The Joy of Six 1528

Tom Williams reports from Southampton: "The demonstration descended into rioting as protesters clashed with police. Out-of-towners, including Tommy Robinson and Laurence Fox, merged with locals outside Southampton police station to form a crowd of several hundred. They marched to Belmont Road, where Nowak was killed. Riot police prevented them reaching Digwa’s family home."

"I had expected to meet a former MP with the usual recollections and political anecdotes. What I encountered instead was something rarer: a political thinker who remained genuinely concerned with ideas, and who was determined to dispel the myths that had accumulated around Liberal history like barnacles on a ship's hull." Andrew Page pays tribute to Michael Meadowcroft.

Matthew Pennell analyses last month's local election results and looks forward to future conquests: "What are the key battlegrounds in England? In 2027 we’ll see if we can build on long term gains in North Yorkshire and East Riding, whether we can retake Bedford and if there’s a chance of completing jigsaw in the far West of England by flipping the status of Herefordshire."

Ellie Davies talks to three Bristol academics about the impact that villages – both literal and metaphorical – have on our health and happiness.

"She wanted to do all that men could do, painting nudes at a time when female art students weren’t allowed to do so. She treated her subjects with seriousness and commitment, but also with enormous sensuous energy and a feel for the pleasures of looking, whether it’s the naked women on Cornish beaches, the garish clowns in her 1930s circus pictures, or even the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force commanders of the 1940s, surrounded by the meticulously rendered paraphernalia of their working lives." Lara Feigel salutes the continuing relevance of Laura Knight.

"There is an unavoidable ethical dimension to all this: though Payne’s deeply-considered and expert work on the sketches was clearly much more than the 'tinkering' Elgar was worried about, we have to acknowledge that the composer’s wish needs to be more-or-less disregarded if we are to perform or listen to the completed work." Jeremy Benson on Elgar's unfinished third symphony.

Sir Walter Scott invented "The Wars of the Roses"

Here's an interesting passage from Chris Given-Wilson in a recent London Review of Books:

There are several earlier references, dating back at least to the early 14th century, to red and white roses being used occasionally as insignia by the families later associated with the Lancastrian and Yorkist causes, but it was not until Shakespeare picked up on the idea in Henry VI Part I... that it entered the popular imagination. ...

It was another two hundred years before Walter Scott’s novel Anne of Geierstein, published in 1829, brought the idea of the ‘wars of the White and Red Roses’ into common usage. Since then it has become synonymous with the political turmoil which, between 1455 and 1485, saw four English kings deposed (one of them twice) and fifteen internecine ‘battles’ – some of them in reality just skirmishes – fought on English soil, from Dartford in Kent to Hexham in Northumberland to Mortimer’s Cross on the Welsh border.

There are those, of course, who would like to bin the label, but that is a vain hope. During the last quarter of the 20th century at least seven British historians published monographs entitled The Wars of the Roses, and scholars in the 21st century appear to be trying to keep pace.

Sure enough, Given-Wilson was reviewing The Wars of the Roses: A Medieval Civil War by John Watts.

Obliging reader's voice: I gather the death of Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth is accepted as having marked the end of these wars. Have you by any chance contributed an article that touches upon it to Central Bylines recently?

Liberal England replies: Why yes! Yes I have.

The Joy of Six 1424

"By learning from Farage, the Greens risk becoming more like him in form, even if utterly different in content. And in politics, form matters. A democracy shaped by perpetual outrage and binary framing cannot easily sustain pluralism, however noble the cause. If we pick fights and make enemies now we will build a future full of fights and enemies." Mike Chitty worries that Zack Polanski has learnt too much from the populist playbook.

Caspar Hobhouse argues that Ukraine needs support from the European Union to transition towards a long-term energy system that is resilient, flexible and secure.

Rachel Sylvester on William's plans for a downsized monarchy.

"Kate Murphy’s work has changed how we think about the history of women’s roles in radio and television production forever. Had she not had the opportunity to make the transition from maker to scholar of BBC programming, and to do the serious detective work of tracking down these women’s stories via the archive, our understanding of women’s roles in the BBC would still be partial and centred on the stories of 'great men; that Asa Briggs and others have told us." Helen Wheatley joins the campaign against the BBC's decision to effectively close its Written Archives Centre to independent researchers.

