100 years ago

Among the cases heard at Newport was one in which a man who had been preaching and praying in Henry Street, was charged with begging. The prisoner claimed that if he was engaged in the cause of righteousness he could not be accused of wrongdoing. He was discharged after promising to leave the town.

A Brynmawr landlord was summoned to court after accepting a diamond, which had been stolen, as payment for a debt owed for alcohol.

Men employed at Blaenserchan Colliery, Abersychan, had an alarming experience after feeling a series of bumps which they believed to be an underground earthquake. All of the workers rushed from their various working places and insisted on being taken to the surface.

The action of discontinuing street lighting in the town during the early hours was described as an experiment and no cause for alarm. It was requested that tradesmen also reduced their lighting, even though residents were assured that an air strike would be highly unlikely.

50 years ago

Tributes were floodeding into the country following the death of Sir Winston Churchill, who, it was claimed, died as he lived – a fighter.

Rumours that there were defects in the new £315,000 Brynmawr comprehensive school were discounted by the Breconshire county architect in an interview with the paper.

Gwent bus services were likely to be hit by a token strike by more than 7000 Welsh busmen who were up in arms about a poor pay award.

Fire hits Newport railway station’s administration block for the second time in two months. Large quantities of railway documents and records were destroyed.

25 years ago

Hospital doctors joined hundreds of other Gwent workers in a 15 minute walkout in support of the ambulance workers’ pay claim.

Caldicot weightlifter Andrew Davies collected three gold medals at the Commonwealth games in New Zealand as fellow weightlifter Ricky Chaplin of Cwmbran was stripped of his medal after failing a drugs test.

Angry Monmouth residents claimed that the new £1.9million flood alleviation scheme had made water chaos in the town worse with some residents taking to canoes after floodwater swept through the streets.

Labour party members claimed that Cwmcarn comprehensive school opt-out campaigners were being misled by the Grant Maintained Schools Trust who they accused of trying to make political capital over the issue.