Back ‘home’ in August 1960 a farm labourer and his wife from Chirk appeared in court at Llangollen when accused of murdering their 20-year-old son.

Meanwhile, on the front page of the Advertizer is the account related to an unemployed labourer.

This person lived in Lyneal and was accused of assault. He was due to appear at Ellesmere Court in September of that year.

Incidentally, in the report it mentions that the accused man fell from the 9.33pm train travelling from Oswestry to Ellesmere. I would say he was lucky to survive that fall!

While on the subject of unlawful activities, a story concerns a police search with tracker dogs in south west Shropshire. This relates to an escaped prisoner who was working on a farm at Upper Vessons near Pontesbury. The convict was originally from Cefn Mawr near Wrexham.

This 22-year-old was with a working party from the prison at Shrewsbury serving an 18-month sentence for shoplifting. The newspaper report said he was later recaptured in Much Wenlock a few days later. (This young man would not want to have been on the run in Antarctica that week where record temperatures were reaching -88 degrees centigrade!).

When music-oriented shoppers want to purchase a CD today on the high street they usually visit stores such as HMV.

During the 1960s it was all about the vinyl 45 rpm records which from what I can remember cost in the region of six shillings (30p). My mother used to purchase one or two records from The Disc Shop Cross Market, Oswestry which appeared to only open on a Saturday or a Wednesday.

In the August 31 edition of the Advertizer the record shop displayed the then current top ten best selling tunes. Number one was Apache by The Shadows.

Other artists mentioned were Cliff Richard, Elvis Presley, Duanne Eddy, the Everley Brothers, Connie Francis, Anthony Newley and Mark Wynter.

When wanting to hear Tommy Steele that week you more than likely had to travel to the Granada cinema in Oswestry to watch a film entitled Light up the Sky, also starring Ian Carmichael and Benny Hill.

If you enjoyed band music a journey to the town hall at Welshpool in September 1960 would allow you to see and listen to Ray Irving and his orchestra. It seems to me there was plenty of local entertainment variety in this country in 1960.

This is more than be said for the West German capital, when East Germany imposed a partial blockade upon it.

Such a contrast. 9-1 was the score when Stourbridge beat the football team representing Dudley in the middle of August 1960.

A week later Stourbridge were due to play Oswestry’s team. After early nervousness in the game against the Midlands team, Oswestry secured the game with a win of four goals to one.

Another local football team, St Martins, also enjoyed success when putting the ball in the back of the net no less than eight times when playing a reserve team from Whitchurch that scored no goals at all.

This made good reading on the back page of the Advertizer.

Furthermore, a local Oswestry cyclist by the name of Brian White achieved a runaway triumph while taking part in the Aberystwyth cycle competition. All good news for local sports enthusiasts!

Moving on to September 1960, according to the Oswestry Advertizer a contingent of the renowned household cavalry was due to visit the border town on September 17. Other towns they were visiting on this tour were Newport and Chester.

Halfway across the world there was still trouble in the newly-independent Congo on the African continent. Soldiers of its army had marched into the ‘Mining State’.

This resulted in excess of 300 people being killed and many more being injured. (It seems ironic that at the time of writing this account in 2018 there is still much strife and political unrest in the Congo!).

In another part of the world Puerto Rica had fallen victim to Hurricane Donna when 107 people were killed as a result of the 115mph winds.

On the home front, Oswestry and District Agricultural Society had just held their annual show. It appears their takings were down more than £1,000 on the previous year, 1959.

A spokesman said costs were increasing to run the show. The society was generous to the public by charging the same admission fees as in 1947. Luckily they were still solvent and had £5,525 reserves in September 1960.

A considerable amount of funds at that time.

While Oswestry and District Agricultural Society was fighting to achieve profits etc, elsewhere in the world a young boxer was fighting another battle. His name was Cassius Clay and he at that time had just defeated a Polish boxer by the name of Zbigniew Pietrzkowski (a name I cannot pronounce!). This was during the Olympic light heavyweight boxing competition of 1960.

Famous people born that month in 1960 were the actor Hugh Grant, Jennifer Rush of singing fame and Damon Hill a future racing driver who was to follow in his father’s footsteps. On the September 27, Sylvia Pankhurst, who had been heavily involved in the women’s Suffragette movement, died at the age of 78.

A swine fever vaccination scheme adorned the headlines of the September 14 1960 edition of the Advertizer relating to the relaxation of pig movement. Other less prominent news items on the front page included one or two motor offences.

These included a lorry driver who was fined £10 for driving dangerously in Whittington while overtaking a cycle. A bus travelling in the opposite direction had to take evasive action.

Other drivers fined in incidents during that period were a farmer from Guilsfield for dangerous driving near Llynclys while a woman from Cockshutt collided with another vehicle driven by a man from Lincolnshire on the Loppington road.

I think it was the 16-year-old motorcyclist who was most lucky to survive with just a broken leg. While riding his motorcycle near Tanat Bridge he lost control of his machine.

This resulted in unwelcome contact with a concrete marker post but luckily he missed a tree while plunging through a hedge down a 15ft drop.

If motorcycling was not your thing in 1960, maybe occupying time watching television would be far safer! Power’s Radio, Albion Hill, Oswestry would sell you a new Murphy 21inch TV for 71 guineas.

This television was advertised in 1960 as having a huge picture. How times have changed!

While on the subject of the visionary ‘box’, colour TV was being used for the first time in Japan on September 10 1960.

Two Justice of the Peace appointments for Shropshire that month were Mrs Elizabeth Mary Humphreys, of New Marton Farm, St Martins and Mr Raymond Idris Jones, Bank House, Pant.

Next week we revisit September 1960 to see the films that were shown at the Granada Oswestry and the headlines presented in the Advertizer.