Romford Recorder week 8, 1953

This week in history - 60, 40 and 20 years ago.

Romford Recorder week 8, 1973

1953

A 27-year-old man hanged himself just two hours before an ambulance was due to take him to a mental hospital.

The Romford coroner recorded a verdict that Stanley Rees, of Wennington Road, Rainham, killed himself while the balance of his mind was disturbed.

His mother Dorothy told the inquest her son had been mentally ill for several years, having been discharged from the army on health grounds. He had been “reasonably well” until floods devastated his home in Canvey Island. Since then his behaviour had worsened.

Romford Recorder week 8, 1993

Mrs Rees had called an ambulance for her son to be taken back to hospital, but it was delayed – by a week.

The delay, the coroner suggested, occurred because “no one was impressed with the urgency of the circumstances, and it was highly probable that the ambulances were engaged on other work.”

A company director was found guilty of loitering with intent to commit a felony.

The 33-year-old, of Woodstock Avenue, Harold Park, had been observed by police walking past parked cars, peering into them and trying some of the doors.

This behaviour took place in “various streets behind Tottenham Court Road”.

The man pleaded not guilty, saying he had been looking into the cars because he was interested by their contents – including loose tartan seat covers.

He denied trying any car doors.

A cavity 10 feet wide and seven feet deep had appeared in the middle of Victoria Road, Romford.

It was unclear what had caused the hole, although it seemed to be related to a sewer blockage and an “area of running sand”.

Alderman A McGonagle, chair of the council’s highways committee, described it as “something serious”.

1973

A “million-to-one” tragedy saw a Scotland Yard fraud detective die of chicken pox.

Det Con Michael Nethersole died at his home in Straight Road, Harold Hill, after contracting bronchial pneumonia as a result of the illness.

His wife and four young children had been quarantined for eight hours while doctors checked no other disease had been involved in the 30-year-old’s death.

Det Con Nethersole – formerly placed at Romford Police Station officer – had already had chicken pox as a child.

Statistics for the 1960s showed about 20 people died each year from the illness.

The “thriving” Harold Hill division of the St John Ambulance Brigade was at risk of closure – because it was teaching boys and girls in the same place.

St John officials had told Arthur Arundel, the brigade’s divisional officer, it was policy for boys and girls to be “instructed separately and by an adult of their own sex”.

But Mr Arundel said Romford and Upminster – the nearest girl cadet sections – were too far for children to travel.

“We have about a month to find a woman with the necessary qualifications to take charge of the girls’ section or they will have to disband,” he added.

“And because we have more girl cadets than boys, it might lead to the disbanding of the boys as well.”

He added he “wouldn’t have the heart” to turn girls away from the boys’ meetings.

Fire swept through a Romford carpet shop, causing £15,000 worth of damage.

Forty firemen battled for 90 minutes to get the blaze at the Keith Royal Company shop, in The Liberty, under control

It was not known what had started the fire.

1993

The Recorder had been invited to step in as tensions grew between council chiefs and members of the public – over plans to move a library.

The proposal to move facilities from Romford Central Library to the Dolphin Centre had caused a “massive public outcry” – and the newspaper had assembled a team of “crusaders” to go face-to-face with the council in a public debate.

Leader Cllr Arthur Latham (Labour) said he was confident he and senior officers would have answers for every point raised in the meeting – but had pledged “full and widespread” consultation before plans were given the go-ahead.

The vicious rape of a 17-year-old girl by a man posing as a taxi driver had sparked calls to stamp out illegal touting by minicabs.

The Havering Taxi Drivers’ Association had already warned police of the growing problem of unlicensed minicab drivers waiting for custom outside nightclubs.

Taxis could only legally wait outside a venue if they had been pre-booked.

Venues like the Ritzy were named as hotspots for the practice.

Association chairman Barry Reeves claimed that had the police listened to concerns six months previously the attack might have been prevented.

But police said they had been “looking closely at the situation”.

A gang hit a 13-year-old boy in the face and demanded money and his mountain bike.

The teenager had been surrounded in a subway linking Waterloo Road and Oldchurch Hospital. They had searched him and told him to hand over his bike. When the plucky youngster refused, they beat him.

But the trio – one of whom had bleached hair, a gold tooth and an earring – had been chased away empty-handed by a group of adults.