HERE are the headlings from the Guardian 100, 50, and 25 years ago this week.

100 years ago

A PETTY thief was fined for a midnight raid on a Middlewich cabbage patch.

The man from Cledford was caught red-handed late at night carrying a bag containing 26 cabbages.

When questioned near the scene of the crime, he said he had ‘pinched them’.

A BATTALION of volunteers – started during the First World War – was disbanded.

Tributes were paid to the men of the 1st Volunteer Battalion Cheshire Regiment, who had joined up after the call was put out in 1915.

A MIDDLEWICH cricketer stationed in Germany was setting records.

Lt Harold Bailey, who served with the 13th King’s (Liverpool Regiment), took 93 wickets at an average of just 2.31 over the course of the season.

50 years ago

A GANG of youths put an abrupt stop to a dance – causing £200 worth of damage at the venue.

The gang was ‘running wild’ at Barnton Memorial Hall – almost a year after a similar offence.

An emergency committee meeting decided to call time on dances at the venue.

YOUNG archaeologists were given the chance to finish their dig in Castle as a redevelopment scheme began.

The group was backed by the Urban District Council despite objections from the developer.

PLANS for an £80,000 swimming baths development at the Hartford Campus would ‘bankrupt’ the council’s own baths, a councillor said.

The council was also expected to contribute towards the cost.

25 years ago

VALE Royal Borough Council was forced to deny rumours of radioactive waste being dumped at Witton tip.

A national newspaper named it as one of 39 tips to accept waste from nuclear power stations.

The council said it had been licensed to take low-level radioactive waste from hospitals, and did so up until its closure earlier that year.

SCIENTISTS were able to identify ‘Missing Link’ human remains thanks to specialist equipment manufactured at Gadbrook Park.

A 4.4-million-year-old skeleton was found in Ethiopia.

It was dated thanks to equipment made by Mass Analyser Products Ltd.