100 YEARS AGO

● A signal wire cut on the railway line between Llantarnam and Ponthir was believed to be the work of suffragettes after a note bearing the words ‘votes for women’ was found fastened to the broken wire.

● It was declared that all households would do well to take the necessary precautions to secure their properties as it was now not just the homes of the ‘well-to-do’ that were being burgled.

● Concerns were aired over the health of Viscount Tredegar after it was learned he had suffered a relapse of a previous illness.

● A woman gave premature birth to a child on a Newport tram outside the Westgate Hotel. The driver was allowed to convey the woman to the Newport Nursing Institute where she was handed over into the care of two nurses.

50 YEARS AGO

● Six hundred workers, mainly girls, walked out from the Rhymney factory of James Smith and Co, clothing manufacturers, because of low temperatures at the factory.

● Water rationing was extended to 60 per cent of the population in the area of the Abertillery and District Water Board, affecting 40.000 people. The situation was described as the most serious ever known.

● The Semtex Rubber Company announced new job provisions to be made for 663 people at the exisiting Nantyglo factory with a proposed extension to the building costing £553,000.

● Snow and frost had caused havoc in the horticultural business and Newport traders were warning that supplies of vegetables and seeds would be short.

25 YEARS AGO

● Red Dragon Travel launched a £20,000 rescue mission for 100 South Wales holidaymakers including families from Gwent, after they were stranded in Tenerife following the collapse of their tour operator.

● Newport council chiefs hit out at rogue landlords who were taking grants and failing to maintain and improve their bedsit properties.

● Council officials were looking into claims that untrained care asistants were handing out drugs including morphine at a Blaenavon residential care home for the elderly.

● Gwent schools were told to comply with the law after a shock inspectors’ report uncovered a lack of satisfactory religious education in a number of local schools.