200 YEARS AGO:

BETWEEN two and three o’clock on Friday morning, an alarming fire broke out at a house in St John’s, Worcester, inhabited by a person of the name of Howe.

An alarm was given by a person passing by, at which time the flames had got such complete possession of the lower part of the house that a female who was upstairs was obliged to get out at one of the windows. In a short time the house and all the property contained in it was burnt to the ground and had it not been for the great exertions of the firemen belonging to the Worcester and Birmingham Fire Offices and other persons present the neighbouring house must have been destroyed. A considerable part of the water used was obliged to be obtained from a pool at some distance.

No part of the property was insured. It is said that the origin of the fire was a little girl in the house who in the course of the evening accidentally set fire to a skein of thread round her neck and, instead of placing it out of danger, threw it among some shavings in the cellar where it smouldered for some time before bursting forth.

150 YEARS AGO:

CONSTRUCTION work still continues apace on the new railway, three months after the first section between Henwick and Malvern was opened. We now have a railway in work between this city and Malvern, affording accommodation to those desirous of visiting the beautiful watering place, whether on business or “on pleasure bent.”

On July 25, the first train set out at 8am from Malvern Link for Henwick and consisted of one first, one second and three third class carriages, containing 58 passengers. The engine and the station were gaily decorated and there was a large banner proclaiming ‘Hope, Peace and Plenty.’ Crowds of spectators lined the two bridges over the railway at Malvern Link, giving the train a rousing send-off. The journey to Henwick was completed in a quarter of an hour, and the return journey, with 64 passengers, was started at 9am. One line of the railway only is completed and used so far to Malvern, but the second, together with the link between Henwick and Foregate Street, is well under construction. Work on the continuation of the railway to Malvern Wells and then to Ledbury, involving the construction of a tunnel through the hills, is also under way.

100 YEARS AGO:

AN inquest was held yesterday touching the death of 34 years old Florence Annie Hirons, wife of Arthur Grantham Hirons who keeps the New Inn at Claines, Worcester.

Dr Corder said he had been attending Mrs Hirons for the last three years for chronic alcoholism and he had last seen her two months ago to treat an injury she had suffered having fallen while intoxicated.

She was found dead in bed by her husband last Tuesday and a post-mortem examination found that all the organs were diseased with fatty degeneration – the result of alcohol. Death was due to heart failure caused by chronic alcoholism. The jury returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence.