1977
THE second week in October 1977 wasn't a great one for news. The big Bristol Crown Court story dominating the headlines was the trial of a 21-year-old man who had been charged with murdering his ex-girlfriend, 24-year-old Hartcliffe girl Jackie Hynam. They had met when they both worked at Mathews and Scails cheese-packing depot on Redcliffe Wharf. She had befriended him, taken him home, introduced him to people as her boyfriend and they had become engaged.
They intended, the court heard, to marry the following year.
The relationship, said the prosecutor, Charles Whitby. QC, had been a stormy one and, after Jackie had suggested that they temporarily part to give themselves a little breathing space, he had stabbed her viciously in the back with a six-inch knife.
'Mercifully, the blow was so sudden and strong that she may have died instantly without knowing anything about it,' Mr Whitby told the court. The man had pleaded not guilty.
The other story making the headlines was that - after five long hours of talks between employers and union leaders - the end of a five-week dispute, which had crippled Avonmouth Docks, was in sight. It had lost the port thousands of pounds a day and forced more than 25 ships to divert to other ports. The dispute, which involved 1,300 men, had begun over a claim for handling a cargo of tin ore and flared into a bitter confrontation, leading to daily walkouts.
In other news of the week, the Post reported that BAC had won a £13.3 million stake in the world's most ambitious space astronomy project yet - building two vital parts for the US Space Shuttle due to launch in 1983. BAC's electronics and space division, it was revealed, would build the solar array, powered by the sun, to power a telescope during the shuttle's 10 to 15 years in space.
On the sports front, manager Don Megson clinched the deal that he believed would transform Rovers' fortunes when he paid Wolves £10,000 for striker Bobby Gould. This transfer brought the total amount paid for the 31-year-old attacker during his much travelled career to £390,000. Rovers, it was claimed, had won the race against Hereford United, Preston and Portsmouth, because Gould wanted to stay in the Portishead house that he had bought while playing for Bristol City in 1972 and because Megson had offered him a player/coach appointment.
Sleazy lunchtime striptease, mentioned in the 1966 column, was, amazingly, still about a decade later. You can't keep good entertainment away, apparently, and by now Lesters Club in Worrall Road was not alone in advertising its 'girls'. The
Hofbrauhaus, in All Saints Street, open from 11.30am until 2.30am, was offering a 'lunchtime scene' - with four strips every Thursday, Friday and Saturday. There was an admission fee of just 10p plus pub-price drinks and cheap pub grub. Park Street's well-known Princess Club, billed as the 'ideal businessmen's meeting place', was also offering 'fabulous strips', but this time at the more respectable hour of 9pm (until 2am).
If that didn't give you enough satisfaction, you could always meet up with porn queen Fiona Richmond (in the flesh) at various lakeside pubs during the Great Chew Valley Bed Race held the following Sunday. But sex, in the autumn of 1977, was rearing its ugly head on the news pages as well as advertising. Villagers in Chalford, near Stroud (yes, the Post reached even those parts of the Cotswolds in the good old days), were surprised to learn that one of their neighbours had, in the 1960s, been an 'international sex queen'.
Blonde Henrietta Chapman, who lived in seclusion in the valley but had been spotted drinking in the New Red Lion pub, had been , linked, under the name Mariella Norotny, with both the Profumo scandal and President Kennedy. This wasn't the only sex scandal emerging from the West's supposedly quiet local towns and villages to make the news. In Frame's Trudox Hill village hall, the Cameleon Carnival Club had staged what was described by the club's acting chairman, Bob Wall, as a 'fruity sex show', or in the words of another resident, who lodged a complaint, an 'erotic and sordid' show.
The police quickly moved in to investigate and it was revealed that the trouble centred around a strip show - featuring two men and a woman - which had somehow got out of control. The harmless fun had apparently started when the male stripper left the stage wearing only a large cloak and saucily invited female members of the audience to go inside the cloak with him. As the local police debated what to do, Mr Wall told the press: 'We only aimed to give the people what they wanted. This whole thing has been blown up out of all proportion. We raised £140 towards our entry in this year's carnival and it's done us a lot of good.'
If you felt like putting the Post aside, putting on your coat and going out, what was on offer? In town, Dr Feelgood, with John Mayo replacing the legendary Wilko Johnson, were rocking the Colston Hall with their usual high-energy R&B, while later in the week the tempo slackened somewhat as the great, late, classical guitarist Segovia, now in his 80s, gave it his best. At the Welsh Back Granary, introduced by D J Al Read, were Bullet and later in the week, the Avon Cities jazz band.
Out of town, having motored to the Mendips and the Webbington Country Club, you could sing along with the poor man's Wurzels - Shag Connors And The Carrot Crunchers - or, just down the road, at the Yew Tree Country Club on the A38, while away the night with Kinda Country at the club's Sunday night country and western night. Not spitting distance away, you could have a livelier time at the Paradise Motor Inn, dancing to the sounds of Nipper, along with D J Bob Judge. Boasting two restaurants, three bars and a late licence, admission was a snip at just 75p.
