GEORGE Rutter, a workman employed by Mrs Bridgman of the Talbot Hotel, Belbroughton, suffered serious injuries when a rope snapped as he attempted to secure a loaded wagon. He was pitched from it onto the ground breaking several bones and causing severe internal injuries.

AN 'elastic' wheel with the spokes and rim capable of independent movement through a series of springs, bolts and shackles, had been invented by a J Goodman, of Haselmere in Bromsgrove. It was one of the latest batch of ideas received by the Patents Office.

A MESSENGER reporter's graphic and detailed eyewitness account of the execution of murderer William Yarnold made chilling reading. Yarnold, a native of Catshill, kept an appointment with Pierpoint the hangman in the freshly whitewashed gallows at Worcester Jail after being found guilty of murdering his wife. He was buried in an unmarked grave in a sunless part of the prison compound. Coincidentally, the last execution there had a connection with Bromsgrove. Then Samuel Middleton, from Foxlydiate, had paid the ultimate penalty for murdering his wife.

THE master at Bromsgrove's workhouse had been given permission by the ruling Guardians to lay on extra fare for the paupers at Christmastide. They also approved the expenditure of £1 to buy a tree.