SO, THE year 2003 is here!

Journalists across the country will have been examining anniversaries of various dates to write about in their articles for newspapers and magazines, and many people will be wondering where the time has gone!

One of the main events that was to affect us all 100 years ago was the first aeroplane flight over a distance, by the Wright brothers in December 1903, on a field in North Carolina, USA.

In Britain, the first motorised taxis appeared in London that year, and the Daily Mirror newspaper was first published for women and sold for one penny.

Locally, 1903 is remembered for the opening of the Roman Catholic Church in Sherborne Road. A memorial street lamp was also unveiled in the Market Place to the May family, who had been responsible for the running of the Brook Street brewery and whose members had been mayors of the town. The lamp was knocked over by a bus in the mid-1950s and never replaced.

Fifty years ago, in 1953, the country was celebrating the Queen’s coronation and the success of Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tensing in reaching the summit of Mt Everest in the Himalayas.

In Basingstoke that year, the Phoenix Players drama group was established.

At Odiham, the Queen carried out a review of the Royal Air Force, who put on a massive display of airmen, aeroplanes and equipment. In more recent years, the 25th anniversary list is probably more in keeping with people’s memories of our time.

In 1978, Britain saw the completion of British Gas’ conversion of 40 million appliances from coal gas to North Sea gas.

Skateboarding also became a popular pastime. Even the Prime Minister, James Callaghan, was seen using one!

In Basingstoke, in 1978, the town saw the loss, through closure, of many shops that had been the backbone of service to the community.

Mr Holly’s butcher shop in the New Market Place; The Warren newsagents in Church Street; Tom Cooper’s chemists shop, also in Church Street; Kenneth Reed’s chemist’s in New Street; Buckland’s newsagents in upper Wote Street; and Aylward’s photographic studios, also in Wote Street, were some of the shops that the public missed.

Of the many local folk who died that year, the Pearly King, Patrick Collins (known as Sammy), was sadly missed for all the charity work he carried out in the town.

The Basingstoke Gazette (originally called The Hants and Berks Gazette until 1969), had a sad year of publication because their old buildings in Church Street were demolished.

But, by then, the company had settled into its new premises in Pelton Road.