We don’t have to go too far back in time for the final instalment in our series of Herald front pages over the past 50 years to mark the 50th anniversary of the dissolution of the Farnham Urban District Council (FUDC) in 1974.

In its edition of January 11, 2024, the Herald reported: “Film-lovers have had to wait almost 40 years – but on Friday, February 2nd the doors of the town’s new REEL cinema will open its doors at the heart of the Brightwells Yard development.”

The article added: “Ghostbusters, Gremlins and Teen Wolf were showing when the town’s last bespoke cinema, the Regal in East Street, closed its doors suddenly in September 1985.

“The long-anticipated opening of Farnham’s new REEL six-screen multiplex also marks a huge milestone for the Brightwells development itself – being the first commercial unit to begin trading in the troubled scheme.”

The state-of-the-art cinema, REEL’s 16th in the UK, is located in Brightwells Yard in the centre of Farnham and it has five standard screens and a ‘luxury lounge’.

Newly opened, it’s created a buzz and it is some welcome and much-needed good news for the town and its residents.

From 1895 until 1974, 50 years ago this month, FUDC was the local authority responsible for Farnham and district.

But local authorities all over the country were affected by the 1972 Local Government Act on the reorganisation and reform of local government which came into effect on April 1, 1974.

The FUDC was disbanded and replaced by Waverley District Council, which also covered Godalming, Haslemere and Cranleigh and many villages in between.

To acknowledge that milestone, Peeps into the Past has shared a selection of front pages from the Herald’s archive over the past 50 years - and be sure to see our quiz in next week’s edition to round off the series.