THIS WEEK IN 1991:

THE sight of the local milkman plying his trade in the early hours is being threatened throughout the nation as more householders shop at supermarkets or buy in bulk. As a result, a £6 million campaign is being launched by the National Milk Publicity Council in a bid to battle the trend. The UK is now virtually isolated in continuing to provide doorstep deliveries, some 22 million pints still being placed on doorsteps each day – up to 75 per cent of people nation-wide relying on the service. Worcester-based Bennetts Dairies say the number of pintas being delivered on each of its 37 rounds has fallen in recent times to about 600 bottles a day. The company employs a 50-strong team and continues to recruit as vacancies arise.

A Bennetts spokesman said milk deliveries remained a traditional and valuable service to consumers and he could not foresee the end of the “milky” at present, but action was being taken to counter the drop in home sales.

THIS WEEK IN 1981:

Fifty years ago when the depression was deepening and the men were turning to alcohol for solace, four Christian women canvassed the new Brickfields Estate and the Rainbow Hill area in Worcester to assess what support they would get if a temperance meeting was held locally. They received tremendous support and on March 1, 1931 the first meeting was held at Rainbow Hill Baptist Chapel. Women were encouraged to sign the pledge and to join the British Women’s Total Abstinence Union. Their fortnightly meetings were encouraged with temperance talks, and their children, initially called Little White Ribboners, later formed the Band of Hope. The women engaged in political action in the temperance cause but by 1963 they no longer belonged to the temperance movement and became known as the Women’s Fellowship, which still continues today and has 63 members. On Saturday the only remaining founder member, Elsie Ruby Curnock will join the 50th anniversary tea party.

THIS WEEK IN 1971:

FROM the leader column of Berrow’s Worcester Journal: Strike toleration. Public feeling about the current postal strike has not reached the high voltage generated by the power men’s work-to-rule. This is partly because people can live for a while without letters, particularly those in buff envelopes with windows, but sudden cuts in light and heat on a cold night are not so easy to tolerate. And many people are in sympathy with the postmen’s cause and regret that they have to be victims of the Government’s first real stand against inflationary wage settlements. The postal workers’ cause is vastly different from that of the bellowing car workers who must meet with widespread antagonism. However, it is to be hoped for the sake of the country as a whole and for business in particular that the postmen are soon back at work.

THIS WEEK IN 1961:

A DINNER service for 50 persons, in exactly the same pattern as the original service for 108 produced by the Worcester Royal Porcelain Company for the King of Nepal on the occasion of the Queen’s visit of 1956, has been ordered by the Nepalese Government for use at Katmandu during Her Majesty’s visit this year.

In gold and white and bearing the Nepalese Government’s Coat of Arms, the service is being flown to Nepal in a few weeks time.