17/04/2017 Midlands Today

Good evening. with the late news at 10:20.

Detectives are looking for arsonists who deliberately destroyed

a fleet of vans belonging to a North Staffordshire business.

Staff are now working overtime to keep the company running.

Whoever it was, they came prepared, smashing the windows of three

delivery vans belonging to a joinery firm, tipping petrol

inside and setting a fire which destroyed them all.

For the owner, who set this business up nearly 30 years ago

on an industrial estate in Newcastle-Under-Lyme,

Obviously a massive shock to everybody.

You don't expect to come down at 3am to find all your wagons on fire.

Some have given up their Easter holidays to ensure orders

go out to customers in replacement vans tomorrow.

The vans were parked here at the back of the factory.

You can see the mess the heat has made of the tarmac.

Flames licked up the side of the building -

Eight weeks ago, an attempt was made to break into these vans.

There is a concern now that someone has got a vendetta.

It's either a personal thing, which I can't believe,

Or it's targeted against the company itself.

You're talking about people's jobs, mortgages, everything

It's not just a random thing that you can pass over.

Police are looking at CCTV footage from neighbouring firms.

The company says the malice of this attack won't stop

In the past hour, Birmingham City have announced Gianfranco Zola has

He won just two of his 22 league games in charge since replacing

Gary Rowett as Blues boss in December.

Today they were beaten 2-0 by Burton, leaving the club three

points off the relegation places in the Championship.

A minute's silence was held at a football match today in honour

of the Birmingham University student who was stabbed to death

20-year-old Hannah Bladon from Burton upon Trent

The club held a minute's silence ahead of kick-off

in this afternoon's match against Huddersfield Town.

Alternative accommodation has been found for all 24 elderly residents

of a care home which was damaged by fire on Saturday.

The fire at Standon House in Tamworth broke out yesterday.

It was caused by a discarded cigarette

Staffordshire County Council has confirmed places have now been found

for the seven residents who were taken to hospital

A jeweller has been commissioned to make replicas of the Leek-frith

gold, which was found buried in a field in

The family who own the land where the Iron Age artefacts

were discovered have asked a local silversmith to create exact copies.

Jacqueline Harold at her workshop in Leek, beginning work on replicas

She is recreating jewellery fashioned more than 2500 years ago.

The Leekfrith gold was unearthed in a field

and the landowners have commissioned the copies.

Before starting work, Jacqueline made

sketches of the jewellery while it was on display

It has been there buried for all that

length of time, and now I'm trying to recreate what was possibly done

not too far from where the studio is here in Leek.

The original bracelet and three torcs are some of the

earliest examples of Iron Age gold found in the UK.

From these sketches, you get a real sense of

It is thought they were originally made

Experts believe they would have been worn by

wealthy, powerful women, perhaps who had married into the community

Jacqueline will be using age-old techniques to make the replica.

It's a challenge to get it right, I suppose.

And to get the dimensions, because I have not got

But I suppose the way that it's made isn't dissimilar

The gold is currently being examined by experts and valued.

The replicas made by Jacqueline will themselves

be one-off pieces reflecting Staffordshire's heritage.

Onto football and in the Championship, a miserable

afternoon for Aston Villa, who were beaten 3-1

Already a goal down, Villa were reduced to

Jonathan Kodjia seemingly kicking out at Ryan Fredericks.

The visitors rallied after half time - Jack Grealish

But goals from Aluko and Kebano earned Fulham the three points.

Onto the rest of the day's results now and in the Championship,

as you've gathered, Burton Albion won 2-0 at Birmingham City,

which finally led to Blues manager Gianfranco Zola's resignation,

In League One, Shrewsbury drew 1-1 at Northampton,

Already-relegated Coventry City lost 2-0 at Rochdale

Onto League Two, where Cheltenham beat Grimsby 2-1.

And in the National League, Solihull Moors won 3-1

In the Women's FA Cup, congratulations to

Birmingham City Ladies, who are through to

In cricket, Warwickshire suffered a crushing defeat

at the hands of Yorkshire in their County Championship

The Bears lost by an innings and 88 runs.

They've played just two games so far and both times been beaten heavily.

Time for the weather - here's John Hammond.

I hope you've managed to see something in the way

There hasn't been a lot of it on offer, it's been rather cloudy

It's not going to get much warmer over the next 24 hours.

We've still got chilly air coming down from the North

A chilly night to come and there will be a few showers

A bit hit and miss, many of us will stay dry and by the end

of the night the skies will clear and temperatures will be falling.

A touch of frost is likely in some rural areas by around dawn.

A lot more sunshine around tomorrow compared with today.

It should be a fine day with fairly light winds,

but temperatures not rising all that far.

It's going to be another cool one, just about into double figures.

As the sun sets, it will turn particularly cold.

Expecting quite a sharp frost first thing on Wednesday morning.

That will disappear and we'll see some fine weather

But gradually it will start to turn cloudy as well.

Cloud beginning to come in from the North, but I think it

will stay fine, especially the further south you go

Gradually turning cloudy as we head into Thursday as well

with temperatures beginning to rise as well.

That's it from me - have a great evening.

We'll be back with the late news at 10.20pm.

From everyone here, enjoy the rest of your bank holiday.

Hopefully you managed to enjoy some good weather this Easter. It has not

been ideal but it has not been that bad. Pretty cold tonight. Sharp

frost on the way in role areas and across northern parts. The skies are

not clear just yet but they are starting to clear. By the end of the

night, those temperatures will tumble across Scotland, maybe as low

minus eight. No surprise this time of the year. We do get frost, but

this could be even damaging. Tomorrow morning, it is looking

sunny for most of us but the wind is light in the sun will be out. A

beautiful day on the way. Later