Camber Castle from above in 1931: Malcolm Saville there in 1945

When they came up to the gap in the walls which once had been a gateway they saw that nothing but the central tower remained inside, Sheep were nibbling on the very ground where Henry VIII's garrison may have sat down to eat, ivy climbed the walls from which armoured sentinels had watched the Channel, and from the crumbling mortar of the keep lusty wallflowers were swaying in the wind. 

They stood for a moment in the big, grassy space. The sun beat down upon them, and they were sheltered, too, from the breeze which was rustling the leaves above them. The only sound was the monotonous baaing of the sheep and the ceaseless song of the larks overhead. 

Malcolm Saville, The Gay Dolphin Adventure, 1945

Lord Bonkers' Diary: A stable lad and an unstable lad

Our week at Bonkers Hall ends with the old boy's unique insight into the events behind A Very English Scandal.

For myself, I am pleased that no one else seems to have used this "a stable lad and an unstable lad" line about Norman Scott.

Sunday

This moving moving-television drama about Jeremy Thorpe has awakened some distressing memories, not least of the fate of poor Rinka whom I always found a Good Girl. I did my best to warn Norman Scott, who was a stable lad and an unstable lad, against taking up with Thorpe, but he was not to be told.

What a dismal crew we were in those days! I turned down both Cyril Smith’s and Clement Freud’s applications to become trustees of the Bonkers’ Home for Well-Behaved Orphans, and subsequent revelations have only confirmed my wisdom in so doing.

Equally, if MPs arranged to have a constituent bumped off every time the casework he, or indeed she, generated became a nuisance, representative democracy would soon grind to a halt. No, with certain notable exceptions that I am too modest to mention, the Liberal Party of the 1970s was not a thing of which one could be proud.

At least the screening of the drama has led to my being asked to give lectures on the period over the summer. I shall be alternating “The Peter Bessell nobody knows” and “Ten fascinating facts about Emlyn Hooson” to audiences in a number of our leading seaside resorts. As seems only proper, I shall be arriving at each by hovercraft.

Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South West, 1906-10.

Earlier this week in Lord Bonkers' Diary:

• Gossip in the Bonkers' Arms
• Behind the falafels
• Protesting against "Protest Trump"
• He later entered the Foreign Office
• Freddie, Fiona and "Gammon!"
• And the bonus ball will be 22

Labour Live? The old Liberal Party got there first

All that coverage of Labour Live yesterday awakened a distant memory. Hadn't there been a Liberal Party fun day at Knebworth round about 1980?

When I tweeted that question I received three replies confirming it had taken place, including this one from someone who had been at the event:

Yes that triggers a vague memory. I remember I talked my then girlfriend into coming along.

— rawliberal (@rawliberal) June 17, 2018

Someone else suggested the Liberal Party had held more than one fun day at Knebworth.

A bit of googling produced the confirming snippet from Campaigning Face to Face by Wynn Hugh-Jones above. (It's a good book. I'm in the index.)

What I most remember from this episode is a fragment of song that used to be talked of in Liberator and Liberal Revue circles.

Set to the tune of Joni Mitchell's Woodstock, it began:

By the time we got to Knebworth
We were half a carload strong.

I think that may have been where it ended too.

Lonnie Donegan: World Cup Willie

I have seen something you will never see: England win the World Cup.

While I have vague memories of World Cup Willie, the 1966 tournament's mascot, I have no memory of this song. You can hear why.

In those more innocent days before the England team has its own official supermarket, the song was not even a hit.

Lonnie Donegan, a figure from the era before the Beatles and the British Invasion, must have seemed an odd choice to sing it even at the time.

Note that in those days the England fans had no problem in wrapping themselves in the Union Jack.

The fashion for the flag of St George dates only from 1996, when both England and Scotland qualified for the European Championship, which England hosted.

Stop Backing Brexit banner unfurled at Labour Live

Congratulations to the young activists who displayed this banner at Labour Live today.

It reminds me of the day a friend and I carried an "Abolish Hunting" banner around the Fernie Hunt Pony Club gymkhana, though I suspect that was rather more dangerous.

Photo stolen from Guido Fawkes' chief reporter Ross Kempsell.

Lord Bonkers' Diary: And the bonus ball will be 22

Today's entry will do nothing to quieten the gossip in the Bonkers' Arms. There have already been allegations that Lotd B. gets racing tips from the Wise Woman of Wing, and this looks like the work of the Elves of Rockingham Forest to me. They are never short of a bob or two.

