The mud walls of Laughton

An inhabitant of Mowsley who appeared to have lunched well saw me looking at the map and urged me to take the gated road to Laughton.

He was right. It was a pretty walk past the most ramshackle cricket ground I have seen, though I suspect that last time I came this way the road was not fenced and the passing places were not signposted.

Laughton itself was lovely too. It can't be much more than five miles from Market Harborough and its train service to London, but it feels as remote as a village can.

This blog is keen on mud walls, and the one around Laughton churchyard (shown above) is the best I have seen. The Victoria County History from 1964 describes it as having slate capping, so the thatch must be a later replacement. It also says the mud-walled building that forms part of the wall (shown below) was formerly used as a slaughterhouse.

A large house across the road turns out to have been a Wesleyan chapel for a couple of decades in the 19th century. And I am pleased that my guess that the initials "T.T.P." in the brickwork meant that it had once belonged to Thomas Tertius Paget, Liberal MP for South Leicestershire (1867-8, 1880-5) and Harborough (1885-6), turned out to be correct.