A walk across the fields to the new Braybrooke Beer Co. taproom

A few years ago the Braybrooke Beer Co. set up a brewery at a farm outside the Northamptonshire village of that name to produce lager. The company was formed with the London market in mind, but you can buy their beers at the Beerhouse in Market Harborough and no doubt it has other outlets beyond the capital.

They have just opened a taproom at the brewery, and there is a surfaced path leading to it from the Brampton Valley Way - the old Market Harborough to Northampton railway. On Friday, I set out to walk that path.

I was surprised there was no signpost at the turn off from the Brampton Valley Way, and I wasn't convinced at first that I was going the right way. But if you leave the Way by a few muddy steps and set off diagonally across a field - see the photo above - you're doing fine.

Cross the bridge, and you will find a surfaced path - suitable for wheels as well as boots - and a pleasant landscape.

When you cross the River Jordan, on its way to flood Little Bowden and then join the Welland by Market Harborough railway station, then you are almost there.

And at the business end of the path, there is a sign.

There are also signs along the way for horses, which are very intelligent in this part of Northamptonshire and value politeness.

Finally, though I didn't manage to photograph the start of the new path or the taproom itself, I did capture this disturbing image.

My theory is that these are the ghosts of Iron Age warriors, disturbed by an archaeological dig that all the locals advised against.

Telegraph names each county's best pub, but two aren't even in the right county

Time Out reports that the Telegraph has named what it believes to be the best pub in every English county, based on reports from its readers. 

So naturally I turn first to the winner for Leicestershire and for Shropshire.

They are:

• Best pub in Leicestershire - The Swan at Braybrooke
• Best pub in Shropshire - The Sun Inn, Leintwardine

The only problem is that Braybrooke is in Northamptonshire and Leintwardine is in Herefordshire.

I don't expect the urban sophisticates of Time Out to know better, but shouldn't the Telegraph? Someone there has been misled by postcodes, as Braybrooke has a Market Harborough postcode and Leintwardine a Craven Arms one.

Anyway, this is a good time to point you to my post on Malcolm Saville and the Pubs of Leintwardine.

Dominika the roving Braybrooke skunk is found again - in Corby

Remember Dominika the Braybrooke skunk who, last month, escaped from her Braybrooke home and was recaptured around the corner from me?

I didn't tell you at the time, because it was too upsetting, but she escaped again shortly after she got home. 

But now there's good news again. Here's HFM News:

A pet skunk missing from Braybrooke has been found safe and well over 10 miles away in Corby after spending five weeks on the run.

Dominika escaped from owner Jayne McLaughlin’s home last month and had not been seen since a sighting in Market Harborough the following week.

The animal was spotted around a bin area in Hooke Close in Corby and after the sighting was shared on Facebook, Jayne was alerted and went straight to the area armed with some food.

There are lots of websites saying that skunks can make good pets, but none mentions wanderlust.

Anyway, this childhood favourite of mine sounds as though it might be a tribute to Dominika - sort of - so take it away, sisters.

Missing skunk found close to home of prominent Lib Dem blogger

It's the news we all hoped to hear. Dominika the missing skunk has been found and is now back home in Braybrooke.

The HFM News report on the happy ending to the story that has gripped Market Harborough says:

There had been numerous sightings of Dominika on the Ashley Way estate since she escaped from her owner’s home in Braybrooke last week, but the animal had proved hard to catch.

She was eventually found sleeping in a shed on Rookwell Drive in Little Bowden and later reunited with Jayne McLaughlin, after the homeowner initially called a veterinary surgery for advice.

Rookwell Drive? That's close to where I live. I've seen foxes around here, but never skunks.

Market Harborough Skunk Update: She's called Dominika and comes from Braybrooke

HFM News has the latest on the Market Harborough Skunk.

She's called Dominika and belongs to Jayne McLaughlin from Braybrooke. The video in my post from this morning was taken in a garden near Ashley Way in Market Harborough.

And in an interview with HFM News, Jayne says there are reports of spooked dogs in the woods by Stinford Leys.

Her advice if you find Dominika in your garden is not (for obvious reasons) to try to pick her up, but to find a way to keep her contained there.

And Jayne's phone number is at the end of the HFM News report.

The River Jordan in spate this afternoon

The Jordan is Market Harborough's second river. It rises near Desborough, flows through Braybrooke and Little Bowden, and joins the Welland near Market Harborough railway station.

In summer it can dry to little more than a trickle, but you should have seen it today.

The photo above shows the Jordan entering the Welland. Between them they have flooded the commercial car park across the road from the station.

And the photos below, I hope in the correct order, show my walk to the station from my house this afternoon.

Graham Moffatt's career in films

As promised, here is a short film about the actor Graham Moffatt, who was landlord of The Swan, Braybrooke, between 1948 and 1958.

Braybrooke, Great Oxendon and mud

It was a bright winter's day, so I decided on a walk across muddy fields. Very muddy fields, it turned out.

I caught the bus to Braybrooke and made it to the Canvas Cafe at Great Oxendon.

On the way, the low sun showed up the medieval ridge and furrow to great effect and, as ever in this part of the world, the walk was often accompanied by the sound of more or less distant shotguns.

The last train from Northampton to Market Harborough

The other day I wrote:

Thirty-eight years ago I travelled on the last train from Market Harborough to Northampton. Now comes news from Harborough FM that there is talk of reopening the line.

Discussing the idea with someone on Twitter, we came to the conclusion that restoring the original line through Market Harborough to the station would involve too much demolition,

But it might well be possible to divert the line at Great Oxendon to meet the Midland main line somewhere near Braybrooke.

Anyway, the last train on the line (at least for now) ran on 15 August 1981. These are the photographs I still have from the ones I took that day.

We drove to Northampton to catch the train, which ran through Harborough on the down line to reach the signal box, then reversed on to the up line to reach the remaining LNWR platform.

Eventually it took us all back to Northampton.

Note the people leaning out of train windows and the casual trespassing, both of which I must have been guilty of myself to take these photos. Things were more easy-going on the railways in those days.

Government confirms electrification will reach Market Harborough

A Leicester Mercury story begins:

The electrification on the Midland Mainline will be extended into Leicestershire, the Government has confirmed. 

Transport ministers have said Network Rail has been instructed to draw up plans upgrade the rail route as far as Market Harborough.

Searching this blog, I find that I reported this news in June of last year.

My source was a comment to the Nottingham Post by Sir Peter Soulsby, the mayor of Leicester, after the publication of the invitation to tender to provide the service on this line.

So the campaign by Harborough's MP Neil O'Brien to have the wires reach the town may have been pushing at an open door all along.

Even when electrification was planned to stop at Kettering, there was to be a substation at Braybrooke, a couple of miles from here, where power lines cross the railway.

It's not clear if the we shall gain much from this decision, but the further north the wires go the better.

The Tories fought the last election promising to electrify the line all the way to Sheffield, even though a decision had already been taken to stop 100 miles south of there.

There is more to Braybrooke than pylons

That said, I think the Children of the Hum would appreciate the strange creature on the church tower.

Braybrooke and the Children of the Hum

The wires are to reach as far north as Market Harborough, as I blogged the other day, because National Grid power lines cross the Midland main line at Braybrooke.

Today I went to look for that spot. Some 35 years ago a footpath crossed the railway there. Today you use a footbridge.

Because I did not take a map with me this afternoon (it was rather a spur-of-the-moment visit) I did not find that bridge.

At least I got so far out of the village looking for it that I decided to walk back to Harborough.

Exploring the village I found a lane I had not encountered before and was very aware of the power lines that cross it.

So here are some photographs inspired by Hookland and the Children of the Hum.