EACH week in the Free Press we look back at what made the news 150, 100, 50 and 25 years ago. Here is a sample of the items featuring in the This Was The News column this week.

150 years ago – August 2nd 1869

Crowds came by road and sea for the annual Minehead and West Somerset races on the sands. Steamers brought 300 people from Watchet, 150 from Cardiff and 250 from Newport. It was to be regretted that catchpennies of all descriptions were far too plentiful.

100 years ago – August 2nd 1919

A peace celebration was organised for the inmates of Williton workhouse. They were given a dinner of roast beef, plum pudding and a glass of beer, and the children played on swing-boats placed at their disposal by the Williton Brotherhood.

50 years ago – August 2nd 1969

The county council’s plan to buy a £216,000 “computer machine” was criticised because it was going ahead without employing a consultation firm. Mr C W Newsome Martin said consultants would have been “a safeguard against the pitfalls in which we are now wallowing”.

25 years ago – August 5th 1994

Winsford Parish Council celebrated its centenary by staging a three-day exhibition including the recreation of a village farmhouse. Resident Fanny Jenkins, 79, completed the picture by sitting on a settle by a log fire in an exact adaptation of a photograph of her as a young girl.