Gerry Brooke looks back on threats to the Downs, the building of the Ashton Gate highway, the Severn Bridge and vandalism in Clevedon

This was the week in September 1966 that Sandie Shaw, the 19 year old barefoot pop star from Essex, was nominated to represent Britain in the Eurovision Song Contest.

"Puppet on a String" won the contest hands down in Vienna the following year giving the songstress her third UK No. One.

Although she hated the song it was a worldwide smash with sales of a million plus.

In Bristol the local media were concentrating on a battle to save three acres of the precious the Downs destined to be lost to a traffic roundabout at the top of Blackboy Hill.

Members of the newly formed Downs Protection Association were determined, with the backing of the Civic Society, to fight the plan to the bitter end.

The Civic Society secretary, Mr Marsden-Smedley, told the Post,

“It is quite clear that public opinion is against the scheme (and) there is a strong case for saying that it is not legal.

“We will be coming out hot and strong against this plan.

“We shall follow this through as best we can but without being unpleasant to the Corporation and their officers.”

The roundabout was never built.

One bit of traffic management that WAS completed in the 1960s, however, was the £800,000 Ashton Gate complex, a series of bridges and underpasses.

Described as the “ one of the most progressive schemes in the country” by the assistant City Engineer, Mr. Willy, the two level interchange was a continuation of Bristol’s £3 million Cumberland Basin complex opened in 1965.

The new highway would eventually link up with a yet to be built Long Ashton by-pass.