A FIVE-BAY Dutch barn and several ricks of unthreashed wheat totalling 60 tons was destroyed in a fire at Mr John Hodgetts' Farley Farm at Romsley. Joseph Low, chief engineer, at the nearby sanatorium, led a team of volunteers who tackled the blaze.

A LITTLE bit of history was made this week when Mr T Abel, of Bromsgrove, returned home after having flown on the Comet from Bahrain in the Persian Gulf, a distance of 3,500miles in 9.5 hours. He was believed to be the first local person to travel on a jet liner.

THREE London architects had been appointed to design Bromsgrove's new grammar school and College of Further Education. They would be built on a 60-acre plot between Alcester Road and Burcot Lane. Other schools were to be built alongside later.

SEVERAL delegates from Bromsgrove were at the Tory party conference at Margate this week. And Labour's Henry Webley, from Sidemoor, was featured on a TV newsreel on Friday when he attended his party's annual gathering also held in Margate.

THE future of Bromsgrove's annual carnival was occupying the minds of members of Bromsgrove Trade Council. They were fearful its organisation was about to be hi-jacked by "non-working class" members of the town's Chamber of Trade, who it was claimed were opponents of the trades council.

MR H BANNER, a baker and caf proprietor of High Street, Bromsgrove, won a £11,500 fortune on the Treble Chance football pools. His win was his reward for sticking doggedly to the same 50/- (£2.50) per week as he had done for many years.