A BROMSGROVE family had a lucky escape after an explosion in a river cruiser home. Mr and Mrs Stanley Ryland, who formerly lived at the Elms, Rock Hill, Bromsgrove, lived with their two children in the boat. A gas leak from cylinders used for cooking exploded ripping the cabin roof off and smashing glass panels on the side of the cruiser. Fortunately none of the family were injured.

IMMEDIATE enquiries had begun after the discovery of a young woman's body in Lickey End School Playground. Florrie Porter, 33, worked as a bank clerk in the west works time and wages office of the Austin Motor Company. She was found in a pool of blood, in the corner of a glass-roofed veranda at the rear of the school, after suffering a number of stab wounds. Her body was found by ten-year-old Louis Price, on his way to school. Police were looking for an American officer seen with Florrie in the George Hotel, Bromsgrove on the same night.

BIRMNGHAM coroner, Dr W H Davison, had the assistance of a jury when he held an inquest into the death of Florence Kings, 33, a patient at Rubery Hill Mental Hospital, who died following a fall from a window at the hospital. Florence died five days later in hospital, of bronchial pneumonia accelerated by her injuries of a fractured spine and skull. The coroner ruled accidental death.