THE UNUSUALLY hot temperatures in the middle of the month had comparisons being made with 1976 but 41 years ago the situation was quite different.
Although we may have some more sizzling days of 25 to 30 degrees Centigrade – that’s 77 to 86 degrees in Fahrenheit – the ten-day spell of June heat was nothing like that famous long hot summer when a minister for drought was appointed as we waited months for proper rainfall.
Looking back at the pages of the Post, then the East Hampshire Post, in June 1976, many of the headlines told of similar issues to those of today.
The page one lead on June 17 told how a petrol pump attendant, former policeman Walter Dunn, foiled an attempted robbery at Ramshill Service Station by tackling the would-be robber, forcing him to drop a bag with the day’s takings inside.
Petersfield Round Table was organising the town’s carnival and spokesman Peter Dimond was appealing for entrants for the carnival queen competition, while residents of Liss had been enjoying their own carnival event.
On the back page of the Post, chart-topping band the Wurzels were at John Tosdevine’s Duncombe Farm at East Meon for a dance organised by Waltham Chase Boys Motorcycle Club to raise money for the British Heart Foundation.
The following week’s edition included reports of an inter-business It’s A Knockout competition held at The Petersfield School, which was won by Petersfield Hockey Club. Roger Powell, the Froxfield bookbinder, was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours and East Hampshire District Council tenants were asked to tackle small repairs in their properties themselves to save the council money.
But it was in that edition of June 24, readers found out about one of the consequences of the heatwave – a massive heath fire in Woolmer Forest.
“Battling through tense smoke and dodging bullets and thunder flashes, about 500 troops joined 100 firemen from three counties to fight to contain the biggest heath fire in the county this year.
“Within three hours, two square miles of heathland and Forestry Commission plantations had been destroyed on the Woolmer Forest Army ranges between Whitehill, Liphook and Longmoor.
“Army lorries stood by to evacuate residents of threatened homes, a public house and the Fir Hill Kennels, which contained about 100 frightened dogs and cats, near woodland between Passfield and Conford.
“There were also fears for the 132,000-volt overhead power line from Fleet to Fernhurst which would have blacked out half of West Sussex if it had been affected.”
The Post’s report added that dozens of deer and rabbits fled the mile-wide fire front which was brought to a halt by Army bulldozers creating breaks in the vegetation.
l What do you remember of the hot summer of 1976? Send your memories and pictures by e-mail, to: graememoir@petersfield post.co.uk or to 33 High Street, Petersfield, GU32 3JR