DOUBLE honours have been awarded to a Worcestershire man for his contribution to music in the Midlands. Andrew Jowett, of Pershore, is director of both Birmingham Town Hall and Birmingham Symphony Hall. Birmingham Civic Society has presented him with
A FREE community music festival rocked a city park at the weekend. Radio station Youthcomm’s Minifest featured 16 live acts at Cripplegate Park in Worcester from noon until 7pm on Saturday. Hundreds turned up for the event, which this year had a Wild
IN her first ever beauty pagaent, Freya Melling, aged 13, has been short-listed for the semi-final of the UK Teen Dream competition but she needs votes from the public to reach the final. Freya from Kerswell Green, near Worcester, hopes to
LICENSING chiefs are to have talks with disabled groups about whether to license a cheaper, rear-loading taxi. Most hackney carriages are side-loading and a rear-loading taxi would need at least three metres at the back to allow people in wheelchairs
PLANS for thousands of new homes will more than double the size of the county’s largest village, a councillor has warned. Councillor David Harrison says Kempsey near Worcester will be swelled by an allocation of 2,583 possible homes as set out in a new
A COLLECTION of poetry and art will go on display in a Droitwich park to celebrate the town’s waterways. Sarah Leavesley’s exhibition An Eyeful of Words was due to take place in July to mark the Droitwich Water Festival but was postponed because the
SECOND XI DIVISION ONE Astwood Bank v Belbroughton Belbroughton won by five wickets. Astwood Bank 169 all out (4), Belbroughton 170-5 (20) (S Knights 58, A Mackenzie 50no). Alvechurch & Hopwood v Droitwich Spa Droitwich Spa won by nine wickets Alvechurch
THE Worcester Nursing Cups have enjoyed their best season on record with £2,000 being donated to charity. Entry fees and gate receipts for the Saturday Junior Cup and Sunday Junior and Minor competitions generated enough funds to give £500 each to the
EVERGREEN seamer Alan Richardson has extended his Worcestershire stay by a further 12 months. The 36-year-old, who arrived at New Road from Middlesex last term, will remain with the County until the end of next season. During his time with Worcestershire
A FORMER Lloyds TSB bank financial adviser has admitted defrauding two of his clients and misusing funds from a Malvern school. Andrew Bartlett, aged 48, of Northill Gardens, Malvern, was warned he faced jailed for the five offences to which
THE rain clouds cleared, the sun shone … and thousands of revellers converged on a Worcestershire town for its annual homage to jazz. It was music, music everywhere. From the legendary New Orleans-style street parade to the sound-soaked marquees
SIR – What a very hectic life our various mayors have. Do they ever find time, during their year in office to read a book, watch Countdown or listen to a Shirley Bassey CD? All work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy. GEORGE COWLEY Worcester
BIG-HEARTED cyclists were out in droves enjoying the hot weather and doing their bit for a leading charity. The British Heart Foundation unveiled a new route for this year’s Worcester Bike Ride which started out from the city’s Sixways stadium
SIR – Of course John Shearon is right that now one energy company has announced price increases, others will follow suit. As usual some cusomers will change supplier only to find that all will follow. When will these companies realise that price
EMPLOYEES from Worcestershire express delivery company TNT really had the fund-raising bit between their teeth when they raised enough money to feed and educate 1,400 malnourished African youngsters. Staff at TNT’s Hartlebury Trading Estate
Worcester City Council’s plans on how to spend a £1.78 million cash surplus include £50,000 for hosting the Olympic Torch next year. As previously reported, budget reductions, redundancies and internal restructuring resulted in Worcester City
SIR – Your article on the death of Robin Vincent captured the essence of the man I knew. We met when Robin was registrar of the Special Court for Sierra Leone. I was a lawyer for the US State Department. He was a first class administrator, a
SIR – I congratulate Peter Luff for taking a stand against the Hartlebury incinerator plant (Worcester News, June 20). The opposition to the plans is completely justified, as the incinerator is bound to cause air pollution, generate extra lorry
A WORCESTER woman is urging people to be on their guard after her cat was killed in a suspected anti-freeze poisoning. Rebecca Swinbourne and husband Julian came home from work to find one of her three-year-old cats staggering around and falling over
SIR – I have just read your article on Education Secretary Michael Gove’s plan to force supposedly failing schools to become academies. There is an urgent debate to be had over the merit and demerits of such a move. The local example you draw
SIR – I must take issue with the Worcester News ‘comment’ of Tuesday, June 21, regarding academies. While in your comment you suggest that the new style of academies is simply an evolution of a New Labour idea, and hence the reason for them getting
