25 years ago

Friday, April 2 1993

* Gerald Malone, Member of Parliament for Winchester and Alton, has hailed Hampshire County Council as an example to be copied by all other local authorities.

This Conservative-controlled group recently unveiled a budget that allowed for the lowest Council Tax set by any of the 39 county councils in England and created over 900 new jobs at the same time.

Speaking from Westminster, Mr Malone said: “What the Conservative administration at Hampshire County Council has clearly demonstrated is that if affairs are well managed then it is possible to provide a higher level of service for local residents without having to ask them to pay higher Council Tax bills. This year’s budget is a clear example of excellent house-keeping. The County Council will spend some £5 million below the government and thereby save the average Council Tax household £51 a year. Yet the budget will create new and extended services to the tune of over £22 million."

Mr Malone also welcomed the introduction of the Council Tax, which came into effect this week. The Tax, brought in to replace the Community Charge as the system of local government taxation, will be fairer to local taxpayers and simpler to administer for local authorities, he believes.

* Love is in the air for this rare horse at Marwell Zoological Park – thanks to a computer dating agency for endangered species.

No, this Przewalski hasn’t taken a shine to the zoo’s biologist, Simon Wakefield. But she has him to thank for keeping her love life on the boil.

Simon got European animal experts together to discuss the zoo’s re-introduction programme for the horse, which became extinct in the wild some 30 years ago.

The European Breeding Programme (EEP) aims to make sure the right Przewalski stallion and mare hit it off to maintain the genetic diversity of the breed.

“It’s really very much like a computer-dating agency for endangered species,” said Simon, Britain’s EEP representative.

Natives of Mongolia and China, the horse was named after 19th century geographer, Count Przewalski, of Poland.

They were driven close to extinction by nomads because the wild stallions disrupted domestic horses and livestock.

50 years ago

Saturday, April 6 1968

* By the beginning of the summer, Winchester will have a new hotel – the Winton Court hotel in Southgate-street. Alterations to the premises, formerly offices in the terrace next the “Green Man” public house, have been going ahead for about six weeks now, and the proprietor will be Mr. Bola Nemeth, who already owns the St. Cross Hotel.

Mr. Nemeth, who has over ten years’ experience in the hotel trade in Winchester, is opening Winton Court as a completely new enterprise, on the strength of the growth of custom at his present hotel. Winton Court will have nine bedrooms, one with a private bath, and with bathrooms and showers on each of its four floors. A lift will carry residents to their rooms, and the hotel will cater for a maximum of twenty people a night.

Mr. Nemeth also proposes to open the hotel restaurant to non-residents, and hopes to install bar facilities. Adequate car parking space is to be provided from an entrance in St. Thomas-street, and afternoon teas will be served from a terrace at his rear of the premises.

The hotel will be completely modernised, with new furniture, fittings and decor, and the total cost of the renovation is in the region of £20,000.

READ: High Street hotel rethink after design criticism >>>

* Fifty years of the Royal Air Force in Hampshire and Winchester were celebrated at the Guildhall, Winchester, on Saturday with an exhibition of aircraft models, photographs and demonstrations of technique, which was opened by Lord Ashburton K.C.V.O., Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire and High Steward of Winchester.

The exhibition was attended by Viscount Portal of Hungerford, Marshal of the Royal Air Force, and Sir Alan Cobham, K.B.E., A.F.C., Hon. F.R.A.S., one of Britain’s most famous flying men, who gave a lecture from his personal knowledge.

Principally the exhibition was designed to recapture the spirit of the many R.A.F. men and their machines, who have served the various flying stations throughout the county. Photographs showed memorable moments of famous squadrons and there were many interesting models of leading aircraft which have flown out of Hampshire on both military and civil missions since the early days of flying.

100 years ago

Saturday, April 6 1918

* Women Workers On The Land – A very successful gathering of the above was held at King’s Worthy Rectory room (by kind permission of the Rector and Mrs. Streatfield), on Wednesday, at 5.30 p.m., when over 100 stripes for six months’ work were presented to those women who had earned them. The district is a very scattered one, comprising the villages of King’s Worthy, Martyr Worthy, Headbourne Worthy, Barton, Easton, Chilland, Itchen Abbas, Avington, Sparsholt, and Littleton, but a good number of women managed to assemble, in spite of the fact that many could not be spared from their work, and some had to walk over seven miles.

* At the monthly meeting of the Women’s Institute on Thursday afternoon, Mrs. C. F. Wood presiding, Miss Hall read an interesting paper on “How to make sugar from sugar beet.” Mrs. Eames, of Compton, sent a quantity of sugar beet seed for sale. Mrs. Wallace, of Lymington, also attended and gave a demonstration in boot and shoe mending.

200 years ago

Monday, April 6 1818

* A Physician of great skill and considerable experience (being upwards of thirty years in very extensive practice, partly in the West Indies) has been settled for some months past at Alton, in this county. Many persons in that town and neighbourhood who were afflicted (some of them for years) with various and complicated diseases, have been already restored to perfect health by his advice, and we know his practice is eminently successful in hopeless cases.

* On Wednesday, a person named Thomas, in the employ of Mr. T. Aslett, of Alresford, was driving a waggon from Winchester to Alresford, when in the act of getting up into the waggon, his foot slipped, and he fell under the wheel, which passed over him, & severely bruised him; he was carried to Alresford.