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 – December 4th 1869

Withycombe had unluckily become notorious for its blackguardism. A murderous encounter took place there when a labourer, Isaac Reed, was set upon by two men who had a knife. He was lucky to escape serious injury. There had been no clue as to the identity of the desperadoes.

100 years ago – December 6th 1919

The secretary of the West Somerset Mineral Line Co. asked Dulverton RDC to say on what terms it would be prepared to take over repair of the roads over the railway at Brendon Hill and Withiel and Gupworthy Bridge.

50 years ago – December 6th 1969

A ninth century BC Assyrian stone bas-relief, excavated in 1845-46 by Sir Henry Layard at Numrud in the Palace of Ashurnasirpal II, was sent to Sotheby’s by the governors of St Audries School. It raised £10,500 at a sale of antiquities in the Safani Gallery of New York

25 years ago – December 9th 1994

Some of West Somerset’s top crowd-pulling attractions could be under threat with Government plans to slap VAT on ‘fun’ transport – such as the West Somerset Railway and the Waverley and Balmoral pleasure cruisers.