MEMORY Lane pays homage this week to the teams of volunteer women who, down the past 62 years, have run an invaluable service for the needy in Worcester.

It was the Women's Royal Voluntary Service clothing store, set up in 1938 and only recently relinquished by this organisation.

During the war years, the store provided vital clothing, bedding and other comforts for evacuees in Worcester, and again came to the aid of people in need during the long icy winters of 1947 and 1963 and during the record Severn floods of 1947.

Over the past 30 or so years too, the WRVS clothing scheme has provided clothes for more than 2,000 needy local people each year.

The Women's Voluntary Service has been active in Worcester since 1938 and did an enormous amount of work between 1939 and 1946 in support of the war effort and to help people "back home".

Volunteers organised rest and canteen centres in the city, and work parties sewed and made vital articles of clothing for soldiers, sailors and airmen.

Clubs for evacuees were also set up, and parcels of clothing were distributed to urgent and needy cases in Worcester. Enough toys were collected too, for all 500 evacuee children then in the city.

In the early part of the war, the WVS enrolled and trained 1,000 volunteers who served in a variety of roles such as at first aid posts, as civil nursing reserves, as ambulance drivers and attendants, and as rest centre personnel. They also helped with evacuation services, hospital supplies and with canteen services, and were among the organisations on hand at Norton Barracks to help servicemen returning from the Durkirk evacuation..

It was in the autumn of 1940 that the WVS opened its Worcester clothing store at 88 High Street - launching a service which was extremely busy during the war years.

In the summer of 1941, the WVS clothing department was given its own building at 37 Broad Street, though the clothing exchange moved in 1945 to the large Georgian property at the corner of High Street and Deansway.

In 1947, the WVS clothing store was again in action, this time coming to the aid of local people who were victims of a long and intense spell of ice and snow, followed by the record Severn floods of that year. Warm clothing and bedding were supplied to many local homes where there was need.

Then, once more, in 1963, the WVS store was on hand to offer the same physical comforts for those local people hit by another long and cold winter.

In 1966, the organisation had the honour of having "Royal" added to its title, and it was around this time too that the WRVS clothing store at Worcester became permanent and was opened on a regular basis. Up until then it had been operated on an ad-hoc footing, swinging into action in times of need.

The clothing store was then for many years at 6 Edgar Street and, finally, at 8 Sansome Place.

Since 1966, the clothing store had helped about 2,000 local people every year with urgent clothing needs, and the WRVS has always been grateful to Worcester citizens for being constantly supportive of the scheme in keeping the store fully stocked with clothes.

Just a few weeks ago, however, the WRVS clothing store closed for the last time with the handing over of the scheme to the City Mission at Worcester.

Jeannie Johnson MBE, who was organiser of the WRVS clothing scheme for about 25 years, told me: "The volunteers have all been wonderful.

"We have had a lot of laughs and a few tears over the years, and the camaraderie within the WRVS has been one of the things that made working on the project so worthwhile.

"Now seemed like a good time to thank the volunteers for all those years of hard work."