Thursday 10th March 2011 Cheese to roll again in Gloucestershire
Plans to bring back Gloucestershire’s historic cheese-rolling event
have been revealed, with plans for an all-ticket event to be held over
two days. Last year’s cheese-rolling competition was cancelled amid
health and safety fears. In 2009, around 15,000 spectators turned up
to witness the traditional event where competitors chase large rounds
of cheese down Cooper’s Hill - a site only suitable for a maximum of
5,000. The cheese rolling committee has decided that the event held in
Brockworth needs to be professionally organised and have set their
sights on a two-day event with live bands, a licensed bar, overnight
camping and country crafts. Gloucestershire

Thursday 23rd December 2010 Weather scuppers Christmas Day lido swim
The weather has forced the cancellation of the annual Christmas Day
dip at Cheltenham's lido. It is thought that this is the first time
the event has been called off. The event usually attracts between 60
and 80 hardy swimmers willing to take a dip in the freezing waters.
The pool is presently covered in a thick sheet of ice and the Lido
staff fear that trying to break it may damage some of the lido's
structure. Julie Sargent, chief executive of Sandford Parks Lido, said
"we've got to protect its 75-year-old engineering". Gloucestershire

Thursday 16th December 2010 World’s first commercial nuclear power station closes
The world’s first commercial nuclear power plant at Berkeley in
Gloucestershire is in the process of being closed. The Magnox reactor
was built in the late 1950s and once produced enough electricity to
supply a city the size of Bristol. Electricity production at the
Berkeley site stopped in the late 1980s, after just over three decades
of supplying the National Grid. Now stripped of its external pipework
and almost empty inside, the seven-storey buildings stand as hollow
shells. "When they were operational they were full, jam packed with
gear," says site director Sean Sargent. Now the building will be
locked up for a further 64 years to allow time for nuclear waste still
contained within the reactor to degrade. Gloucestershire

Wednesday 1st September 2010 New road sign for Cotswold Airport features a spelling mistake
A road sign for the Cotswold Airport on the A433 has gone up with the
‘s’ and the ‘w’ the wrong way round. The spelling mistake was been
spotted on an official road sign for the airport in Gloucestershire. A
spokesman for the county council, which installed the sign, said:
"Thanks for bringing it to our attention. If it is wrong we'll be
asking the manufacturer to put it right at their cost." The new sign
was required after the airport changed its name from Kemble Airfield a
year ago. Gloucestershire

Tuesday 10th August 2010 ‘Poor’ Cheltenham chicken lays giant egg
‘Rainbow’ a chicken belonging to a Gloucestershire man has laid an egg double the size of a normal one which would weigh about 56.7g. Jeremy Power, who lives in Cheltenham, said: "Sadly it's not a world record, ours comes in at about 130g (4.6oz) whereas there are eggs on record of 160g (5.6oz). It's all a bit of a dodgy world really in that there's no one to actually authenticate the weight of an egg. We've only got two chickens and every so often you do get an egg which is bigger than a normal egg but this one really has caught us by surprise. On Saturday, Rainbow really was on top form. I opened up the chicken house and there was this enormous egg. It's almost like a comedy egg it was so big. Ouch, that is everyone's reaction to it... poor little chicken." Gloucestershire

Wednesday 4th August 2010 Firefighters deploy special high pressure house to douse camp fires
Firefighters have had to tackle 14 camp fires in the Forest of Dean this summer already. Illegal camp fires are being blamed for the fires in a picnic area within the Forest, last year there was just one call to the Haywood Plantation. Firefighter are now using a high pressure hose that goes deeper to reach any fire that has spread underground. Andy Hook, of the Forestry Commission, warned that the present "tinder dry" conditions meant fires spread very quickly.He said discarded disposable barbecues were a major fire ignition risk. "People leave them there and then disappear off home,“ he said, adding: “It's extremely dry the moment, tinder dry. We would be struggling if we do have any big fires at the moment." Gloucestershire

Wednesday 21st July 2010 Gloucester gravestone find excites the experts
Archaeologists working alongside a £7m traffic project in Gloucester have uncovered  a gravestone that they say has great historical importance to the town. A headstone found down a well is believed to have come from the burial ground of a chapel in Southgate Street. The stone marked the last resting place of Catherine Jennings who dies in 1838, aged 48. The inscription mentions her husband, the Reverend Robert Jennings, who was a missionary in India. Gloucestershire County Council has established that Jennings was born in 1797 and served as a minister in Gloucester before he was appointed as a missionary by the London Missionary Society in 1827. He died in Chittoor on 1 June 1831, aged 34, leaving his widow and a child to return to England. Gloucestershire

Wednesday 21st July 2010 Gloucester gravestone find excites the experts
Archaeologists working alongside a £7m traffic project in Gloucester have uncovered  a gravestone that they say has great historical importance to the town. A headstone found down a well is believed to have come from the burial ground of a chapel in Southgate Street. The stone marked the last resting place of Catherine Jennings who dies in 1838, aged 48. The inscription mentions her husband, the Reverend Robert Jennings, who was a missionary in India. Gloucestershire County Council has established that Jennings was born in 1797 and served as a minister in Gloucester before he was appointed as a missionary by the London Missionary Society in 1827. He died in Chittoor on 1 June 1831, aged 34, leaving his widow and a child to return to England. Gloucestershire

Wednesday 7th July 2010 One-thousand-year-old poo is a big attraction
A museum is enjoying the popularity of a piece of poo, possibly left
by a Saxon soldier, after putting the artefact on show last month.
11,000 visitors viewed the relic when it was loaned to Gloucestershire
County Council's Archaeology Service for their display at the
Cheltenham Science Festival last month. The exhibit, which was
previously hidden at the Gloucester City Museum & Art Gallery, was
shown again at the Tewkesbury Medieval Fair and once again proved to
be a big draw. The medieval deposit was discovered at the bottom of a
roadside hole thought to have been dug in Saxon times. It came to
light during a dig in 1991 by archaeologists at the public car park in
Ladybellgate Street, Gloucester. It was found. Museum spokesman Sarrah
Macey said: "With no designated public toilets 1,000 years ago,
perhaps a desperate Anglo-Saxon found a hole and thought they would
never be found out. This is an important find because scientists can
use it to analyse the diet and heath of our ancestors which helps them
to understand similar issues today.” Gloucestershire

Wednesday 23rd June 2010 Travellers move onto police land
Land earmarked for a new £20m divisional headquarters for
Gloucestershire Police has been occupied by a group of travellers.
Numbering more than 20, the travellers and their six caravans have set
up on the site near Bishop's Cleeve on the outskirts of Cheltenham.
Gloucestershire police said it was applying for a possession order to
remove the travellers from the field close to the A435. Assistant
Chief Constable Ivor Twydell said: "The land occupied is the site of
the new custody suite and police operational accommodation and is
owned by Gloucestershire Police Authority. We are taking the
appropriate course of action on behalf of the [police] authority." Gloucestershire