WALKMILLS Farm at Wychbold, comprising a house, outbuildings and 57 acres of land came under the hammer at an auction conducted by Luce and Silvers the Bromsgrove auctioneers. After spirited bidding it was sold for £4,000.

VISITORS to an open day at Bromsgrove's National Fire Station were amazed to see a revolutionary piece of new equipment that enabled firemen to enter buildings filled with smoke or dangerous fumes and yet allowed them to breath normally. The apparatus consisted of air canisters slung on their backs connected to face masks. Bromsgrove was fortunate to have the new equipment as it was a training station for firemen from a wide area of the Midlands.

THE war may have been uppermost in the minds of most residents in Bromsgrove and Droitwich, but they still had the cinema to bring some cheer into their lives. Mutiny on the Bounty, starring Charles Laughton, was packing in audiences at Rubery Cinema while Betty Grable in Pin Up Girl was wowing film fans at New Salters in Droitwich. Gone With the Wind was showing at Rubery Cinema, and Marlene Dietrich was top of the bill in The Lady is Willing at Bromsgrove's Regal.

MR P Murray-Willis, of Grafton Manor, near Bromsgrove, the current captain of Northamptonshire Cricket Club, made a broadcast about his team on the radio on Sunday.

THE Messenger, in its editorial, said it welcomed the possible relaxing of the curfew, which had been put on bus travel at the start of the war. The suspension of Sunday morning services especially for those living in rural areas had come as big blow, it said. But now with more fuel available and the easing of supplies of raw materials it seemed possible a return to a normal timetable was likely.