Former Reform UK councillor joins the Lib Dem group on West Northamptonshire

Jonathan Harris (left) and Kathryn Shaw. Photo: West Northants Lib Dems  

NN Journal reports some unexpected news from Northamptonshire:

A former Reform UK cabinet member on West Northamptonshire Council has now joined the Liberal Democrat group.

Cllr Kathryn Shaw previously stepped down from her role as portfolio holder for children, families and education at the start of 2026. In March, she later quit the Reform UK group completely, becoming an independent.

Cllr Shaw told NN Journal:

"Over the past eight months, I’ve had a lot of time to reflect on what matters most to me, both as a councillor and as a person. For me, it has always been about people before politics, with children, families and our communities at the forefront of everything I do.

"Joining the Liberal Democrats feels like the right next step, alongside a group who share that strong community focus and who understand the importance of putting residents first.

"I have also been consistently impressed by the calibre of the Liberal Democrat group. There is a depth of knowledge, intellect, experience and thoughtful challenge within the team that I genuinely believe has a great deal to offer West Northamptonshire.

"I will continue to ask challenging questions, push boundaries and make a bit of noise when it’s needed but always with the same purpose: to make a genuine difference to the people I represent."

Back in March, she explained her resignation from Reform UK to BBC News:

"My decision is grounded in professional judgement and principle. I believe I can more effectively advocate for strong safeguarding systems, accountable governance and the removal of unnecessary bureaucracy affecting children and vulnerable people outside of a party structure.

"My commitment to protecting children, strengthening safeguarding culture and demanding accountability remains unwavering. The work continues, and it must continue with integrity, consciousness and courage."

Jonathan Harris, leader of the Lib Dem group on West Northamptonshire told NN Journal today:

"We are delighted that Kathryn has decided to join the Liberal Democrats. It is clear that Kathryn is passionate about making a difference to the people of West Northants.

"We welcome her energy, enthusiasm, commitment and experience to the team and we are looking forward to supporting her in her work.

"She joins our group as another community-focused councillor; Lib Dem Councillors work hard to support their communities and have a strong desire to make a difference to people’s lives."

God adds:

I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.

h/t Mark Pack.

Black market weight-loss jab factory found in stately home

Our Headline of the Day comes from BBC News. 

I noticed that Lord Bonkers was taking a keen interest in the finer details of the story.

New chair of North Northamptonshire Council stands down over social media posts

Another triumph for Reform UK's vetting of its candidates. NN Journal reports:

The Reform UK chairman of North Northamptonshire Council has today stood down in response to an NN Journal investigation into his social media activity.

Cllr Maurice Eglin, who was appointed as chairman last month, has resigned this morning ahead of our investigation being published, saying he had in the past been guilty of being a "keyboard warrior". He has also apologised for his posts and said the language he used was "wrong".

We had uncovered a series of offensive tweets which include Islamphobia, support for far right groups and anti-trans views. The tweets predate his election as a councillor last May and are from an account that he shut down shortly before being elected.

The Joy of Six 1529

Chris Dillow on Labour's mistaken strategy: "All good businesspeople know that it’s easier to keep a customer than to win a new one; that you can’t always choose your customers; and that one must never 'do a Ratner' and insult your customers. In ignoring all this Labour has been simply grossly amateurish.

Keyvan Hosseini and Dawn-Marie Walker say their research shows that the electric SUV boom is a problem for climate, health and equity: "Larger vehicles can also make streets more dangerous, especially for children. A study using Great Britain crash data found that children aged 0-18 hit by SUVs, rather than passenger cars, had 77 per cent higher odds of fatal injury. For children under nine, the odds were more than three times higher."

"Too many inspections end up evaluating whether schools are good at being inspected. That is not the same thing as being good at educating. We mistake performance for learning." David Didau argues that systems designed to raise standards too often teach schools to look good rather than get better.

"Boudicca and co surprised the Reserve staff by digging canals. Because there are plenty of trees on the edge of the lake, the presumption had been that they would not require canals. The beavers knew otherwise, and the ditches are altering the way water flows around the site. They’ve built two lodges and, as well as stripping bark and eating foliage, have begun to fell some larger trees. In one area, they have cut down most of the young saplings." Isabella Clarke reports on the remarkable success of the Nene Valley beavers.

Discontinued Notes has been to Somerset House to see the the M.C. Escher exhibition.

