Gardeners' Group: The first meeting of the new year was a chance to pool experiences and to swap ideas.

Given the wide range of soils in the area, it is always interesting to hear how others cope with as particular plant or see off unwanted pests.

Methods of growing sweet peas for exhibition and garden decoration were described with members contributing their own widely-varying recipes for success.

Potato varieties for the area brought forth the thoughts of those who favour waxy and those who prefer floury types.

One idea was to grow small numbers of tubers of several varieties across raised beds. This relies on the willingness of merchants to sell small quantities of individual types rather than the large nets available in the garden centres. Tenbury is fortunate in this respect.

Maurice Bracher brought a range of foliage and winter blooms for members to identify and they were also able the exchange opinions on the attractiveness or otherwise of the scents of winter-flowering viburnums.

A new feature was a table to display items of interest. They included the glossy-leaved eupatorium ligustrinum and two widely differing seedling auriculas from the same cross.

The next meeting is on Tuesday, February 3, when the topic is hellebores.

Historical Society: In 1986, the remains of a man dressed as a pilgrim complete with boots, a stout staff and a cockleshell, together with fragments of bay and willowherbs, was dug up by workmen making a routine check on the state of the foundations of a medieval tower in Worcester Cathedral. This was the theme of a fascinating talk given by Katherine Lack at the society's first meeting of the 2004 season.

A most interesting evening.