NOSTALGIA: Team effort strikes gold

This photograph first appeared in the Bury Free Press on January 30, 1987.

It accompanied an article on the success of Tim Brinton Cars, the Peugeot Talbot dealers on Bury St Edmunds’ Moreton Hall estate, after it won the coveted Gold Award for outstanding performance in reaching the highest standards of customer service in every area of the dealership.

Service manager Peter Newson, director Tom Coates and parts manager Trevor Sadler are pictured here heading the award-winning team.

A ‘delighted’ Mr Coates said at the time: “We always strive to give absolutely the best service.”

HEADLINES FROM THE PAST

10 Years Ago

Pickets greeted council workers across West Suffolk and Norfolk as a massive public service workers’ strike was staged.

There was also warning the one-day national strike could be repeated as public sector workers battled against changes to their pension provision.

Schools, libraries and day centres closed as workers took part in the action. Mildenhall swimming pool was also closed.

Sasha Pearce, regional organiser for Unison, which has 9,000 members in Suffolk, said there had been a very good response.

“There could be possible further action but hopefully there won’t have to be too many before the employers see sense,” she said.

25 Years Ago

A notorious Bury St Edmunds gypsy site was to be refurbished with a ‘golden grant’ of up to £300,000 as part of a plan to crack down on illegal travellers’ camps.

The Department of the Environment had agreed to pay for the complete renewal of facilities at the Romany Way site which had become a ‘no-go’ area for genuine gypsy families who had left ‘in fear of their lives’.

St Edmundsbury Borough Council, which administered the site, had drawn up proposals for 28 pitches with basic amenities and was appointing a full-time warden of ‘strong character’ to manage it.

Due to be completed by mid 1992, the overhaul was designed to put an end to the site’s vandalism, insanitary conditions and increasing violence.

100 Years Ago

Mr and Mrs Richard Ball, of Chalk Hill, Barton Mills, have sustained a great loss by the death of their only son, Corporal F G Ball.

Corpl Ball joined the Army in January, 1915, enlisting in the 9th Somerset Light Infantry. He went to France on Oct 6th and then transferred to the 8th Somersets, which was then at Armentieres, where he had several narrow escapes.

A letter informing his wife of his death, dated Feb 16, said: “When admitted here yesterday morning he was in a condition of great exhaustion, due to the loss of blood. The piece of shell had severed the main artery at the back of the knee, and broken the knee joint badly, causing bad haemorrhage and gangrene of the lower part of the leg...”