Saturday

In view of my comments on Monday, I feel it only fair that I should let you know when I am writing this. It is the afternoon of 19 May and I am about to settle down to watch the F.A. Cup final. I rather fancy Chelsea to win with the only goal of the game, perhaps scored by young Hazard from the penalty spot. 

If anyone were to ask me to forecast this evening’s winning Lotto numbers, I should say 1, 3, 34, 36, 48 and 52. And the bonus ball will be 22.

Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South West, 1906-10.

Earlier this week in Lord Bonkers' Diary:

• Gossip in the Bonkers' Arms
• Behind the falafels
• Protesting against "Protest Trump"
• He later entered the Foreign Office
• Freddie, Fiona and "Gammon!"

Braybrooke and the Children of the Hum

The wires are to reach as far north as Market Harborough, as I blogged the other day, because National Grid power lines cross the Midland main line at Braybrooke.

Today I went to look for that spot. Some 35 years ago a footpath crossed the railway there. Today you use a footbridge.

Because I did not take a map with me this afternoon (it was rather a spur-of-the-moment visit) I did not find that bridge.

At least I got so far out of the village looking for it that I decided to walk back to Harborough.

Exploring the village I found a lane I had not encountered before and was very aware of the power lines that cross it.

So here are some photographs inspired by Hookland and the Children of the Hum.

Six of the Best 798

"Few watching this week’s pitiful events will have thought that Westminster any longer has much claim to be called the Mother of Parliaments." Chris Grey on another week of Brexit.

Simon Lewis and Mark Maslin reckon universal basic income and rewilding can save society from collapse.

It’s undeniable that the Donald Trump is wrecking the US-led international order. The only question left, says Fred Kaplan, is whether he's doing it on purpose.

"Macfarlane says it has been inspiring to hear of how the book is making a genuine difference. Among the many messages and photographs he has received was one about a school in Whitby in which 170 children left the classroom for a day to visit the woods, beach and riverbanks nearby." Chris Burn reports on the campaign to get Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris's The Lost Words into schools.

Christopher Jackson interviews Henry Blofeld, who gives us a glimpse of the politics of the England dressing room and of the Test Match Special commentary box. (He like Graeme Swann but not Sir Geoffrey.)

Sam Roberts discovers the less-known Northern end of New York's Broadway.

Jonathan Meades at Sutton Bridge

Jonathan Meades is one of this blog's heroes.

And I have often mentioned the day in 2009 when England regained the Ashes because I kept to my bargain with God and did not look at the score as I walked from Sutton Bridge to the ornamental lighthouses at the mouth of the Nene.

When I reached them I found we had taken three more wickets, two of them by run outs. Surely evidence of divine intervention?

Put these two factors together and you get this clip from Meades' film Double Dutch which puts him into the landscape I walked through that day.

You also get one of his best visual jokes.

If you want to watch the whole thing, go worship at The Meades Shrine.

Lord Bonkers' Diary: Freddie, Fiona and "Gammon!"

The duo who contributed so much to the Liberal Democrats' 2015 general election campaign are back together. How can Brexit possibly resist?

Friday

Full of excitement, Fiona rings me to tell me of her latest plan: she and the other members of her new party are to hire a car. “We’re going to Lancashire and Lincolnshire. Or are they the same place? Anyway, the idea is we cruise round and whenever we see someone who looks as they voted Leave we point at them, shout ‘Gammon!’ and roar with laughter.”

I ask if she imagines this will help the forces of light win a second referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union and she goes rather quiet.

“And what about Freddie?” I then ask. “You two are in different parties now aren’t you?” At this Fiona brightens. “So he’s coming along with us. You see, we have decided to form a coalition.”

Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South West, 1906-10.

Earlier this week in Lord Bonkers' Diary:

• Gossip in the Bonkers' Arms
• Behind the falafels
• Protesting against "Protest Trump"
• He later entered the Foreign Office

The wooden knights of Northampton Castle

The ruins of Northampton Castle were cleared in the 19th century to make room for Northampton Castle railway station, which is still open today and just called Northampton.

A gate remains, though it was re-erected away from its original location, and you can find a bit of a mound that looks as though it should have been the castle's motte but wasn't.

