The Joy of Six 1431

"Nine of the groups are being run from Sri Lanka, three have admins in Nigeria, and the admins of six other groups appear to be located in Mexico, the US, Australia, Canada, Norway, Sweden and Kosovo. The remaining eleven have hidden their locations, but conform to the same pattern of fake address – AI memes – gaming video creator, suggesting they are similarly moderated." Katherine Denkinson explains how foreign entrepreneurs are monetising the clicks of British racists.

Rebecca Hamer on the common thread that links abusers, from grooming gangs to Jeffrey Epstein and his friends.

"His speech on Monday was a sprawling grievance tour, hitting every GB news talking point: immigrants, net-zero, lefty lawyers; all responsible for our economic woes and declining living standards." Zoe Gruenwald deconstructs Nigel Farage's big speech.

"In July 1616, nine women from the small South Leicestershire village of Husbands Bosworth were hanged after being found guilty at the Leicester Assizes of bewitching the teenage son of the Lord of the Manor." Margaret Brecknell says the case of the so-called Witches of Husband Bosworth shines a spotlight on the atmosphere of fear and superstition sweeping the entire country during the reign of King James I.

Rob Goulding reports on disagreements over the restoration of the Anderton Boat Lift in Cheshire. This marvel of Victorian engineering lifts boats from the River Weaver to the Trent and Mersey Canal.

Jefferson Pooley and Michael J. Socolow show that Orson Welles notorious 1938 radio dramatisation of War of the Worlds did not cause hysteria across the US and ask why this legend persists.

Drought on the Leicestershire-Rutland border, 1947

Early in 1947 England was hit by serious flooding, but by September there was a different problem: drought.

The video above comes from this part of the world, and there's more detail in this cutting from the Leicester Mercury (28 October 1947):

Harborough Villages Short of Water 

A water shortage in several villages near Market Harborough has reached serious proportions and arrangements never been more extensive in the 12 years Mr R. W. Turner has been surveyor to the Harborough Rural District Council.

The shortage is particularly acute at Husbands Bosworth but wells have also dried up at Saddington, East Langton, Shangton, Stonton-Wyville and Slawston. 

To all these villages the Rural District Council is sending emergency supplies on alternate days, when a lorry with a 500-gallon tank is met by villagers with buckets baths and other receptacles.

I remember following a village heritage trail around Husbands Bosworth and being surprised at how late mains water came to the village.

And Stonton Wyville gets another mention on Liberal England, but it's odd to see the name hyphenated like that.

Farewell to the Reverend Ruggles Fisher

When Market Harborough first competed in the Leicestershire chess league in the mid Seventies, a stalwart member of our team was the Reverend Fisher from Husbands Bosworth.

He was a kindly man - everyone's idea of a country vicar. I wish I had known he was called Ruggles (as more people should be), but he was always the Reverend Fisher to me in those days.

I knew he had retired to Oakham and had lived to celebrate his 100th birthday. When I thought of him again today, I found his obituary in the Church Times. He died in December 2022 at the age of 102.

The early part of the obituary is very much about his chess:

On his retirement from parish ministry in 1982, he joined the Clergy Correspondence Chess Club. After winning the clergy championship for three consecutive years, in 1985, 1986, and 1987, he retired, returning to compete against Canon John Morris and winning another three consecutive times, in 1993, 1994, and 1995 ... 

He went on to win again in 1997 and 2000. Fittingly, the 2000 win was jointly with Canon Morris, for whom it was also his final win. Fisher remained a member of the Club until his death.

But there was more to his life than that. He fought in the Burma campaign with the Royal Norfolk Regiment and retired from the Army with the rank of Major.

Church Times suggests his longevity made him "a direct connection to a now-lost era". This was for two reasons.

The first was that his father, the Revd Steward Travers Fisher, served as a chaplain in the Boer War - my Revd Fisher was the fourth generation of his family to be a Church of England clergyman.

