July 17, 1970

CORSHAM: Corsham would lose its ancient High Street flanked by weathered natural stone buildings if one local trader had his way. "The only way in which the High Street can really be developed as a shopping centre is to send in the bulldozers", the trader, Mr Philip Stiles, told Corsham Chamber of Commerce on Monday. "Housewives are not interested in the architectural or historical value of the buildings in which they shop. They prefer the modern shops with their spacious plate glass windows and brilliant fluorescent lighting", he said. "The new development could provide these and attract many more people to Corsham". The Chamber was discussing a resolution supporting the proposed new central area development scheme which provides for 14 shops and a supermarket in a new precinct behind High Street. Mr Ray Colderick said: "We have got into a rut in such matters as window dressing and merchandising, for there has been no real incentive in the form of higher competition to make us try and do better." The same theme was pursued by Mr Derek Love, who said: "If two supermarkets would come to town I would clap my hands with joy. We have got into a groove and we need a good kick in the pants. We can do much better both for ourselves and for the public of Corsham, but there are too many traders who are not prepared to accept the challenge of progress."

July 20, 1990

CALNE: Revolutionary shapes have been found in a cornfield not far from Devizes. And they have left experts puzzled because the circles, of the kind seen before in the area, are joined by lines. Circles Phenomenon Research Group spokesman Colin Andrews described this latest discovery as dramatic. "There are boxes and squares - just about everything we have ever seen wrapped together," he said before surveying the area with an American film crew. Sightseers from far and wide have been flocking to the site to see the mysteries for themselves. And there are plenty of others to compare them with. Eighty circles in all had appeared in two square miles between Calne and Devizes in the space of 48 hours. The Circles Effect Research Unit (CERES), which until recently has been the only scientific organisation researching the mysteries and has a databank of 1,000 circles, describes the finds at Alton Barnes as "the most complex and extraordinary sets of circles every discovered."

TROWBRIDGE: Trowbridge's new £350,000 museum in the Shires shopping centre will be officially opened tomorrow (Saturday). The museum, specialising in displays of national importance on the history of the woollen industry in the West Country, will be opened when Mrs Mary Pearce, chairman of Trowbridge Town Council museum committee, unveils a plaque. It is believed that it is the first purpose-designed museum to be created within a modern shopping centre anywhere in the country. The museum has been established on the second floor of the Home Mills building, a former textile factory incorporated into Shearwater Property Holdings' £25m Shires shopping complex which opened in April. The location is particularly appropriate for many of the exhibits were used or made in the mill which closed in 1982. On show will be textile machinery and other items from Home Mills, the personal possessions of Trowbridge personalities like shorthand inventor Sir Isaac Pitman and poet-parson George Crabbe. In part of the main gallery there will be lifelike reconstructions of a draper's shop, a shearers' workshop, a weaver's cottage and Samuel Salter's Home Mills office.

July 15, 2005

WESTBURY: Months of hard work paid off for young geographers when they won an environmental competition. Students from Matravers School, Westbury, were awarded a trophy for the best presentation at the Envolve young innovation conference last Wednesday at Bath Pavilion. The idea of the competition was to work with a local business to promote environmental awareness in the business community. A group of 15 pupils have been working with Lafarge since December to develop a piece of land into a fishing lake and produce a 3D scale model of the design. They also had to deliver a Powerpoint presentation and face questions from a panel of judges before beating seven other secondary schools from around the area to win the prize.