100 YEARS AGO: “Nobby” Guy, recently convicted at the city police court of being a habitual drunkard with more than 70 conviction for drunkeness, said farewell to Worcester on Saturday. He went by train, in the company of Adjutant Snooks of the Salvation Army, to London where he is to be installed in a home. He took with him an outfit generously given by Magistrate WK Kay, chairman of Kay & Company.

Before leaving, Guy went to the police station, shook hands with all and bade them “good-bye”.

150 YEARS AGO: ON Tuesday, a little boy named Bright, whose parents reside in Silver Street, Worcester, had a narrow escape from being run over by a horse and fly, belonging to Mrs Humphryes of the Hop Market Hotel. The little fellow, who was scarcely two years old, was incautiously allowed to play in the street when he got in the way of the horse and was knocked down.

The animal was being driven at a slow pace, or the vehicle would have passed over his body. PC Fielder witnessed the accident, rescued the child from its peril and conveyed him to the Infirmary where his bruises were treated.

● Benjamin Oddy of Worcester was brought up at the city police court for trespassing on the embankment of the Worcester and Hereford Railway to witness the ascent of Mr Goddard’s air balloon from the new Arboretum pleasure grounds on the previous evening. The defendant was brought up merely as an example to others, some 300 or 400 persons having trespassed on the embankment at the time and, by their conduct, retarded the efforts of the police to clear the line. As the defendant had been confined in the police station during the night, he was discharged on promising not to trespass on the railway in future.

200 YEARS AGO: YESTERDAY morning about five o’clock, a fire broke out in the counting house belonging to J&B Thompson’s coal yard near Worcester Bridge which consumed the books and papers and a considerable property in bills. It is supposed to have originated by a snuff of candle having been inadvertently dropped and left unperceived in the room. The fire engines were at the first alarm immediately on the spot and prevented the flames from spreading to adjoining buildings. The counting house was insured in the Eagle Office, the agent to which, we understand, has given directions for the necessary repairs.

250 YEARS AGO: LAST Sunday died suddenly in an advanced age, one Ann Harper, a single woman who had been upwards of 20 years a pauper in the parish of Pershore. This truly good old woman was universally esteemed, met with the countenance and friendly assistance of many respectable persons, and upon her death a very handsome coffin was provided for her at the expense of some worthy ladies in that place. Her corpse was carried by six young single men who had gloves given them, and over the coffin was suspended a white sheet by way of canopy, supported by six single women with gloves and favours, and followed by 50 couples of single women who raised a subscription among themselves for a necessary refreshment on the occasion, and to drink to the pious memory of a woman of so exemplary a life and conversation, though in so low a sphere of existence.