MAGISTRATES at Droitwich looked kindly on the rather pathetic figure of widow-woman Alice Harris, from Fox Alley, when she appeared before them charged with stealing 34 pounds of coal from the Great Western Railway depot in the town. Constable Rivers told the bench he had caught her with the coals hidden beneath her cape. The court heard she was in dire distress and bound her over in the sum of £5 to be of good behaviour for six months.

THE coroner at an inquest held at Bromsgrove workhouse into the death of 51-year-old tramp John Bradshaw expressed his concern that he had lain on the side of School Lane, Lickey End, for four-and-a-half hours before anyone had attended to him. Passers by had believed him to be drunk and had not wished to get involved. Eventually, Bradshaw, a collier from Wigan, who had no relatives and who had not be able to find work for nine years, had been conveyed on a handcart to the workhouse infirmary where he had died of natural causes.

RICHARD Goode, a 67-year-old labourer living at Parkside in Bromsgrove, was hauled in front of town magistrates charged with using bad language in his own home. He told magistrates the woman he was talking to was deaf but admitted he may have used bad language to her. He was fined 2/6 (12.5p) with 7/6 (37.5p) costs and given until Saturday to pay.

DESPITE inclement weather, a large audience packed into the hall at Blackwell Sanatorium for a production of the fairy story Rumpelstiltskin performed by 40 local youngsters. The £25 raised from the event would be put towards paying off the debt for the construction of the new Church School at Rubery.

STAFF and pupils at Tardebigge School enjoyed their annual treat, a visit to Hewell Grange, organised by Lady Windsor. The children marched in order through the park to the big house then swapped boots for slippers to avoid damaging the floors. After they were treated to entertainment in the big hall, they sang the national anthem and on leaving were given gifts of sweets, oranges and buns.