100 YEARS AGO

● A £10 fine was issued to a local man suspected of loitering in Dock Street with the purpose of taking street bets. The mayor said that magistrates were determined to stamp out the practice.

● A record 3,000 tons of coal in seven hours was loaded onto the SS Sheba at Alexandra Dock, Newport, breaking previous records of efficiency.

● A proposal for an intermediate school at Caerleon was made by governors and it was decided that a formal application be made to the Education Department.

● An unknown young man who could give no account of himself had still not regained his memory after several days in Newport workhouse hospital.

50 YEARS AGO

● The Central Council for Physical Recreation programme ran a series of intensive instruction courses covering rugby, golf, swimming and fencing.

● The condition of ponies found by a combined team of RSPCA and Army volunteers in the North Monmouthshire mountains was described as pitiful. The ponies were so hungry they were eating cardboard.

● The outlook for young people looking for work in Monmouthshire was described as bleak with more then 700 registered on the unemployment list – the highest figure since the war.

● Newport’s first multi-storey flats, car parks and a traffic-free shopping centre were included in Newport town council housing committee’s plans for Ringland.

25 YEARS AGO

● A meningitis alarm was raised after four victims of the killer disease were admitted to hospital in Gwent and the Rhymney Valley.

● Islwyn’s only remaining cinema, The Maxime in Blackwood, was due to close on the grounds of poor financial returns.

● Tesco looked set to build a controversial £10 million store on British Rail land at Cardiff Road, Newport.

● Welsh Office sources predicted that a £50 million investment by TSB Trust Company in Newport would spark a jobs and property boom in Gwent.