THIS WEEK IN 1958:

AT this time of recession, there is a serious threat of redundancies at J Archdale and Co. Ltd., Blackpole, Worcester, and also of shorttime working at other city factories. It is feared that at least 200 of the 1,200 employees of Archdales will be made redundant during the next month. Factory workers at Hardy & Padmore Limited are now on a four-day week, but Windshields of Worcester and HW Ward and Co. Ltd, have so far staved off the need to introduce short time working.

● Surgeons at Ronkswood Hospital, Worcester, where an average of 60 operations are performed every week, will now work under the light of two new shadowless lamp clusters, the first of their kind to be installed in a Midlands hospital. The lamps are a feature of the major and costly improvement and reconstruction of the two theatres carried out at Ronkswood over the past seven weeks.

THIS WEEK IN 1968:

GRM Airwork Limited, an air freight and charter company, has written to the city council with a proposal for the development of Worcester’s wartime aerodrome at Perdiswell as a light aviation airport.

The company points out that Worcestershire is one of only two counties in England with no airport facilities.

It is undisputed that Worcester is bound to have some sort of air station in the future but whether Perdiswell is the best place for it is open to doubt. However, a light aircraft runway for executives’ planes is a possibility.

● From Elgar House, their ultra-modern new office block at Shrub Hill, Kays of Worcester now offers customers a wide range of household and fashion goods, wines and spirits, insurance and other services on a mammoth scale – all chosen within the comfort of their own homes.

Also in line with modern thinking, Kays has just installed two IBM computers which will ensure the speedy delivery of goods to customers.

THIS WEEK IN 1978:

A NEW science laboratory at the Alice Ottley School, Worcester, named after a former headmistress, Hilda Roden, was officially opened by Lord Sandys, chairman of the Governors, on Friday. The equipping of the laboratory has been financed by donations totalling more than £3,000 from former pupils and friends of the school. Miss Roden, a science graduate, was the school’s principal from 1934 until 1964.

● New measures have been approved by the city council to extend the number of Worcester council house tenants eligible to buy their homes. In future, tenants living alone in council houses, including those with lodgers, will have the same rights to buy their homes as anyone else. The decision means that virtually anyone who has lived in a city council house for more than six months can buy it at fourfifths the market value – as long as they are not in rent arrears or in breach of tenancy conditions.

THIS WEEK IN 1988:

THE fanfare and ballyhoo lined up to mark today’s planned opening of Worcester’s £2.4 million St Martin’s Gate car park has been gagged – because the 800-space multi-storey just isn’t ready. The opening by the Mayor, Councillor Bernard Neil had to be called off at the 11th hour and has been put back indefinitely until the car park is considered “safe and ready for the public to park there.”

The contractors were hit by severe shortages of labour during the summer.