One of Bracknell’s oldest ever residents Annie Stoner, celebrated her 102nd birthday in 1960, with a trip down memory lane in a chauffeur-driven Bentley saloon car.

Mrs Stoner, who had lived in Ralph’s Ride for the previous 30 years, had never seen Bracknell New Town and only remembered ‘Bracknell village’ as a peaceful place, with a population of only 4,000.

So, as the News took their VIP on a guided tour through the new industrial area and housing estates she exclaimed: “Good gracious, all this was fields last time I saw it, it’s all too beautiful for words!”

Bullbrook Junior School opened its doors for the first time 59 years ago and parents arriving with their children were greeted by the headteacher, Eric Haddrell.

Unfortunately, one young child, Sarah Mitchener, left in tears as her big sister Jane started her first day of term and she didn’t, although she was very keen to start her education. Although the school started as Bullbrook, it soon changed its name to Holly Spring County Junior School, which was the unanimous choice of the governors and PTA.

Sperry’s Bracknell factory was opening its doors to visitors where members of the public would have a rare chance to inspect a ‘Seaslug’ - the Royal Navy’s number one missile.

More than 50 major exhibits were also on show, such as farm machinery, jet liner hydraulic equipment and control equipment for nuclear power stations.

A spokesperson for Sperry’s told the News: “We want to show locals what we do for a living, people had come to think of us as a guided missile establishment. For security reasons we were not able to confirm or deny this, but now we can.”

Fifteen-year-old Linda Hunt, from Binfield, passed an audition to join the famous ‘Tiller Girls’ dancers at the London Palladium in 1960.

A pupil at the Rosslyn School of Dancing, Linda told the Bracknell News: “It’s the life for me, I had another audition for the Windmill Theatre and I know it will not be all glamour, there will be plenty of hard work to do.”

Her mother Julie also spoke to the News and admitted: “It’s what she has always wanted, and it looks as if her ambitions may be coming true. We will just have to put up with the inconveniences it is bound to bring.”

Road safety campaigners were getting increasingly concerned with the numbers of serious accidents at a crossroads in Easthampstead 59 years ago.

The “hut” junction had seen five collisions in one week, with the recovery firm Timms of Binfield expressing their own concerns to the News.

The latest accident had involved a Citroen car and a Vauxhall Velox station wagon, which collided together in the early hours, with both drivers being taken to Battle Hospital in Reading.