I EXPECT if you were there the date is permanently etched into your memory anyway, but January 15 is always worth ringing on the calendar because it was on that day in 1959 Worcester City beat Liverpool 2-1 in the FA Cup at St George’s Lane. No kidding.
As a 14-year-old grammar school lad I was playing rugby on Flagge Meadow 500 yards away and when Dick White, the Reds’ centre half, put into his own net in the 72nd minute to give City a two-goal lead you’d have thought Armageddon had arrived. The roar from the 15,000 plus crowd was like God bringing down thunder upon mankind.
Henry III spent Christmas in Worcester in 1232. He was a frequent visitor to the city and his father King John is buried in its cathedral
Fitting then the occasion rates alongside Henry III spending Christmas in Worcester (1232), the final Civil War Battle of Worcester (1651) and The Beatles headlining at Worcester Gaumont (1963) as among the events included in a new calendar depicting significant local history and heritage happenings over the centuries.
The calendar team: David Hallmark (left) and Phil Douce with Miriam Harvey, Wendy Cook and Linda Griffin
Very much a work in progress, the project is being put together by a Worcester Civic Society working party and part of it is already on view at the History and Heritage Hub in Crowngate.
The plan is to create a calendar with an important historical event next to every day of the year.
Hence you get the birth of Edward Elgar on June 2 1857, the first stage coach setting off to London on May 4 1736 and Worcestershire County Cricket Club winning the County Championship for the first time on August 2 1964.
So far the earliest date is February 29 992, when St Oswald, who became both Bishop of Worcester and Archbishop of Canterbury, died, while the most recent is September 15 2015, when cricketer Basil D’Oliveira was posthumously granted the Freedom of the City.
The idea for the calendar first emerged four years ago at a meeting between Civic Society vice chairman David Hallmark and several local history experts, including Wendy Cook, for 30 years curator of the Museum of Royal Worcester, Miriam Harvey, chairman of Worcester Tourism Association, and Linda Griffin, chairman of the local LVA for many years and an authority on the history of the Severn.
February 21 1883 River Severn freezes over at Worcester and the skaters come out to play
Between them they have searched for dates of events through hundreds of books and sources and are continually finding new entries.
May 20 1950 Sir Winston Churchill visits Worcester to be granted the Freedom of the City
The first edition of the calendar appeared at Worcester Civic Society’s 60th anniversary conference in October 2019, when a request was made for people to suggest events to be added.
Michael Foster, the first and so far only Labour MP to represent Worcester when he won in 1997, He served until 2010 when Conservative Robin Walker was elected
Civic Society chairman Phil Douce said: “This produced several new suggestions and currently we have filled about 84 per cent of the dates with an event and in some cases we have multiple events for certain dates, but we still have a number without an event.”
On October 3 1940 a lone German bomber attacked the MECO works in St John’s. Bombs severely damaged nearby houses, killing seven people and injuring more than 50.
Information in the calendar covers a very broad church, right from the date of the last man to hang in Worcester, which was on December 3 1919, when Chinese Djang Djn Sung went to the gallows in the old prison in Castle Street for killing a fellow countryman, up to the more mundane opening of the Sabrina footbridge across the Severn on November 22 1992.
There are also some fascinating snippets of local history, such as on January 24 1647 when it was decided to post two watchmen on every city gate “to keep out vagrants” or on October 7 1564 when an aurora borealis was seen over Worcester, a weather freak long before global warming.
PC Roy Venn inspects some of Worcester’s traffic wardens about to go out on patrol in 1971
And then who remembers July 1 1964? If you were a motorist back then you might, because that was the day traffic wardens began patrolling Worcester’s streets. Less glamorous than City beating Liverpool, but someone has to do it.
If anyone can suggest an event, please let the Society know by emailing info@worcestercivicsociety.com Copies of the latest version of the calendar in booklet form costing £4.50 can also be obtained from info@worcestercivicsociety.com
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