THIS WEEK IN 1960:

THE biggest fire in Worcester for many years caused damage costing thousands of pounds at the weekend. A third of the massive eight-storey Albion Flour Mill in Mill Street, Diglis, recently bought by the Royal Porcelain Company, was gutted. The mill formerly belonged to Townshend and Son.

Forty families living in nearby Mill Street, Portland Street and Diglis Road had to be evacuated. Police and fire service reinforcements were rushed to the area and there was a grave danger that the huge 150ft water tower of the mill, and a lofty chimney stack, would collapse. There were a number of explosions but no one was injured.

Workmen had been dismantling machinery inside the mill, using oxyacetylene cutting equipment, on the afternoon of the blaze which was first spotted at 11pm. By 11.30pm the building was an inferno.

Huge beams which had supported the floors began to crash through to lower storeys. Flames roared through the windows and great tongues of fire licked up the outside of the red brick mill. A crowd of thousands, which had quickly gathered, gasped when shortly before midnight the roof collapsed.

Sheets of flame leapt into the night sky and many people watched the blaze from all parts of the city.

With the roof gone, millions of sparks shot into the cold night air to cascade down on the rooftops of surrounding houses and into the canal.

Worcester’s fire chief Gerald Eastham praised station officer Stanley Kimberley and the crews of firemen who fought the blaze courageously and who eventually brought it under control on Sunday.

THIS WEEK IN 1970:

DOUBLE invitations to a champagne party and seats for the screening of The Sound of Music are being offered in connection with the 21st anniversary of the Odeon Cinema, Worcester, on January 2. They will be given to the first applicant whose 21st birthday falls on January 2, 1971, and to the first person to produce a souvenir programme of the opening of the Odeon in 1950.

There will be double invitations to see the film later in the week for three runners-up in each category.

R Stewart, manager of the Odeon, intends to mark the anniversary in style. In addition to the party before the anniversary show, John Bee, the former Odeon manager and Gaumont organist, will turn on the nostalgia with a recital on an organ specially installed for the evening. A bumper birthday cake, which is to go on display in the cinema foyer on Christmas Eve, will be presented to a representative of the Royal Infirmary on the anniversary evening.

THIS WEEK IN 1980:

WORCESTERSHIRE farmers are being urged to forego their festive turkey this year and to eat a Canada goose instead. The Ministry of Agriculture is encouraging farmers to shoot the North American birds which are officially labelled as a pest, and to serve them up for Christmas dinner. The Ministry’s regional office has even produced a special recipe leaflet to help farmers’ wives prepare and cook Canada geese.

A ministry spokesman said: “The number of these birds in Britain is increasing rapidly and they do widespread damage to cereal crops and grasslands. We advise farmers to shoot them while they can.”

THIS WEEK IN 1990:

COUNTY anti-fox hunt protestors have failed in their bid to persuade the management of a major hotel to turn away a Boxing Day meet.

Animal rights campaigners in Worcester and Droitwich spent four days collecting 2,000 names for a petition calling on the Raven Hotel in Droitwich to “no longer offer hospitality to the hunt on Boxing Day”.

Representatives of the group handed over the petition on Monday night to the hotel’s general manager Richard Bromwich, who said the Raven was “a pig in the middle. If the hunt was not to be held in the town as traditionally over the last 50 years or so, it would upset an equal number of people from the Boxing Day morning assembly. The hotel makes little money from the event, selling only hot tea and the like outside at very silly prices”.