THIS WEEK IN 1961:
FIFTEEN powerful revolvers and ammunition to fit many of them – has built up at Worcester Police Station since last Thursday’s “armistice”

pledge from the Home Secretary. He promised then that anyone without a firearms certificate handing over firearms or ammunition to the police by October 31 would be immune from proceedings for unlawful possession. The weapons surrendered at Worcester are mostly First Worls War souvenirs but some are “keepsakes” from the Second World War and one – a Colt – even looks fresh from the factory. The police are amazed that so many “illegitimate”

weapons, capable of causing untold terror in the wrong hands, should have turned up in a place like Worcester.

THIS WEEK IN 1971:
THE county council has set up a special working committee to investigate drug taking among children in Worcestershire schools.

The committee will try to find out how widespread is drug taking and the best way to tackle the problem.

One member, Dr Thomas Lloyd-James, the county’s deputy medical officer of health, said he believed the problem to be “fairly widespread” in Worcestershire “but no one knows the real size of the problem and this is one of the things we shall be trying to find out”. Deputy county education officer REW.

Saunders welcomed the investigation but said he was not aware of drug taking being “a serious problem in our schools”.

THIS WEEK IN 1981:
RIVER freight is on the move again from Worcester for the first time in 12 years.

A 270-ton barge load of wheat set off from Diglis Basin along the river Severn to Tewkesbury on a journey that could be the start of a major commercial venture.

British Waterways is hoping it will be the first of many cargoes that will spell a new beginning for water freight.

a A British Waterways spokesman said: “The wheat is being delivered direct to a mill at Tewkesbury. This is much easier than transporting it all by road and it represents a saving in cost. He added that altogether 2,000 tons of English wheat from Worcestershire farms will be delivered to down-river mills.

Diglis Depot manager Malcolm Wright hopes to see further development of river freight from Worcester to docks at Gloucester and Avonmouth.

THIS WEEK IN 1991:
CASES of HIV are increasing in the Worcester area, according to latest figures revealed by the District Health Authority.

There are now 20 known cases in the district and numbers are expected to rise, warns district HIV coordinator Sheena Stewart.

Now being made available are free needles for intravenous drug users.

They are being issued from the HIV AIDS Education Unit and the Genito-Urinary Clinic, both in Castle Street.