HERE’S a selection of stories as they appeared in the Chronicle in July 1979.

BARNSLEY’S picture-postcard village of Cawthorne, last year’s ‘Best Kept Village’, is looking rather tarnished at the moment — and the blame is being laid at Barnsley Council’s door.

Residents and councillors alike were disappointed a few weeks ago when grass-cutting and other jobs carried out by the Public Services Department, was carried out only after complaints — and then too late for the judging of this year’s Best Kept Village contest.

Since then, the village has learned it has not been included in this year’s finals, and disappointment has turned to anger.

The parish council had decided to enter the village in the Britain in Bloom contest this month, but because they claim services like grass cutting and bin-emptying had not improved, they have telephoned the judges and told them not to bother visiting the village.

STORING petrol incorrectly is dangerous and could be Illegal.

The warning comes from Eddie McCoy, South Yorkshire’s chief fire officer, following recent outbreaks of fire caused by people privately storing petrol as a precaution against the petrol shortage.

A number of people have been severely burned.

BARNSLEY councillors are worried about the delay in council house repairs and they have called for improved communication between departments to alleviate the problem.

Members of the Direct Works Committee heard on Monday that nearly 3,000 repairs were outstanding in the Worsbrough and Kendray areas alone.

Coun Keith Borrett asked for an urgent meeting between the Direct Works Department, the Housing Department and local members to discuss the problem.

“We are getting a lot of complaints about the situation and I think we should find out where the fault lies,” he said.

CLOSURE of the Barnsley Road sub-post office at Wombwell has set yet another problem — where to re-site the phone box.

Situated halfway between those in High Street and the one outside the Bulldog Garage, the Post Office now wants to move the box so they can landscape a garden.

Coun Dick Wraith said this week that people, including many old folk, were having to walk nearly one-and-a-half miles to the next phone at the garage.

“There has been a phone there for years. People are used to it so we’ll have to find a site nearby. It’s too far to walk to the garage,” he added.

A FIVE-man delegation from China’s mining industry was given a civic reception at the town hall this week.

The visitors were in the area to compare methods of mining, and during the week visited Royston Drift Mine, Grimethorpe Colliery and Monk Bretton Training Centre. FIREMEN had to free ten post office employees trapped in a lift on Monday morning.

The overloaded lift cut out as it left the ground floor of Barnsley General Post Office, and the workers were trapped for more than 15 minutes.

EIGHTEEN-year-old Kim Darlow, of Dodworth, has been chosen to be Miss Dodworth Central 1979 at a recent competition in the village.

Kim is an employee at the SR Gent clothing factory on Dodworth Road.