"The Station Hotel, the original home of the Crawdaddy Club where the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds played some of their earliest gigs, is now a gastro-pub. L'Auberge, the coffee bar at the bottom of Richmond Hill where beatniks and then hippies gathered to trade gossip and other substances, has become a branch of Nando’s. A little further up the hill, there is no trace of Sandover Hall (another early venue for the Stones), Potter’s Music Shop, or the Hanging Lamp, one of the key sixties folk clubs." David Buckingham goes in search of the South West London venues that fostered British rhythm and blues.

The suspicions of Beaver Hateman: Kate Summerscale on the Uncle Books

I read the first ‘Uncle’ book in the British Council library in Santiago, Chile, when I was about eight and my father was working as a diplomat in the city. I borrowed the next five volumes of the series in turn. 

I was delighted by Uncle – a millionaire elephant who wears a purple dressing gown, engages in savage skirmishes and is wildly generous to his followers – and he became more famous in our family than Babar. When we returned to England, I was amazed that no one seemed to have heard of him.

So wrote Kate Summerscale in The Complete Uncle, a collected edition of all six of the Revd J.P. Martin's books that was published in 2013.

It now fetches silly prices, just as the individual titles did before it was published. Which makes you wonder why the books have not remained in print.

Years before The Complete Uncle appeared, Imogen Russell Williams asked the same question in the Guardian, under the headline The Elephant Not in the Room:

Bizarrely, Jonathan Cape, the original publishers, don't want to reissue Uncle because the protagonist is rich, capitalist and deeply complacent, and therefore the books are "classist". But no one can fail to detect the gleeful humour and wry justice in the lampoons propagated by the Badfort tribe, even as they applaud the righteous wrath with which Uncle "kicks up" offenders 50 feet into the air. ...

Insurgent little pamphlets are dropped by Hitmouse from rickety biplanes: "TO ALL FREE CITIZENS: This is to announce that we have at last completed our plans against Uncle, the arch-bully, tyrant, and boaster!" Described by the Independent as "Animal Farm for pre-teens", Martin's sly ridicule of the imperious and pompous master of Homeward should be required reading for all baby Lefties.

With his hating book, where he writes the names of his enemies, and the skewers he uses as weapons, Hitmouse anticipated the modern journalist. But I will admit his Badfort News was my model when I wrote Focus leaflets.

Anyway, if you ever see one of the Uncle books at a reasonable price, snap it up. You will enjoy it.

I shall end by:

• admitting that Uncle was a subconscious influence on my creation of Lord Bonkers, though it took me years to realise it;
• sending you off to read my post on the discovery that the Revd J.P. Martin and Stanley Unwin, two giants of the British nonsense tradition, were both attached to Daventry transmitting station during the war.

Finedon was once one of Northamptonshire's four largest towns

At the time of the Domesday Book the four largest settlement in Northamptonshire were Northampton, Brackley, Rushton and Finedon. The first two are still towns (one a great deal larger than the other) and Rushton is now a small village near Desborough

Finedon, where I went today, is described as a town, though its population at the 2021 census was only 4552 and there are few shops left in its historic heart.

The pub proved to be closed until six – as it was a Friday, that suggests to me that it's more of a restaurant these days – and the cafe that was my fallback had the builders in. 

I was saved by a small Co-op branch, were I got a sandwich. Looking round for the refrigerated unit with the cans of pop, I found it had a whole cold room devoted to them. How neat is that? The owner offered to let me stay in there for a while to cool off, but it wasn't that hot outside.

Anyway, Finedon's many ironstone buildings – there were many quarries serving the steel industry here at one time – remain and here are some of them.

Later. In fact, as someone pointed out on Bluesky, the pub I mentioned (The Bell Inn) closed in January. I'd assumed there would be some more pubs on the very busy A6 – as seems common in Northamptonshire, the original centre of Finedon lies off the later main road – but there are none.

Finedon may soon resemble the Leicestershire village of Hallaton, which once tried to rival Market Harborough as a market town. It has what still feels like a high street, but there are no shops on it.

Oh, and the Finedon building in the photograph immediately below this text used to be a hotel.

Police watchdog investigates Northamptonshire force over allegations of perverting the course of justice

BBC News has reported the extraordinary story of Nadine Buzzard-Quashie's arrest by Northamptonshire police:

Body-worn video of a woman's "degrading" arrest, which police falsely told a court did not exist, has been shared exclusively with the BBC. 

