Shropshire: Don't drink the water and mind that huge rock

Calder’s blog is an eclectic mix of musical choices, random news items from Shropshire (where he doesn’t live), and political news and views.

So said the New Statesman back in 2008.

Well, it's been a good week for random news item from Shropshire. Following the Bishop's Castle poetry pharmacy we have two more today.

Item:

People in south Shropshire have been told not to drink tap water after an "unauthorised connection" was attached to the water network. 

Severn Trent Water said it had issued 69 'do not drink' orders to people in the Craven Arms area after finding the private connection, and Shropshire Council announced the Wistanstow Church of England Primary School was closed today due to a "water supply issue".

You can see the school in the photograph above.

Item:

It is a mystery to rival those of the pyramids and Stonehenge - just how did a huge rock end up on the Long Mynd? 

The seven foot long by three foot wide rock was first spotted six months ago by National Trust rangers wandering the south Shropshire hills. 

But the question is how did it get to the remote spot and why? 

Despite signs being put up around the stone urging the pranksters to come forward and reclaim it, no one has stepped forward, so now the trust has taken matters into its own hands to remove the giant rock.

Thanks, inevitably, to the Shropshire Star for both stories.

News stories over here in the East Midlands somehow seem more conventional - unless I generate them myself.