A look back at the biggest local stories from this week 20, 40 and 60 years ago.

1957: An ex-footballer turned busker was awarded £157 in damages against London transport as a result of an unforunate accident on Ilford High Road.

Jim Dillimore, former Millwall star turned street musician, was hit by a 148 bus as he busked from his licensed spot on the high street.

After treatment for head and shoulder injuries at King George Hospital he was allowed to go back to his home but was instructed he should not go outside until September.

Familiar to thousands of Ilford shoppers, an Ilford Recorder article about Mr Dillimore was used as crucial evidence within the trial to indicate how much money the victim was able to make each day.

He had initially sued for £400.

1977: A number of typewriters costing more than £6,000 were stolen from Loxford school in a smash and grab robbery by opportunistic burglars.

The machines were taken from a new typing lab that had been set up only a year previously, much to the shock of all those involved in the school community.

A spokesman for the school office told the Recorder: “We can’t believe it, there’s no way we’re going to get that money back.

“The police are investigating but they have told us it looks like the work of professionals.

“I don’t understand why you would think to target a school in this way?”

The school announced a number of typing and English lessons would have to be cancelled or rescheduled for the forseeable future to avoid timetable clashes in the few rooms still well equipped with the machines.

1997: A fire tore through a local business when an unfortunately placed crystal chalice magnified the suns rays onto a pile of empty laundry.

Firefighters were called to Grab and Go, in Hainault, on Saturday afternoon to find two families had already evacuated the premises.

Once crews had brought the fire under control an investigations unit found a melted crystal cup on the floor near one of the windows.

They believed that to be the cause of the fire.