25 YEARS AGO

FEBRUARY 4 1994

BLAZE: Three people had to be rescued from upstairs windows after a fire broke out at Crane’s grocery shop in Beaminster.

Firefighters from Beaminster and one crew from Bridport used ladders to rescue the Crane family and tackle the blaze, which filled the property with dense smoke.

They were taken to Yeovil District Hospital suffering from smoke inhilation.

NEW ROLE: First-time hotel owners, the Black family, have taken over the Eype’s Mouth Hotel and are keen to “preserve what is good about the hotel”.

The family – Adrian and Mary Black and Adrian’s mother, Enid – said they wanted to keep existing customers happy and attract more visitors to the seaside hotel.

REFURBISHED: Tastefully furnished elegance is the keynote of Bridport’s refurbished Sidney Gale House, which includes a new day centre officially opened by Dorset County Council chairman Pat Hymers.

50 YEARS AGO

JANUARY 31 1969

COMMENDATION: The only scouts to receive Queen Scout Certificates in Dorset this year came from Bridport.

Anthony D. Murless and Richard Hopkins of the 1st Bridport Scout Troop and Roger G. Hutchings of the 1st West Bay Sea Scouts travelled to Cardiff to receive their Queen Scout Certificates from the Chief Scout Sir Charles Maclean.

RECOMMENDATION: Dogs are to be allowed to run free in Bridport’s playing fields. This was agreed at a town council meeting following an amendment by councillor J. W. A. McCarthy to a playing fields committee recommendation that they should be kept on leads.

The Minister of Housing and Local Government, it was stated, had suggested that the bylaw in respect of keeping a dog on a lead in all the pleasure grounds could be open to objection on grounds of unreasonableness.

The playing fields committee, however, felt that this was not so.