JOHN Edney, aged 42, a bus driver from Lander Close, Rubery, got a shock when experts told him the misshapen object he had dug up after locating it with bis metal detector was a cannon ball from the Civil War. He returned to the undisclosed spot and dug up a further 37 per fectly shaped balls. He planned to donate some to the Norton Collection.

BOSSES at British Leyland were having to turn to Scotland to recruit 500 skilled workers for their car plant at Longbridge. Workers were being flown down to look at job prospects at the firm which was offering wages of up to £130 per week.

VILLAGERS in Upton Warren had been warned to look out for a young bullock worth £300 belonging to Peter Newell, from Grafton Lane, that had mysterious vanished from its field. The other 17 in the herd were still secured in the meadow.

THE Remembrance Sunday service held at the foot of Bromsgrove Parish Church steps would be especially significant next month. Burma Star Association president Lord Louis Mountbatten, who had been murdered, and Major Hedley Bromsgrove's Poppy Day organiser, who had died, would be remembered at the service.