25 YEARS AGO

JULY 22, 1994

AWARD: Beaminster born builder Frank Beazer has received a prestige SWEB award for his efficient installation of an electricity supply to a new caravan site at Bingham’s Farm, Melplash.

Mr Beazer’s firm, Meadowside Construction, received £ for energy efficiency in the first round of SWEB’s Business Connection Awards.

TORY DEPUTY CHAIRMAN: Popular novelist Michael Dobbs has been appointed deputy chairman of the Conservative Party.

Mr Dobbs, who lives near Bridport, will be returning to Tory central office after a seven-year absence.

Author of the highly successful television books ‘To Play the King’ and ‘House of Cards’, Mr Dobbs was chief of staff under Lord Tebbit on the run-up to the 1987 general election.

FIRST CUT: Bridport pensioner Bill Jones was invited to cut the first turf on the site of Bridport’s new community hospital, due to open in 1996.

Bill was born and bred on the site at the now demolished former Allington Hospital where his father Stanley was gardener, caretaker and ambulanceman.

50 YEARS AGO

JULY 18, 1969

NEW SCHOOL: A new primary school is planned for Charmouth.

Miss Ruth Gunnell, chairman of the parish council, reported that the county council planned to develop four and a half acres of land off Higher Sea Lane for the proposed new school.

SAFETY PETITION: A petition listing about 30 names of St Swithin’s residents who feel strongly that more precautions should be taken for the safety of young children on council estates without gates at entrances leading to roadways, has been handed to Bridport town clerk for consideration.

FIRE AND VANDALISM: Misfortune has hit two Lyme Regis farmers.

About a ton of hay was destroyed by fire at Haye Farm and a milk cooling system was maliciously wrecked at Middle Mill Farm, only a few hundred yards away.