THIS WEEK IN 1991:

WORCESTERSHIRE shivered as rock-bottom temperatures, black ice and more than a foot of snow caused chaos on road and rail this week. The first heavy fall of snow caused panic buying of food, warm clothing, wellingtons and fuel in many Worcester stores, and the manager of Leo’s in St John’s, Worcester, was forced to ration bread to four loaves a person. Last Saturday, Barbourne, Worcester, merited a mention on national television by being the coldest place in Britain when the thermometer plunged to minus 14.6C.

Local schoolchildren took advantage of one or more unexpected days off school to go sledging. However, sharp official warnings were issued to county youngsters to stay away from frozen waterways, pools and ponds as the ice may not be as thick as it seems. British Waterways is warning parents to supervise their children near frozen water.

THIS WEEK IN 1981:

THANKS to one of the mildest winters on record, the county highways department now has a salt mountain of more than 11,000 tons left over from road spraying operations. Councillor Ron Carrington, chairman of the county strategic planning and transport committee, reckons that unless conditions rapidly deteriorate during the remaining short period of winter, it will mean a saving of about £20,000 to ratepayers.

He said: “The winter is by no means over but we are hoping to have some money left over which we could spend on schemes like making accident black-spots safer.” Councillor Carrington explained that one salting of the motorway took 64 tons and at between £16 and £25 a ton, it was an expensive process. Each of the county’s Foden salt spraying wagons cost £40,000.

THIS WEEK IN 1971:

A CALLOW End man, frustrated with his business failures, clubbed his wife, two children and the pet dog to death with a rifle butt while in a “homicidal frenzy” before shooting himself. This theory was advanced by the Mid- Worcestershire Coroner, Thomas Higginson at the Malvern inquest on Monday when the jury found that the 50 year-old man had committed suicide after murdering his 49 year-old wife, his son (14) and his daughter (12). The family were found dead after fire destroyed their centuriesold black and white thatched cottage in the village of Callow End near Worcester last November.

Mr Higginson said: “This is a terrible tragedy involving the deaths of three innocent people at the hands of their husband and father.

“It is a story of a loyal wife and difficult husband who was of an unstable and immature character and whose life had been a long history of failures and frustrations.”

THIS WEEK IN 1961:

THE Worcester parking controversy has brought a reply from the chief constable Eric Abbott who stresses that “it is not the policy nor aim of the police to antagonise or to ostracise drivers.” On the contrary, the police were out “to help and assist both motorists and traders in the city by ensuring the equitable use of street parking.” However, Mr Abbott said action had to be taken against “the selfish and unreasonable motorists who thwart the police in their attempts to secure an unobstructed flow of traffic and an equal distribution of parking space in such places where it can be allowed at all.”

The chief constable denied that he was having “a purge” and said it was perhaps unfortunate that 42 parking offence cases, covering a four week period, had all come up in the City Magistrates Court on the same day. No fewer than 243 written warnings had been sent out to drivers by the police over the same period.

He said: “To leave a car for up to three hours in a street designated by the city council for 15-minute waiting is selfish and unreasonable.”