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 – October 30th 1869

A meeting of ratepayers in Minehead, chaired by the Rev A H F Luttrell, voted in favour of the scheme to light the town by gas.

100 years ago – November 1st 1919

The Wiveliscombe Cinema Company secured a five-year lease of the Town Hall: “Pictures three nights a week will be a great boon to the town in the long and dreary winter.”

50 years ago – November 1st 1969

After a career in the Free Press office that began in the clerical department in the late 1920s and took her to the position of company secretary, Miss K M Ward retired. Her late father, Mr H B Ward was sub-editor of the Free Press for a great many years.

25 years ago – November 4th 1994

Volunteer signals and telecommunications workers on the West Somerset Railway were told their jobs were being given to paid contractors because of legislation brought in for the privatisation of British Rail.