THE inaugural meeting of the Worcestershire Guild of Artist Craftsmen was held in Bromsgrove Library. Its aim was to further an interest in traditional skills. The meeting elected Robert Pancheri as its president.

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FEMALE worshippers attending the Easter Sunday evening service at Rushock church near Droitwich were alarmed when a snake suddenly slithered from a pew and made its way down the aisle. Quick thinking Mr J Hopcroft quelled the ladies' fears when he made after it and killed it with his foot allowing the service to continue uninterrupted.

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FARMERS from a wide area took advantage of a novel idea enabling them to buy and sell stock at an improvised outdoor stockyard situated below Park Hill, Hanbury. The idea had come from Bromsgrove auctioneers Chappell and Foster.

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A MONSTER oak, felled at Old Hill in the Black Country, had been bought by Belbroughton timber merchants T Bowkley and Son. The 41ft long, 500-year-old specimen with a circumference of 20ft would be sawn up into planks and posts, but some would be made into the very distinctive furniture for which the village was noted.

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A PLAN by Bromsgrove Trades Council to stage a May Day rally in the town to protest against the Tory government looked set to fizzle out. And an invitation from the British Soviet Friendship Society to send a delegate to Moscow was being turned down.