THE Wyvern Theatre was about to be eaten as August of 1974 gave way to September.

Fortunately it wasn’t the brick and concrete version but a smaller, softer and tastier one.

“Celebrations for the Wyvern Theatre’s third birthday tomorrow really take the cake,” we said.

“It is an 18-inch square cake to be exact, and a scale replica of the theatre.

“Made of sponge and iced in yellow, white and red, it will be cut on stage by the Mayoress of Thamesdown, Mrs Ray Smith, after the opening concert of the autumn season tomorrow.

“The cake was designed and made from photographs of the theatre by Mr Charles Mayer and Mr John Castle, of Castle’s Bakery in Market Street, Swindon, and took about 10 hours to complete.

“Most difficult were the sides, entrance and ventilation shaft on top of the theatre, which stand free of the sponge centre.”

Another story about the Wyvern involved speculation regarding how to make a cat drink on cue.

The 10-year-old cat was called Tibby, and he was owned by Catherine Gingell, whose brother, Colin, was a member of the Adastrians theatre group.

The group was in rehearsal for The Diary of Anne Frank, and Tibby had landed the role of the Franks’ cat, Mooschie.

“It is a very important part,” said Adastrians publicity officer Colm Maguire.

“The family are hard up for food and there is a lot of dialogue about the cat eating food the adults need.”

The story called for the cat to eat and drink on stage. Colm added: “The eating is no problem because she will go straight for cat food. Finding something she will drink is not so easy.

“It would look wrong to use milk because they would not have given it to the cat. And cats aren’t very partial to water.”

The Adver suggested a saucer of strong drink might do the trick, but mercifully nobody else seems to have thought this a good idea.

A few hundred yards from the theatre, in Victoria Road, a little piece of automotive history was literally being made.

Ask any classic British car buff when the last Morris Minors were made and they’ll quickly tell you the last estates and commercial versions rolled off the production line in 1971. A year earlier, they'll say, the last saloons had been assembled at Cowley.

The truth is that the last new Morris Minor made in Britain didn’t roll off any production line at all, but was mostly assembled in the window of the old Dutton-Forshaw car showroom in Swindon.

It was put together by hand at the behest of a businessman called Rod Law, whose father had set his heart on having a new Minor.

His wish was granted at a cost of £4,000, which was enough in those days to buy a top-of-the-range Jaguar saloon.

We wonder whether the car survived, and if the current owners know its history.

We said: “The Marvellous Morris is now receiving its final trim, and should be ready for handover towards the end of the month.”

Still in the world of motoring, 5,000 copies of a new book called Junior Roadcraft emerged from Thamesdown Borough Council’s on-site printing press.

The book was a simplified version of the Highway Code intended to promote road safety among children. Unlike other such books, it didn’t patronise its readers, which was probably because it was compiled by people from its target audience.

Pupils from Gorse Hill Junior School, none aged over 11, were brought in to make sure the information was perfect.

Deputy head-teacher Brian Cooke co-ordinated the project. He said: “We started by just chatting about it.

“Then I gave them copies of the Highway Code and told them to write in their own language what it meant to them.”

The week was also remarkable for seeing us print an advertisement which was sexist even by the standards of the era.

It was for the Triumph lingerie company, which was at that time one of Swindon’s biggest employers, and had a large photo of a woman in a polka-dot mini-dress and tight white boots posing in front of an excavator.

“The most feminine job in Swindon,” said the headline to a text which ran: “Few girls want to work in a man’s world – with dirt and grime and heavy machinery.

“How about a job where you will work with delightful materials in a clean and pleasant atmosphere as a machinist making up-to-the-minute lingerie and foundation garments.”

In an odd coincidence we also ran a story about a young woman from Wroughton who had no qualms about entering what was then very much a male profession.

Susan Nixon, 17, had joined the RAF only that April but was already an assistant air traffic controller.

We said: “Now she’s off to RAF Mawgan in Cornwall for operational watch-keeping duties in the air traffic control tower there.”