HARD up Bromsgrove Rovers were appealing to townsfolk to become agents to sell weekly lottery tickets. Clubs and pubs in the district were to be targeted.

GARRINGTONS, Bromsgrove's largest employer, was starting to feel the effect of the national steel strike called in support of a 17 per cent pay rise. It was the first since 1926. The company feared the shortage of raw materials would seriously damage its overseas trade especially. It had limited stocks, but the type of hard steel used by the firm was hard to obtain.

BROMSGROVE was set to get a much needed face-lift from town planners. The tumbledown appearance of premises at the rear of High Street was a cause for concern. The opening of the Western Relief Road had opened up a particularly depressing vista, The Messenger noted.

THE death of Francis Jervis Foulds was the cause of much sadness in Bromsgrove and Droitwich. Francis Jervis Foulds, a former Bromsgrove School pupil, had been born in the Spa where his father was a doctor. A keen sportsman, he had founded the Sage and Onions Cricket Club and was particularly keen and knowledgeable about the sport of point-to-point racing. Francis Jervis Foulds was the author of the history of the Lady Dudley Cup, the Worcestershire's most prestigious race. He had seen his first Dudley Cup in 1910 and had scarcely missed one since.