And the second was that his grandfather, like his grandson the Revd Thomas Ruggles Fisher, "was a signatory to the Remonstrance in response to the decision of the Privy Council in Hebbert v. Purchas in 1871".

Thanks to Wikipedia, I can tell you that John Purchas was an author and Church of England clergyman who was prosecuted for ritualist practices:

Purchas introduced the use of vestments such as the cope, chasuble, alb, biretta, etc., and used lighted candles on the altar, crucifixes, images, and holy water, together with processions, incense, and the like.

He lost on every point of the case when it reached Pricy Council, but as he had put his property out of his hands he couldn't be pursued for costs. And he continued to conduct services as he chose until his death the following year.

I don't know if the signatories were supportive of his Romish practices or simply wished to defend the autonomy of individual clergymen.

One other point... If you were a chess player called 'Fisher' in the Seventies then every opponent would make a crack about your name, convinced that he was the first to do so. The Revd Fisher bore it with the patience of a saint.

Market Harborough's town centre banks are now part of history

In a few short years, bank branches have gone from being a key part of any high street to curious relics. So it's no surprise that three former banks in Market Harborough town centre have been added to Harborough District Council's list of non-designated heritage assets.

My photo above shows the Nat West branch, which shut up shop in January of last year. The former HSBC and Barclays branches are also now on the list.

The former Kibworth railway station and the airfield at Husbands Bosworth, reports HFM News, have been added too.

This list is intended to ensure that the significance of any building or site on it is considered if it is likely to be affected by a planning application.

Harborough District Council may add more buildings to its list of heritage assets

Harborough District Council, reports the Harborough Mail, has launched a consultation on adding a number of historic buildings to its list of heritage assets.

• Former Nat West, Barclays and HSBC banks in Market Harborough
• Former Station, Kibworth Beauchamp
• Husbands Bosworth Airfield, Sibbertoft Road, Husbands Bosworth
• Tollgate Cottage, Lutterworth Road, Bitteswell
• Village Shop, Springbank, Medbourne
• Auburn Place, Bitteswell Road, Lutterworth
• Engineering Factory, Fairfield Road, Market Harborough

The consultation will run until 27 February. The council has been run by a Liberal Democrat, Green and Labour coalition since last May.

The history of RAF Husbands Bosworth

RAF Husbands Bosworth opened in August 1943 and was decommissioned by the Air Force in 1946. Its buildings were then used to house displaced Polish families.

This video tells its story and you can read more about the airfield on the Husbands Bosworth website.

A Leicestershire man led the prosecution of Charles I

Charles I was executed on 3o January 1649. His prosecution on charges of tyranny and treason was led by the solicitor general John Cook.

Cook was a Leicestershire man. His parents had a farm near Burbage and he was christened at All Saints, Husbands Bosworth.

After the restoration, Cook was prosecuted and publicly executed as a regicide. 

Shortly before his death he wrote to his wife Mary:

We fought for the public good and would have enfranchised the people and secured the welfare of the whole groaning creation, if the nation had not more delighted in servitude than in freedom.

The trouble was Charles I was that he would not or could not admit that he had been defeated. 

I suspect parliament would have been happy to see him live quietly as a country gentleman, but it was obvious that, as long as Charles was alive, he was going to scheme with any force, at home or overseas, that might bring about his return to the throne.

So Cromwell's "cruel necessity" was about right.

"Wicked practise & sorcerye": The Witches of Belvoir

Before I went off to Shropshire for a week - hence my break from blogging - we visited the tombs of the Earls and Dukes of Rutland in Bottesford church.

There I wrote that one of the tombs has some dark history attached to it.

That tomb is the grandest one in the church: the tomb of Francis Manners, the sixth Earl, and his two wives and children.

And you will see above that the inscription on the tomb attributes the deaths of two of those children to "wicked practise & sorcerye".

Witchcraft tells the story behind this:

The Witches of Belvoir were three women, Joan Flower and her two daughters, Margaret and Philippa, who were accused of witchcraft in eastern England around 1619. The story has many classic elements of witchcraft trials, and much of the evidence revolved around various alleged familiar spirits. 

