Fifty years ago...

A HENLEY housewife helped to pull a woman from a burning car. The Mercedes was being driven by Margot Abraham, wife of Gordon Abraham, managing director of Sydney Green & Sons, when it crashed 400 yards from her home in Woodlands Road, Shiplake. Jane Williamson, who was walking her Alsatian in the woods at the time, said: “I heard the crash and then I saw the flames. I ran through the undergrowth and found her unconscious in the seat.”

The Henley Day Centre for the elderly was opened on Saturday by the Dowager Lady Hambleden, herself a pensioner. It has been converted from the old St John Ambulance Brigade hall near the Market Place. An appeal for funds was only launched a year ago yet the centre has been freshly furnished and fitted.

A former checkout operator at the Tesco supermarket in Henley was cleared of theft by the town’s magistrates on Tuesday. The chairman of the bench, Mr C T Luker, told Margaret Pryke, of Woodlands Road, Sonning Common: “While we think you were somewhat careless, we believe you did not intend to steal.”