It shows officers in Northamptonshire throw metal spikes in front of Nadine Buzzard-Quashie's car and force her to the ground after responding to a concern for her welfare, whereupon she says her face was pushed into stinging nettles. 

The Chief Constable of Northamptonshire, Ivan Balhatchet, was found guilty of contempt of court in November and fined £50,000 for failing to release the body-worn videos to her.

The latest twist in the saga was reported on the independent NN Journal news site last Friday:

The police watchdog has started a criminal investigation into a Northants senior police officer and two staff over perverting the course of justice allegations. 

The matter is in relation to a legal case, which last autumn saw Northants Chief Constable Ivan Balhatchet found to have been in contempt of court and fined £50,000. The civil case had been brought by Londonder Nadine Buzzard Quashie, who had been fighting the force for bodyworn footage of her arrest in Northamptonshire in September 2021, that she claims was unlawful.

NN Journal says it understands the senior officer in question is not Ivan Balhatchet.

His predecessor as chief constable of the county force, Nick Adderley, awaits trial on charges of fraud, misconduct in public office and making a false witness statement.

"Forget it, Jake. It's Northamptonshire."

Secret Northamptonshire on the building of the Welland Viaduct

I wouldn't call the Welland Viaduct exactly secret: it's nearly three-quarters of a mile long, 60 feet hight, contains 30 million bricks and is really quite hard to miss.

But having been inspired to write posts by the BBC's Secret Shropshire and Secret Leicestershire pages, I though I would have a look at Secret Northamptonshire. And this is the story that caught my eye:

Northants' "Grandest and Most Perfect" Structure

The Harringworth or Welland Viaduct is one of the longest of its kind in Britain.

Stradling the picturesque Northamptonshire valley, it is a magnificent example of Victorian construction and ambition.

But the story of its construction is even more remarkable... and terrifying.

Helen Blaby tells that story.

Three Catholic churches have closed in Northamptonshire

Holy Trinity, Desborough

Opponents of the moved vowed to "take this fight to the Vatican", but as far as I know the closure of the Catholic churches in Desborough, Rothwell and Burton Latimer has gone ahead. Certainly, their websites have been closed down.

Holy Trinity, Desborough, was already up for sale when I photographed it last year – the estate agents' particulars say it is "offered for sale in need of significant repair or demolition" and describe it as a "perfect development site".

Taking Stock: Catholic Churches of England & Wales reveals that Holy Trinity was built as a Methodist chapel in 1894 and purchased for Catholic use in June 1971. Its altar is at the north end of the church, though latterly, services appear to have been held in the hall next door.

Holy Trinity, Desborough

I did not discover St Bernadette's. Rothwell, until my last visit to the little town, when I had a good wander. Taking Stock says it dates from 1959 and that alterations made in 1993 radically and detrimentally altered its appearance.

St Bernadette's, Rothwell

St Bernadette's, Rothwell

The Grotto, St Bernadette's, Rothwell

I've not made it as far as Burton Latimer, best known for being the home of Weetabix, so the photo below is by David Dixon on Georgraph. The church is dedicated to St Nicholas Owen, a Catholic carpenter and builder of priest holes who was martyred in 1606 and canonised in 1970. Taking Stock says it opened in 1972.

David Dixon: St John North, Burton Latimer

The LNWR branch line from Weedon to Leamington Spa

It's time we had another good disused railway video. This one follows the route of the old LNWR branch line between Weedon and Leamington Spa.

Wolfhampcote is mentioned. As I discovered at the age of 10 on a family canal holiday, here you will find a deserted medieval village whose church still survives, two abandoned railway lines (the one the video is about and the Great Central main line) and an abandoned meander of the Oxford Canal, complete with a tunnel.

Is it any wonder I turned out how I did?

Boudicca the three-legged beaver is rewilding Rushden Lakes

Talk about burying the lede. BBC News has a story about Alan and Boudicca, the beavers at Rushden Lakes – they've featured here before – and late on it drops this in:

Alan was named after Alan Carr, who grew up in the county, and Boudica after the warrior, as it is believed she lost her leg in a fight.

Boudicca has three legs? That makes these achievements even more remarkable:

In February 2025, eight beavers were released into Delta Pit lake, part of Rushden Lakes, Northamptonshire – the first time the rodent had been reintroduced to the county in 400 years.

The Wildlife Trust for Beds, Cambs and Northants said parents, Boudica and Alan, had welcomed two new kits in September, had felled three large trees, coppiced 30 more, and built three lodges.

