ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO — 7 SEPTEMBER 1894

ANDOVER TOWN COUNCIL — BAD LANGUAGE

Councillor CHUTER said he received a letter on the previous evening in connection with the Recreation Ground. His committee had had no meeting, but he would like to read the letter, which was as follows: —

“Dear Sir, - The attention of some members of the Andover Sunday School Union having been called to the use of bad and indecent language by several boys playing on the Recreation Ground, I have been asked by them (as president of the Union) to write you to ask if some steps cannot be taken, either by a notice board or by instructions to the ground man, to warn boys that they are not to use such language, or to be an annoyance to others who may be using the Recreation Ground. I am to add that the members are reluctant to speak to the police on the subject, preferring rather that the local authority should see what can be done. – Yours faithfully, F BEALE.”

He thought it better to read the letter as it would then get publicly known that complaints had been made. There was no doubt that very bad language was used, and that many of the boys who went to the Recreation Ground were a great nuisance to ladies who wished to sit there for recreation; but he could not help thinking that if the public would really help them in keeping them in order it would do a great deal more good then writing letters. The use of bad language in the town was a penal offence, and he concluded that it extended to the Recreation Ground.

The TOWN CLERK: Under the bye-laws.

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO — 5 SEPTEMBER 1919

STOCKBRIDGE — CHALK WALLS

“People are getting very excited,” says the Daily Mirror, “over the experiments being made at Buxton on the use of chalk for building. But I know a lovely house—Marsh Court, at Stockbridge—which has been entirely carved, window-frames, walls and all, out of local white chalk, which is polished. The doors and woodwork are oak, and there is a fine dancing hall, with a musicians’ gallery. Sir Edwin Lutyens was the architect.”

Compiler’s note: The ‘I’ in the above report, I presume, was the Advertiser’s Stockbridge correspondent of the time,

SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO — 8 SEPTEMBER 1944

SOLDIER AND SAILOR BROTHERS

After more than six years apart, two brothers, one a soldier the other a sailor, sons of Mrs.Snook, of Hindon, near Salisbury, and brothers of Mr.A.W.Snook of Thruxton, have just met under extraordinary circumstances off the beaches of Normandy.

Private Walter Snook, of a West Country Regiment, now serving with a Division in France in France, had arrived off the beaches in a troop ship. Alongside hove to a special landing craft to disembark the troops; its coxswain was Chief Petty Officer Archibald Snook, D.S.M., an elder brother. The meeting came as a complete surprise to both brothers, as neither knew that the other was likely to be serving in the Normandy area.

The surprise meeting came when Private Snook, climbing down the ship’s ladder to the landing craft heard a familiar voice, and the recognised his brother standing on the deck. Whilst waiting for the tide in order to give favourable landing conditions, the brothers were able to spend several hours together. The elder brother, the sailor, eventually succeeded in giving his soldier brother a “dry” landing.

Private Walter Snook, a gardener in peace-time, joined his regiment in 1940. He married in 1942 and his first child, a son, was born a few days before D-Day. He was just able to see the child before embarking with his unit. His brother Archibald, had 22 years with the Royal Navy prior to 1939, and was recalled at the out-break of this war, since when he won the D.S.M. They are a family of six brothers and one sister, one other brother serving with the R.A.F., two working together on Government forestry, whilst another is in the Police Force at Tidworth.

FIFTY YEARS AGO — 5 SEPTEMBER 1969

PLANS FOR LAKE NEAR BY-PASS

Mr.J.J.Kopp’s 13-year-old dream of a boating lake on his Rooksbury Mill estate in Andover took a step nearer reality this week.

The Minister of Housing and Local Government allowed an appeal by Mixconcrete Aggregates Limited against Hampshire County Council’s refusal to permit extraction of gravel and sand from land on the estate.

Mr.Kopp told the “Advertiser”: “I have been trying since 1956 to get permission to extract gravel so that I could have a boating lake on my land. I have been turned down time and time again, until now. I am obviously delighted because I want to see a lake there instead of all that wild land which has no value whatsoever.

“People will be able to sail, skin-dive, water-ski and fish – or just sit on the lawns. And we might have a motel there as well. It is a beautiful site which will be seen from the by-pass.”

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO — 9 SEPTEMBER 1994

‘GRYPHON’S EYE’ REALLY PUTS ARRC TO THE TEST

Another large-scale Army training exercise on Salisbury Plain reached a climax last weekend.

Some 4,300 forces, 1,000 vehicles and 80 Army Air Corps and the RAF helicopters were all taking part in ‘Operation Gryphon’s Eye’ — a test for the Army’s Colchester based 24 Airmobile Brigade.

An international feel to the event was provided by a company from both the German 31 Luftlande Brigade and the Belgian Para Commando Brigade who were also involved in the operation.

Commanded by Brigadier Peter Grant Peterkin, 24 Airmobile Brigade is part of a multinational formation assigned to NATO’s Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC) and must be capable of deployment worldwide in order to cope with any crisis or emergency that may arise.

The aim of the exercise was to practise the planning and execution of airmobile operations in a joint arms environment across the spectrum of conflict.

Gryphon’s Eye simulated support for a United Nations peacekeeping operation.