Owen Hatherley reviews two books on the postwar architecture of South-East London: "It is stark, unpretentious modernism, but James and Audrey Callaghan were very unhappy to leave it for Downing Street when he became chancellor in 1964; it had, Audrey said, become 'like a second skin' – designed wholly around their needs and wants."

"Watkins based his thesis on three decades of legwork, on his interest in archaeology, history and architecture, and on his research into etymology, folklore and legends. And it’s hard for the non-expert not to be affected by his enthusiasm and sheer piling-up of what he sees as supporting evidence from these different disciplines." Chris Lovegrove looks at Alfred Watkins' The Old Straight Track, the book that gave birth to "ley lines" on the centenary of its publication.

Zack Polanski: More left-wing populist than Green?

Embed from Getty Images

Simon McGrath makes an interesting observation on Liberal Democrat Voice:

Looking at his statement when he was elected, climate and environment barely feature and his Twitter feed tells the same story: the Green Party has chosen a leader who doesn’t seem especially interested in green issues.

And a glance at Polanski's Bluesky feed does little to change this impression. There is lots of left populism, but rather less about the environment.

Going after the old Corbyn vote - young, urban, left wing - is a perfectly valid strategy for the Greens, particularly as Corbyn's new party is not guaranteed to fly. But you do wonder how it will play in Herefordshire and Suffolk.

If Corbyn or Polanski or both do make serious progress in the cities, that will make it harder for the Liberal Democrats to break out of their redoubts in suburban and Southern England.

Book Review... All the Wide Border: Wales, England and the Places Between by Mike Parker

This review appears in the new issue of Liberator. You can download it free of charge from the magazine's website.

All the Wide Border: Wales, England and the Places Between

Mike Parker

Harper North, 2024; £10.99

The Welsh border is the most intoxicating landscape I know, and Mike Parker is a companionable guide to it. Immune to the tendency to complain that things aren’t what they used to be – when were they ever? – he is interested in the towns and countryside as he finds them today.

Parker made the journeys he describes in this book during the Covid pandemic, a period that may turn out to be little represented in our literature. An English-born Welsh Nationalist, he found the more collectivist traditions of his adopted country served people better in that time of trial.

Along some stretches of the border, it’s easy to forget which country you are in. I remember once coming down off the hills to Kington and being almost surprised to find myself in a red-brick Midland town with Burton beers in all the pubs. Further north, around Chester in particular, Parker shows the border is still a hard reality that affects the economy and society on both its sides.

Much as I enjoyed All the Wide Border, it’s a reminder of how personal our reaction to places can be. The first chapter takes you to a place I’ve been many times: the country west of the Stiperstones up to Shropshire’s border with Powys. 

For me it means the remains of the lead-mining industry; the children’s books of Malcolm Saville; Ronnie Lane and one of his rock star mates, down to use the studio at Lane’s place a couple of fields into Wales, playing unannounced at a remote pub; the death at a farm of the foster child Dennis O’Neill, which led both to the 1948 Children’s Act and Agatha Christie’s play The Mousetrap. Parker’s chapter mentions none of these, yet I still found it as interesting as any in the book.

Jonathan Calder

"Let’s get him out before he poisons all the fishes": Robert Jenrick in the River Teme at Leintwardine

What the hell is Robert Jenrick doing in the River Teme at Leintwardine?

Readers of this blog will remember that Malcolm Saville's 11th Lone Pine Club adventure, The Secret of the Gorge, opens in this Herefordshire village, though most of the action takes place a couple of miles downstream in the Downton Gorge.

Seeing this photo of Jenrick, I was reminded in particular of this encounter with the villainous Simon Blandish in chapter 7: 

Macbeth advanced and so did the Lone Piners, for they already sensed what was going to happen. Macbeth made another little sortie and again Blandish swore and kicked out at him. He missed and retreated another step. Macbeth, with wildly wagging tail, pranced proudly forward and the man fell backwards into the river. If the water, at that spot, had not been about two feet deep he might have helped hurt himself for he was a heavy man and the bank was quite high where the water, swirling under the narrow bridge. had worn it away. As it was the water broke his fall but the splash she made was prodigious

They stood on the bank and watched him wallowing like a clumsy hippopotamus, blowing river water from his mouth. He staggered to his feet, lost his balance on a slippery rock and fell in again.

