THIS year marks the 400th anniversary of the Berkeley family's ownership of Spetchley Park, the beautiful estate and gardener's delight that lies just to the east of Worcester.

It was first bought by Rowland Berkeley in 1606 and much of the landscape today, including parts of the garden and the magnificent deer park - which has its own herd of 200 red and fallow deer - dates back to that time.

To mark the 400th anniversary, a whole series of events will be held.

They actually began at the tail end of 2005 with the tremendously successful night-time Illuminated Trail, which attracted more than 10,000 visitors.

On Sunday, April 23, there will be a Rare Plant Fair. On Saturday, July 1, the grounds will resonate to superb music from many of the best West End musicals, as the much acclaimed Best of the West End show comes to Spetchley.

On Saturday, August 19, there will be the chance to enjoy the beauty of Romeo & Juliet - performed by the Chapterhouse Theatre Company.

Farmers off to church for ancient ritual

WORCESTERSHIRE Young Farmers descended on Claines Church at the weekend to celebrate the ancient ceremony of Plough Sunday.

The origins of the festival go back to the Middle Ages when, on the Sunday after the Epiphany, a plough would be brought into church to be blessed before the first furrows of the new season would be cut and the crops sown in the ground.

The following day, Plough Monday, the plough would be taken around the village and a collection made for the church.

The switch to winter sown wheat means that most ploughing has been done long before January. Nevertheless, Plough Sunday is still held today.

As modern-day ploughs are now far too large to bring in to church, club members brought bags of soil, an old-fashioned plough and a milk churn into Claines Church to be blessed.