A short history of Mr and Mrs Day's Dairies...

I've been learning all about the hard-working dynasty from Mrs Betty Brown (maiden name, Worthington) who, with husband Derek, was the last in the family line to trade in Lowesmoor.

Our story begins with her maternal grandparents, Kate and James Day, "country folk, born and bred," who, in late Victorian times, were in service to the Hartwright family, farmers at Ravenshill, near Tibberton.

Kate was the kitchen maid while James went out on milk deliveries from the farm. In time, the Hartwrights suggested to James Day that he start up a milk round on his own account in order to be more independent, and this he did with some success. The couple were able to rent a small cottage at Tibberton and, in 1888, started what was eventually to be a family of eight children.

James' milk round grew, and he came into Worcester twice-a-day, winter and summer, with his pony and milk float. Even so, times were hard and, in addition to bringing up her expanding family, Kate Day augmented the household budget by doing gloving "out-work" at home, sewing on a machine called a "donkey" and earning about 2/6d for stitching each dozen pair of gloves.

Towards the end of the Edwardian era. James Day came to the conclusion it would be better to move "into town" to reduce travelling distances involved in his milk round and, despite his wife's reluctance to leave the countryside, the family moved into a shop and house in Vincent Road. It had a building on the side to stable his pony and milk cart.

The last of the Days' eight children was born at Vincent Road in 1914. She was Kathleen Day whose written recollections, discovered after her death two years ago, are prominently featured in today's Memory Lane.

Her mother Kate greatly missed her rural friends and, in the early part of the First World War, James Day moved the family to another shop - this time at 59 Lowesmoor which was on the north side of the street, opposite the entrance to the Hill, Evans' Vinegar Works.

Here, Kate could occasionally chat to her old friends from the country as they passed by in carriers' carts on their way to and from shopping in Worcester.

The Lowesmoor shop sold fruit, vegetables, flowers and fish and also became the base for James Day's milk rounds and for his ponies and carts loaded with milk churns. His eldest daughter, Ellen came out of service to help her mother in the shop.

One of James and Kate's sons, Tom, had emigrated to Canada in the early years of the 20th Century and served in the Canadian Cavalry during the First World War, being seriously wounded in battle and almost losing one eye.

A poignant letter still survives which he wrote from Belgium in 1916, before being wounded. "I write this in case anything happens to me, as one never knows out here. Dear Mother, what little money you have of mine, please spend on Hilda, Reuben and Kathleen" (his siblings) "and give them a good education. Dear parents - do not worry as I have done my little bit for King and country."

After the war, Tom decided to return home to Worcester and joined his father in his milk round business.

George, another of James and Kate's sons, also briefly emigrated to Canada, but soon returned homesick and set up as a pork butcher in a small shop next to the family business at Lowesmoor. He made it a success, helped to no small degree by his mother who cooked "delicious" pigs puddings and legs of roast pork for his customers.

On leaving Holy Trinity Girls School, James and Kate's daughter Kathleen also began working in the family shop, but in 1935 James decided to retire after 20 years at Lowesmoor, and moved with his wife and daughter Kathleen into a house he had bought - Rose Cottage in Checketts Lane.

Son Tom took over the milk rounds from his father and later built his own base at Tolladine for his "Day's Dairies." His brother, George moved his butcher's shop to larger premises at 20 Lowesmoor, on the south side of the street, and continued there until the mid-1950s, helped for a time by his son Gerald, who later had a career in the City Police Force and now lives at Droitwich.

George Day briefly sought a new life in Australia after the death of his wife "Bab," but didn't take to it and returned to Worcester, later marrying his second wife, French-born Simone. They set up a butcher's stall in the Shambles Market Hall through the 1960s, Simone producing her own special line in pasties and pastries.

Alas, only one of the eight children of James and Kate Day still survives - 99 years-old Hilda (Mrs Adams), who is in nursing home at Malvern, having lived for some years with her daughter, Doreen Jones at Broadheath.

But back to the central figure in today's story - Kathleen Day. Working in her parents' Lowesmoor shop, her eyes were regularly caught by a passing chauffeur-taxi driver, Walter (Wally) Worthington, who lived in Watercourse Alley off Lowesmoor.

He was to be the "one great love" of her life and, after a five-year courtship, they were engaged and then married - at Claines Church in June 1936. They lived first at the Day family home in Checketts Lane but later moved into a home of their own in Fairbairn Avenue where they brought up five children - a daughter and four sons.

Wally Worthington, an excellent mechanic, had a series of different jobs in the hard times of the 1930s and in the war years, but in 1954, thanks mainly to a generous loan from a friend, bought a dilapidated former double-fronted shop at 152 Ombersley Road and set up in business on his own.

Using his mechanic's skills, he did car repairs and also sold bicycles, cycle parts and other goods such as oil and paraffin. The venture was soon profitable, and Wally was able to pay off all his loans and also upgrade his premises.

After five years of "damned hard work," Wally came home to wife Kathleen one day and said he was considering buying the large house next to 152 Ombersley Road. It was being sold by its owner, a Mr Burgoyne.

However, the couple's happiness and joy at the prospect of moving their family into this "dream home" was to be short-lived because they were dealt a heavy blow by fate just before the house deal was to be completed. Wally suffered a major heart attack at 47 and was never able to work again.

Two of his sons, Raymond and John took over the shop business at Ombersley Road on leaving school, and ran it effectively, though Raymond later left to become a milkman and then an employee of Kay & Company. John carried on at Ombersley Road and was subsequently joined by younger brother Garry. They still run the business today as a thriving DIY, hardware and bike shop.

Richard, the other of the four Worthington brothers, is a builder and lives at Fernhill Heath.

Wally and Kathleen's only daughter, Betty went to Christopher Whitehead Girls School and worked for a time at Russell & Dorrell. She married Derek Brown, who had served his apprenticeship as a printer with Ebenezer Baylis Ltd at Worcester, and in 1961, she applied successfully for the job of manageress of a newsagents shop, owned by one time Mayor of Worcester, Les Warner.

For Betty, the job meant the return of her family to Lowesmoor because the newsagents shop was at Number 26. It had living accommodation which became her home and also that of husband Derek, and later their only child, Katy. Derek continued to work as a travelling rep, leaving Betty to run the shop, and after three years, they decided to take the plunge and buy the business from Les Warner.

Not long afterwards, however, Betty developed a serious illness and had to undergo a major and delicate brain operation at Oxford's famous John Radcliffe Infirmary. During her years of recovery, Derek had to give up his rep's job and run the Lowesmoor shop.

Betty says the business there had originally been "fantastic," but by the mid-1970s it had declined markedly due to the closure of big factories in the area and with motorists and cyclists no longer stopping as they passed through Lowesmoor.

In 1977, the Browns sold the shop, and Derek was lucky enough to secure a job selling printing equipment and accessories for national company Litho Supplies, later becoming its sales manager. He retired six years ago, and the couple now live in Green Lane, Bevere.

For 17 years after selling the Lowesmoor shop, Betty Brown worked part-time in the evenings at the doctors' surgeries in Shrubbery Avenue.

The couple's daughter Katy married Mark Wakefield of the Worcester garage family firm and now lives at Knowle. They have a baby daughter Rachel.

Wally Worthington died in 1976, at the age of 67 and was long outlived by wife Kathleen who died at her Fairbairn Avenue home two years ago, aged 86.