AN "alarming" increase in tramps and vagrants was causing great anxiety to the City Fathers at Worcester this time exactly a century ago.

The Journal of 1903 explained that the Worcester Board of Guardians, which, among other duties, administered the city's Workhouse at Tallow Hill, had received an official report showing that the number of vagrants admitted to workhouses in Worcestershire, Gloucestershire and other nearby counties had reached a staggering total of 144,260.

This was an "enormous" increase of no fewer than 16,701 from the last survey two years earlier. Worcestershire, with 11 workhouses, had seen a rise of 4,596 while Gloucestershire with 17 "Unions" had witnessed a 6,176 increase.

The Journal reported: "Councillor J.V Stallard, chairman of the Worcester Board of Guardians, said it was the duty of the authorities to use most stringent measures to prevent this tremendous strain upon the ratepayers' pockets, brought about to a very great extent through idleness, he could almost say wickedness, on the part of the men who preferred to lead a roving life instead of a hard-working and honourable one.

"Worcestershire, of course, was an exceptional county, being the highway to Birmingham and other large towns, and having many hop-yards and fruit plantations. However, the authorities had to deal with the deserving vagrants very differently from the idle vagabond type, asserted Mr Stallard."

The Journal also referred to a London conference on the vagrant problem where a leading expert had advocated that, instead of treating vagrancy as a crime to be punished, it should be dealt with as a disease to be cured.

He urged that every county should set up a labour colony for vagrants so that they could be taught to form "industrious habits."

The evils of the Demon Drink were also very much on the minds of some Worcestershire worthies 100 years ago.

The same Journal edition of 1903 carried a full report on a meeting in Worcester Guildhall of the Church of England Temperance Society.

"Miss Townsend said intemperance today was slaying its thousands, not only in the lower classes but also in the middle and upper classes where it was laying low the cultured, the clever, the intellectual, the refined, and even the womanhood of the country. Alcohol was not necessary for strength nor for hard work and, even in small doses, was deleterious to the human body.

"Lady Frederick Cavendish urged that, nationally, the harmful effects of alcohol should be brought to the attention of schoolchildren in their science classes."