WELL, hopefully we’ve taken everything we need, because the Worcester News’ long and illustrious time at Berrow’s House is now over and the paper now has a new base in the city, at the top of London Road.

It’s next door to Waitrose, so we ought to be OK for a socially distanced sandwich or even a baguette at lunchtime.

After almost 55 years alongside the river at Berrow’s House in Hylton Road, this newspaper has, as they say, relocated. It has been a major project, several months in the planning, and complicated more than somewhat by the coronavirus, which threw everything into turmoil.

Although there is a similarity, because it’s been brought about by the commercial equivalent of the children leaving home. Due to industry changes we stopped printing in Worcester four years ago and with the huge presses now dismantled and gone, plus all the associated conveyor belts, packing machines and distribution paraphernalia, large parts of the building were empty, silent and un-used with only the memories of how things used to be still lingering. A bit like a teenager’s bedroom when they’ve flown the nest.

See tomorrow for Mike Pryce’s reflections on life down the years at Berrow’s House