INDUSTRIAL relations were seldom far from our news pages this week in 1972.

On the Monday, Pressed Steel Fisher car body plant workers held a mass meeting at the County Ground car park.

There was only one item on the agenda – whether or not to come out on a one day token strike in sympathy with staff facing a threatened 50 per cent jobs cut at British Leyland’s Thorneycroft factory near Basingstoke.

Although two votes were taken, neither was decisive and the possible strike was vetoed.

At the same time the country was in the grip of a strike by construction workers, who were demanding £30 for a 35-hour working week.

A number of Swindon building projects were affected, in spite of the logistical difficulties faced by union officials in organising action among a multitude of trades working on an ever-changing array of sites.

We said: “The new Swindon station site was the target today of picketing building workers.

“And a union official promised action to shut down two of the town’s biggest building projects – the Brunel Centre and the Burmah Oil HQ.

“Four major sites in the centre of Swindon were idle today as more than 120 building workers continued their strike.

“The gates were closed at the Chivers construction site where Swindon’s new station block is being built, as pickets gathered outside the entrance.

“No work was done at the Wiltshire Hotel site, the new headquarters of the Nationwide Building Society, the Civic Offices extension and the telephone exchange.”

Later in the week flying pickets travelled from Bristol to the Brunel Centre and Burmah HQ sites and persuaded workers there to walk out.

The strike would eventually be partially successful. Wages were increased, although the basic working week remained at 40 hours.

If images of industrial strife were frequent media fare during the period, so were wonders of the dawning Microchip Age.

The Adver managed to showcase a little of the latter thanks to Cricklade Street office supplies firm AE Lavers, who used a full-page advert to tempt potential customers with the latest calculators.

Although they were far smaller than the clanking mechanical adding machines they replaced, most of the devices were for desktops.

The nearest customers had to a pocket option was the Rapidman 800, which was five inches long, three broad and an inch thick.

At £39.95, it cost more than the bulk of British people earned in a week, and boasted fewer functions than some of the machines now found in discount shops for a pound.

At the time, good desktop models cost £100 or more, and examples with printers might set the devotee of cutting edge technology back £250 – nearly half the price of a new Mini.

Another staple of newspapers for much of the 1970s was organising beauty contests and asking young women to enter them.

This week in 1972 we announced our Floral Queen contest, whose winner would receive £100 and the right to reign over the forthcoming floral festival.

Readers were invited to choose their favourites to go through to the final at the Town Hall the following month, when the winner would be announced by TV personality Nicholas Tresilian.

The winner, dancer and dance teacher Hilary Scarr from Moredon, later moved to the Isle of Wight.

Another Swindon teacher, Mike Fenton, had just returned from a successful tour of American folk music competitions.

We said: “He has taught at Moredon Junior School for the past two years, and is a keen folk singer who accompanies himself on the autoharp. It is a 36-stringed instrument.

“His journey lasted a month and his biggest success was when he came fourth out of 91 competitors in the Old Fiddlers’ Convention at Galax, Virginia.

“This is the oldest of the American folk singing competitions and attracts large entries.”

Mike went on to become a respected figure of the UK and international autoharp scene.

Another local personality in the news was one of Swindon’s longest-serving magistrates, and at that time the only woman to have chaired the borough bench.

Marion Crowdy, 70, was being compulsorily retired after 32 years passing sentences and offering firm but fair advice.

The respected magistrate was also a member of the family whose business was one of Swindon’s first garages, and had sold the firm in 1967.

An expert photographer, Marion, pictured left, had once been official photographer to the Guide and Scout movement, and her pictures had been published all over the world.

Reflecting on her years in court, she displayed the wisdom for which she was renowned: “To say you’ve enjoyed your time as a magistrate is to say you’ve enjoyed other people’s misfortunes.

“No, it’s not really an enjoyable job. But I have enjoyed having the opportunity to serve my fellow citizens.

“One can never be certain, but I’ve always had a feeling that in many cases, appearing in court can give someone the chance he needs to sort himself out.”