AS ONE year ends, so another begins, and this time it is the year 2005.
For young people, time is endless, but for the older members of the community, it seems to speed by so quickly. “Where have all those years gone?” is the question asked when they read about events that took place in the past.
Fifty years ago, in 1955, Basingstoke saw the outpatients department being built in Hackwood Road, the Co-operative furnishing store was opened at the top of Sarum Hill, and the Thornycroft factory along Worting Road produced the Mighty Antar lorry.
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The Mighty Antar lorry, made by Thornycroft in 1955 (Image: Contributed)
On the South Ham estate, there was a lot of activity as contractors worked to complete the rows of houses and shops for occupants waiting to move in.
The Kings Road shops in mid1955 were opened with Kenneth Reed’s chemists, the Boshier’s fish and chip shop, Mr Groves’ newsagents, and a sub-post office – the latter faces closure in a few weeks’ time.
In Western Way, in June of that year, the Methodist Church Hall was opened. Services were held until the actual church was built 10 years later. Meanwhile, in Flaxfield Road, a row of almshouses was being demolished, the first of many old buildings in the town.
The emphasis on “all change” was about to hit Basingstoke in later years, but small alterations were showing their faces even as far back as then.
Even at The Gazette offices in Church Street, the news was put on the front page after 77 years, when a new machine, a Cossar flat-bed rotary printer, was installed.
The year 1955 also saw the arrival of two famous people, Lord and Lady Docker, who had been invited to attend the County Archery Championships on land at West Ham.
And at the village of Upton Grey, the film star Max Bygraves made part of the film Charley Moon to the delight of occupants.
It was a year of many events which the old folk remember to this day.
But the national events were also interesting to read about. On January 4, 1955, snowstorms swept across the country, affecting 52 counties and bringing chaos to the traffic on both road and rail. But it did not last long, for on the 17th of that month storms and gales brought a thaw which caused flooding across Britain.
News to the public was suspended when all national and London evening newspapers ceased publication due to a strike by electrical and engineering workers between March 25 and April 21.
But the public had worse to come on May 29 that year, when a railway strike took place for two weeks until June 14, which led to nearly every train not running in Britain, and bringing newspaper and mail deliveries almost to a halt.
Fortunately, we were not completely devoid of news, for radio and television brought events into our homes, and in September the BBC was joined by a new channel, Independent Television, which broadcast from a station in Croydon, Surrey.
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Two months later, in November of that year, the Sunday Chronicle ceased publication, and another newspaper, the Daily Dispatch, was absorbed by the News Chronicle.
In future years other newspapers would suffer, and many of the nationals began to change their style of presenting news in a “battle” against television news reports.
In 1955, there was much celebration at Portsmouth on the 150th anniversary of Nelson’s victory at the Battle of Trafalgar on October 21.
In the year 2005, it is hoped that similar celebrations will take place on the 200th anniversary.
Events that happened abroad were significant to Britain that year, such as the opening of Disneyland in California, in America, which became one of the world’s most famous theme parks and was visited by thousands of British people.
Another event which later affected this country was the production of the transistor radio by Sony in Japan. It was mass-produced and sold all over the world.
Each year brings forth anniversaries of events, and 2005 has many of them.
Basingstoke in 1905 – 100 years ago – saw the great fire at Burberry’s store in Winchester Street in April that year, and the typhoid epidemic swept through the town due to an accident in Reading Road in September.
There were lots of things to write about in 1955!
This article was written by Robert Brown and first published on December 31, 2005