ELIZA Knowles was lucky to be alive, according to magistrates at Bromsgrove police court. She appeared before them charged with being so drunk, in Little Lane near her home in Worcester Street, that she was incapable of speaking or standing upright. She had been taken, half frozen to death, to the police station by four stout men and it had taken two hours for her circulation to be restored. She told the bench she had only consumed a glass of ale and a couple of two pennyworths of rum. Nevertheless, she was fined 2/6 (12p) plus costs.

THE new Mission Room at Barnt Green would save residents having to travel to Cofton, Alvechurch or Lickey to take part in services. The galvanised iron structure had cost £60 and was situated near the railway station. It was pointed out it had not been built in opposition to the Wesleyans or Society of Friends, who had premises on the opposite side of the road.

WILLIAM Gibbins, from Stoke Works, narrowly cheated death while ice breaking with four horses on the canal below Droitwich. The weight of the specially designed ice-breaker boat dragged him and two of the animals into the icy water. However, his quick-thinking assistant Dick Albutt managed to pull him and the horses to safety. Mrs Withey, from the Ladywood lock, kindly furnished him with a change of clothes and, nursing a few bruises caused by the panic stricken horses, he was soon able to resume his important task of freeing the canal of ice.

THE Arctic-type weather was responsible for the sporting 'Squire of Bentley', Mrs Cheape, suffering a broken thigh after she fell on ice in her stable yard. Mrs Cheape ran her own private pack of beagles.

EXTRA markets were to be held in Bromsgrove before the extra-long Christmas holidays at the behest of the town council. They would enable townsfolk to stock up on essential foodstuffs, such as eggs, cheese and butter. As Christmas Day fell on a Sunday, shopkeepers had decided not to open until Wednesday.