“Why was he doing that to you, Dickie?” David asked quietly. “Were you being cheeky?”

“Yes. I was a bit. Mary was down on the bank and I was watching her from the bridge when Old Pudding Face came up quietly on his bike and grabbed at me and told me to clear out. Then he pulled me down here and twisted my arm and asked me all sorts of questions about us an’ then –”

“An’ then I did the danger call,” his twin went on. “And I shouted for help ... Oh, look! He's fallen in again! Let’s get him out before he poisons all the fishes.”

Pair of beavers released on the River Clun in Shropshire

BBC News reports:

Beavers have returned to a Shropshire river for the first time in 400 years.

The Severn Rivers Trust introduced a pair to the River Clun in the south of the county on Monday afternoon.

It hopes the pair will have offspring and can help transform the natural environment through their dam building.

The beavers have been released into an enclosure, but the story quotes Joe Pimblett, the chief executive of the Severn Rivers Trust

"If you're a nature lover and you've got an interest in the rural environment this is huge, this could be the precursor to beavers living here naturally in Shropshire."

The Clun rises near the hamlet of Anchor, close to the border with Wales. It flows east through the little town of Clun, before turnings south and joining the Teme just over the Herefordshire border in Leintwardine.

My photo shows the medieval bridge over the River Clun in the town on Clun.

Route of old railway used in the restoration of the Hereford and Gloucester Canal

The blurb on the Court Above the Cut YouTube channel - like, subscribe and tell your friends - explains what's going on here:

Digging a new line of canal at Malswick near Newent. This exciting project from the Herefordshire & Gloucestershire canal is on land next to the old line and Gloucester & Ledbury railway. Join us as we explore the area and look into what's happened, is happening and what will happen in the future. 

The line ran from the River Severn in Over through Newent, Ledbury and on to Hereford taking in three tunnels including the Oxenhall Tunnel. See where the lift bridge is going as well as the new lock to divert the canal restoration onto another new route and back onto the railway which replaced the line.

With its ruined tunnels and aqueducts, you might the think the Hereford and Gloucester is lost beyond reclamation, but there's lots of work being done on it. There's an element of poetic justice to using the alignment of the railway that was built along and across the canal after its closure.

For another example making use of a railway alignment see my post A disused railway in Derbyshire is being turned into a canal.

The very lost tunnels of the Hereford and Gloucester Canal

Paul and Rebecca Whitewick take us to Oxenhall and Ashperton, the two abandoned tunnels on the Hereford and Gloucester Canal.

For more about this lost waterway, see the Herefordshire and Gloucestershire Canal Trust website.

The disastrous tunnels of the Leominster Canal

Another trip with Paul Whitewick to the remains of the badly engineered and never completed Leominster Canal.

Last time we looked at the remains of the canal's aqueducts: this time the emphasis on tunnels. 

The most important tunnel of all - the one that would have taken the canal to the Severn at Stourport - was never built.

There's more about this waterway on the Friends of the Leominster Canal site. There's more from Paul and Rebecca Whitewick about their railway and canal explorations on their website.

Cricket journalist Matthew Engel wins Golden Valley South

One of my favourite cricket writers, Matthew Engel, was this evening elected as councillor for Golden Valley South ward of Herefordshire Council.

He was standing as an Independent in a by-election caused by the death of the sitting Independent councillor Peter Jinman.

Later. Engel received over 60 per cent of the vote, beating Conservative, Labour and Lib Dem candidates, as well as another Independent.

The breathtaking remains of the Leominster Canal

I once had bed and breakfast in the Teme valley near Tenbury Wells, and was told that the track running behind the house used to be the Leominster Canal.

Paul Whitewick goes looking for more substantial remains, and what he finds is nothing short of extraordinary.

There's more about this waterway on the Friends of the Leominster Canal site. There's more from Paul and Rebecca Whitewick about their railway and canal explorations on their website.