A Bottesford woman named Joan Flower and her two daughters, Margaret and Philippa, were employed as servants by the Earl and Countess of Rutland at Belvoir Castle near Grantham, Lincolnshire. 

Joan Flower in particular was unpopular and feared in the local community. She was an unkempt woman, with sunken eyes and a foul mouth, who boasted of her atheism, and of consorting with familiar spirits. 

Margaret was dismissed from the castle for stealing and, not long after, the Earl’s whole family became sick, suffering extraordinary convulsions. Although most of the family recovered, the eldest son, Henry, Lord Ross, died, and the Earl and Countess became convinced that Joan Flower and her daughters were to blame. 

All three women were arrested at Christmas of 1617 (or 1618) and were taken to Lincoln jail, where they were examined.

Joan Flower died in prison and her two daughters were tried, convicted of witchcraft and hanged.

A dreadful tale of the sort I came across some years ago at Husbands Bosworth.

The only positive factor I can see is that Joan's familiar was a cat called Rutterkin. And you have to admit that is a terrific name for a cat.

Saddington canal tunnel

Opened in 1797, Saddington tunnel is on the Leicester line of the Grand Union Canal.

It is reputed to be haunted by Anna, a headless female ghost.

As at Husbands Bosworth, you can still follow the path that the horses that drew the narrow boats used to take over the hill.

The countryside around Market Harborough in 1955

Many thanks to the reader who put me on to this British Transport Film from 1955.

A group of CTC members take the train from London to Rugby and then go on a ride. Sensibly, they head towards Market Harborough, so there are shots of Husbands Bosworth, Foxton Locks and the Battle of Naseby monument.

House Points: Search Hansard from 1803

My column in today's Liberal Democrat News is largely a cut-and-paste job from this blog. I have added some hyperlinks here that do not appear in the printed version.

Gems from Hansard

House Points is nothing if not loyal. Nick Clegg called for the Queen’s Speech to be abandoned, so we are ignoring this week’s proceedings and looking at political history instead.

A valuable new resource has appeared on the net. Thanks to a company called Millbank Systems (as with all the sites mentioned here, it is easy to find them with Google), you can search Hansard right back to 1803.

Already a couple of bloggers have made good use of this facility. Croydonian has been running regular 50 Years Ago and 100 Years Ago features. And Mark Pack has been entertaining readers with some of the quirkier questions and debates.

On Liberal England I have used the search facility to find snippets of local history.

Here is John Baldock, then the Tory MP for Harborough, speaking in December 1953:

On Saturday I went to see a train leave Market Harborough Station. It was larger than the customary trains which have been leaving on that line for a considerable time, and it was headed by a very ancient Midland engine. On the platform were a very large number of people to see this train, the last ordinary passenger train on this line to leave Market Harborough for Melton Mowbray. … Many who witnessed the departure … were wearing mourning clothes with black ribands and armlets.

Back in April 1889 Henry Labouchère, the radical Liberal MP for Northampton, made a more political point with this question:

I beg to ask the Postmaster General whether he is aware that a printed placard, announcing that a Primrose and Conservative demonstration will take place at Husbands Bosworth on 8th August, at which there will be addresses from two Conservative Members of this House, dancing, a dinner, a donkey race, and other similar amusements, is exhibited in a prominent position in the post office at Market Harborough; and whether he will issue orders forbidding such placards to be exhibited in post offices in future, and will see that this particular placard is forthwith taken down?

The Postmaster General said he would do just that.

Small beer if you are not from Market Harborough, perhaps. But there are gems from your own patch waiting to be found in Hansard too.

Henry Labouchère and Market Harborough post office

Husbands Bosworth

You can now find Hansard from 1803 online. It is fully searchable, which means you can find all sorts of interesting bits of local political history.

