NOSTALGIA: This week in 1958 and 1978

* A new wing was opened at Boston General Hospital, in South End, at a cost of more than £60,000.

The new block, designed to serve a population of 120,000, had been linked to the main building with corridors in such a way that it could be converted to other purposes when the proposed new general hospital came into being.

A two-storied building, the new wing’s ground floor was an x-ray department which had included a piece of equipment which cost one tenth of the total spend. It was the Dean’s Zenith X-ray Unit and the general hospital was one of the first to have such a unit.

On the first-floor, the main theatre featured an Allen and Hanburys operating table – rubber-cushioned, it could be raised and lowered at a touch of the surgeon’s foot. Overhead, lamps could be focused, raised, lowered, or tilted, all with the flick of a wrist.

* ‘Televiewers’ in Boston’s Carlton Road area were speaking out over poor signals come mid-evening, when the picture would fade, a black line appear, and it was impossible to make out any outline.

One resident said: “We can’t invite any of our friends round to watch TV because we never know what the reception is going to be like.”

This week in 1978

* Pick ‘n’ mix, music singles, Top Trumps ... Woolworths had it all – including, perhaps, an answer to Boston’s car parking problems.

Reports in the Standand about parking issues facing Boston Borough Council had been sent to Woolworths’ head office by the manager of the town’s store.

As a result, the council’s Land Committee had an offer of Woolworths-owned land for public parking.

Chief executive Mr R. Ernest Coley told members that the company had written saying it owned land which was not likely to be needed in the foreseeable future and could probably be leased to the council for parking.

The land, it was said, was once a bowling green and was close to the rear of Woolworth’s Strait Bargate store.

Director of planning Ivan Stimson said the land would have space for about 40 cars.

The committee agreed to ask the company the terms of lease, and whether it might sell the freehold of the land.

* Boston’s outdoor baths opened for a new season.

At the front of the queue was Sue Ganley and her husband, Alex. Sue had been the first in the water to start the outdoor swimming season for each of the previous five years.