This week in 1992:

NOISE squads could soon be taking to the streets of Worcester to clamp down on people who are making their neighbours' lives a misery by being too loud. The idea of full-time noise wardens, who will man a round-the-clock hotline to trap the domestic noise fiends, is put forward in the latest annual Worcester Environmental Health report to the city council. The scheme is to be discussed soon by the full council.

* The discovery in July 1990 of mammoth bones in rural Worcestershire has turned out to be far more important than originally thought, scientists announced this week. The remains of the female mammoth, dating back 200,000 years, came to light while Severn Trent were digging out the route of a new water mains underneath the M5 near the village of Upper Strensham. A team of some of Britain's most eminent scientists has now labelled the find as a discovery of national importance providing hitherto unknown information about "an interglacial period".

This week in 1987:

Traffic chaos at the county's worst bottleneck - Worcester Bridge - could be drastically reduced by a new rail shuttle service, claim the city's Friends of the Earth. They are putting forward plans to re-open Henwick Railway Station in a bid to reduce the jams and long delays which drivers face every rush hour in the St John's area of the city. British Rail is willing to consider the proposal, say the Friends, but BR puts the cost at a prohibitive £80,000.

* The Midlands Electricity Board's fraud squad is on the prowl in a bid to cut down the £300,000 lost each year in Worcestershire as a result of meter fiddling.

The team of men, who operate in pairs, have already started checking meters across the county to see if seals are in tact or if they have been tampered with. A similar purge has been taking place in Birmingham and to date hundreds of prosecutions have been taken out in courts.

This week in 1977:

Thumbs up for Pitchcroft camping. The cty council will live to regret the day if it allows the creation of a caravan and camping site on Worcester racecourse, claims Councillor Mrs Rachel Clapton. She told the council's main committee that the 50 caravans would be an encroachment on a traditional open space enjoyed by citizens in general for leisure. But racing chairman Councillor John Whitt explained that only three and a half of the 107 acres of Pitchcroft were earmarked for the caravan and camping site. Even then, it would be only a two-year experiment. The policy and resources committee overwhelmingly approved the scheme which is now to go before the full council next month.

This week in 1967:

On Easter Day 1916 at Katia in the Egyptian desert, the Queen's Own Worcestershire and Warwickshire Yeomanry fought the Turks in one of the bloodiest battles of the First World War. Although the Yeomanry fought with great courage, it was not enough. Heavily outnumbered, the battle turned into a massacre.

The Yeomanry were surrounded and those who managed to escape death from the Turkish guns were captured and taken prisoner.

The courage and stubbornness of those brave soldiers in the face of overwhelming odds was remembered on Saturday at the annual Katia Day service held in the St George's Chapel of Worcester Cathedral.

Among those present were a few of the men who survived that disastrous day in 1916.

This week in 1957:

FROM April this year, the minimum stipend of clergy in the Diocese of Worcester will be £600 per annum, plus a free house, a child allowance at the rate of £10 per annum for each child still receiving education, and the Easter offerings. No allowance is made for "expenses of office" such as travelling, postage and telephone.

* By the start of the new cricket season, the Worcestershire County Cricket Club's Supporters Association, in its seven years' existence, will have spent no less than £60,500 on improvements to the County Ground at New Road and in direct grants to the cricket club. This figure includes the cost of the new gates at the main entrance, to be known as the Queen Elizabeth Gates, and the new administrative office and dining room which is not yet complete.