THIS WEEK IN 1960:
A STATE of emergency has been declared in connection with Croome d’Abitot Church where urgent repair work is required, particularly on the magnificent ceiling.
Architects and structural experts report that there has been a considerable deterioration of the fine ceiling and that parts of it are in danger of collapse. Croome Church is one of the few churches in the country to have been built by the combined efforts of Lancelot (Capability) Brown and Robert Adam. An urgent appeal for funds is being launched to meet the cost of the most pressing repairs – £1,500 for the ceiling, £300 for replacing five dangerous pinnacles, £1,000 for rehanging the fine church bells which cannot be rung safely now, and £100 for the installation of electricity.
● The news that 40 square miles of countryside in the counties of Gloucester, Hereford and Worcester, including the whole of the Malvern Hills, are to be established as “an area of outstanding natural beauty”
under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 has been greeted with enthusiasm by people living in the area. Its most important effect is that Government grants towards the cost of treating derelict land and removing disfigurements will now be more readily available.
THIS WEEK IN 1970:
DOWTY Meco of Worcester is renowned throughout the world’s mining industry as being among the leading manufacturers of conveying equipment for handling coal and other minerals in large quantities. Although Dowty Meco has big contracts with the National Coal Board, it has also a growing export business and is winning orders from nearly 60 countries including Canada, the USA, Japan, Australia, Spain and the USSR, all countries with booming coal and other mining industries.
During the past year alone, more than £1 million worth of conveying equipment has been shipped to 29 countries, a substantial contribution to the nation’s economy.
Dowty Meco occupies 16 acres on a fine site off the Bromyard Road, from whence its products go in mounting quantities to distant parts of the world.
THIS WEEK IN 1980:
THE Queen and Prince Philip are to visit Worcester in April for the first time for more than 20 years. They will be performing the historic tradition of distributing Royal Maundy money at a service in Worcester Cathedral on Thursday, April 3. It will be only the second time in her 27 years’ reign that the Queen has visited the Faithful City.
Her visit will also coincide with the 1,300th anniversary of the arrival of Christianity in the Worcester area.
● Plans have been approved by Worcester city councillors to bring more peace and quiet to the Roman Catholic priests living and working in the Presbytery beside St George’s RC Church at Sansome Place. They suffer the constant dim of traffic now travelling in large volumes towards the City Walls Road and Lowesmoor.
Sound proofing of windows will be among the approved measures.
THIS WEEK IN 1990:
THE massive task of washing all the historic finds excavated at Worcester’s Deansway Dig is finally complete. Much of the work of marking all the objects was carried out by volunteers and, although the excavations ended in early November, the work of washing has been going on ever since.
Archaeologists working in Worcester in recent months have dug up more than 50,000 shreds of pottery, 200,000 animal bones and 8,000 metal objects, as well as tons of iron slag and moulds for bronze objects.
Importantly too, the archaeologists have found a large number of Roman burials. The majority of the finds have been from the time of a Roman settlement and iron smelting industry at Worcester.
