ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO — 2 MAY 1890

THE BICYCLE NUISANCE

An incident showing the danger of these vehicles in unskilful and careless hands happened on Saturday last. Some perambulators with infant children were on the London Road, near General Thompson’s residence, when the attendants were startled to find a bicycle tearing down upon them altogether beyond the control of the rider. It came wobbling on and charged the first perambulator, when the nurse had the presence of mind to bend over the front, thus getting the shock herself instead of the children, and receiving a kick from the youth as he was pitched off. The infants escaped injury but were terribly scared, and the perambulators suffered much damage; while the fellow who caused all this took himself off with no expression of regret, or any apology whatever.

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO — 30 APRIL 1915

HUNNISH SUGGESTION

Not long ago a detachment of military passed through a village of West Hants. A few days later the head man of that village, otherwise the chairman of the parish parliament, received a letter, in which the writer stated that the men and horsed of that detachment had been watered partly at a stream, into which most of the farmyards and privies in the parish drained, and partly from pumps in the centre of water-logged farmyards. The writer considered that people who catered for the military in this fashion in a time of war should be knocked on the head and ploughed in for manure. Probably if the visiting troops had been from Prussia the knocks on the head would have been duly recorded, but whether the after ploughing would have been attended to is another matter. At all events the question of the water supply to that parish may come up at the next general assembly of the inhabitants, and the letter would form a very good testimonial, for those with new fangled modern ideas about the desirability of water being pure and tasteless, to produce. In the good old days such a stream as described by the writer of the letter would have been considered as equal to port wine for the farm stock, who would have certainly take it before a bucket of water drawn for a 100ft. well.

SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO — 3 MAY 1940

CORRESPONDENCE — PRICE OF TOBACCO

Sir,—I note that not all of the tobacconists in Andover rushed to put the extra threepence on cigarettes after the increase was known, much, I am sure, to the relief of many of the men in khaki.

This sort of news gets around, and I trust their increased business will repay them for refusing to adopt the methods that some did.

There were very good reasons for putting the tax on cigarettes and tobacco, no doubt, but the speed which some of the tobacconists used in grabbing the extra threepence must have even out Hitler to shame in pocketing the “spoils.”—Yours faithfully, W.G.KINGSLAND, Linkenholt.

FIFTY YEARS AGO — 29 APRIL 1965

NO MORE TEENAGE DANCES

Teenage dances at Andover’s Guildhall — to be banned in future?

This is the recommendation of the council’s Parks and Properties Committee, which will come before the full meeting of Andover Borough Council on Tuesday night.

The reason for the committee’s decision follows damage caused at a recent teenage dance at the Guildhall when— • the handle leading into the robbing room was torn off • the loft entered • the clock altered and the light left on.

FIRST UNIT FACTORY READY IN JUNE

Members of Andover Borough Council will be told on Tuesday night that the first of the unit factories on the Walworth Industrial Site should be completed early in June.

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO — 4 MAY 1990

‘PAY WHAT YOU CAN AFFORD’ IN FINES

New ‘pay what you can afford’ fines, designed to iron out unfair and inconsistent sentencing, now face offenders appearing before Andover Magistrates.

The Andover bench is among the first in the country to adopt the ‘unit fines’ method which was launched on Monday.

It is based on a sliding scale of units representing the gravity of crimes, the idea being to deprive an offender of ‘spare income’ for the number of weeks chosen. For example a drink drive offence would carry 17 to 25 units of spare income so if someone had £10 spare each week he would pay anything from a total of £170 to £250 for the crime.

Other examples, developed locally by the Andover magistrates themselves, are 15 to 20 units for a simple theft, three units for no ‘L’ plates, 24 to 30 units for assault and four to six units and upwards for speeding.

Simple means forms are filled in to calculate the value of each unit, but there are upper and lower limits for spare income, £25 and £3.

It will be in force for a trial period, following experiments in four other courts including Basingstoke.

Chairman at Andover, Mr Alan Garner, explained how they hope the system will produce the same results as Basingstoke, with fairer and more even treatment, better fine payment patterns, less imprisonment for non payment, greater consistency in sentencing and better use of compensation for victims.

“One of the criticisms of the old system was that people on very low incomes had fines which out them into far worse positions but rhe new system will relate the fine to their ability to pay,” said Mr Garner.