A YOUNG man, Harry Brace, from Worcester, appeared at Droitwich Petty Sessions charged with stealing four pieces of bread and butter, a piece of cake and a slice of bread pudding from the cloakroom at Rashwood School. It was a pupil's packed lunch. Brace, who had previously absconded from a Dr Barnado's home, told magistrates he had been hungry. Not moved to pity, they handed him a four-week jail sentence with hard labour.

A PAIR of blue tits had built a nest in a crevice beneath an overhanging part of Barnt Green railway station, oblivious to the scores of trains passing within inches and the hundreds of pairs of feet which daily tramped above them.

DROITWICH staged its annual grand fete in the grounds of the Brine Baths Park. Among a host of attractions was an Aunt Sally and croquet and golf competitions. At night there was dancing, the park being illuminated by fairy lamps and Chinese lanterns. Fire balloons and rockets, discharged into the night, sky added to the fun.

HEAVY rain around Belbroughton left many cellars in the lower part of the village flooded to a depth of several feet. At the Queens Hotel several barrels of beer were spoiled.

A QUICK glance at the Messenger's advertisement columns showed Stoke Farm Reformatory School was selling raspberries at 4d (1.5p) per pound and High Street grocers Weaver and Guest were urging farmers and strawberry growers to lay in stocks of their Harvest Ales at 6d (2.5p) per gallon. J Willis, butcher, sausage maker, lard refiner and ham and bacon curer of Worcester Road, was meanwhile extolling the virtues of his cold room. By manipulating the equipment he could lower the temperature to that of a December day.