THE Swindon Advertiser urged shoppers to take a bold step into the future during the first full week of October 1966.

The location was The Parade, which was then the town centre’s first newfangled pedestrian precinct.

Built a couple of years earlier, it now had enough tenants to merit a two-page advertising feature.

Looking at our main photo from nearly half a century ago, the only major difference between then and now is the absence of the Brunel Centre and David Murray John Tower, which wouldn’t rise until the next decade.

“Like bees round a jam pot,” we said, “shoppers swarm round the doors of the supermarkets, buzzing in and out, parking prams in shiny metal battalions outside.

“Inside, they are met by the constant chatter of the adding machines, the clatter of wire baskets, the encouraging strains of piped music soothing the nerves of harassed housewives.

“Goods line the shelves and display baskets, mutely shouting ‘Buy me,’ dazzling the shopper with their bright coloured packets of cellophane and foil.

“Outside, those with a little more time to spare sit on wooden seats and contemplate the flowers, the milling humanity and a certain cube of cement blocks – The Parade’s water feature.”

The infamous cube, already an object of scorn, would be removed toward the end of the 1970s.

Shops included the Kamille fashion house, Wymans the stationer and record dealer, Knights the newsagency and Manda Shoes, where Clarks children’s styles included Runabout for boys and Jauntigo for girls.

Tesco’s wares included cheddar cheese at 2s 8d (about 16p) a pound and men’s Winceyette pyjamas at 16s 11d (about 85p) a pair.

Rival supermarket Maypole had a well-stocked drinks section, including Smirnoff vodka at 48s 6d (about £2.42p) a bottle.

For home entertainment, Barnes and Avis Ltd offered 19inch black and white televisions to rent at 6s 11d (about 35p) a week.

Modern ways of doing things weren’t confined to The Parade. Park Senior School had just become the second in Swindon – after Headlands – to install a language laboratory.

These, we said, were “...described as a tremendous advance over traditional teaching methods.

“Instead of desks and chairs, students sit in 35 individual cubicles, each equipped with headphones and a built-in tape recorder. And instead of controlling the lesson from a desk at the front of the room, the teacher sits at an elevated console behind the class.”

We photographed clean-cut languages teacher Mr D Roberts doing just that, and looking not unlike a NASA flight controller.

He told us: “The laboratory is a tremendous advance on the traditional methods of the textbook.”

When our reporter visited, the new lab was out of action due to teething troubles, which will come as little surprise to Rewind readers who remember using the fragile tape-based technology during their own school days.

The Adver also ran a story about state-of-the-art technology from more than a century earlier.

We sent a reporter and photographer to mark the homecoming of a historic model of an Iron Duke locomotive.

Built in 1847 and 1848 under the supervision of Brunel and early GWR superintendent Daniel Gooch, the model had previously been displayed by the Museum of British Transport in Clapham.

It was photographed at the old Swindon Railway Museum in Faringdon Road, with a full-sized Swindon loco, City of Truro, as a background.

These days the model can be seen at Steam, while City of Truro was restored for heritage railway service in the 1980s.

On the opposite page to that story was one about a hot-headed young soldier who plotted with friends to blow up a temporary dam erected by a film company at Castle Combe.

The 22-year-old was one of four young men incensed at the creation of an artificial pond by the makers of Doctor Dolittle, which starred Rex Harrison.

They admitted conspiring to effect a public mischief and the soldier, who was also a baronet, was fined £500.

The court heard that the young man’s life had been ruined by his court appearance, although the claim turned out to be somewhat exaggerated.

His name? Sir Ranulph Twistleton Wykeham-Fiennes.

At the Goddard Arms in Old Town, the hairstyles of the 1960s were much in evidence when the Swindon and District Guild of Hairdressers, Wigmakers and Perfumers held their annual demonstration.

We pictured 18-year-old Wootton Bassett stylist Judy Banbrook putting the finishing touches to a “jewelled style” for a young woman called Lynne Boffin, who lived in Manchester Road.

“About 250 hairdressers and members of the public crowded into the ballroom to watch some soft and very feminine styles being created.

“The organisers believe that such shows promote interest from hairdressers and the public alike, and the stylists themselves benefit from watching others at work.”