These are the stories that were hitting the headlines in the South Wales Guardian 50 years ago on March 4, 1965.

Parts of the Amman Valley were left cut off after an unexpected heavy snowstorm.

Blizzard conditions caused chaos throughout the region and dozens of vehicles were abandoned as roads across the county became impassable.

An early morning thief raided the house of a Tycroes newsagent as he and his wife went out to deliver the Sunday morning papers.

The burglar broke in through a bathroom window at 7.20am after waiting for the couple to leave on their weekly round.

The nationwide search for a missing Llandeilo schoolboy came to a halt following a chance encounter in London between the boy and a Towy Valley businessman who was unaware the teen was missing.

The salesman, a family friend who only learned the story of the runaway after he had returned home, was attending a week-long conference in the capitol when he “bumped into” the 15-year-old on a Paddington side street and they chatted for 10 minutes.

A former Ammanford schoolteacher refused to pay his council rates until he received the bill in Welsh.

“It is the right of every Welshman to pay his bills in his own language,” the former primary school headteacher said.

A row between neighbouring councils reached boiling point after one Ammanford councillor labelled Cwmaman “a back-water where people are unable to think for themselves”.

“They think in Ammanford we should do things for their benefit rather than for the people of our community,” came the Cwmaman response.