OWNERS of unlicensed television sets in 1961 were being warned that detector vans would be in Bracknell and Wokingham to root out owners of sets who can’t be bothered to buy licences. In an effort to see how easily the scheme would work the Bracknell News went on a test run with Assistant Head Postmaster Leslie Howden who explained: “We are not anxious to prosecute people-we just want them to buy their TV licence.”
It was time for the only public clock in Bracknell High Street to get a bit of ‘TLC’ and Gordon Thake, the former chairman of the Rural District Council, had the faces of the iconic landmark repainted and re-hung outside his shop.