ONE YEAR AGO

August 29, 2007

Axe-wielding yobs caused the worst vandalism in Bocking Sports Club’s history.

Club chairman Nigel Juniper returned to collect some paperwork when he noticed damage to the gate. He found holes had been dug in the bowling green and cricket field, some up to a foot wide. A bench had been carried into the middle of the bowling green and smashed, and three more had been sawn up and broken.

* A residential home for elderly people had undergone a £2 million refurbishment.

Builders spent just over a year restoring the Franciscan Convent Residential Home, in Bocking, to its former glory as it underwent its first revamp in nearly 100 years.

More than 100 people celebrated its completion with a church service and open day.

TEN YEARS AGO

August 27, 1998

The Braintree and Bocking Civic Society agreed a one-off grant of between £3,000 and £4,000 to renovate the war memorial at the Braintree and Bocking Public Gardens in Bocking End.

The wall around the memorial had been rebuilt and the patio relaid. Braintree Council was investigating funding further improvements to maintain the monument.

* More than 50 jobs were under threat after Uttlesford councillors refused to waive planning conditions imposed on a Thaxted company.

Fan guard manufacturers Cowell and Cooper asked for conditions stipulating no outdoor storage to be removed so goods for delivery could be stored outside.

The application followed complaints from neighbours.

40 YEARS AGO

August 30, 1968,/p> Two “hard-up” brothers-in-law from Witham admitted breaking into Crittall’s social club and took spirits, wines, cigarettes, cigars, gaming tokens, money, food and two carving knives, worth a total of £67 12s.

The 18-year-old was committed to Quarter Sessions for sentence, and the 22-year-old was given a six-month sentence, suspended for three years, and ordered to pay compensation of £45 18s 10d to the club, 8s 9d to the Co-operative Society creamery and costs of three guineas.

* While Braintree’s industry was undergoing a “quiet revolution”, with the introduction of new methods in long-established industries, and new industry coming into the town, an equally quiet problem was becoming increasingly evident.

The manager of Braintree’s employment exchange said: “The whole pulse of the town is quickening, but to continue this trend, more women must come forward to work in the town.”

50 YEARS AGO

August 28, 1958

A total of 67,000 people arrived on foot, by bus and in 6,500 cars at Wethersfield Air Base to see an air display featuring precision flying by the world’s two top aerobatic teams * A 25-year-old Dunmow man, who had to have his right leg amputated as a result of a motoring accident, was fined £5, with costs of £1 16s 5d, when he appeared before Biggleswade magistrates charged with careless driving. The man, of Ongar Road, pleaded not guilty.

He was riding his motorcycle when it collided with a vehicle. It carried on through some railings on the opposite side of the road and finished up in a ditch.