Dreams of new Rovers' stadium
This week in March 1981 saw non-stop rain bring flooding to much of the West Country.
Both roads and rail were hit as mild, moist air, pushed through on a strong west wind, produced a lot of persistent rain.
Fields were awash near Keynsham with some residents in Saltford, by the river, being place on flood alert.
At The Chequers, in Hanham, flood water came within three feet of homes, and in Wick residents stood by to leave their homes as the River Boyd threatened to burst its banks.
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Other front page news from the week was an announcement that, subject to planning approval, Rovers FC were to have a brand new ground in a huge new sports and commercial complex somewhere north of the city.
Costing between £10 and £15 million, the 40 acre site would be ready, revealed The Post, within four years.
As things turned out Rovers ended up, in 1986, at Twerton Park, in Bath, somewhere they would stay for a decade.
At Bristol City FC the final bill for the dismissal of Alan Dicks after 13 years with the club had amounted to £66,000 – one of the largest pay-offs ever made to a football manager.
Dicks had been sacked the previous September with over four years of his contract still to run.
Dicks was replaced by Bob Houghton and his assistant Roy Hodgson, now the England manager.
In other news, it was confirmed that mail order firm Kays was to close its Bristol branch at Staple Hill with the loss of 90 jobs.
The continuance of Eastville's Sunday Market was in the balance after the operators had decided to pull out after being fined, yet again, for breaking the Sunday trading laws.
Graysim, who had run the market for 12 years, said that they had enough of being prosecuted by Bristol City council.
The legalisation of Sunday Trading, but only for six hours, came in 1984.
It was a sign of the times when, despite opposition from its loyal customers, The Peeler pub in Sion Place, Clifton became a wine bar with the fitting name of Sour Grapes.
There was happier news in King Street when the manager of the Old Duke pub, John Stone, had decided to bring the spirit of New Orleans to the West Country by organising a two- week, open-air jazz festival during the city's Wine Fair.
The idea had only been made possible, he said, by the decision to turn the street between his pub and the Llandoger Trow into a pedestrian area.
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