WILLIAM Deeley, aged 16, from Rubery Lane, Rubery, a non-swimmer who worked as an engine cleaner at Frankley waterworks, drowned in Cofton reservoir while bathing. Pc Jakeman spent an hour trying to find him but to no avail. Later his body was recovered and taken to the Hare and Hounds pub where an inquest was held. And Albert Pantall, six, whose father James was a carpenter from Stoke Pound, also drowned while taking a dip in the canal near his home.

THE local hospital committee had employed a professional water diviner to search for a supply beneath land at Woodgate, Stoke Prior, which had been earmarked as the site of a new smallpox hospital. His traditional hazel twig had responded in a certain spot and a well was expected to be sunk in due course which would, it was hoped, meet the hospital's needs.

GEORGE Sparkes, aged 15, son of William Sparkes a saltmaker from Covercroft, Droitwich, was hauled before Spa magistrates charged with stealing a Coronation badge belonging to a boy called Mark Eden. The bench took a dim view of his misdemeanour and ordered him to spend three years in a reformatory.

A MESSENGER reporter was one of four pressmen invited to stand and watch just feet from the scaffold deep inside Worcester Jail where Samuel Middleton, the Foxlydiate murderer was hanged. He described the scene in graphic detail noting it was all over within 60 seconds. The crowds at the gate, expecting to see the customary black flag flying signifying that the execution had taken place, were disappointed - the practise having now ceased. The prison bell tolled mournfully instead. The last man to be hung at Worcester was Aime Meunier in 1893 for the murder of Charlotte Pearcy, of Lickey End.