The Mayor of Bewdley, Cllr. Mrs Calne Edginton-White, arranged an event to raise funds for her charities and it took place on a steam train! We met at Kidderminster’s Severn Valley Heritage Railway Station, boarded a lovely old train and made steam to Bridgnorth. We passed through a number of stations: Bewdley, Arley, Highley, and Hampton Loade – before terminating at Bridgnorth.

We were very lucky with the weather and, to be honest, I had forgotten just how pretty a route the line takes. We had a brief view of West Midlands Safari Park and spotted a Rhinoceros having a bath – and were treated to scones and tea as we went past.

The railway stations on route are all maintained to a very high standard and the event brought back memories of my childhood with the sound, smell and impressive presence of those powerful steam locomotives. The Heritage Railway is one of the many attractions we are blessed with in this part of the country; sometimes we just take them for granted and fail to properly enjoy them. It’s a great ride through beautiful countryside – and at this time of year there is the added benefit of the splendid autumn coloured leaves on the trees!

The sixth of eight plaques, marking the location of the medieval gates of Worcester when it was a walled city, was unveiled on the corner of Union Street and City Walls Road. These plaques will form a trail around Worcester and each plaque has an illustration of how each gate would have looked. The project cost of this work is around £5,500 and John Eden and his family have been very generous in funding a number of these. We have some incredible history, but often fail to broadcast it – so hopefully these plaques will support our ambition to be recognised as a “Heritage City”.

St Peter’s experienced a tragedy in this past week, when a magnificent circa 400 year old Oak Tree partially collapsed. A limb came crashing to the ground and fortunately no one was injured. I say tragedy, because it was one of the finest examples of an oak in St Peter’s -if not in the City. It was found to be completely rotten through the core of the trunk, and therefore the remaining part of the tree needed to be felled. Every effort is now being made to plant an appropriate sized tree to eventually replace this iconic specimen. Residents, County Councillor Marc Bayliss, the City Council and Parish are all working together to achieve this.