THIS WEEK IN 1991:

THE number of people arrested for drug offences in West Mercia (Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Shropshire) rose last year and served to indicate "an abundance of cannabis available on the streets".

While cocaine and crack cocaine have been curtailed locally, there is, say the police, a "serious concern" about heroin abuse in the West Mercia area.

* The Friends of Worcester Cathedral will be celebrating their 60th anniversary on Sunday with a day of worship and eating.

The Friends organisation was founded in 1931 and has raised funds in the years since to support the maintenance and staffing of the cathedral.

THIS WEEK IN 1986:A BID to reintroduce the post of Sheriff of Worcester may have been turned down by the city council last week but Councillor David Inight, one of the last holders of the historic role, is still hoping that his fellow councillors will have second thoughts.

Records show that the city of Worcester had its own sheriff for hundreds of years before the office was discontinued with the reorganisation of local government in 1974.

* Malvern Cinema is to ban smoking in a second large area of its auditorium. From June 20, patrons will find that the stalls are a no smoking zone. The right hand side of the cinema's circle has been a no smoking area for a number of years, now leaving just the left side of the circle for smokers. Malvern councillors believe it is important that public buildings under their control should set an example with regard to the health of the community they serve.

THIS WEEK IN 1976:PERMISSION has been granted for Worcester's empty Gaumont Cinema to re-open its doors as a bingo hall. Zetters, the successful applicants, aim to re-style the stage and 1,800-seat auditorium to create a main bingo hall, television rooms and other amenities. A false ceiling will also be installed.

Worcester already has two other bingo centres - in the former Northwick cinema and at the Majestic. The Gaumont Cinema opened in 1935 and enjoyed a spectacular period in the late 1950s and through the 1960s as the auditorium for live stage shows featuring such greats as Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison, the Beatles, the Everly Brothers, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Little Richard and Dionne Warwick.

* A Worcester man with a tattoo studio in the city has been fined £100 by Worcester magistrates for tattooing a schoolgirl under 18 years of age. She paid £5 for tattoos on both arms.

THIS WEEK IN 1966:IN view of the growth in the work of the authority, controversial plans have now been drafted for expanding the size of Worcestershire County Council from 80 to 98 members. (It has to be remembered that the county council then covered a much wider area than today including Stourbridge, Oldbury, Halesowen and Smethwick).

* Extensions costing £60,000 to St Mary's Convent School at Battenhall, Worcester, have been officially opened. They bring six new classrooms, a science room, an art room, a dining hall, cloakrooms and school offices.

The Auxiliary Bishop of Birmingham, the Rt Rev Joseph Cleary paid tribute to the Sisters of Christian Schools who had set up the convent with just a few pupils in 1934.

THIS WEEK IN 1956:THE West Midlands Region of the Guild of British Newspaper Editors has elected Miss Joyce King, editor of the Malvern Gazette, as regional chairman for the ensuing year. Miss King, one of the few women newspaper editors in the country, said provincial newspapers were not only the background for the training of journalists but also of the news services of the world.

"Country newspapers are the historians of this great untry of ours," she stressed.

* One of the most urgent problems facing the National Health Service, particularly in this county, is a shortage of dentists, warns Alderman ST Melsom, chairman of the Worcestershire NHS Executive Council. He points out that there has been a 12 per cent drop in the number of dentists in the past year, and more than 40 per cent of dentists in practice in the county are now aged 55 years and over. "It is obvious that the number of dentists is going to fall steadily for some years."