Project officer Ben Casey said the beavers had made "a big difference" in changing the structure of the site to improve the habitat for a range of species.

You can see Boudicca, Alan and their two latest kits in the video above.

When Peter Lee took 8-13 for Great Bowden

Embed from Getty Images

Peter Lee, the former Northamptonshire and Lancashire seam bowler, has died at the age of 80.

He grew up near Market Harborough in the Northamptonshire village of Sibbertoft and made his debut for that county in 1967. 

But it was when he moved to Lancashire in 1972 that his career really took off. He twice took 100 wickets in a season for them in an era when the feat was already becoming vanishingly rare, but never won test selection.

A trawl of the British Newspaper Archive reveals this story from the Leicester Daily Mercury, 6 August 1980. Great Bowden is nearly, but not quite, part of Market Harborough:

Bowden's Secret Weapon Shocks Wigston

Wigston Town cricketers had a nasty shock in their match against Great Bowden for they found themselves facing Lancashire pace bowler Peter Lee.

After Great Bowden had made 131. Wigston were blasted out for 88 with Lee taking 8-13.

Lee hails from a village called Sibbertoft which is just over the border in Northamptonshire and has two brothers in the Bowden team.

He has been injured recently and his guest appearance was part of his build-up to regain full fitness.

Wigston were on the receiving end another top-line bowler some years ago when Harold Rhodes took all 10 wickets against them for just 11 runs in a match at Matlock.

The end is near for Desborough's Lawrence Shoe Factory

The former Lawrence Shoe Factory in Desborough is likely to be demolished later this year, reports BBC News.

As I can catch a bus to Desborough and it's unusually pleasant Costa Coffee from across the road when I'm feeling too lazy to walk into town, I went there the other day to photograph the buildings again – maybe for the last time. You can read about their history on the Desborough Town Council website.

There was the usual talk from North Northamptonshire Council's Reform UK leadership of "eyesores" and preventing antisocial behaviour, but there is no sign of the long-sought developer for the site, so it will become wasteland.

At least the derelict shop, which must once have catered for the needs of the workers here, will survive the coming destruction.

The Joy of Six 1458

"Sounding like a mob boss when speaking at Trump’s press conference at the weekend, secretary of state Marco Rubio told the world that the message of the Venezuelan intervention was that when this president says he is serious about wanting something, he gets it. The problem for Europe is that the one thing that this President covets above all is Greenland." Simon Nixon argues that Donald Trump’s "Donroe Doctrine" poses an existential threat to NATO and Europe.

Cliff Mitchell accuses Northamptonshire's two Reform-run councils of ignoring the reality of climate change across the county: "As predicted by climate scientists, Northamptonshire is seeing drier summers as well as wetter winters. Droughts are happening more quickly and becoming more intense. When combined with frequent winter floods, this leads to soil damage and erosion, reduced crop yields, and impacts on livestock grazing and biodiversity."

"It might seem silly or not worthy of attention to look into the Trump administration’s aesthetic decisions, all of the gold ornamentations smeared all over the Oval Office and ballrooms and Arc de Trumps, and etc, but the aesthetic is a way to make the political physically present. It’s a way to rally people’s energies. It’s a way to make it seem like things are changing and like Trump is keeping his promises when he’s actually not." Erin Thompson says Trump’s gilded White House makeover is all about power.

Robin Eagles discusses his work identifying Black voters in 18th-century elections.

"The BFI website suggests that Hell is a City is 'unaccountably overlooked; and suggests that it was ‘as important a film as Room at the Top’ ... They put this down to 'critical snobbery towards its solidly commercial director Val Guest' as well the fact that it was one of the very few non-horror films made by Hammer Studios, not known for its high-brow output." David Rudlin watches Hell is a City, which was filmed  largely on location in Manchester and Oldham in the autumn of 1959. 

Lynne About Loughborough goes in search of the town's forgotten Football League club.

The Joy of Six 1452

Peter Jukes says Boris Johnson and Alexander Lebedev must be investigated in a new public inquiry into Russian influence

"If you are young or have a young family, should you vote for millionaire Nigel Farage? For me, he is likely to directly impoverish and disenfranchise the young – Reform UK policies are already shaping up in this way. Where will it end?" Mark Cunliffe itemises Reform's attack on the young.

