LONG awaited improvements to Birmingham Road from the new asylum gates at Barnsley Hall to the Plough Inn at the Whetty in Rubery were announced. The sides would be edged in stone and channelled to take away storm water at a cost of £300. The Messenger observed the road could no longer be deemed rural as houses were beginning to spring up along its length.

FARMERS and growers in the district were facing difficulties on account of late frosts and the menace caused by birds, especially house sparrows and slugs. The Messenger said in 1810 churchwardens in Bromsgrove were authorised to pay 3d (1p) a dozen for sparrows killed within the parish and much earlier in 1676, anyone presenting them with a fox's "mask" would be paid the handsome sum of 1/- (5p).