FIREMEN from Bromsgrove and eight other local towns were called to fight a major fire in the five storey Halfords Cycle Store, in Birmingham. It was full of flammable materials and the blaze was said to be the city's worst in peacetime. Damage to the premises and stock was put at over £1m.

THE lanes around Hanbury were blocked with hundreds of cars and 500 people packed into the village church for the 'wedding' of two characters, Phil Archer and Grace Fairbrother, in the popular Archers, 'an everyday story of countryfolk,' radio serial. The actor taking the part of the vicar was briefed beforehand by his real-life counterpart, the Rev Birch, while the congregation was to provide an authentic background to the recording set to be broadcast at Easter.

PREPARATIONS were in hand for Bromsgrove's annual carnival, which this year was to be a Festival of Flowers, with a Rose Queen and four attendants. They would be chosen from 30 schoolgirls at the Parish Hall by members of the Grafton Players.

USING a makeshift stage Droitwich Amateur Theatre Society performed scenes from their panto Aladdin before appreciative long-stay patients at the Forelands Cripples' Hospital, in Bromsgrove. The children were ferried to and from their wards by members of Bromsgrove and Droitwich Toc H.

HOUSEWIVES in Cofton were complaining their washing was being ruined when put out to dry by smoke and dust particles from the nearby Austin East Works. The parish council, which claimed that much of what was being burned could in fact be recycled, was to make a formal complaint on their behalf.