REMEMBER WHEN

Remember when ... 30 years ago from archives

Mean greens

TOWARDS THE END of 1991 South Somerset District Council published The Better Way, a 16page booklet providing a practical guide to recycling domestic waste, at a time when the Government had set a target of 25% of all household waste being recycled by the year 2000.

In the April 1992 Visitor this joint initiative with the local Friends of the Earth was the subject of a two-page review and critique by Penny Price who sees The Better Way as only a stopgap. ‘In its A-T of local opportunities to recycle and reuse, the booklet makes constructive suggestions and gives useful addresses’ but ‘my wish is that Somerset was ready for another publication called The Best Way.’ Ahead of her time perhaps, she says The Best Way would extol the virtuous necessity of acquiring fewer worldly goods in the first place, thus diminishing the post-consumer waste problems. ‘It would say how green it is to be mean and do without new things.’ been feverishly fundraising to build a much-needed place in their local community to hold meetings, events and a range of public and private functions. And seeking a suitable site for the building. The April 1992 Visitor reported the good news that ‘at last they have found the perfect spot opposite Ansford Community School at Maggs Lane’ and have bought it with the help of the district council. The article added that local architect Nigel Begg had drawn up ‘exciting plans which reflect all that is good in new design whilst fitting in with existing local buildings’, marking the start of the final drive to get Caryford Community Hall built and in use as quickly as possible. But ‘£75,000 is still needed to ensure the plans become reality’.

Pheasants at night

A feature in the April 1992 Visitor kindled happy memories of one of Sherborne’s premier restaurants, famed for its speciality cuisine evenings. Sadly long since closed, in 1992 The Pheasants Restaurant on Greenhill had just added five bedrooms for overnight guests. According to the owners, Andrew and Michelle Overhill, ‘the decorations are tasteful and individual in each room with many of the listed building’s original features being retained. Two of the rooms have exposed fireplaces with floral arrangements, one has a window seat and all have beamed ceilings.’ Bed and breakfast for two in an en-suite room was £45, or £40 for single occupancy.

Tesco features

According to a contributor to the April 1992 Visitor, one pleasing feature of the newly-opened Tesco store in Yeovil is its fresh fish department, designed to give the feel of a separate fish shop. ‘The nicest thing is, you can now buy your fish from a face instead of a fridge’ and ‘you can talk to the face and receive all sorts of info and advice’. But one not-sopleasing feature was identified by another writer in the magazine. ‘Where is the most expensive car park in Yeovil?’ he asked. His answer: ‘Tesco! Anyone who thought all that space would help relieve Yeovil’s parking problems has had a rude awakening,’ he explained. ‘The charge is £5 per hour unless you are shopping at Tesco, and even then you are allowed only two hours ... consequently the opening of this vast superstore almost in the heart of Yeovil is probably contributing nothing to the town’s retail centre.’

General Election

With a General Election scheduled for May 1992, campaigning was already dominating the news coverage in the mass media, so it was no surprise that the Visitor had something to say about it in its April issue. ‘I am bored terribly by electioneering. I wish we could have the vote now and get it over with,’ wrote the author of the In Passing column, adding that ‘we need another good scandal to revive not the political fortunes of the various parties but instead the voters’ interest’. Noting that Paddy Ashdown had at last become trendy as the new pacesetter in Pantsdowning and that rumours abounded that ‘another major politician has done the dirty deed’, he suggested that media exposure would be such a shock to the electors it could influence the course of the election. ‘Far be it from me to have a giggle at these politicians with their quick-release trousers and their oh-so-supportive wives,’ he added, ‘but it really is ridiculous that they let Paddy Ashdown get in there first, so to speak, and snap up all the best publicity’.

Roger Richards.