March 29 - April 5

9:32am Monday 31st March 2008

This week in 1988:

THE seven centuries old tower of Worcester Cathedral, nearly 200ft high and weighing 4,500 tons, will crash to the ground within the next 15 years unless £1.8 million is spent on vital repairs. This is the stark warning from the cathedral authorities who recently launched a national multi-million-pound appeal for the repair and restoration of the building. Widening and lengthening cracks have been appearing over the past 10 years in the four supporting piers of the tower.

* One of Worcester's main city centre churches is about to be rescued from becoming a lifeless museum piece. St Paul's in the Blockhouse - declared redundant by the Church of England - is set for a new lease of life as the permanent place of worship of the Assemblies of God Pentecostal Church.

St Paul's was built in 1885 and had as its vicar, from 1914 to 1922, the legendary First World War chaplain, Woodbine Willie - the Rev Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy.

This week in 1978:Film maker Ken Russell has rescued Plas Gwyn, one time Hereford home of composer Sir Edward Elgar.

The old mansion was up for sale and it was feared it might be bought by builders and pulled down for redevelopment - the sad fate suffered by Elgar's last home, Marl Bank at Rainbow Hill, Worcester. Ken Russell, who made a superb TV film on the life of Elgar, rushed to Hereford from his home in the Lake District when he heard of the threat to Plas Gwyn.

He immediately bought it for £21,000 and is to set up a trust to restore the mansion and run it as a cultural and Elgar appreciation centre.

* By the slimmest of majorities - 19 votes to 18 - the Severn Trent Water Authority has agreed to introduce fluoridation into those remaining areas of the Midlands where there is firm evidence that the majority of consumers want it. Places such as Droitwich, Bromsgrove, Redditch, Ombersley, Claines, Evesham, Tenbury and parts of Kidderminster already have fluoride in their water supplies. However, the city council is battling resolutely against the introduction of fluoridation in Worcester.

This week in 1968:Councillor Ron Morris, head of four building and civil engineering firms he founded in Worcester and Stourport, is to be Worcester's next mayor in May. He first set up in the building business in 1932 and his firms have built hundreds of houses and undertaken big construction projects throughout the city and county, most notably the building of the Christine Avenue Estate at Rushwick.

* One of the last telephone exchanges in the West Midlands to go automatic is that of Upton-upon-Severn which switches over next Wednesday. The conversion also brings STD to the town. The new exchange at the bottom of New Street has cost £11,000 and contains £33,000 of equipment.

The changeover will mean that several hundred subscribers on the Upton exchange will have their present three-figure telephone numbers changed to four figures.

This week in 1958:THE Hut. otherwise known as Wadborough village hall near Worcester, was completely destroyed by fire early on Saturday. A dance had been held there on Friday evening. The building of timber construction was a former 1914-18 War hospital ward and had been the village's community centre since 1921.

A villager said that during the Second World War the hut was used for dances, and thousands of pounds were raised for charities.

* All Worcestershire children who were registered for anti-polio vaccination before July 1957, can expect to be vaccinated shortly, says county medical officer, Dr JW Pickup. He adds: "We hope to receive early next month something like 44,000 doses of the vaccine, compared with the previous allocation for the county of 108 doses a month."

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