THERE were reports of packs of hungry foxes roaming the Bromsgrove area. It was claimed that the deliberately introduced disease myxomatosis, which was devastating the rabbit population, was upsetting the balance of nature and was depriving foxes of their staple diet.

THE end of a 'golden era' in farming was fast approaching, the squire of Bentley, Lt Col Gray Cheap, told his tenants, who had gathered for the estate's annual rent audit dinner at the Golden Cross Hotel, in Bromsgrove. But there was one bright spot. In the previous year, more estate farms had been connected to the mains water supply.

ONE of Barnsley Hall hospital's most glittering occasions, the patients' fancy dress ball, was attended by 500 revellers in brightly coloured fancy dress. The main feature of the evening was an authentic water mill tableau in the centre of the ballroom using water from pipes situated beneath the floorboards.

HARRY Eccles, from St Godwald's Road, Aston Fields, the chief clerk at the Wagon Works adjacent to the station, retired after 46 years service with the railway. A man of many interests, he was a county councillor, was active in union affairs and was secretary of Aston Fields Working Men's Club.

THE wintry weather was refusing to release its iron grip and the snow which had fallen last week was still lying as the temperature had barely risen above freezing point. Bromsgrove Rovers were without a match for the second week running as their pitch was under an inch thick coating of ice.