250 Years Ago:

ON Saturday last, a very cunning, penurious countryman, having about a dozen store pigs which he intended for sale at Worcester Market, in order to deceive the turnpike keeper and the toll gatherer of their usual fees, packed up the pigs in some straw baskets which he put into a cart and then covered them over with straw, in which manner he drove through the turnpike and likewise passed the toll gatherer unnoticed.

However, when he came to unload at the pig market, he had the mortification to find all the pigs either dead or just expiring. The countryman was so amazed and chagrined at the unaccountable event that he immediately stabbed those pigs which were not quite dead, and then threw them, with the rest, into the river. Tis reported that he has since discovered some fears of being indicted at our next Assizes.

200 Years Ago:

WE have great pleasure in being able to lay before our readers an additional instance of the great liberality of our worthy representative in Parliament, Abraham Robarts Esq. Perhaps it was impossible for him to have chosen a more happy mode of testifying his zeal in promoting the accommodation of the citizens at large and of all classes. He writes from London: "I send proposals for the erecting of a steam engine, calculated for the sole purpose of conveying to the city of Worcester the water to be raised from the Severn and thereby distributed with greater certainty than has hitherto been experienced, to all the inhabitants of the city. I take the liberty of proposing that the steam engine in question should be erected at my charge and expense."

150 Years Ago:

THE Arboretum. There is now a possibility of the project for establishing an arboretum in connection with the city of Worcester being carried out. The locality in Sansome Fields has been selected for these public tree-lined gardens and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners are willing to sell the site of about 14 acres at a very reasonable price. It is expected that the work may be effected for £1,500.

* A young vagabond named James Yarnold, described as a baker of Dolday, a mass of rags and tatters and a character well-known as an inmate, alternatively, of the prison and the workhouse, was charged at Worcester Police Court with concealing himself with ill intent in a brewhouse in St Swithin's Street. He was sentenced to 21 days in prison.

100 Years Ago:

THE wood blocks paving in the centre of Worcester has, when in a wet state, been responsible for several nasty accidents. On Saturday the blocks were in a slippery state and there were two accidents in High Street. Mr D Taylor and his wife, an aged couple of Kempsey, were driving down High Street in a high trap when the horse slipped and the occupants were thrown with much violence into the road. They were much shaken and bruised but not badly injured. At the same time a horse attached to a lorry belonging to Mr T Jackson of Claines fell near the Cross.

* A parishioners meeting was held at St Michael's Church in College Street, Worcester, on Tuesday evening "to protest against the proposed closing of the church and subsequent diversion of the living and charities." The Bishop of Worcester proposed the amalgamation of the parish of St Michael's with St Helen's and St Peter's.