100 Years Ago

May 13, 1905

For some time past the spring flowers at the workhouse have been supremely beautiful, and were the admiration of all who have seen them. The large circular bed in the centre, which is twelve or fourteen feet in diameter, was one glowing mass of wallflowers - Cloth of Gold; very dwarf, compact and even in outline. Two beds in the form of stars were planted with Early Feltham wallflowers, and four others with wallflower Primrose Dame. The fine masses of colour reflect the greatest credit on the Master and Matron, Mr and Mrs Girvin, to work up so many plants from seed and then to so skilfully arrange them as to produce one harmonious and beautiful picture.

75 years Ago

May 10, 1930

Pershore Spring Steeplechases and Hurdle Races under National Hunt Rules, which took place on Monday and Tuesday this week, were very successful. On Monday, which was a warm, sunny, summer day, the attendance was easily a record, as it was also for cars and charabancs, and some of the tenants of the meadows near the races made as much as their annual rental in a few hours. On Tuesday it rained practically all day and the turn-stiles clicked far less; nevertheless, the crowd under the circumstances was greater than expected. The course, with Bredon Hill for a background and the Avon intervening, presented a survey of rural beauty and orderly arrangement. The entries, too, were a record, and the fields the largest for many a year.

50 Years Ago

May 14, 1955

The stripping of paint from the front of the Bridge Inn, Offenham, this week disclosed what many people in the village did not know: that once the inn was called the Waterloo Tavern. Under the old paint the old title, in black letters, was faintly discernible. Wisteria normally covers most of the face of the inn, It has been detached from the wall and will be replaced when the building has been repainted in black and white. Mr B G Cox, the Evesham munismatist, has a token coin in his collection bearing the inscription, Edwin Bennett, Waterloo Tavern, Evesham, which alludes to the same inn. The present name of the Bridge Inn seems to have come into general use about 1885.

25 years Ago

May 15, 1980

After seven weeks of almost continuous dry weather, growers in the Vale of Evesham say the need for heavy rain is now desperate. It has been so dry that a lot of crops drilled a month ago have hardly moved at all. Cauliflowers are at risk, strawberries are going to be hit hard, and it is now unlikely that the promised heavy crop of plums will materialise. "It has been unusually dry," said Mr N A Field, the Evesham grower and weather observer.