There were queues at supermarkets as shoppers tried to get their hands on cigarettes during a ‘price war’. The story was reported 50 years ago in the Weston Mercury and Somerset Herald.
Traders in Dolphin Square were told jibes about it being a ‘white elephant’ and a ‘dead duck’ had been dispelled.
They were told the remaining empty shops had been let, and would be occupied by November.
There was also a proposal for a 30-pitch market beneath the bowling alley.
n Two huge wartime mines were found in mud at Sand Bay. They were among the largest uncovered in the searches in the past year.
n Reductions of up to a fourpence on a pack of 20 cigarettes in chain stores and supermarkets in Weston led to queues of shoppers.
It was due to a price war among tobacco firms and the manager of one supermarket said they had sold more cigarettes in a day than they usually would in a week.
However, small traders were angry, and said they wished they could have reduced their prices, but did not have the advantage of bulk buying.
n One of the most up-to-date old people’s homes in the county, Greenhill House in Cheddar, was opened.
It was the 18th residential home opened by Somerset County Council since the National Assistance Act had come into effect 20 years previously.
n Goughs Caves in Cheddar were used as the location for a BBC programme in The Troubleshooters series.
It would be used to portray a cave in Malaya in which two people were trapped.
The episode would be called ‘how much is one man worth?’
n Organisers of an archaeological dig at Cadbury Hill in Congresbury described the expedition as ‘highly successful’.
It was thought Cadbury Hill was one of the possible sites of Camelot, the court associated with King Arthur.
The purpose of the excavation was to see if a hill fort there was reused during the turbulent Dark Ages.
The finds included two buildings, Roman brickwork, pottery and jewellery.
n The Mercury’s Looking Back column described how in 1943 it was only just revealed how three Bristol Channel paddle steamers had been lost in the war effort.
In total, 11 steamers had been taken for minesweeping, and the Brighton Queen and Brighton Belle were lost during the Dunkirk evacuation. The Waverley was bombed and sunk in 1941.
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