1959; Tropical thunderstorms, Roman relics and much more made the news 50 years ago this week.

A thunderstorm of tropical violence shook thousands of caravan holidaymakers awake at Porthcawl's Trecco Bay Camp in the early hours and flooded large areas of the site.

Flood water overturned several caravans and marooned many more. Some vehicles had to be cut open to release families trapped inside when the doors jammed.

Two middle-aged women awoke to find themselves surrounded by water, which crept to the top of the caravan windows.

The women, Mrs May Parfitt and Gwladys Brown, from Seven Sisters, stood in the caravan up to their waists in water and screamed for help.

Other holidaymakers hampered by the darkness, rushed to their aid. Among them was Mr Donald Lewis, a 39-year-old miner, of Station Road, Rhondda, who made his way through the water to the caravan.

"We didn't know just how deep the pool was," said Mr Lewis later. "So they put a rope around me and I waded out. The water was nearly up to my neck, and I had to step very carefully because of the silt." Helped by three other caravanners, Mr Lewis carried the two women to safety on his back.

In another part of the camp three caravans overturned and several holidaymakers received cuts and bruises.

Discoveries in the garden of a cottage behind the main road at East Aberthaw confirm beyond doubt that this picturesque village in the Vale of Glamorgan was a small outpost of the Roman Empire. Credit for the discoveries belongs to 16-year-old Howard Thomas, of Eton Street, Barry, the wonder boy archaeologist who, in 1953, found pounds 500 in notes and silver in a milk tin concealed in the ruins of Penmark Castle. Howard has a flair for finding things, as officials of the National Museum of Wales know. When workmen were digging a trench across Well Road in East Aberthaw some time ago, he spotted fragments of pottery, later identified as Roman. The workmen went and Howard took over, finding, at a depth of six feet, the foundations of a Roman settlement.

Four Cardiff men had written to the Duke of Edinburgh appealing for his help in keeping a boys club, Maple Leaf Youth Club, open in Cardiff Docks.

The letter was signed by Harry Cooke, a 38-year-old painter, of Alice Street, who with three friends, set up the club a few weeks ago in a warehouse in Dudley Street. Between 50 and 60 boys turn up every night at the club, where a boxing ring, punch bags and a punch ball have been fitted. Now the club have been told by Cardiff City Council they must leave. But Mr Cooke said: "We are going to fight them." In his letter to the Duke, Mr Cooke says: "Cardiff City Council have done little or nothing to provide suitable recreational facilities for the children of the Docks area. There are no youth clubs in the area, apart from a small one run by the Catholic church. A play centre is due to open in the near future but only caters for children of tender years. We know full well that you are keenly interested in the youth of the country and detest any kind of red tape and this prompted us to contact you on the matter."

Hoaxers played a joke on naval frogmen searching at Southampton for the stolen pounds 150,000 jewels belonging to Lady Docker. The frogmen, from HMS Vernon, Portsmouth, were combing part of the bed of the River Itchen when a sack was seen floating on the water. They recovered the sack, which contained a large lump of wood, a screwtop bottle, a wooden spoon, some potatoes and a treacle tin. In the tin were marbles and a pencilled note saying: "Marbles for the lady golden plated." Inside the bottle was another note which read: "Dockers strike again."

A woman had an arm broken and at least three other people were taken to hospital in Wellington when a crowd trying to get into Athletic Park for the second rugby Test between the British Isles and New Zealand got out of control and smashed fences and gates. More than 20,000 people were left outside when some of the gates for unreserved seats were closed three and a half hours before the game started and some of them got out of control.

Ever since a five-year-old Cardiff boy, below, lost his pet sheepdog, his father had been telling him: "Never mind son, Dan Matthews of 'Highway Patrol' will find him for you."

So when a police car drew up outside his home in Jackson Road, Ely, little Ross Thomas wasn't at all surprised when he heard Rover had been found at Kenfig Hill. He told his friends jubilantly: "Dan Matthews found him all right!" But it wasn't ITV hero Dan Matthews who found the dog - it was Dan Rees, a 63-year-old Kenfig Hill farmer. Mr Rees saw the picture of Rover in the Press and remembered a brown and white dog gambolling around his farm for the past few days and which had been playing with boys camping. "That's him!" he told his wife Annie - and promptly caught the dog, tied him up and phoned the police. The farm is about three miles from Trecco Bay, Porthcawl, where the dog had bolted during a thunderstorm. Ross, who was on holiday with his parents Mr and Mrs Bill Thomas, was so miserable after losing his dog that the family packed and came home. As soon as the police told him Rover had been found, Mr Thomas, 36, who works at Nantgarw Colliery, jumped on his motorcycle combination and brought him home.

A South Wales Transport double-decker bus toppled off the road and crashed into a row of small cottages at Baglan, Port Talbot. Four of the seven passengers were taken to hospital, but none were seriously injured. The bus ploughed across the road, went through a low retaining wall, and came to rest on its side, jammed between the houses and edge of the road. One of the passengers, Mrs Mary Matthews, of Church Road, Baglan, was thrown through the window of the bus, through the roof of a conservatory, and into the scullery of No.4, Tyrhalen Row. She sustained leg injuries.

Archive information courtesy of: Central Library, Mill Lane, Cardiff, CF10 1FL. Tel: [phone]. E-mail: [e-mail]. Website: www.cardiff.gov.uk/libraries. Opening hours: Mon to Wed, 9am to 6pm; Thurs, 9am to 7pm; Fri, 9am to 6pm; Sat, 9am to 5.30pm

CAPTION(S):

Italian actress Sophia Loren (right) pictured with husband film director Carlo Ponti. A lawyer this week filed a legal 'denunciation' against the couple accusing them of bigamy. In a letter to the public prosecutor at Chieti, Italy, he asked for proceedings to be started against them