Picture Past: July 28, 1967 – piano-smashing banned from seafront

PUBLISHED: 16:00 22 July 2017

Sarah Robinson

"Fish and chips, bobbies on bicycles and double-decker buses" will be among the outstanding memories of Britain when three American girls, on holiday at Weston-super-Mare return home. Miss Rosa Antonouris and her American friends on a tour of Weston's model village.

Archant

Sexey's School fete, Blackford. Peter Humphreys, Richard Pike and Andrew Butcher were sportingly on the receiving end at this Aunt Sally when wet sponges were being thrown.

• The go-ahead was finally given for Weston’s Playhouse Theatre to be rebuilt, exactly three years after the building was gutted by fire.

The borough council agreed to spend £220,880 on it.

• Burnham Urban District Council decided to protest to the Ministry of Technology over its sonic boom tests.

Corpus Christi School sports : The start of the book balance race.

The loud bangs had also been heard over Weston, as a result of an RAF Lightning travelling faster than the speed of sound.

The ministry was testing the public’s reaction to the noise, ahead of the Concorde going into service, but Burnham councillors expressed concerns over the affect it would have on people’s lives.

One councillor said the first test made him drop a cup of tea – a terrible state of affairs for an Englishman.

Sally Walker, Carol Powlesland and Stephen Berry, members of the Bible Club at Weston Children's Church which is celebrating its silver jubilee.

• A Churchill cricketer batted for 45 minutes with a fractured skull without realising.

Norman Teer was struck on the temple while he was playing for Mendip Acorns, and he went for a lie-down as he could not see out of one eye.

When the score had reached 45-9, he went back to the crease and was part of a 42-run stand.

Ads 21st July 1967 Edition.

He scored 25 runs, and finished not out. He was immediately admitted for treatment once he went to hospital.

• Questions arose over Weston Borough Council’s liability for any accidents caused by hockey balls on the Beach Lawns.

The matter arose after a councillor was struck on the leg by a ball while he was watching a game and a ball narrowly missed the windscreen of an oncoming car.

Sexey's School fete, Blackford. Michael John and Clive and Alan Wilcox were interested in watching John Packer at work on the pottery wheel.

There had never been any injuries reported before, so it had simply never been an issue for the council, which was going to check its liability.

• Burnham’s council turned down a request by the Bridgwater Conservative Club to stage a piano smashing contest on the esplanade.

Chairman HC Groem said: “I’m very much against piano smashing as a pastime. It seems to me to be quite a ridiculous activity and I know that it is one which a number of people find repugnant.”

Children with some of the guinea pigs and rabbits entered in the RSPCA's annual pet show held at Hutton.

• Worle residents living near the Kewstoke Road quarry said it was causing a nuisance.

One couple said a huge boulder had crashed into their garden and damaged the rear wall of their home.