Remember When: Fire at Fawlty Towers building in Wooburn

1976: Six girls from the Childs Pianoforte School in Bourne End were preparing to appear on Hughie Green’s Opportunity Knocks.

The group was set to play Franz Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 on three pianos.

1976: Star-gazers from Maidenhead Astronomical Society staged an exhibition of their equipment and work at Maidenhead Town Hall in an effort to boost membership.

Telescopes, maps, photographic equipment and models were on display, including a 50-year-old brass refractor telescope restored to perfect working order.

1976: The combined choirs of Desborough School and Aloisius Kolleg, Bad Godesberg, performed Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana to an audience at the Maidenhead school.

The German boys were returning the Desborough choir’s visit to Maidenhead’s twin town the previous year, during which they gave a concert in Cologne cathedral.

Desborough director of music Roger Durston said the school sports hall did not quite match up to the cathedral for architectural beauty, but the splendour of the music more than compensated.

1981: Homes in the Boulters Lock area narrowly escaped flooding after a 40ft raft smashed into the weir and blocked it.

Heavy rain in the weekend after the incident made the clearing work an emergency matter, with water levels rising by eight inches.

It took nearly a week for the pontoon to be winched clear from the weir.

1986: A lynx was said to be on the prowl in Maidenhead – but in all likelihood it was just a cat called Joe.

The ‘lynx’ was spotted chasing birds in a garden in Rushington Avenue, with police called out to take photographs of the paw prints.

Officers also received several reports of sightings of the animal in the area.

But they also heard from one neighbour, who said the culprit was probably one of her Abyssinian cats, called Joe.

1991: Firefighters battled to save the ‘face of Fawlty Towers’ as it was hit by a major fire.

Wooburn Grange, in Wooburn Green, was familiar to millions of television viewers as it was used for the exterior shots for the much-loved John Cleese sitcom.

But the building, which had been empty for some time, was reduced to a charred shell after being gutted by a blaze. The cause was unknown.

1996: Children at Braywood School had an exciting new £4,500 play area – but couldn’t use it yet.

The play area, which included bridges, swings, climbing frames and ladders, couldn’t open until the school found an extra £1,000 to lay a protective covering to make the area safe.

Braywood appealed for financial help to complete the project, asking for a ‘final kindly gesture’ from a local sponsor.