Telling at the Robert Monk Hall, Foxton

The is Foxton village hall, which opened in 1931 and is in a vaguely Tudor style. It was a gift from Robert Monk, who came from the village and made his money running the Robin Hood Hotel on Gallowtree Gate in Leicester.

I was there today and thought of 1986, when the Liberals won three Harborough District Council by-elections in a row. I gained Market Harborough North, Simon Galton gained Thurnby, and Colin Wells gained Foxton, Lubenham and Gumley.

The third of those by-elections took place on 9 October. I can date it because I remember it was the week the Independent launched and I read one of the newspaper's very first issues while telling at the Robert Monk Hall, which was the polling station for Foxton.

It's less a memory than a flashback: there were two Conservative tellers and they spent their time discussing a horse that had suffered a nosebleed. Foxton seemed that sort of village.