ON Tuesday, this newspaper published a couple of old photographs showing what Worcester's Cathedral roundabout area used to look like before the massive re-development of the area in the 1960s.

Readers were so fascinated, we delved into our archives and here are a few more. They date back to the decades before a whole swathe of the city was flattened by the demolition man's wrecking ball and replaced by the angular architecture so popular in the Sixties.

The carnage carried out against the magnificent backdrop of the cathedral, brought journalist Geoffrey Moorhouse from the Guardian newspaper to see for himself and his subsequent article headlined The Sack of Worcester has gone down in history as an example of how not to do things.

In reality it was somewhat unfair, because although today such a crushing change would not be allowed, back then the City Fathers were faced with a rundown area that obviously needed something doing to it, but without the money to do much. Modern determination to save the nation's heritage, along with its accompanying grants, was still around the corner.

But these old images show what might have been possible had the ways and means been available. In the 21st century, when tumble down country barns are turned into smart homes and dour old Victorian terraces scrub up amazingly, restoration experts would love to get their hands on properties like this.

Of course what would have happened to all that traffic had not the large cathedral roundabout been created might be another matter.