JO Hunt, from Romsley, founder secretary of the Housman Society, claimed an anonymous poem he had discovered in a copy of the Pall Mall Gazette, dated 1895, may have been penned by Bromsgrove's most famous son. He said it had the stamp of the great poet.

SOME 390 employees at LG Harris, the Stoke Prior brush factory, over two nights, sat down to dinner at the Chateau Impney Hotel to celebrate the firm's golden jubilee. The firm had been started by Mr Harris as a one man operation in 1928 when he sold other manufacturers' products. It could now boast as having three factories overseas, as well at its plant at Stoke.

GOLDEN Retrievers Arran and Carla, together with their owner Bob Taylor from Bromsgrove,won a fun three-mile walking race at Welland near Malvern on Boxing Day. Their prize was a week's supply of dog food.

THE pleasant pastime of making home-made wine was on the increase in Bromsgrove, mainly because of the high cost of shop-bought products. The Bromsgrove and District Wine and Beer Circle, which had been launched a few years ago with just six members, now had 50 on its books.

ALTHOUGH time was fast running out, the 120 nursing and auxiliary staff at Romsley Hill Geriatric Hospital were still determined to save it from closure. Admissions were to stop on January 1 to be followed by a six month winding down period. Staff claimed closure would be detrimental for patients at the hospital.