received a small fraction of each big windfall. Horace himself set a world record by personally netting more than 30 first dividends and thousands of second and third dividends.

During his heyday up to 5.000 orders a day were delivered via Keynsham to his office in Old Market, Bristol. His first major pools win came in 1948 when he was presented with £11,321 at Bedminster’s Rex Cinema —part of the biggest dividend then paid by Sherman’s Pools.

It also included £45,000 which he shared with syndicate members. - By 1955 he had won enough to live in luxury, running three cars and puffing cigars in an 18-room house. He later retired to a 27-bedroom ‘Batchelor pad’ in Bath Road, Saltford, a small village just outside of Keynsham, which he named 'Infra -Grange' after his system.

Itchycoo Park

1967 -Steve Marriot writes the Small Faces hit Itchycoo Park while staying at the Grand Hotel in Bristol.

1967 -In the big, big world of movies he was one of the greatest male stars, she was the greatest box office draw of them all ... and together they formed a superstar pair which wanted Bristol as the TV jewel in their glittering crown.

TWW.TELEVISION

The very mention of the names Richard and Elizabeth meant one thing in the Swinging Sixties. Richard'n'Liz, Burton and Taylor, Anthony and Cleopatra. So it was front page news when it became clear that the most colourful couple in movieland's history were seriously contending to take over the TV franchise for Bristol and South Wales. 'Richard Burton told the Evening Post this afternoon: 'I am backing the bid for the West and Wales TV contract. ''Both myself and Miss Elizabeth Taylor are strongly supporting this application' he said. Mr Burton is filming in Nice. 'He leads an international list of stars who have joined in the bid for the contract now held by TWW.

'Another star named today as 'very interested' in the consortium bid is Harry Secombe. Film star Stanley Baker and opera singer Geraint Evans have already promised their support. 'Broadcaster Mr John Morgan, spokesman for the group, said this afternoon that Burton's involvement was 'very considerable', both financially and in talent. 'He said Richard Burton was one of the originators of the £3 million bid to oust TWW after almost 10 years.

'Faced by a Saturday deadline for their application, the group are putting the finishing touches to their draft programme. 'Mr W.A. Hawkins, chairman of Bristol Evening Post, another group member, said: 'We have all the money we need. The emphasis will be on regional programmes of a high quality. ' 'Important international stars will be used and there will be fewer quiz programmes. We shall keep some but they will be of a higher standard than the present programmes.'

'A statement announced: 'The consortium has at no time sought any publicity for their application and has no desire to embarrass the ITA. ' 'However, some details have been published and in order to clear up some speculation we would like to say Mr Richard Burton and Miss Elizabeth Taylor are strongly supporting this application. In fact Mr Burton is one of the originators.'

' And they won. Bristol's telly company-owning superstars turned up the following year when TWW was given its marching orders and Harlech TV, later HTV, came into being.

She wore the biggest diamond ring anyone had ever see—'It's a present from Richard'—she announced—and HTV had the noisiest, best-publicised launch of all.

January 1967 - was cold - so cold in fact that 80 shivering workers at the Feeder Road works of Newman's Plant and Machinery Division walked out for two hours claiming that it was just too cold to work. One man told the Post: 'Our hands and feet were numb.' As the men drank hot canteen soup in the yard outside and warmed themselves up with a rousing chorus of Baby It's Cold Outside - complete with guitar accompaniment - union reps took up their case with the management.

The men warned their bosses that they would down tools again the following day if the works was not made any warmer. But after Gas Board engineers were called in to look at the company's recently-installed £12,000 heating plant, the walk-out ended.

The week's main front page story - and one which led to an inquiry - was a head-to-tail collision between two express trains outside the disused St Anne's station. Eight of the 600 passengers on board were injured, but only one - 29-year-old David Newman - was detained in hospital. He was said to be 'comfortable'. The accident happened when the Paddington to Swansea express ploughed into the rear of the Paddington to Bristol train which had stopped at a signal near St Anne's. The South Wales train had been diverted through here because of a goods derailment at Wapley Common, near Chipping Sodbury.

It had run into the back of the stationary train at 20mph, but luckily the luggage coach, which was hoisted high in the air and then crushed, had acted as a buffer and protected the rest of the train from the full impact of the collision.

Luck came Eastville's way as Rovers were drawn at home to Arsenal in the third round of the FA Cup match of January 28. 'A great draw, ' commented manager Bert Tann. Arsenal had last played The Gas in the Cup in January 1936 when they had crushed the home team 5-1. The result this time? Three-nil to Arsenal before an excitable crowd of some 35,000.

Other news - included city council approval to spend more than £1 million upgrading Lulsgate's Bristol Airport, despite ongoing controversy over whether it should move to Filton. The money included £750,000 to be spent on extending the main runway. Councillor Charlie Merrett urged the airport committee to stick with Lulsgate, saying: 'So far as the residents of Horfield, Southmead and Henbury are concerned, they don't want VC10s roaring over their heads hour after hour. The place for the airport is Lulsgate.' Councillor Bob Wall pointed out that this was already happening anyway. St Peter's - the bomb-damaged church lying in the heart of the old Wine Street/Castle Street. shopping area (now Castle Park) - was also in the news and causing not a little controversy.

In 1966 a row had broken out when it was revealed that £40,000 was to be spent preserving the gutted church and making the building safe. Although this figure had been reduced to £27,000, the Corporation decided to consult Sir Hugh Casson - who was already working on new museum and art gallery plans for the area - to see if he thought the spending was justified. Sir Hugh said it was, and that furthermore the church tower was an integral part of his scheme for redevelopment. To brick up the ground floors and windows, he added, would be 'visually disastrous'.

Many people were saddened to learn that Bristol Central Commercial School in Old Market's Redcross Street - which had provided shorthand, typing and bookkeeping courses for young people for some 25 years was to close in the summer. Remaining pupils were to be transferred to Rose Green High School. Two Severnside local landmarks were also going. The ship Vindacatrix, moored at Sharpness since 1939 and which had trained some 75,000 young men for a life in the Merchant Navy, was on her way to a Newport yard to be broken up. And the nearby Severn Railway bridge - badly damaged in a tanker disaster seven years previously - was to be demolished completely at a cost of some £100,000. It was planned for 14 of the trusses to be sent to South America and used on a new bridge there.

Some 4,000ft long, the structure - which once connected Severnside with the Forest of Dean - was opened in 1879. Described by Bristol's Chief Constable George Twist as a 'revolution' in crime, it was revealed that Bristol police were to recruit women traffic wardens for the very first time. Thirty extra wardens were to be appointed, with some taking over point duty from police and releasing them to get on with the job of fighting crime. Apparently the women were being introduced not in the interests of equality, but because of the difficulty of finding enough men for the job.

32 guineas for 15 days on the Costa Brava

Everyone in January 1967 was going holiday mad, with page after page of the Post covered with ads for two-week package breaks. Going with Cooks, you could fly from Bristol to Palma for £55, or to the Austrian Tyrol or the Italian Riviera for £50. A nine-day 'panoramic' coach-tour would set you back a trifling £46 (spending money £41) or, a real bargain this, a 10-day coach trip through the Austrian Tyrol for just £23. Fancy something a bit more restful? Then a seven-day tour by coach through sleepy Irish towns and villages could be yours for just £37. Wallace Arnold Tours were offering even better deals - 32 guineas for 15 days on the Costa Brava, or 54 guineas for 15 days in southern Italy.

Bristol's very own travel agents Hourmont were begging you to fly with them - on the 'fastest Viscounts' - to Lido de Jessolo in Italy, Benidorm or Rimini for just £42. Staying at home? Then a trip to see the sights of London by Bristol Greyhound coach (via the motorway!) cost just 33 shillings. (There were 20 shillings to the pound in those good old days.) If you fancied seeing a panto then you could book (five shillings - 25p to 13 shillings) at the Hippodrome to see that popular Aussie folk group The Seekers along with comedian Ted Rogers in Humpty Dumpty. Bath Theatre Royal was putting on Goldilocks And The Three Bears, and Weston's Knightstone Theatre featured Aladdin with Arthur English.

Also on in Weston, at the Winter Gardens, was the exciting Alan Price Set. If you fancied something a little more highbrow, then Dickens' A Tale Of Two Cities was on at the Little Theatre. There wasn't much choice to be had at Bristol's cinemas that freezing January - they all seem to have been showing either Dr Zhivago or My Fair Lady.

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