SLOUGH Jets skated to a convincing 15-3 victory over Richmond at their new ice arena in October 1986, but they played to an almost empty venue, the players being outnumbered by onlookers, friends and family, the doors being firmly closed to fans.

Safety and fire certificates had not been issued for the match and the lack of home and away supporters gave the tie an eerie air of an empty theatre. The Jets coach Gary Stefan told the Observer: “It was more like a practice session than a match, the atmosphere was dead, we had to dig deep to keep going.”

Workers on Slough’s Trading Estate were convinced that a mist, created by a mixture of spray from the power station’s giant cooling tower and factory waste was rotting their cars.

Paintwork on the cars of many staff at Production Machines, in Stirling Road, had white rings on them plus deposits on their windscreens that had an oily and sugary consistency.

TV legend and entertainer Roy Castle put on his best Groucho Marx impression for the Observer’s camera 31 years ago, when he and his family visited Slough’s Mars factory.

Using a Mars bar to replace the funny man’s cigar he toured the facility very slowly as eagle-eyed workers kept recognising him, despite wearing the factory’s mandatory hat and coat.

The annual Round Table Firework Fiesta lit up the sky above Windsor Racecourse in 1986, with thousands of spectators being treated to an unusual spectacle of rockets that were attached to parachutes.

Amongst the crowd that year was an ambulance that brought a paralysed spectator in a special ambulance equipped with an iron lung.

Chief organiser Alan Turner told the Observer: “He lay on his back in the vehicle and was propped up so he could see out-he had all the equipment needed to stay alive.”

Mobility scooters were in their infancy in the mid-eighties and the Royal Antideluvian Order of Buffaloes handed over the keys to local man, Terry Rivers, to help him negotiate the streets of Slough.

The charitable Buffaloes raised the cash for the bike with a 24-hour darts marathon and a series of raffles.

Terry, from Teesdale Road, told the Observer: “It’s wonderful and so easy to get around now.”

Younger pupils at Upton Grammar School got a chance to have a go at throwing sponges at sixth formers on a stall entitled “Soak the Sixth” at their Autumn Fayre.

Another attraction included selling their old toys to raise money for two adopted African children, placed near the ice cream stall, this proved to be very popular due to the unseasonably warm weather.