300 YEARS AGO:

THIS day our assizes at Worcester ended when six criminals were burnt in the hand, among which was William Turner who was found guilty of killing his father’s servant. There were also two women and one man sentenced to be whipped publicly on Saturday next.

250 YEARS AGO:

ON Friday last, a substantial farmer who lived near Droitwich and was remarkable not only for his extraordinary bulk but as a guzzler, being at an entertainment at a neighbour’s house, gormandised himself so unmercifully with the solids and fluids that he suddenly was taken speechless and fell from his seat; and tho’ proper care was taken of him, he died the same night; and on Sunday evening was buried.

Fourteen men were employed to carry his corpse; and it was with great difficulty that his coffin was got in at the church door. It is said he usually fed so voraciously that after downing a whole loin or shoulder of veal, with bread and beer in proportion, at one meal, he was scarcely satisfied.

200 YEARS AGO:

A VERY numerous and respectable meeting of the proprietors of the Worcester and Birmingham Canal took place at the Hop Pole Hotel, Worcester, yesterday to take into further consideration the propriety of completing the canal with locks and lifts. The discussions upon the subject lasted till a very late hour and it was finally decided that, when sufficient water for the supply of the canal could be procured at or near the summit level, without having recourse to the river Severn, construction should proceed with the locks, but in the meantime the lift at Tardebigge, (which appeared to have given great satisfaction) should continue at work, as it was thought that a further trial might prove beneficial to the commercial interests of the country at large.

150 YEARS AGO:

WE are glad to perceive that the first steps towards establishing soup kitchens in Worcester have been taken by the benevolent of St Clement’s parish. A committee of gentlemen has been formed, and two kitchens have been opened – one in St Clement Street, the other in Hylton Road – and the capital pea-soup, varying in quantity from one to three quarts, has been distributed to each family who have applied for it. The soup is to be distributed on four days in each week – Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays – and must prove very acceptable to the poor.

100 YEARS AGO:

AN inquest was held at the workhouse on Saturday by the city coroner WB Hulme relative to the death of Frederick Edgar Teague, aged 55, painter, lodging at the Swan With Two Nicks public house in New Street.

Ernest Watkins, the landlord, said that on the Wednesday night, when out in the cold, he noticed that the deceased’s breathing was worse. When asked if he would have a doctor or go to the workhouse, Teague made no reply so a cab was called to take him there.

Nurse Bennett, the superintendent nurse at the workhouse infirmary, said Teague was dead on arrival.

Dr Legge said the postmortem examination revealed that Teague was suffering from inflammation of the liver and had evidently been drinking heavily for a number of years. Both lungs were congested and the kidneys enlarged. Death was due to heart failure. Dr Legge took the opportunity to protest at the practice of sending practically dying people to the workhouse. The jury returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence.