10 YEARS AGO

* A 40-strong syndicate of teachers, classroom assistants, dinner supervisors and cleaners at Middleton Cheney Primary School, near Banbury, have won £1.7m on the National Lottery.

* A host of runners took part in the First Great Oxford Pancake Race in Gloucester Green in aid of the Oxford Children’s Hospital.

20 YEARS AGO

* The Lox international airport plan south of Abingdon is a non-starter after the Government said it would never approve such a scheme in the green fields of Oxfordshire.

* The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh visited RAF Benson to say farewell to the Queen’s Flight, which is being disbanded.

30 YEARS AGO

* A film about Britain’s intelligence service, banned by broadcasters for fear of breaching the Official Secrets Act, will be shown in Oxford by Bill Heine, owner of the Penultimate Picture Palace.

* Daredevil children risk their lives by playing ‘chicken’ with trains on railway line between Kennington and Cowley.

40 YEARS AGO

* Plans to land Sir Matt Busby by helicopter on the Manor Ground before Oxford United’s game with Manchester United have been abandoned for safety reasons.

* The transformation of the former City Church of All Saints in High Street, Oxford, into Lincoln College library should be finished in October, but the cost has almost doubled to £420,000.

50 YEARS AGO

* The 700-year-old Bear Inn in Alfred Street, Oxford, was saved from a major fire when the licensee and his wife, Mr and Mrs David Van Vlyman, smelled burning and raised the alarm.

* Milk at The Cherwell School in North Oxford has been banned for a week because of ‘lax standards’ in disposing of crates, bottles and tops by some of the 365 pupils.

60 YEARS AGO

* The controversial plan for a United States Air Force communications centre, manned by 250 men, at Christmas Common, near Watlington, has been dropped.

* Parents who send their children to Sunday School with a penny, or even a halfpenny, for the collection have been criticised by the vicar of Watlington, the Rev F Lewis.

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