IT might have been the hippy-styled Summer of Love, but 1967 rapidly turned into the dark winter of despair for Worcestershire's farmers.

Because that was the year the dreaded foot-and-mouth disease last visited the county.

By the time the smoke and stench from the final funeral pyre was blowing in the wind, more than 7,000 cattle, sheep and pigs had been slaughtered and burned after outbreaks on 26 local farms.

Nationally, the total rose to claim 400,000 animals in the most desperate tragedy to hit farming since the Second World War.

The effects of the virulent disease were many, but the dangers were suddenly brought home to Worcester people when, in the early hours of November 28, members of the Worcestershire branch of the National Farmers Union and the council's highways department set up an emergency disinfectant ramp right across New Road on the St John's side of Worcester bridge.

In those days, the road was two-way and the ramp came as a blow to an unsuspecting motoring public in the morning rush hour.

Bumper-to-bumper queues formed and many people were more than an hour late for work as vehicles made their way slowly over the ramp.

This consisted of wire mesh and straw soaked with more than 30 gallons of disinfectant.

As an extra precaution, car wheels were hosed down as they crossed the pad.

Pedestrians too had to walk across a carpet of straw.

The traffic traumas continued for several days and it usually took until mid-morning for the queues to clear, although the NFU went to great pains to apologise to drivers and ask for their patience in tackling the outbreak.

In fact, foot-and-mouth was rated as "a national disaster".

It began in Worcestershire on November 16 at Withy Wells farm, Spetchley, run by Jeavons Bros Ltd, and before being eradicated, hit 25 other county farms.

The initial outbreak involved two sows and 19 pigs, although more than 330 pigs, the only other animals on the farm, were slaughtered too.

All stock markets in Worcestershire and Herefordshire were immediately closed, hunts in both counties cancelled their meets and a number of farmers and growers dinners were postponed, as were a large number of football matches.

Worcester Races also fell victim to the shutdown, along with several other animal events, as the plague steadily engulfed the area.

Among the holdings affected was the County Education Department's training farm at Hindlip, now part of the Pershore Group of Colleges, where 146 cattle and 138 pigs were put down.

Ironically the "nerve centre" to combat the foot and mouth outbreak was right next door, in the cellars of West Mercia Police HQ at Hindlip Hall.

There a team of veterinary officers and Ministry of Agriculture staff led by John Edwardson, divisional veterinary officer, used the Civil Defence control rooms to plan their campaign.

Major problems occurred for emergency services tackling incidents in the countryside and ambulance crews were told to keep off all farms in Worcestershire by the county medical officer, Dr J W Pickup.

Patients, whether emergency or routine, had to walk or be carried to the nearest road point, as life in the county remained disrupted for several weeks.

On its front page the Evening News carried the following emergency advice:

Don't drive along country lanes.

Don't let your dog loose in the countryside.

Don't go walking in rural areas

And don't call at farms.

It was a small price to pay to stop the stench of burning carcasses.