100 YEARS AGO:

SAMUEL, alias “Nobby”

Guy, aged 64, labourer of Carter’s Lodging House, Worcester, was charged at the city police court with being an habitual drunkard.

He has more than 70 previous convictions for being drunk and disorderly.

Arriving late in court, Guy was asked by the chief constable Mr Byrne: “Have you been having something this morning?” Guy: “Not a drop, I haven’t touched no beer sir.” Alderman Cook: “Something stronger?” Guy: “No sir.” The chief constable asked for an adjournment so that the city council could decide whether or not to find £25 a year to send Guy to a recovery home. Alderman Cook said he personally would not support the move because the last time Guy was sent away to a home it all ended in a fiasco because of his misconduct. Guy was a great nuisance to the city but the money would be wasted. Guy was remanded in custody for two weeks though it is understood the Salvation Army might be able to find a place for him in one of their homes.

150 YEARS AGO:

ELIZABETH, wife of John Henry Johnson of the Odd Fellows’ Arms, Merryvale (now Deansway), Worcester, was charged at the city police court with assaulting and using threatening language towards her husband. The evidence showed that a lamentable state of things existed between the two parties.

They had only been married 13 months, but in the first week he gave her a black eye and had followed up his abuse and ill-treatment ever since, and on one occasion had declared he would stab her to the heart with a knife.

The conduct of the wife appeared also to be reprehensible. She was too fond of drink and had left her husband 13 times during their short marriage. The bench decided that both should be bound over in sureties of £20 each to keep the peace for 12 months and were recommended “to live more happily together”.

200 YEARS AGO:

THE National Jubilee to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the accession to the throne of His Majesty, George III was marked in Worcester with general rejoicing and merry peals from the bells of the cathedral and the different parish churches across the city. The Mayor and corporation met at the Guildhall to approve a message of “joy and gratitude” at the 50th year of the king’s reign and to congratulate His Majesty on this magnificent achievement.

About 1pm, a numerous and highly respectable meeting of the nobility and gentry of the county took place at the Guildhall, and at 3pm the company sat down to a most splendid entertainment. The tables were placed in the form of a horseshoe and were tastefully adorned. The dinner consisted of every delicacy of the season in profusion, and the manner in which the whole was served up did ample credit to Mr Fieldhouse, proprietor of the Hop Pole Hotel in the Foregate. The ball in College Hall in the evening was also numerously attended.

250 YEARS AGO:

LAST Monday morning, a male child at its full term and supposed to be some days old was found floating in a small piece of water about half-a-mile from Droitwich, close to the Turnpike Road leading from that town to this city. It is supposed to have lain therein more than three weeks. The coroner’s inquest returned a verdict of wilful murder against some person or persons unknown.