THE help of Memory Lane readers is again being sought, this time in the hope that someone can provide detailed information about a worthy local benefactor who lived at Hallow.

I've been contacted by David Williams of Stoke Gifford, near Bristol, who is doing research on Second World War aircraft.

He reminded me that local communities raised significant sums during the war to buy Spitfires for the RAF. The sum of £5,000 would pay for one Spitfire, and thus it was that Worcester citizens raised enough money for two, named City of Worcester I and City of Worcester II.

The people of Malvern and of the Wyre Forest area also dug deep into their pockets, leading to the naming of two more Spitfires - The Malverns and Kidderminster, Stourport and Bewdley.

But what fascinates David is that a further plane was christened The Hallow Spitfire. He has discovered a fair bit of information about this plane, and even a 1941 photograph of it, and he knows too, that it was presented to the nation through a £5,000 gift from Joseph Banks of Hallow Park.

David says that, alas, his researches have so far failed to reveal much more about Joseph Banks, except that he was clearly "a man of some substance and local standing, who gifted, besides the Spitfire, an ambulance to the Church Army and land to the Playing Fields Association".

6 If any reader or perhaps relative can throw more light on Joseph Banks, please contact me at the Evening News.