The week began with a special visit to one of our nominated charities,  Maggs Day Centre, where Jill and I met service users and opened the refurbished building.  It is great to see the facilities open seven days a week, with the development of many activities during the day for homeless people staying there.

The following day I visited St Stephens Church on the Droitwich Road with members of U3A’s Local History Group.  Afterwards I met Councillor Chris Cawthorne to plan a Homelessness Action Day which will take place in January.

On Wednesday we opened a new NHS dental surgery on the Malvern Road in St Johns.  It was great to meet the staff and hear of the intentions to attract more patients. St Johns is a large and important community and certainly merits the provision of a full range of community facilities like this.

Afterwards I met Alec Mackie to discuss his plans to participate in the celebrations of WWI in two years’ time.

Thursday saw Jill and I meeting exhibitors at the Eastern European Enterprise Conference – organised by Worcester and Wychavon Councils – at The Guildhall.

We had to leave early to attend the Annual General Meeting of the Worcestershire Council for Voluntary Services at The Hive.  This important organisation has had to make significant adjustments to meet a reduced budget.  It was pleasing to hear from young people about their activities and highlighted for me the need to support this age group.  Professor David Green gave a stimulating address on his work with young people at the University.

On Saturday I joined the Battlefields Trust for their Battle of Worcester Walk.  It was led by Tony Spicer who spoke about the Battle of Powick Bridge in 1642 and the western part of the Battle of Worcester in 1651.

We then went to the Ketch viewpoint and confluence of The River Teme where we concentrated on the centre of the Battle of Worcester, where Cromwell built his “The Bridge of Boats”. Thanks to all the participants for an extremely informative morning.

In the evening Jill and I attended an evening to celebrate 150 years of St Stephen’s Church, and a presentation of the history of Barbourne over the last two centuries.  Congratulations to Ann Moore who produced and wrote a fantastic play, which was so well performed by The Lavender Players.

Photo courtesy of ‘Britain from Above‘ website showing St Stephen’s Church on February 1920.