A 16-YEAR-OLD boy has been taken to hospital with serious injuries after a suspected stabbing. The incident happened in Hillery Road off Spetchley Road, Worcester, in the early hours of Saturday when police were called to a house in the street
NOTE: List is subject to change. Please click here for more details. • Abbey Park First & Nursery School - Closed to all classes between 8.45am and 1.00pm. Open to yr1, yr2 and Mr Johnson's PPA group between 1.00pm and 3.15pm. Open to Reception
TRIBUTES have been paid to a ‘devoted’ family man from the city who died after coming off his motorbike in France. Christopher Spencer, of Field Close, off Astwood Road, died in the accident while riding near Nozay in the Pays de la Loire area of north-western
100 YEARS AGO: WORCESTER once again justified its claim to the title “the Faithful City.” By religious services and social gatherings and by a liberal display of flags and of portraits of the king and queen, the city testified its attachment
THIS WEEK IN 1961: AMONG many interesting exhibits at the annual arts and crafts exhibition at Powick Hospital this week were paintings executed by patients under the influence of LSD the “wonder drug” discovered in “sacred mushrooms
SIR – It’s not so long ago David Cameron said he wanted to re-balance the economy and support British manufacturing, which is vital for jobs and growth. So why is it new trains to run in Britain are being manufactured abroad? It was Britain who
A SPIRITED England under 20 side, featuring Worcester Warriors duo Matt Kvesic and Andy Short, were unable to complete their Junior World Championship Italian job after suffering final heartache against New Zealand, losing 33-22 in Padova. A brutish
A FAULT which shut the Henwick Road level crossing has been repaired. The road in St John's was blocked both ways between 9am and 10am although engineers were not sure what had caused the problem. A Network Rail spokeswoman said: "The
A YOUNG woman battling a life-threatening bowel disease has tied the knot with her sweetheart days before her risky medical treatment starts. Beth Townsend – nee Dobson – married Ian Townsend at St Bartholomew’s Church in Redmarley d’Abitot in Gloucestershire
BRIGHT and shiny as a new pin in the summer sunshine, Worcester’s new history centre and library at the Hive development at the bottom of The Butts is certainly a testament to 21st century construction. It is also a world away from what used to
THIS walk through the east Worcestershire countryside offers the chance to explore the interesting and historic villages of Dormston, Upton Snodsbury and Flyford Flavell. At Dormston, make sure you look out for spectacular Moat Farm, a timber-framed
ELEVEN pony club branches sent members to compete at shooting, running, swimming and cross country horse riding competition when Croome Pony Club hosted the first tetrathlon of the season. The event – closely associated with the Olympic sport
FOR the past few years I have written about the great food and drink that is on offer at your local Worcestershire farmers’ markets. Hopefully, it has prompted some of you to head down to your nearest market and sample some of the fantastic things
A PENSIONER living in sheltered accommodation has been banned from having bird tables and nestboxes in her garden after other residents complained about bird mess and noise pollution. Grandmother Joan Worthington was told that bird food being
*ROUNDING a bend in the wilds of Herefordshire we came across a newly-slain pheasant lying in the road. I knew it was fresh because the bird hadn’t been there when we had earlier passed that way. I now have an admission to make. Just briefly,
I’VE done quite a lot of travelling in recent years, both for business and pleasure. From time to time, it’s necessary to ask for directions, and I’ve increasingly started to notice something… the inability of the average person to accurately
IT’S hard to imagine now but it wasn’t always computer games, DVDs and television around the clock. Yes, there will be many young people out there who will think I’m talking about a time before the dawn of pre-history. And to some extent they would
DIANA Bateman is a woman who has always been keen on the notion of food for free. Some years ago, during a particularly damp autumn, a friend told her it was proving to be a good year for field mushrooms. He gave her the location of a good
PATIENTS at Tenbury Community Hospital will soon have a newly refurbished hospital with upgraded facilities. Since last November the hospital has been undergoing refurbishment following investment by NHS Worcestershire and a donation from the Tenbury
THERE comes a time in every sportsperson’s life when they know they just can’t continue. It may be the body just can’t do the job it used to or they have fallen out of love with the sport that has been so good to them over the years.
STEVE Rhodes declared his Worcestershire Royals side were at the top of their game as they crushed Yorkshire Carnegie by 41 runs at a sun-drenched New Road. Having seen three of their previous four Friends Life t20 matches washed out at headquarters
NOW Matt Mason has retired, the Australian wants to take a young bowler from the Worcestershire academy through to international honours. The 37-year-old, who called time on his career over the weekend, can devote his time to helping the New Road bowlers
