Sir William Herschel is arguably Slough’s most distinguished citizen and in 1981 the town celebrated the 200th anniversary of his discovery of the Planet Uranus.

Using his own home-made telescope, supported by scaffolding in his back garden, Herschel probed deeper into the galaxy, doubling the known size after discovering Uranus.

His 40-feet telescope was dismantled in 1893 and his Observatory House was demolished in 1963 (despite many desperate attempts to save it) and Slough’s memorial to him quotes his most quoted maxim: “I have looked further into space than ever human beings did before me. I have seen the stars whose light it will be proved has taken two million years to reach us.”

A new Iver company floated the idea of transporting it’s latest 52-foot long aluminium walkway from West Drayton to Hanwell by canal barge.

Roomborough, from Court Lane, assembled the walkway in West Drayton so that it could be near the waterway and lifted the structure onto barges,with the aid of two giant cranes.Company spokesman, Alan Whitrod, told the Observer: “It would have cost twice as much to deliver by road and we would have required a police escort, plus we would not have been able to deliver on a week day.”

Over 250 elderly residents from local day centres and sheltered homes were entertained at Langley College 37 years ago with an evening of old time music hall acts.

Organised by Slough Round Table, members of the audience were encouraged to try and ‘out-sing’ each other to such tunes as ‘Tipperary’.

Slough Rugby Club held its third annual mini-rugby festival in March 1981 with sponsorship provided by the town’s premier newspaper, the Observer.

Around 400 youngsters played on six temporary pitches during the day but no team from the host club was successful-although the under 8s captain David Thompson did receive a shield for best performance of the day.

An 80-year-old widow from Langley was left scratching her head when she realised that her ‘Scrooge-like’ pension increase of 25p had been negated by a reduction in her benefits.