JANUARY 2001

CHAMPAGNE corks popped at Jim Page's home in New Road, Bromsgrove, when news broke that he had been awarded an MBE in the New Year's Honours List. Mr Page has been chairman of the Bromsgrove-based Housman Society for 14 years and had founded Bromsgrove Concerts. He received the honour for services to Local and National Voluntary Arts Organisations.

LICKEY End residents, unhappy at the prospect at having a parish council foisted upon them, planned to put up ten "anit" candidates in the June elections. If elected they planned to disband the council.

VANDALS who went on a wrecking spree at Avoncroft Museum in Stoke Heath, Bromsgrove, caused £5,000 worth of damage to the historic windmill.

CATSHILL'S 12-year-old Christopher Cooke used the mobile phone he had for Christmas to direct rescuers to the flooded botton of a lonely quarry where he and his pal were marooned.

FEBRUARY 2001

BROMSGROVE teenagers Mark Sketchley and his girlfriend Claire Prescott's hopes of scooping a £3.78m Lottery jackpot were dashed when Camelot said they were not winners. The couple may have been the victims of an elaborate hoax.

THIEVES use a Ford Sierra to batter down the main doors at Bromsgrove's ASDA store in Market Street before getting away with £10,000 worth of cigarettes.

THE wind of change swept through the Victoria Ground following Pat Bannister becoming the majority shareholder. Out went caretaker manager Eric McManus, in his place had come Steve Daniels.

THE month ended with council tax payers in Bromsgrove learning that their annul bills were set to rise by a whopping 9.7 percent from April.

MARCH 2001

THOUSANDS turned out to cheer the Queen and Prince Philip when they visited Bromsgrove. The Queen opened North Bromsgrove High School's Millennium building while the Duke toured Avoncroft museum in Stoke Heath.

THE stench of burning carcasses hung in the air over Bromsgrove when hundreds of animals were slaughtered at Happy Bank Farm, Stoke Prior, as the foot and mouth epidemic began to spread. All public footpaths in the county were closed and the point-to-point season was abandoned virtually before it started.

BELBROUGHTON residents were jubilant after hearing that a plan to build a house in a conservation area in the centre of the village had been thrown out.

A SCHEME to ban convicted hard core shoplifters from stores in Bromsgrove came into effect. Called ShopWatch, it had been devised by shopkeepers and had the support of police and the traders' own organisation, BroMark.

APRIL 2001

POLICE in Bromsgrove launched an investigation after a blaze gutted the premises of BHA Packaging in Aston Fields on the day the firm celebrated its 15th anniversary. It caused thousands of pounds worth of damage.

QUICK thinking Mum Tracey Whitehouse, 22, stretched a duvet over her bedroom door to stop smoke and fumes harming her two young children when fire broke out in her family's flat in Austin Road, Charford.

WORK was set to start on a £270,000 facelift for the run down upper part of Worcester Road which could be renamed "Bromsgrove Village."

CATSHILL couple Sue and Tony Edmonston asked readers to back their plea to keep the paedophile who murdered their son Steven behind bars. Bernard Macanaspie was jailed for life in 1981 for murdering Steven in Essex with the recommendation he served at least 20 years.

MAY 2001

CASH-STRAPPED Bromsgrove Rovers' problems continued both on and off the pitch. The club which went into administration in February were relegated for the third time in five seasons after finishing bottom of the Dr Martens League Western Division.

TELEVISION and stage funny man Jasper Carrott visited Chadsgrove School in Catshill to deliver a new mini-bus bought with funds raised by the Variety Club from a celebrity golf tournament.

THE future of Stoke Prior Social Club hung in the balance as membership and funds continued to dwindle. Ways of boosting both were being investigated.

FARMERS suffering from depression as a result of the foot and mouth crisis were offered free help by Lickey-based consultant psychologist Dr Giles Bellamy.

JUNE 2001

BROMSGROVE'S MP Julie Kirkbride regained her seat in the General Election with an increased majority, but nationally the party's campaign failed dismally.

DISAFFECTED Tory Cllr Stephen Peters quit the ruling group on the district council claiming he could no longer tolerate the "shambolic and undemocratic" way the authority was being run. In future he would represent south Wythall ward as an Independent Conservative.

SWELTERING in their heavy regalia Bromsgrove Court Leet, led by Bailiff Adrian Powell, carried out the time honoured Midsummer Fair activities in High Street before touring the street market and walking the pleasure fair.

SPECULATION was running high that the Bannister family's troubled three-year reign at Bromsgrove Rovers was about to end. We exclusively revealed the new man at the helm would be former Worcester City director Tom Herbert.

