WE go back 60 years to the day when the large expanse of playing fields at Perdiswell was touted as a potential new county headquarters.
It never happened and the eventual choice off Spetchley Road is now out of action while Perdiswell is still used as a sports ground.
The story follows from the Worcester Evening News on April 6, 1966:
The front page of the Worcester Evening News on April 6, 1966 (Image: Newsquest)
Worcester’s former airfield at Perdiswell with its 140 acres is under consideration as the possible site for a new multi-million pound administrative headquarters for Worcestershire County Council.
This large expanse of land near Worcester’s northern boundary has for several years formed the city’s main playing field area with its dozens of football and cricket pitches.
Suggestions have been made in recent years that Perdiswell should again become an airport or the site for a heliport or large sports stadium but it appears now that the land is being looked at as the possible location for the new county council HQ.
More: 9 photos of 2011 clubbers in Worcester
More: Do you recognise these Worcester skittles aces from the 1980s?
More: Do you remember these Worcester league footballers from 1976?
Originally the council planned the build its new premises on blocks of land adjacent to the Shirehall but this idea was put to one side as many members felt it would be too difficult and costly an operation.
So much valuable central area land was involved, they pointed out, and in any case the minister of housing and local government had placed the plan under a severe handicap by refusing the council permission to pull down three Georgian properties in Foregate Street.
As a result, the council decided to look elsewhere for a possible location for the new HQ and a fortnight ago its chief officers met city council counterparts to consider a short list of suggested sites in or near Worcester.
Soon a meeting is to be held between members of the new authorities to look into the matter even more fully.
At last night’s city council meeting broad hints were dropped that some ‘development’ affecting Perdiswell might be under consideration but no reference to the county authority was made.
Our municipal correspondent understands, however, that the former airfield is in fact being discussed as the possible location for the new county buildings.
References to the future of the airfield were made when the estates and properties committee asked the council to earmark one-and-a-half acres of Perdiswell as the site for a new children’s home to replace The Firs at Whittington.
The plan came under strong attack on the grounds that if planning permission were granted for it then other applications would follow.
Alderman HR Hopkins said: “There is a big private builder who is just waiting for an opportunity like this to make an application for private housing.”
Alderman JB Edwards said: “The open spaces of this city are being gradually whittled down. The time has come to put a halt to it.”
What was making the headlines back then….
County council stalwart dies
THE death has occurred at his home in Linthurst Road, Barnt Green, of Ernest Guy Bigwood, a member of Worcestershire County Council since 1934 and an alderman for the past 22 years.
Aged 79, Mr Bigwood was a justice of the peace and chairman of Bromsgrove Magisterial Bench from 1949 until 1961.
He was a former chairman of Bromsgrove Urban Council.
Ernest Guy Bigwood, a member of Worcestershire County Council since 1934 (Image: Newsquest)
Worcester’s young mod style
WE have had op art and pop art fashions, geometric prints on dresses and walls and now we have geometric hairstyles.
The young mod style first started by Vidal Sassoon has caught on fast in London and has now been brought back to Worcester.
Barry Partridge, of Richard Henry, has just spent two weeks at a course at the company’s London training school and learnt a wide variety of new styles.
Geometric hairstyles (Image: Newsquest)
Margaret plays part as Alice
FOURTEEN-year-old Margaret Hughes gave a sparkling performance as Alice last night when around one-third of the pupils of the Chantry County Secondary School, Martley, presented their version of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
It was dramatised by VA Pearn and produced by English and drama teacher Mrs R Phillips.
Margaret not only interpreted the part well but she looked the part too.
New branch president for RNA
COMMANDER JM Bruen, distinguished former Fleet Air Arm pilot, has been appointed the new president of the Royal Naval Association Worcester branch.
He served for 31 years with the Royal Navy and during World War II he was awarded the DSO and the DSC from the Normandy landings.
Other appointments at a branch committee meeting included Mr H Day as chairman.
Commander JM Bruen, distinguished former Fleet Air Arm pilot (Image: Newsquest)
What city church is requiring
ASSUMING the fete and bazaar raise the same sum as last year, the church of Holy Trinity and St Matthew, Ronkswood, will need at least another £3 per week to keep on an even keel, said the vicar Rev WGR Norris when he presented his annual report.
He said he would write to the Diocesan Christian Stewardship Adviser, asking him to meet the Parochial Church Council to discuss the matter.
Punishment for cycle thief, 11
A RIDE on a good bicycle was one ambition of an 11-year-old boy.
But the way he went about achieving it was not honest.
He stole another boy’s cycle valued at £20.
At Worcester Juvenile Court, the boy admitted the offence, the theft of another cycle worth £6 and asked for one other offence — stealing a ladies’ cycle — to be taken into consideration.
He was put in the care of the local authority.
