50 years ago

THE stewards of Henley Royal Regatta plan to build a housing estate on Fawley Meadows in a bid to keep the event alive. At a public meeting next Friday, local people will hear details of the scheme, which could incorporate a marina. Chairman John Garton said last week that the regatta might soon be in dire financial straits but that the revenue from a housing estate would ensure its continuance for a considerable period of time.

Discotheques and pop concerts, which for some years have not been allowed at Henley town hall, are making a reappearance there. Richard Carden, chairman of the borough council’s finance and general purposes committee, said on Tuesday that two recent applications were made by pupils unable to use their school halls because of the power crisis.

Turville Primary School, which was threatened with closure, has won a reprieve. Last year, parents organised a petition to save the school. They sent it to the Department of Education and Science after notices of the proposed closure appeared on the school door. Now they have been told that the Secretary of State’s view is that the decision to close it was premature.