THE Rev Glenmore Jenkins, the congregational minister in Rubery, was standing as an independent in the forthcoming local council elections. At his first meeting in St Chad's Hall, just 30 people turned up and agreed among themselves, as befitted a man of the cloth, not to heckle him or ask difficult questions.

MR P GROUT, an employee of the circus that had visited Bromsgrove last week, was in the town's Cottage Hospital suffering from pneumonia. It had been brought on after he was crushed between two elephants.

LABOURER Thomas Grundy, aged 58, from Ring-o-bells Cottages, Elmbridge, died when he fell from the horse and cart he was driving in Hawthorne Lane, in the village. It was believed he fell when the horse bolted. He, with his family, had moved from Lickey last June when he had got a job at New House Farm.

JOHN Bryant, 71, from College Road, the head of an old family-run Bromsgrove motor firm, died suddenly while in Southport to watch his son, also John, take part in the Amateur Golf Championships. Mr Bryant had been a leading figure in the community and a keen sportsman for many years, being bailiff in 1935 and a member of the town council.