This week 10, 20, 30 years ago

10 Years Ago

Kids went bonkers in search of conkers and hoped their massive haul would reward them a world record.

Pupils from St Andrew’s CofE Primary School in Kay Road, Stockwell collected an astonishing 10,174 conkers.

The Year 6 children took three weeks to collect the horse chestnut seeds and counted them during maths class.

A tree crashed through a family home – missing sleeping teenage girl by “six inches”.

The tree in Yeoman Close, West Norwood, came down during the devastating high winds while the family were asleep in their beds.

The tree remained standing against the house, with branches protruding into two bedrooms and the upstairs bathroom ceiling on the verge of falling in.

Dozens of youngsters had a brush with royalty during their visit to a pioneering horse riding club.

The Queen and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, visited the Ebony Riding Club in Millbrook Road, Brixton, as dozens of excited guests looked on.

The Duchess had been club president since 2009 and met founder Ros Spearing and chairwoman Sue York.

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20 Years Ago

Petty thieves torched a printing firm and caused £750,000 worth of damage.

Firefighters had to battle through the night to douse the massive fire in Borough.

Police later confirmed that the fire had been deliberately started by thieves who broke in and made off with office equipment.

Detectives said that there had been another attempted burglary at another printworks in the same road, but the crooks had fled after an alarm went off.

A leaked report suggested that taxpayers might be forced to pick up the £300,000 tab owed to a council by companies placing adverts in its own newspaper and then refusing to pay.

The report showed that Southwark council had already written off £36,000 worth of bad debt.

But councillors decided to recover some of the remaining debt, owed by companies who had placed adverts in the Southwark Sparrow newspaper using bailiffs.

The report also revealed that the council had taken adverts over the phone and would have trouble proving that orders had been placed at all.

Crack-dealing villains had launched a “guns for hire” service to give other crooks access to firearms.

Police said the underworld service exaggerated the number of weapons thought to be in circulation.

Evidence of the shady operation were uncovered by officers targeting gun and drug crime in and around Brixton.

In the first six months of being set up, the Met’s Operation Vulgan had snared 37 crooks and taken 20 guns off the streets in the area.

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30 Years Ago

Petty thieves torched a printing firm and caused £750,000 worth of damage.

Firefighters had to battle through the night to douse the massive fire in Borough.

Police later confirmed that the fire had been deliberately started by thieves who broke in and made off with office equipment.

Detectives said that there had been another attempted burglary at another printworks in the same road, but the crooks had fled after an alarm went off.

A leaked report suggested that taxpayers might be forced to pick up the £300,000 tab owed to a council by companies placing adverts in its own newspaper and then refusing to pay.

The report showed that Southwark council had already written off £36,000 worth of bad debt.

But councillors decided to recover some of the remaining debt, owed by companies who had placed adverts in the Southwark Sparrow newspaper using bailiffs.

The report also revealed that the council had taken adverts over the phone and would have trouble proving that orders had been placed at all.

Crack-dealing villains had launched a “guns for hire” service to give other crooks access to firearms.

Police said the underworld service exaggerated the number of weapons thought to be in circulation.

Evidence of the shady operation were uncovered by officers targeting gun and drug crime in and around Brixton.

In the first six months of being set up, the Met’s Operation Vulgan had snared 37 crooks and taken 20 guns off the streets in the area.

 

Picture: Pixabay / ostadal