THESE days I seem to be receiving an increasing number of e-mail enquiries about Worcester of yesteryear from people living in other parts of the UK and overseas.

I try to answer them when I can, but often I need the help of Memory Lane readers to respond fully to the enquiries.

Among recent such e-mails was one from Worcester exile Keith Price, now living in Queensland, Australia.

In tracing his family tree, he has discovered that forebears lived in Factory Walk, Worcester, in the mid-19th Century, but he has been unable to find where this particular thoroughfare was located, if indeed it ever existed.

I've looked into a couple of old Worcester directories I have for the years 1840 and 1910 and can find no reference to a Factory Walk, so I asked local history researcher Colin Roberts of the Guildhall staff if he could discover anything for me.

And he has kindly come back with information from a Worcester directory of 1885, confirming that Factory Walk did, in fact, exist in the late 19th Century. It ran off St Martin's Gate and to the rear section of Grainger's Royal China Works - a long lost feature of Worcester's manufacturing scene.

Totally by chance, another feature in Memory Lane today is about the history of the Grainger porcelain factory!

I am sending this information to Keith Price Down Under and I've no doubt he will be grateful to Colin Roberts.

Keith writes that he was a pupil of St Martin's Boys School, Worcester, until it closed and, among his prized possessions, is a group photograph signed by headmaster, the late Eric Baker and by deputy head Jim Harbour.

Keith left Worcester in 1969, to emigrate to Australia. He doesn't explain why, but he would like to hear from readers who have any information about Worcester's Gorse Hill School in the early 1950s.

* Another recent e-mail was from June Adam of Ottawa, Canada. who is following up Worcester forebears - the Tustin family, who ran a popular stables in The Butts for many years and were also farmers in the Newtown Road area.

A few weeks ago, I published a plea from June, seeking information about the Tustins, and I had a very helpful response from Pam Hinks of Bisley Close, Worcester.

I have passed this on to June who, in turn, has sent an e-mail of thanks, plus a note that a forebear of hers was a teacher at St Nicholas Girls' School.

Totally by chance, in scanning the Berrow's Worcester Journal bound archives of exactly a century ago, I came across a report of "the annual distribution of prizes at the St Nicholas schools" in February 1901.

The Berrow's stated that "Mrs Tustin, head teacher of St Nicholas Girls' School and her staff were present with about 140 girls, all looking particularly bright and happy".

The Rector of St Nicholas Church told those gathered for the prize-giving that Mrs Tustin and the other teachers clearly had "the warmest interest in their pupils and taught them effectively to sing, drill, behave themselves and to be clean and neat".

I naturally sent a copy of this report and photo to June Adam, who has since confirmed by e-mail from Canada, that Mrs Tustin was indeed her forebear having been Annie Cockbill before marrying into the Tustin family.

June thinks it is possible that the teacher in the photograph was Annie Tustin - "it does look a bit like a portrait photo I have of her", she says.

Alas, I have no idea when the St Nicholas schools went out of existence though I gather it must have been a long time ago.

It's doubtful therefore whether any pupils are still alive, but if readers can supply information about these schools, please write in to me at the Evening News.