JULY 2001

HEADTEACHERS at Bromsgrove's overflowing schools warned that by 2002 pupils may have to travel outside the district for their education unless there was urgent investment in new buildings.

A GROWING number of sixth formers at fee paying Bromsgrove School were missing classes because they were hung over, the headmaster Tim Taylor revealed.

A FALL in the number of stallholders resulted in Bromsgrove's once busy fortnightly farmers' market being held monthly in future.

SOCCER mad Rebecca Askey, 13, a pupil at Waseley Hills High School, beat off stiff competition from classmates and staff to come first in the school's fantasy football league competition.

AUGUST 2001

AVONCROFT Cricket Club's immediate future was assured when the giant Severn Trent Water Company withdrew its demand for a disputed, crippling £5,800 bill after the Advertiser/Messenger got involved.

A SENSORY garden containing 40 different shrubs, flowers and plants was opened in Bromsgrove's Crown Close. It was designed to bring pleasure to people suffering from problems with their senses.

REDNAL brothers Joseph and George Banner, aged nine and five, were hailed as heroes for calling an ambulance when their grandmother, Jean Daniels, with whom they were staying at Stoke Prior, collapsed. To show her appreciation she planned to treat the boys when she had fully recovered.

RELIEF was in sight for residents in Callowbrook Lane, Rubery, whose homes had been flooded four times in 18 months. A plan of action was being drawn up and contracts to carry out the work would be awarded soon.

SEPTEMBER 2001

CAMPAIGNERS in Marlbook were dismayed to learn that their battle to stop the village post office becoming a take-away had failed.

SPECIAL prayers were said in churches in and around Bromsgrove for the victims of the terrorist attacks in America.

MORE than 100 council-owned garages would be bulldozed to make way for homes in a bid to cut the waiting list, councillors decided.

THE way Bromsgrove District Council makes its future decisions changed after a century to meet the wishes of residents. The majority had voted for the adoption of a leader with cabinet style to meet the government's request for a more modern system of local government.

OCTOBER 2001

FORMER Bromsgrove GP Dr Jim Swire and his wife Jane, whose daughter Flora died in the Lockerbie bombing 13 years ago, announced they planned to sell their home in Finstall and move to Gloucestershire. However, they would retain the wood they had planted in her memory.

A HARD hitting report by the Board of Visitors at Brockhill prison near Bromsgrove contained many criticisms. It drew particular attention to suicide attempts, cell fires and staff shortages.

A PLEA by Bromsgrove Golf Centre to close a lay-by near its entrance at Slideslow sparked controversy and brought complaints from lorry drivers and customers of a mobile snack bar.

NOVEMBER 2001

THE future looked bleak for the 500 staff employed at United Engineering Forgings plant in Aston Fields, Bromsgrove, when talks with potential buyers Walsall-based Stokes Forgings broke down.

TEACHERS and governors from schools in Bromsgrove were prepared to use human rights legislation in a bid to secure more government funding. Presently schools in the district were bottom of the funding league tables.

SHOPPERS may be driven out of Bromsgrove if the district council extended car parking charges at nights and introduced them on Sundays, traders said. A decision will be made in January.

MAJOR restoration work on the crumbling tower at All Saint's Church in Bromsgrove was now complete. An appeal to raise the £63,000 had been launched in July.

DECEMBER 2001

PRIVATE sector cash may be used to pay for new schools to be built in Bromsgrove, to ease the acute shortage of pupil places, and for its existing ones to be brought up to date. In a ground-breaking move members of Worcestershire County Council agreed to approach the Government and seek permission for the initiative.

PENSIONERS at a Bromsgrove nursing home were to be forced out just four days before Christmas because the proprietor of privately-run Leahyrst Nursing Home, in Greenhill, Blackwell, revealed he was facing bankruptcy.

SEVENTEEN-stone Bromsgrove woman Yvonne Peplow, of Perryfields Road, was left distraught after she received an offensive letter from a slimming pill company. She was one of scores nationwide who received the letter which looked as if a friend has posted a slimming pill newspaper cutting with the words, 'try this, it works' scribbled by hand on the top. It had been described by the Advertising Standards Authority as one of the worst examples of deceitful advertising it had seen.

PLUCKY Catshill miracle tot David Jones who suffers from a distressing illness which affects just one in a million people - he is allergic to ultra-violet light and his skin erupts in huge blisters if exposed to even moderate daylight - was named as a Midland's Wonderkid in a special awards ceremony.

And that was 2001!

Now a happy 2002 to one and all.