RESOURCEFUL Ian Jennings, 16, of Old Station Road, Bromsgrove, was doing something practical to realise his dream of getting into showbusiness by arranging interviews with the stars. Already he had met John Inman, Trevor Bannister, Nicholas Parsons and Max Bygraves. Recently he had caught up with Dora Bryant while he was on holiday in Bournemouth.

THE area around Fine Fare Supermarket, in Market Street, Bromsgrove's largest store, was to be landscaped with trees and shrubs, together with a covered seating area and trolley park.

STAFF shortages at Barnsley Hall Mental Hospital, in Bromsgrove, was among the worst in Britain, it was claimed. And patient care at the town's General was called into question when a patient told how he went in for a minor operation and found he had no bed or pillow and was later put in an all female ward. He awoke from the operation to find himself in a corridor.

THE death of Ernest Fox, of Stourbridge Road, Fairfield, ended a link with the once flourishing glassmaking industry in Bournheath. Even before he left school to work with his father on Parish Hill in the early 1920s he could be seen blowing, rolling and shaping glass items. When a slump hit the industry soon after he trained as a bricklayer and soon gained a reputation as being the best in the district.

A SIX-DAY spree on the eastern coast of the United States was the reward for an outstanding sales achievement by Bromsgrove woman Pearl Prior, from Marlbrook. Pearl was a manager with Avon cosmetics and the holiday was in recognition of her hard work. She had won a similar prize last year and was now looking forward to making it a hat trick next year.