The good news is that the wooden sculptures of knights that were once to be found in the town centre have made their way to the castle site.

Paddington to Reading in 1960

In my experience Royal Oak was the best place for trainspotting at Paddington.

I posted the companion video St Pancras to Luton in 1960 last year.

Lord Bonkers' Diary: He later entered the Foreign Office

I never fail to be impressed by the way Lord Bonkers keeps up with the latest news - and the latest ways of making money.

Thursday

Did you see that that boys at Uppingham are to be allowed to wear skirts? Things were very different when I was a pupil there, though one of my chums did escape by dressing as Matron and got as far as Houghton on the Hill before the rozzers caught up with him. He later entered the Foreign Office.

You may also have read that my firm Rutland Analytica is accused of swinging the result in the last election in the Bonkers Hall ward. What we did, and you have to admit it was Terribly Clever, was to combine different sources of data and use them to send messages carefully designed to appeal to individual voters.

For instance, by studying the electoral register and the accounts of the Bonkers Hall Estate, we were able to find those for whom the message “Your rent falls due on Lady Day: Vote for Lord Bonkers” was particularly pertinent. Really, I can see nothing wrong with this.

Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South West, 1906-10.

Earlier this week in Lord Bonkers' Diary:

• Gossip in the Bonkers' Arms
• Behind the falafels
• Protesting against "Protest Trump"

Lembit Opik and Parmjit Singh Gill in space

A press release reaches us:

Former Liberal Democrat MPs Lembit Öpik and Parmjit Singh Gill join Conservative MP Nigel Evans as newly elected Members of Parliament for Asgardia, the first space nation. Asgardia recently closed its Parliamentary elections and appointed 147 members to its Parliament, tasked with representing the best interests of over 200,000 Asgardian citizens from all over the world. 

But where, I hear you ask, is Asgardia?

Asgardia: The Space Kingdom explains:

Asgardia will be a fully fledged, independent nation inhabited on a low Earth orbit. It began with a satellite, Asgardia-1, that was launched in 2017, to be followed by an orbital satellite constellation launch in 2019-2020, and later by other satellite constellations and Space Arks, as well as by settlements on the Moon.

I think they have chosen their representatives wisely.

Lord Bonkers' Diary: Protesting against "Protest Trump"

The old boy obviously feels strongly about this.

Wednesday

A message arrives from Jo ‘Gloria’ Swinson via the electric Twitter urging me to “Protest Trump”. I send a telegram by return telling her that neither I nor any of my staff will be protesting Trump.

Neither, I point out, will we be wearing plaid trousers or eating grits (whatever they are). The reason I have booked every charabanc in Rutland for that weekend in July is that we are going to protest against Trump.

You will say that ‘protest’ is shorter than ‘protest against’ and that Americanisms always catch on sooner or later – don’t the young people say ‘hoosegow’ and ‘rannygazoo’ all the time nowadays?

But these things matter and if the Liberal Democrats insist upon protesting Trump then I shall have no alternative but to protest against them as well as protest against Trump.

Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South West, 1906-10.

Earlier this week in Lord Bonkers' Diary:

• Gossip in the Bonkers' Arms
• Behind the falafels

Mr Gladstone found alive!

As a #historyteacher I find this (re)animation of Gladstone hypnotic and creepy in equal measure! pic.twitter.com/VphRZRQbJM

— Russel Tarr (@russeltarr) June 10, 2018

Lord Bonkers' Diary: Behind the falafels

How, I hear you ask, have Freddie and Fiona been getting on? Lord Bonkers has the answer.

Tuesday

Wandering the well-kempt streets of one of London’s more prosperous boroughs, I come upon a superior sort of street market. Among the stalls selling organic coffee and artisan gin, who should I find but my old friend Freddie?

“We’ve started a new political party,” he tells me enthusiastically. “We’re going to unite the centre of British politics and win the next election.”

I ask who he expects will vote for them. “Oh, everybody. You know, sensible people. The sort of people who worked at Liberal Democrat HQ between 2010 and 2015.”

“And is Fiona a member too?” I ask.

“She’s started her own centre party. Their stall is over there behind the falafels.”

Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South West, 1906-10.

Earlier this week in Lord Bonkers' Diary:

• Gossip in the Bonkers' Arms

Lord Adonis to debate Brexit in Kettering

Lord Adonis is to take part in a debate on whether there should be a referendum on the final Brexit deal.

