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April 4 to April 11 (From Worcester News)
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April 4 to April 11
11:58am Tuesday 7th April 2009
THIS WEEK IN 1989:
AN angry Mayor of Worcester, councillor Bernard Neil and last year’s mayor, councillor Cliff Lord have both slammed Whitehall for “juggling the figures” over the true scale of unemployment in Worcester. The latest batch of statistics show that 2,997 people (or 4.8 per cent) of the working population of Worcester are unemployed compared with 4,618 (7.4 per cent) at the same time last year. The two mayors, together with other city leaders and employment chiefs, seriously question the latest figures and claim they are “misleading” in suggesting inaccurately that unemployment in Worcester is no longer as serious as it has been.
THIS WEEK IN 1979:
PERFORMING animals should be banned from all circuses, asserts Mrs Barbara Hardwick, secretary of the Worcestershire RSPCA Animal Defenders Group.
She claims that children positively dislike circus animal acts. The only reason the acts continue to exist, she says, is due to the efforts of well meaning but misguided adults who persuade children to “go and see the animals” at circuses when they much prefer the skills displayed by the human artistes.
However, Jim Clubb, owner of the Sally Chipperfield Circus, which is at present drawing big audiences in Worcester, disputes the claim that the circus is no life for animals. Circuses, he says, would lose much of their appeal without the attraction of lions, monkeys, performing bears and ponies. He said: “People have tried running a circus without animals before and they have literally lasted for only a couple of weeks. The animals are our main attraction.”
THIS WEEK IN 1969:
A HAPPY and friendly rivalry over very many years has now culminated in a merging of wine trade interests in Worcester. The wholesale and retail firm of Joseph Malpas and Co Ltd is taking over and moving to the more commodious and better equipped cellars of Josiah Stallard and Sons Ltd, trading as Malpas Stallard Ltd.
Joseph Malpas and Co was established in 1807 and moved to the Corn Exchange after its completion in 1849.
The House of Stallard claims its foundation prior to 1642 but it was in 1808 that William Stallard founded Joseph Stallard and Sons in Copenhagen Street which has a labyrinth of historic cellars underneath.
● May 31 this year is to be red letter day for sausage eaters. On that auspicious date the Sausages and Other Meat Product Regulations come into force and will mean that pork sausages in particular must have at least a 65 per cent minimum meat content, of which not less than half must be lean meat.
THIS WEEK IN 1959:
ON Tuesday, the city council approved proposals which would have the effect of increasing Worcester’s size by more than 60 per cent and would mean taking in a total of 3,807 acres of additional land from the rural districts of Droitwich, Martley, Pershore and Upton-upon-Severn.
The land grab proposals will clearly meet with strong opposition from the county council and neighbouring local authorities to Worcester.
The city council’s expansion plans would take Worcester’s boundaries out to the village of Whittington and Norton Barracks in the south, up to the proposed Northern Link Road and Claines in the north, and out to Rushwick and Hallow in the west.
The current land area of Worcester is 6,114 acres and the additional 3,807 acres would be adequate to provide for a future population of 100,000.
The city’s proposals will have to be submitted to the Local Government Boundary Commission in London.
● Ribble Coach Holidays from Worcester with travel, accommodation, meals and excursions, all at an inclusive price for eight-day holidays: Keswick £11.17s.6d, Blackpool £11.7s., Llandudno £12 and Southport £11.11s.
