UNEMPLOYED first offender Benjamin Woolley, who lodged in Birmingham, appeared at Bromsgrove Police Court charged with stealing three custard cakes, valued 3d, from Annie Troth, of The Strand. She had alerted quick-thinking PC Rogers, who borrowed a bike and gave chase arresting Woolley at Lickey End. In his defence Woolley told the court that he had been out of work for a year and had walked to Worcester to find a job. Magistrates bound him over after he promised not to offend again.

FARMERS in Bromsgrove and Droitwich were being forced to abandon their modern reaper and binder machines and revert to old fashioned sickles and scythes in order to salvage what was left of their corn harvests. The chilly summer had been one of the worst on record with torrential rain, tempest storms and gales leaving hundreds of acres of cereals laid flat making it impossible for the machines to work effectively.

TRADE in Droitwich Spa, already at a low ebb, was set to become even worse when the expected nation-wide depression began to bite. With this in mind the Spa council had voted to employ as many out of work men as possible to carry out improvements in and around the town. Two new as yet unadopted streets at Witton were in need of being remade and this would find work for many in the coming months.