IN January, the Friends held their annual lunch at Kings Norton Golf Club.

After the meal, Ralph Richardson gave an entertaining talk entitled Syrup of Horehound and Other Matters.

Ralph gave a picture of life in 1905 through the columns of the Redditch Indicator.

He hoped for a juicy story but there was none. There was a letter complaining about the and water on the railway bridge - no change there then! The railway company maintained it was the council's job to clear it. The council blamed the railway.

The coronation of King Edward VII was delayed by his appendicitis. The Entente Cordiale was signed at a time when Britain had few allies. Women wanted the vote but had not yet become militant. Income tax rose by 3d.

The population of Redditch was 8,227 in 1901, a rise of 2,000 from the last census. (In 1801 it had been just 1,000.) So the population was about one tenth of what it is today and the town covered about one tenth of its present area.

Redditch was the centre of the needle industry, a position that it had taken over from Alcester.

There was a single-track railway line which connected to lines all over the country.

Scotch was 2s 4d a bottle. Bugs were a problem but could be exterminated using Chinese bane costing 6d. The local chemist sold weird and wonderful medicines including syrup of horehound, guaranteed to cure all coughs and colds.

In Arrow, two men were arrested for riding their bicycles on the pavement. At Alcester Sessions, a man was found guilty of falling asleep on his loaded cart in Studley.

There were workhouses in Bromsgrove and Alcester with 125 residents.

Miss Hill, of Bidford, sent each one an orange at Christmas. The lunatic asylum was at Hatton.

The Duke and Duchess of Connaught visited the Earl of Plymouth at Hewell Grange but there was no shooting because of the snow.

MP for Redditch was Austen Chamberlain. The Chairman of Warwickshire County Council was John Dugdale, a descendant of the 17th century historian.

Redditch had its own honorary US consul.

The price of housing seems tiny compared to today. The rent of 143 Mount Street was £24 per annum. Two houses were sold for £580 and a further 10 fetched £2,000 for the lot.

The hunts rode freely over the Warwickshire and Worcestershire countryside.