This week in 1957:

When a 13 year-old Worcester boy dived into the River Severn last June to save the life of a young friend, he could hardly have imagined that eight months later he would be receiving awards for his great courage from the hands of the Mayor of Worcester. Nevertheless, this was the case when yesterday Councillor Bertram Brotherton presented John Robert Holmes of 26 Calder Road with a testimonial on parchment awarded for bravery by the Royal Humane Society and also with a wrist watch from the city council.The award citation explained that on a Sunday afternoon, John and his friend Arnold John Candlin of 26 Mersey Road hired a steel kayak and paddled upstream, when suddenly the craft overturned. Arnold, a non-swimmer, started splashing and struggling in the deep water and then went under. John immediately dived under the surface and caught hold of his hands and brought him to the surface, but Arnold continued to struggle while his rescuer was attempting to swim with him to the opposite bank. Two youths in a rowing boat came to their assistance and were able to pull the drowning boy into the boat.This week in 1967: War has been declared by the Royal Radar Establishment and Pershore Rural District Council on seagulls which have been causing dangers to aircraft using the Pershore Aerodrome. The RRE had complained to the RDC that a number of aircraft had been struck by seagulls which tended to gather near the Throckmorton refuse tip. The RDC has now installed bird scarers and introduced better tip covering measures, steps which are drastically reducing the number of seagulls.* Worcestershire County Council is writing to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents expressing concern over the "inadequacy" of the present Driving Test. The Women's Road Safety Campaign Committee recently decided that the test was deficient because such important matters as motorway and night driving were not covered.This week in 1977:There has been considerable criticism of the new traffic scheme in Worcester which came into operation on Sunday with the opening of the new City Walls Road. On Monday and Tuesday there were abnormal traffic queues at the morning rush hour. Drivers were angry on being turned away from "Restricted Entry" areas, and shopkeepers are complaining bitterly about loss of trade. In contrast, traffic on the City Walls dual-carriageway has been light and free flowing. Many motorists have been confused by the new one-way systems and the "Restricted Entry" signs.

* At a time when the future of Worcester's Swan Theatre has been thrown into doubt because of the city and county councils' cutback in grants, Worcester Arts Workshop is planning to open its own fully-equipped studio theatre. The project is planned for the cellar of the Workshop in Sansome Street.

This week in 1987:A keen historian whose other interests include the arts is Dean designate of Worcester Cathedral. He is the Archdeacon of Salop, the Venerable Robert Jeffery who has been vicar of St Bartholomew's Church at Tong, Shropshire, since 1980. He will succeed the Very Rev Tom Baker as Dean. The Ven. Jeffery is 51 and he and his wife Ruth have three sons and a daughter.

Sunday markets on Pershore's former airfield have been banned by the High Court. Wychavon District Council has won its fight for an injunction against the markets at Tilesford Park which the organisers, Midland Enterprises had hoped to start up at Easter.

* The Worcestershire vicar at the centre of a storm after sacking his church choir has asked to be relieved of his duties. The Vicar of Ripple near Upton-on-Severn is separating from his wife and moving to Bristol to take up community work. The Archdeacon of Worcester, the Venerable Frank Bentley said the vicar had been under personal stress for some months and had asked the Bishop to accept his resignation.This week in 1992:The police are warning people not to keep large amounts of cash in their homes after more than £1,000 was stolen from a house in St George's Lane South at Worcester on Tuesday. Thieves broke in through a rear window and stole £1,035 in cash and a Birmingham Midshires Building Society book. Police Sergeant Mike Niccolls (yes) of Worcester said: "We are warning people against keeping large sums of cash in their homes. There are plenty of people who will look after their money for them for free."