A COW being driven down Bromsgrove High Street by a youth employed by Mr Lloyd ran off and entered Mr Noake's chemist shop.

100 years ago

January 19, 1901

A COW being driven down Bromsgrove High Street by a youth employed by Mr Lloyd ran off and entered Mr Noake's chemist shop. The animal was forced to back out, but not before causing damage put at 15/- (75p).

EXCITEMENT was mounting as the date of Bromsgrove's eagerly awaited charity ball approached later this month.

Tickets, priced at 7/6 (37.5p), were being snapped up. This year, in response to previous complaints, the dance floor would be covered in a special fabric.

The evening was set to start at 9pm and go through to 3am. Last year's event, which was one of the highlights of the social calendar, was called off because of the war against the Boars in South Africa.

A STRANGE tale emanated from Sidemoor, in Bromsgrove, this week. Elsie Corbett, aged 13, claimed a man wielding a knife had set upon her demanding money or else he would cut off her hand. Police became suspicious of her story when she claimed he had fled with her wages, 4/10 (24p), she received from the Clothing Factory at Aston Fields.

Her wage was in fact just 1/10 (9p). Later she admitted to having fabricated the attack but refused to say why.

STOKE Prior residents turned out in large numbers to see some entertainment staged in the schoolroom to raise cash to pay for a district nurse for the area. Around £20 was raised on the night.

ALBERT Withers, from Halesowen, found himself in front of Bromsgrove magistrates charged with stealing a lamp, worth 12/6 (72.5p), from a carriage at the Rose and Crown pub, in Rubery.

He was committed to the next Quarter Sessions at Worcester and bailed in the sum of £20 and two sureties of £10 each.

50 years ago

January 20, 1951

ALL Saints' and Blackwell Recovery Hospitals, in Bromsgrove, had agreed to take flu patients from Birmingham where an epidemic was raging. City hospitals had been forced to shut beds because of staff shortages caused by illness. But Bromsgrove was faring little better. At Barnsley Hall Hospital, 18 nurses had been hit by the bug.

MISS Mary Corbett, the last survivor of the seven children of "Salt King" John Corbett, died in Towyn, Wales, aged 93. Her father, who had been MP for Droitwich Spa, had died at Impney in 1901.

DR DEREK Harbord, of Wisbech, had been named as Stoke Prior's first GP. His appointment followed a long battle to get a doctor for the area. L G Harris, boss of the Stoke Prior brush works, had offered part of his premises for a surgery.

BROMSGROVE was one of eight towns in the county earmarked to get a College of Further Education, when the present economic situation in the country improved. A 40-acre site in Well Lane was the likely place where the £350,000 project would be built.

THE first panto in Hanbury, staged by enthusiastic members of the village youth club, played to large and appreciative audiences in the Parish Hall. The Alexandra Theatre, in Birmingham, had lent some of the costumes for their production of Cinderella. One of the highlights were the song and dance routines by the Hanbury Babes.

25 years ago

January 16, 1976

THE Rev David Tonge, aged 45, was set to become priest-in-charge at St Godwald's Church, Finstall, following the retirement of the Rev Leslie Dicker. Mr Tonge was coming to Bromsgrove from a parish in Kidderminster.

BROMSGROVE Rovers turned in one of their best performances in recent years when they knocked out visitors Worcester City in the FA Challenge Cup. Bobby Werhun scored both Rovers' goals.

POLICE warned traders and shoppers in Bromsgrove to be on their guard over dud 50p coins circulating in the town. A spokesman said forgers had now turned to making the coins as it was no longer worth their while making ten pences.

FLAGS, canopies, bunting, large signs and window stickers used increasingly to entice customers to fill up at service stations were disfiguring Bromsgrove it was claimed. The town's planners were to look at the problem.

ENGINEERS were at North Bromsgrove High School to record class 3M pupils singing The Marseillaise, the French national anthem, for a BBC play, the Rose Garden, soon to be broadcast on Radio 4.