Lord Bonkers' Diary: I went through Three Cocks

Three Cocks Junction was a railway station in Mid Wales where a line from Builth Wells met the one that ran from Hereford to Brecon. The station closed to passengers in 1962.

When I was working in the 1985 Brecon and Radnor by-election I went through the village from which it took its name.

Back in Leicestershire, I announced to a friend with an even that deeper interest in railways than mine that "I went through Three Cocks when I was in Wales."

Thirty-four years later that inadvertent double entendre has come in useful.

Friday

What a splendid night! It was touch and go at the start of the count, but when the boxes from Ystradgynlais were opened it became clear we had triumphed. We toasted our victory in the finest Welsh champagne and sang our Liberal anthems: ‘The Land’, ‘Woad’ and ‘Cwm Off It’.

One pleasure of this contest has been rediscovering the delightful countryside of Mid Wales. More than once by memory has been jogged by places I saw in the last campaign I fought here – I went through Three Cocks in the 1985 by-election.

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

Previously in Lord Bonkers' Diary...

• Young Liberals have been dressed as sheep