FOND recollections of Lowesmoor in the 1920s and 30s and of her courtship and marriage are highlighted in the hand-written memoirs of Kathleen Worthington, who died two years ago at the age of 86.

Daughter Betty (Mrs Brown) says Kathleen often used to tell her five children: "You'll be surprised what you find when I'm gone!"

Says Betty: "This was certainly the case when we came to clear out her house at Fairbairn Avenue after she died.

"We found no end of documents and photos and, most importantly of all, notebooks filled with memories from her long life, plus many poems and verses she had written. Some of these are excellent and moving, and we had no idea she had written them."

Mrs Brown hopes, in due course, to compile a book of her mother's memoirs and verses.

Here, I am quoting just a few passages from Kathleen Worthington's written recollections, courtesy of daughter Betty:

The "Town Bird" was the description applied to Kathleen by her parents because she was the only one of their eight children to be born in Worcester, rather than out in the rural setting of Tibberton.

"I came on the scene in June 1914 - the year the First World War broke out - at a house in Vincent Road, Worcester, to which my parents had just moved. Mother was very ill when I was born as she was then 45.

"She was, alas, unhappy at Vincent Road, but I was not very old when my father saw another shop - in Lowesmoor - nearer to where mother could see some of her old friends from the country as they passed by in carriers' carts to shop in town.

"I must have been about three years-old when my sister Annie would sit me on the table while she packed parcels to send to her husband Arthur, who was in the Army fighting in the Great War. While he was away, Annie was working very hard in a munitions factory.

"One day, some months later, I knew something was sadly wrong when I saw my mother crying. I learned afterwards that Arthur had been killed in action against the Turks, leaving Annie a widow after only a year or two or marriage.

"The Lowesmoor shop was our home for my first 20 years - some of the happiest times of my life. Although I did not care for school at Holy Trinity Girls, I always got on well there, but was very glad when it came time to leave.

"My brother George worked as a boy in a munitions factory but then set up as a pork butcher in a small shop next to ours in Lowesmoor, and my mother worked damned hard to help him, cleaning and cooking chitterlings and producing pigs puddings and great legs of roast pork. These were all beautifully prepared, and delicious.

"I remember lying in bed at night and hearing the trams rumbling past our shop and also the lamp lighter coming round with his pole to light the street lamps. However, by the mid-1920s, the pace of life was starting to quicken, and the old tram lines were taken up from Lowesmoor. It was such a shame to see them go and also to watch the removal of the wooden blocks with which the streets had been paved.

"Cars had started to appear on the scene and caused quite a commotion, but the old railway carts, drawn to and from Shrub Hill Station by big horses, were still very much part of the local 'traffic.'

"Young boys were also to be seen riding trace horses which would be attached to those drays where extra horse power was needed to get big loads up and over the Lowesmoor canal bridge.

"Even so, life generally was quiet and peaceful, and there was plenty of time to stop and look in shop windows. And what window displays they were in those days! Everyone seemed to take pride.

"How well I remember Paintings sweet shop in Lowesmoor, at Christmastime, when it would be decorated with sugar pigs and chocolate mice.

"In our own shop, the windows would be dressed in red and green crepe paper and lined with dates, figs, tangerines and holly and mistletoe. We also had a beautiful big Chinese lantern which hung in the passage way and was lit by a large candle.

"We regularly saw Sir Edward Elgar walking along Lowesmoor to and from his home at Marlbank, Rainbow Hill, and he would sometimes come into the shop to make a purchase.

"When I left school, I went into an office job but, not being fond of figures, I was not at all happy, so mother suggested that, if I wished, I could work in our shop. This suited me fine and I was never happier than serving in the shop and dressing the windows. Two brass bars were at the front of the windows to carry bunches of bananas and other fruits, and oh how I loved to polish them with Brasso until they really shone."

Kathleen also composed a verse about the funfairs which regularly came to Pitchcroft:

"The barrows and flares at the old Worcester fairs,

Monkeys on sticks, that did funny tricks,

Brandy snap, pretty beads, little dolls all in a row,

Barrow boys shouting with eyes all aglow,

Come buy from our stall which is sure best of all,

Coconuts at one penny a go."

But back to Lowesmoor ... "The days rolled by, and more cars appeared on the streets, including taxis going to and from Shrub Hill Station."

And it was the driver of one of those taxis, Wally Worthington, who attracted Kathleen's attention and was to become a great love of her life. They eventually met in the street by chance, and he invited her out to the Theatre Royal.

"It was the start of our beautiful love affair...

"Wally, who had previously been barman-chauffeur to Mrs Bird at the Fountain Inn, Angel Street, took me to the Theatre Royal every Thursday evening. We usually had the best seats in the front stalls, and Wally knew one or two of the players in the orchestra. I always felt I was the cat's whiskers!"

Kathleen's memoirs go on to recount in detail her "gloriously happy marriage" and the birth of her five children - Raymond, Betty, John, Richard and Garry.

"The lines and lines of nappies and baby clothes were my delight - the more I had to hang out, the better I liked it!"

However, sadness pervades the closing chapters of Kathleen's memoirs. Husband Wally had a major heart attack at 47, just as they were about to buy a "dream house" in Ombersley Road and when his own business as a car repairer and shop keeper had become successful. Kathleen had to nurse Wally for his remaining 20 years.

"The joy of life has dwindled for me since Wally was taken from me," wrote Kathleen just after his death in 1976.