This week in 1957:

A piece of railway history was being removed from the Worcester scene this week as gangers worked to tear up the spur line which ran down from Foregate Street to the riverside at Pitchcroft. The reason? A railway official said the spur line had been used principally in recent times for horse-box traffic to Worcester Racecourse but it was no longer worth keeping open for the occasional van of this type. In Victorian and Edwardian times, the spur line ran from Foregate Street, over Croft Road and then along the riverside, through Worcester Bridge and on to the South Quay. It had once been proposed that the spur line should continue on to the Diglis Docks.

* Charles Hallows, Worcestershire County Cricket Club's new coach, takes up his duties at New Road on April 1. He was for 13 years opening batsman for Lancashire and has since coached in India, South Africa and Ireland.

This week in 1967:A resolution that men who had served in the Home Guard during the war should be allowed to become full members of the British Legion was overwhelmingly defeated at the quarterly conference of the legion's Worcestershire branch. Delegates in favour of the idea, proposed by the Cradley branch, drew attention to the services rendered to the nation by the Home Guard and also to the need for increasing legion membership. But those opposed to the recommendation contended that it would considerably increase the money which would have to be paid out to members and their dependants and could also "open the door" to full membership for those in Civil Defence and to Auxiliary Fire Service and ambulance drivers.

This week in 1977:

Strip shows have been given the cold shoulder by the Royal British Legion. At the organisation's West Midlands Area Conference in Malvern Winter Gardens, members overwhelmingly "deplored" the fact that there had been a spate of strip shows at some legion club premises in the region. "This type of entertainment is more suited to Soho and the back streets of Birmingham and is not part of the image the legion would wish to present to the public," stressed West Midlands area organiser Major Owen Rees-Jenkins.

* A severe rash is plaguing patients at Powick Hospital near Worcester. At least 34 patients have already been hit by the disease, which is spreading through the hospital wards. Two cases have now been confirmed as scabies and health officials believe all the other affected patients are in the grip of the same disease. Nursing staff at the hospital, which houses 440 patients, have been instructed to wear protective clothing.

This week in 1987:

Litter louts are being hauled before the courts in a bid to keep streets clean and tidy at Droitwich. Police have launched an anti-litter campaign in the spa where empty cans, chip papers and discarded take-away boxes are a problem, especially in High Street. Several offenders are waiting to appear in court and face fines of up to £400 each. Police say the worst offenders are children and teenagers who sit in doorways in High Street and drop their fish and chip wrappings.

Upton-on-Severn Parish Council has received letters of complaint from residents about plans for a jazz festival in the town later this year.

This week in 1992:

Plans for a visitor centre alongside Elgar's birthplace at Lower Broadheath should be scrapped and a new scheme for the centre of Worcester should take its place, asserts the chairman of the Elgar Association, Jacob O'Callaghan.