The debate will take place at St Peter and St Paul Church in Market Place, Kettering, on Friday 22 June from 7.30 pm.

His opponent will be Philip Hollobone, the town's Conservative MP.

This is a free event, but if you want to attend you must book your place via Eventbrite.

Lord Bonkers' Diary: Gossip in the Bonkers’ Arms

We join Lord Bonkers for another week at the Hall to find him, though as ready with an apposite quotation as ever, uncharacteristically nettled by criticism in the village.

Monday

“London, to thee I do present the merry month of May,” as the dramatists Beaumont and Fletcher wrote. Except by the time you read this it will not be May at all but June. Used as I have become to the electric internet, I now find the inescapable delay between the submission of these diaries and their appearance in the next Liberator frustrating. Will my observations on, say, the Master of Elibank still be topical when they come out?

If I were not in possession of such an unimpeachable character, moreover, there might be allegations of sharp practice at the press. A reader coming across my suggestion that Rutland Lad is worth following in the 2.30 at Southwell could suspect that it was dropped in after the aforementioned horse strolled home by six lengths. So let me emphasise that I write these lines on a sunny morning in the merry month of May and put an end to the gossip in the Bonkers’ Arms.

Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South West, 1906-10.

Liberator on the Lib Dem performance in London

The new Liberator has arrived. Tomorrow, you lucky people, I shall start posting Lord Bonkers' latest diaries, but for tonight here is something from Radical Bulletin on the Lib Dem performance in last month's London borough elections:

While the number of councillors in London increased from 115 to around 150 the majority of this growth came in the boroughs of Kingston and Richmond. 

Lib Dems are also represented on Sutton, Haringey and Southwark (all current or former parliamentary seats) and elsewhere only on Merton, Ealing, Camden and Kensington and Chelsea. 

Indeed the number of boroughs with no Lib Dem councillors actually increased as beachheads held even during the massacre of 2014 in Harrow, Brent, Barnet, Hackney and Redbridge fell this time.

To keep up with the latest on the Liberal Democrats, subscribe to Liberator.

Six of the Best 797

David Steel still believes the allegations made against Cyril Smith are "scurrilous hearsay". Ruth Bright says he is wrong. She is right.

David Boyle watched A Very English Scandal: "I’m not sure if I was weeping for myself or for my party. Or indeed for Thorpe and Scott, who both seem to me – and the series portrayed this even-handedly – the victims of forces beyond themselves."

Let's keep with the Seventies theme and read Ed Barrett on the Grunwick dispute.

Andy Boddington believes it is time for South Shropshire to be designated a national park: "Not everyone will welcome the extra traffic or our quiet landscape becoming better known.  But it will a boon to the economy of South Shropshire. It will give greater protection for our precious landscape and environment."

"56 years later they are still performing. Sure, the tunes have changed and they have lost a few members along the way, but essentially this is still The Rolling Stones. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, the two childhood friends from Dartford in Kent still front the greatest rock ‘n roll band in the world." Nigel Carr goes to see the Rolling Stones at Old Trafford.

A London Inheritance is never less than fascinating. Here we are taken on a hunt for a lost well off the Gray's Inn Road.

John Bodkin Adams and Countryfile

Embed from Getty Images

This blog has dwelt before on the case of the Eastbourne doctor John Bodkin Adams, who appears to have been the Harold Shipman of the 1950s.

His elderly patients developed the convenient habit of changing their wills in his favour and expiring shortly afterwards.

We have seen that Theresa May's father was chaplain at the hospital to which Bodkin Adams was attached and that Harriet Harman's father was the medical defence witness when he was tried for murder and acquitted.

But this case reaches deeper into the heart of the British Establishment than that. It even involves Countryfile.

Bodkin Adams was first investigated by Eastbourne Police when they received an anonymous call expressing concern at the death of a lady called Gertrude Hullett.

That call was made by her friend Leslie Henson.

Henson was an entertainer who began his career in the Edwardian music hall, progressed to silent films and was one of the founders of ENSA, the organisation that entertained our troops in World War II.

He married three times and had two sons. The younger is the actor Nicky Henson, who is known for cult films like Witchfinder General and Psychomania and was married to Una Stubbs.

Leslie Henson's second son Joe did not enter the theatrical profession but became a farmer. He developed an interest in rare breeds before they were fashionable and opened the Cotswold Farm park.

