THIS WEEK IN 1961:

ALL the carpenters, bricklayers, roadmen and other manual workers employed by Worcester City Council work a five-day week.

Why then shouldn’t clerks and other administrative workers employed by the council have the same privilege, say the 300 members of the Worcester branch of the local government employees’ union Nalgo. They have been campaigning for a five-day week since 1949. Since then, they have seen their colleagues employed by neighbouring authorities, including Worcestershire County Council, granted Saturday mornings off. Now the Worcester branch is again to press the city council to adopt a five-day week fully, instead of only for manual workers.

􀁥 In a quick referendum, the people of Rushwick have voted almost unanimously that they want to remain outside the Worcester city boundary. Of the total village electorate of 608, no fewer than 545 people voted against the Local Government Commission’s proposal to include Rushwick within the city boundary. Only 13 people voted in favour. The opponents point out that they came to the village to be in a rural community and emphasise that they don’t want to be overrun by the city.

THIS WEEK IN 1971:

FROM the Journal Jottings column of Berrow’s Worcester Journal: Brave vicars who refused to swear the oath of allegiance to William and Mary while James II still lived played a central role in the plot of recent episodes of The First Churchills television series.

Among those courageous clerics was Thomas Morris, vicar of Claines and a minor canon of Worcester Cathedral. He was turned out of his living after refusing to swear the oath and when he died he was buried in the Cathedral cloisters. His stone, set in the floor, bears the word “miserrimus,” meaning most wretched and the door into the Cathedral nearby is known as the miserrimus door. Wordsworth wrote a sonnet about the miserrimus memorial.

THIS WEEK IN 1981:

FROM the Crowquill column of Berrow’s Worcester Journal: “In pre-war days, 40 to 45 mph was the average speed in this country but if one travels at 40 today a tail of angry drivers builds up behind.

The slow driver can be as big a hazard on the road as the speed merchant. I would imagine that the average driver travels at between 50 and 60 on ordinary roads and 60-70 on motorways. But wouldn’t life be slightly less nerve-wracking if all road transport was governed not to exceed 50 and most drivers travelled at a leisurely 45 mph. They’d get there just the same, and more vehicles would arrive intact.

THIS WEEK IN 1991:

BEVERE’S champion lock keeper Donald Smith has carried off the top prize in Britain’s best kept lock competition for a record eighth time and is now hoping to get into the Guinness Book of Records.

He has been tending the lock and its impressive surrounding gardens for 27 years now and will have another four chances to win the top prize before he retires.

“I’ve won it so many times now I reckon I should be in the Guinness Book of Records,” said Donald who has also won eight second prizes in the same national competition. Keeping the lock near Worcester in pristine condition is no part time hobby. he said. “I spend every day of the year looking after the lock and the gardens. It’s a full time job. We are quite out of the way here and not many people can find us by road, so it is mainly people passing through in boats who get to see what I’ve done.” More than 70 boats a day pass through Bevere lock in high season.