NOSTALGIA: Captain Pike returns from ‘white man’s grave’ in 1964, missing boy found trapped up to his neck in pig manure in 1974, and St George’s Day parade gallery from 1994

The Wyberton Brownies ahead of Boston's annual St George's Day parade in 1994. Open the gallery to see more photos from the day.

* Grave concern had been raised over plans to close the Peterborough to Grimsby main railway line running through Boston.

Holland County Council had written to the Ministry of Transport on the likely social and economic effects of the proposals, saying they ‘must be one of the most controversial and borderline’ in plans arising from the Beeching Report.

* Back home for a holiday after working 18 months for the Ceylon Government was Capt A. S. Pike, of High Street, Kirton.

Basko, the Boston police dog which helped rescue a nine-year-old boy from a pit of pig manure in 1974, with handler PC David Mapplebeck.

Capt Pike had been piloting cargo and passenger vessels in part of Sierra Leone formerly known as ‘white man’s grave’.

This was due to the large number of diseases which used to prevail before the introduction of modern medicines.

* The team working on Boston’s Blackfriars Theatre were running out of large blocks of Lincolnshire stone to match the original stonework.

The Standard, however, came to the rescue, sourcing a supply in Tattershall where some old cottages were set for demolition.

Owner Mr W. McComb was quite happy to part with the stone, saying: It’s no use to me.”

Forty-five years ago, 1974 ...

* A missing nine-year-old boy from Old Leake was found trapped up to his neck in pig manure by a police dog.

Brian Butler, of Old Leake, spread out his duffle coat to stop himself sinking further before he was found in a pit on a neighbour’s farm by Basko.

The dog heard the boy’s faint cries for help and dragged his handler PC David Mapplebeck, of Welland Road, Boston, to him.

It came an hour after he was reported missing to police by parents Mr and Mrs Ted Butler.

The previous weekend Basko won a tracking event of 42 entries in the national championship working trials of the Associated Sheep Police and Army Dogs Society.

He had also been involved in six arrests in the Boston police division that year, the Standard noted.

* For the first time, there would be no May Fair in Boston Market Place.

Instead, the event would be held on Bargate Green, as usual, and the area of the newly cleared cattle and pig pens of the former cattle market.

In another change, the proclamation, normally read from the Assembly Rooms balcony, would be given from the steps of one of the roundabouts in Wide Bargate.