And Joe's son Adam is also a farmer - and one of the presenters of Countryfile.

You see how it all fits together?

The Zombies: Imagine the Swan

Time of the Season was a sleeper hit in the States. So much so, that by the time it reached no. 3 there The Zombies had split up and their writers, Rod Argent and Chris White, were working on material for the new band Argent.

There was an attempt to cash in however. There was talk of a new LP made up of outtakes from Odesssey and Oracle and the odd new song.

The album never appeared, but this track was recorded for it and even appeared as a single. Did The Zombies ever record a bad song?

Not that it is really The Zombies playing. Rod Argent and Hugh Grundy are there, but the bass player is the late Jim Rodford and the guitarist is Rick Birkett.

Rodford and Birkett both joined Argent, but the latter was soon replaced by Russ Ballard. As well as being the band's lead guitarist he was its singer and wrote some of its songs.

Edward Bawden exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery

From the Dulwich Picture Gallery site:

Edward Bawden (1903-89) was a master printmaker, illustrator, watercolourist and designer and is today recognised as one of the most influential artists of his generation. Whilst he is perhaps best-known for his commercial work for companies such as Twinings and Fortnum & Mason, and his linocuts depicting everyday England, a significant body of work remains relatively unknown. 

This exhibition will bring together 160 works to re-introduce Bawden as a hugely versatile artist, who effortlessly pushed the boundaries between fine and commercial art. It will be the first to show the full breadth of Bawden’s artistic output, covering each of the many disciplines he mastered over his 60-year career, as well as exploring his lesser-known achievements as a fine artist.

The exhibition is open until 9 September 2018.

58 bus from Market Harborough to Lutterworth scrapped

In town this morning I came across a notice announcing that the 58 bus from Market Harborough to Lutterworth will be withdrawn next month.

It is not so long since it ran through Lutterworth and on to Burbage and Hinckley.

More and more, I get the feeling that the Britain of bus routes and public libraries that I grew up in and have paid for will no longer be there when I retire.

And, while I rather like Labour's policy of free bus travel for young people, if there aren't many buses left it will be of limited use to them.

The earliest surviving Nonconformist chapel in Northampton

Today I have been followed by carnivals.

Not even the prospect of meeting Timmy Mallet could persuade me to spend the whole day at Market Harborough's. So I caught the bus to Northampton, only to find they had one there too. There can't have been a spare lorry in the East Midlands.

In Northampton I visited the rebuilt railway station and entertained wild thoughts of hopping on a train to Wolverton. But in the end I settled for exploring the area immediately around it.

The station was originally called Northampton Castle (to differentiate it from Northampton Bridge Street and Northampton St John's), but the castle was razed to make room for it.

Some of the its stone survives in Castle Hill United Reform Church, which is the town's earliest surviving nonconformist chapel in Northampton.

It is often referred to as the Doddridge Chapel in honour of Philip Doddridge who ministered there from 1729 until his death in 1751.

Marc Riley gives me another excuse to post Paper Sun

Earlier this week Marc Riley and Rob Hughes reached T in their A-Z of Psychedelia. As they have good taste, one of the Ts was Traffic.

You can hear them for the next month on the BBC iPlayer starting at 1:32:00. They give a summary to Traffic's career and changing personnel and play two of their records.

One is Hole in My Shoe (which the other members threw Dave Mason out of the band for writing) and the wonderful Paper Sun. It gets a little better each time I hear it (and I have heard it a lot of times now).

The others Ts are Tomorrow and The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream. Groovy.

I like Riley's idea of a Blind Faith tribute band called Blind Drunk. And I like that the iPlayer goes up to 11.

That Class 27 is still at Knighton Junction, Leicester

Many thanks to the reader who sent me this photograph of the Class 27 locomotive that has been stabled in the new sidings at Knighton Junction, Leicester, for the past month or so.

He tells me (and, given the photo must have been taken from the footplate on the freight-only Leicester to Burton upon Trent, he knows a thing or two about trains) that the 27 was not there on Sunday night.

I wonder where it got to?

My suspicion is that Lord Bonkers borrowed it for trials on the Bonkers Hall Branch.

Artichoke killer Gillian Leeden’s ‘vicious’ hippo jibe

The BBC News Beds, Herts and Bucks pages win our Headline of the Day Award.