Here is the radical Liberal MP Henry Labouchère asking a question in the Commons on 1 August 1889:

I beg to ask the Postmaster General whether he is aware that a printed placard, announcing that a Primrose and Conservative demonstration will take place at Husbands Bosworth on 8th August, at which there there will be addresses from two Conservative Members of this House, dancing, a dinner, a donkey race, and other similar amusements, is exhibited in a prominent position in the post office at Market Harborough; and whether he will issue orders forbidding such placards to be exhibited in post offices in future, and will see that this particular placard is forthwith taken down?

The postmaster general Henry Raikes replied:

I have given directions that the placard in question, if exhibited in the Market Harborough post office, is to be taken down at once, and a notice will be issued forbidding the exhibition of such notices in post offices.

The Primrose League was an organisation set up to obtain the support of the people for Conservative principles. It was founded in 1883 and mentioned in Richard Jefferies' 1887 essay "Primrose Gold in our Village". I was amazed to discover that it was not wound up until 2004.

The Hoff at Husbands Bosworth

What with the witch trials, the Graziers Arms and the canal tunnel, I thought I had exhausted the blogging potential of Husbands Bosworth.

But I was wrong.

On 25 June the Harborough Mail reported:

Hollywood star David Hasselhoff and Radio One DJ Scott Mills spent Father's Day at a paintballing activities centre near Husbands Bosworth.

The 56-year-old actor, famous for starring roles in the Baywatch and Knight Rider television series, went with his daughters Hayley (16) and Taylor-Ann (19), along with his 35-old-year DJ friend, to Armourgeddon, based at Southfields Farm on Sunday.

The Mail has a photo of him. And Armourgeddon (geddit??!!!??) has a website.

Husbands Bosworth canal tunnel

The canal tunnel at Husbands Bosworth lies on the long summit level of the Leicester Section of the Grand Union.

It is unusual in that the path that the horses took over the hill while men legged boats through can still be followed. I walked it on Saturday and took this shot of a cabin cruiser entering the tunnel's western portal.

Graziers Arms, Husbands Bosworth

A while ago I linked to the website of Phipps NBC, who are reviving what used to be a prominent Northamptonshire brewer.

I got rather excited when I found the above sign in Husbands Bosworth on Saturday, thinking I had found a survival they might not know about. But when I checked their Survivors page I found they already have a picture of it.

According to the Husbands Bosworth village trail leaflet, this building used to be the Graziers Arms.

The witches of Husbands Bosworth

There is a good village trail leaflet (pdf) available for Husbands Bosworth, but it barely mentions the building above. It is the Roman Catholic chapel next to Bosworth Hall.

I do not know if it is open to the public, but I explored it today. Unfortunately, there was a wedding on, which prevented me studying the interior. Really, if they are going to keep holding services in churches it will make things very difficult for me.

Bosworth Hall brings to mind the darkest episode in the village's history - the execution of nine witches in 1616. John Smith, the young grandson of Erasmus Smith who then owned the hall, was possessed by demons and the women had been called in to exorcise them. When they failed they were sentenced to death.

Were the women blamed for causing the boy's illness all along or were they wise women called in to heal him who were only suspected after he failed to recover?

Later that year a further six women from Husbands Bosworth were sentenced to hang, but they were reprieved. Five were released but the sixth had already died in prison in Leicester.

To the modern reader it sounds as though the boy was suffering from epilepsy, but a website on paganism and wicca tells a different story:

King James I heard about this while he was traveling through Leicester and had the boy brought to him so he could question the juvenile accuser. Smith confessed that he feigned the fits because he liked the attention.

The King asked the Archbishop of Canterbury to further question the boy in order to validate that no witchcraft was involved and that Smith told him the truth. The Archbishop agreed with both. Five women were released; one died in jail.

King James was enraged at the judges who presided over the trials, Sir Randolph Crew and Sir Henry Winch, and publicly condemned them for their decisions. The monarch gave Ben Johnson, a famous contemporary playwright, permission to write about the judges to further rebuke them. The play was titled The Devil is an Ass.

This resulted in other judges becoming wary of accusations of witchcraft without corroboration, especially when the complainants were children.

This posting is dedicated to Charlotte Gore.