TWO members of Bromsgrove Women's Voluntary Service, Mrs Butcher, of the Old Forge, Park Gat, and Mrs Graves, from Marlborough Avenue, have joined a national "flying squad" of volunteers to help with the East Anglian flood disaster. The two women had helped serve some 100,000 meals to the stricken victims.

HOUSEHOLDERS in Bromsgrove were set to feel the pinch when the effects of a record rate of 14/1 (70.5p) in the pound, set by the county council, appeared in their rates bills. The reason given was rising costs despite cut backs having been made. In 1938 the council employed 1,400 roadmen on a wage of £2/0/6d (£2.2.5p) now the 654 men, doing the same job, earned £5/17/8 (£5.88.5p) a week.

COLLEAGUES and friends of Harry Garfield, from Barnt Green, gathered at The Queen's Hotel in Birmingham to say farewell as he prepared to retire from his job as district superintendent at New Street Station. He had worked on the railways for 51 years. The son of a Woodcote farmer, he became interested in railways when as a child he had accompanied his father to take produce to Bromsgrove station.

A QUICK glance at some of the advertisement pages in the Messenger half a century ago showed the Midland Red bus company was running a trip to St Andrews at a cost of 4/- (20p) return for the Blues v Spurs clash. McDonald Hobley, star of the TV and cinema screen, was appearing in the film The Kilties are Coming at Catshill Cinema and Imperial Motorways were offering continental holidays within the government's statutory £25 travel allowance.