This week in 1988:

THE plug has been pulled on Worcester's Diglis Basin - and there's not a lot of water left after the massive drainage operation.

British Waterways workers drained the water during a 30-hour pumping out programme. The operation is being undertaken so that inspectors can carry out a detailed survey of the basin walls to assist redevelopment plans for the Diglis area.

* Congratulations have been coming in from professional colleagues for Colonel Roy Harrison who is celebrating 60 years as a solicitor in Worcester.

His lifetime career in law began in 1923 when he joined his father's legal practice at 25 High Street and he was later admitted to the Roll of Solicitors. For most of his 60 years, he has been head or senior partner in the same solicitor' firm which is now at 5 Deansway.

Colonel Harrison, who is 84, was educated at the King's School, Worcester and is a Senior Deputy Lieutenant of Worcestershire. He was secretary and treasurer of the Worcester Three Choirs Festival throughout the 1930s.

This week in 1978:IN a bid to prove that biggest really is best, a significant sum has been spent on a 50 per cent expansion of Leo's in St John's, Worcester to create a new look' superstore. The 2,000 sq. ft of new sales space includes a new freezer centre.

* Metal Castings Doehler Ltd., the Worcester pressure die-casting firm, is to be taken over by Matchbox toy makers Lesney Product and Co. Ltd. The agreement was signed this week between Lesney's and NL Industries, the US company which owns Metal Castings Doehler.

Reg Bryan, the Worcester company's managing director, said the take-over would have no effect on the current workforce of about 1,000. "The unions have been informed and there is no change at all in the terms of employment and there will be no difference in our pattern of work."

This week in 1968:A resolution calling for a minimum wage of £15 for a 40-hour week was approved at a joint conference of the Worcestershire and Gloucestershire branches of the National Union of Agricultural Workers last weekend.

Jack Ding, representative of the union's national headquarters, told the conference: "The biggest rise we have ever had at once was 15 shillings a week. This is a miserable amount of money, and our basic wage is, even now, only £11.11s. a week which is a disgrace for the work that an agricultural worker has to do.

"The farm worker is employed in the lowest paid industry in the country but is expected to work considerably harder than his industrial counterpart."

* New regulations which strengthen the rules about the condition of tyres on motor vehicles by defining the defects making the use of tyres illegal, come into force on May 1. From that date, tyre condition will be included as a specific item in the annual vehicle test. There is ample evidence nationwide that a high percentage of accidents on motorways can be attributed primarily to a vehicle's worn or defective tyres.

This week in 1958:THE Worcestershire Regiment is leaving its base at Norton Barracks to be part of the new Mercian Brigade at Whittington Barracks, Lichfield, Staffordshire.

However, Major JD Reynolds, commanding officer of the Norton depot, said there would be "a representative home" of the regiment either at Norton or somewhere in Worcestershire to preserve its traditions and its connections with the city and county.

* A special commemorative tablet commemorating 300 years of the Baptist Society in Worcester has been unveiled on the building occupying the site of the first known Baptist church in Worcester at Silver Street.