During my building up of solo time at wellesbourne, I was doing circuits and the useless controller there (no names mentioned but it certainly wasn't John) cleared a slower aircraft than me to take off when i was mid final. Nearly ran into the back of him as he was climbing out, so broke left to deadside and rejoined accordingly.
Other times the circuit used to get very very busy indeed with sometimes 7 aircraft all buzzing round. Again we got quite close but we were all in the same direction. When it got a bit too busy, "final to land" and try it again later in the day. Just becomes a tad bit uncomfortable when its like that.
Another time me and the instructor were out and about around leicester and out from nowhere came a glider being towed. We were around 400ft above them and nowhere near where a glider could be towed away from..
Alls well in the end, just keep your eyes wide open!