GOOD news, if it ever happens, for the commercial property in the middle of St John’s, Worcester, which for years was a Co-op supermarket.

Apparently, somebody is now going to do something with it after the place has been empty for far too long.

Of course, it wasn’t always like that and in the late 1800s you could hardly move around there for horses. And what they deposited.

The site was the main depot of the city’s horse-drawn tram operation which began in 1881 and covered around three-and-a-half miles of Worcester and its suburbs.

Significantly, each route terminated at an 'ale house'.

The depot building was originally a long, thin, open-sided shed with an outdoor yard used for horse stables and additional storage of horse omnibuses.

The main shed was set back from the road and connected to the road and tramway network by a driveway and single tram line that ran between the shop frontages.

The single tram line divided into a double tram line before entering the shed.

The operating company owned six horse-drawn cars and employed 19 men but invariably ran at a loss.

Payment was by dropping money into a box beside the driver.

However, there was no conductor to keep a watching brief and not all the money taken was handed in. What a surprise.

To enable the trams to make the steep gradient into St John’s from New Road, the traditional two-horse team was supplemented by a third in the care of a young lad who ran alongside it and was paid the princely sum of three shillings and sixpence a week or about 15p in today’s coinage.

Initially, the tramway network consisted of two routes on three-foot gauge tram lines linking Ombersley Road (stopping at the Vine Inn), Worcester City Centre (The Cross), and St John's (Portobello Inn, Bransford Road) or Worcester City Centre (The Cross) and Shrub Hill Railway Station.

At the start of operations nine horse-drawn tramcars were used, all originally built by Falcon Engine and Car Works Limited of Loughborough.

However, the vehicles were very antiquated even for those times with inside seats only.

When Mr RR Fairburn was appointed general manager in 1894 he got to grips with the financial situation by employing conductors and he also improved the standard of the seating.

In 1898, no doubt with an eye to the future, the British Election Traction Company took a stake in the business which increased substantially in size with a stable of 100 horses and around 20 trams of various sizes.

Running a horse-drawn tram operation in Worcester proved a tricky business and a couple of companies went bust before the newly-formed Worcester Electric Traction Company Limited applied for the rights to upgrade and expand the network for electric trams.

Permission was granted and the last horse-drawn tram left the St John’s depot on June 25, 1903.

However, extra horse omnibuses had been brought to Worcester on loan from Birmingham for the duration of the work to provide a continuing service and these were used in the outer suburbs until 1912.

Meanwhile, up in St John’s the workshops were converted to deal with new fangled electric vehicles, all the horse manure was swept up for one last time and way in the distance Mr Leo was waiting to open a supermarket.