25 YEARS AGO

MAY 20, 1994

TOWN DRINKING: A bylaw may be introduced by West Dorset Council to stop people in Bridport drinking alcohol in public places.

Members of the council’s environmental protection committee met on Tuesday to discuss a possible ban and to express their sympathy with Bridport Town Council over the problems caused by town centre drunks.

NEW MAYOR: New town mayor, Roger Draper has forecast increased prosperity from the ambitious harbour works planned for West Bay and better links between local authorities.

Cllr Draper said changes the town faced would bring some disruption but might also bring progress.

CENTRE SALE: Broadwindsor Craft Centre is up for sale at more than £500,000.

Owners Kate and Ruth Guilor say they are selling because the centre occupies all their time and they wish to follow more of their own pursuits.

The centre, initiated in 1986 by the late Pat Guilor and her husband Ian, was originally converted from a number of stone outbuildings.

50 YEARS AGO

MAY 16, 1969

HOUSING SCHEME: Bridport may soon have a new housing scheme in the Allington Park area.

There is considerable speculation as to the future of the old timber yard belonging to Messrs. Northover and Gilbert.

It is being offered for sale by the executors of the estate of the late Miss Mary Greenwood Northover, the town’s first-ever woman mayor.

NEW MAYOR: Cllr Ernest Lewis is due to be installed as Bridport’s 136th mayor next Thursday.

When he becomes chief citizen, he will be the third person to have followed a brother into the town’s mayoral chair since the turn off the century.

Cllr Lewis, who is 64, takes office just eight years after his brother, Alderman Harold Lewis, was so honoured.

HOUSE SALE: Acting upon instruction of The Executors of L. Skyrm, the Bridport office of the auctioneers, T. R. G. Lawrence and Son, offered Middlebrook House, Beaminster, for sale by auction at The Bull Hotel.

The spacious detached four bedroom residence and three acres of adjoining land received much interest with over 60 viewing it beforehand.

With a full saleroom, the bidding started at £9,000 and the property was finally sold at a figure of £13,200.