FORTY-FOUR years ago, in the early Spring of 1976, two of this newspaper’s editorial legends of recent decades headed off down the steps of our HQ in Hylton Road and wandered off towards the city centre on a mission. Not looking for a pub, although of course by pure chance one may have come over the horizon, but looking for a story.

Mike Grundy was carrying his notebook and Roy Booker his camera as they sought to show what a dismal state some parts of Worcester were in. The resulting article was headlined “Worcester in Decay – The Evidence” and Mike wrote in a memorable second paragraph: “The trouble is that Worcester now smiles on visitors with a mouth dotted with decaying teeth and with unsightly gaps left after the extractions of recent years.”

Their effort had been prompted by a growing groundswell of public concern about the erosion of the Faithful City’s townscape and heritage. “Several city streets are fast becoming geriatric wards lined with elderly and chronically sick buildings approaching the point of no return,” Mike observed, “The situation is of such urgency that there is little point in arguments or recriminations about who is to blame.”

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Several factors had led up to this state of affairs. The national economic climate of the 1970s was the main culprit, but it coincided with a change in the commercial world. Companies which had been operating from historically valuable but costly to maintain older buildings in the city centre found their needs better met by the modern commercial premises beginning to appear on new business or industrial parks built on the peripheries, which were near better transport links, especially the M5.

“Clearly the clarion call must be for a campaign of united action involving the planning authorities, property owners, development companies, preservationists and citizens generally to try to arrest the marked decline of the heart of Worcester,” said Mike.

In the vanguard of what followed was Worcester Civic Society, but several other bodies and individuals made great efforts too and slowly the central part of Worcester, especially around the tourist hot spots, was cleaned up and polished as the City Council got to grips with affairs.

True some areas are still none too smart today – witness Bridge Street probably the most underachieving thoroughfare in the city – but by and large Worcester presents a far more appealing face to visitors than it did back in the fashionable days of men’s flares and tight waisted shirts. Neither of which would have appealed to Mike and Roy as they walked up Hylton Road in 1976, no doubt discussing the respective merits of mild or bitter. Legends!