"This punishment represents the state’s most severe power to harm its citizens. Understanding how and why it is used tells us about our appetite for punishment and the state’s power to inflict it. And evidence suggests that its use is rising." Jake Phillips and Hannah Gilman discuss why the number of whole-life sentences is increasing in England and Wales.

Charlotte Williams investigates how archaeology helped the US colonise the Panama Canal Zone – just as the current US government threatens to retake it.

Alex Harvey revisits Lindsay Anderson’s If.... 50 years after its release: "Anderson was a classic child of the British imperial class. His father, a Scot and a soldier, was born in Northern India, his mother, a formidable memsahib, in Queenstown, South Africa, and Anderson himself in Bangalore. He was raised to replicate his father’s social class and profession."

"The family of the ITV Sport presenter Mark Pougatch were all wearing lederhosen." Thomas Weber attends the World Conker Championships at Southwick in Northamptonshire.

Like Mr Bumble, one master of Brixworth Workhouse ended as an inmate of his own establishment

Replying to a comment on my post on Brixworth, I referred a the writer to a page on Brixworth Workhouse. Having done a little more research on the place, I have found a story with strong Dickensian echoes.

In the final chapter of Oliver Twist, Dickens tells us what becomes of his characters in later life. Charley Bates, for instance, seeing what has befallen his criminal associates, resolves to mend his ways and, after toiling as a farmer’s drudge and a carrier’s lad, finds himself "the merriest young grazier in all Northamptonshire".

Others are not so lucky:

Mr. and Mrs. Bumble, deprived of their situations, were gradually reduced to great indigence and misery, and finally became paupers in that very same workhouse in which they had once lorded it over others. Mr. Bumble has been heard to say, that in this reverse and degradation, he has not even spirits to be thankful for being separated from his wife.

And the same thing, says the Brixworth History Society site, happened to one of the masters of Brixworth Workhouse:

Brixworth Workhouse had eight Masters during its 98 year history with all their wives acting as Matrons. One Master, a James Macdonald in the 1890s, was a man with exceptional physique who would deter tramps from entering the Workhouse by exercising outside with a set of Indian clubs. It was the same Master who adorned his lavish sitting room with autographed photographs of Queen Mary and her brothers. 

Despite having taught deportment and physical exercise to royal pupils, when he left the Workhouse in 1898 he fell upon hard times himself and on returning to the Workhouse as an inmate, he died there a pauper.

I've also discovered that a study of the Brixworth Union – the collection of parishes that operated the workhouse – has been published. It's Protesting about Pauperism: Poverty, Politics and Poor Relief in Late-Victorian England, 1870-1900 by Elizabeth T. Hurren.

The more you find out, the more books there are to buy.

Folk horror, Saxons and the workhouse: Brixworth on a sunny winter's afternoon

I went to Brixworth yesterday afternoon. It's a large village between Market Harborough and Northampton famous for its Saxon church. (The spire is a 14th-century addition.)

A low winter sun and bare tree branches always make for shadows that look like they are out of a folk horror film.

There is a horrible irony about the village. It's workhouse was notorious:

Soon after the Workhouse had opened the Secretary of State had to send a Bow Street Runner to Brixworth to investigate the strict policy being adopted by the Guardians regarding the payment of "out relief" to the poor and needy of the parish. Brixworth became known as the "dark portion of rural England" due to its almost complete withdrawal of "out relief".

Conditions inside the building were often criticised too as being prison like and spartan and Mrs Briddon, one of the cooks, described the food as meagre and tasteless. It was an institution feared by the old and needy, a place where families were split up and accommodated in single sex dormitories.

The surviving central block of the workhouse – it used to be considerably larger – now houses a cafe. I always feel guilty when I order my avocado toast and latte there.

A Very Private School by Charles Spencer

A Very Private School: A Memoir

Charles Spencer

William Collins, 2025, £10.99

There used to be two prestigious prep schools near Market Harborough. Nevill Holt closed in 1999, shortly after the police arrived to talk to the deputy head about allegations of sexual abuse and he fled the building and hanged himself in some nearby woods. Later that year a former member of staff was jailed for ten years for 33 sexual offences against boys aged between eight and twelve.

The second school was Maidwell Hall, which closed earlier this year and is the subject of Charles Spencer’s book. He was a pupil there from 1972 to 1977, and reveals it to have been a nest of physical and sexual abuse. 

The headmaster was skilled at keeping parents and even governors away from the school, which he had to be because his regime was geared to providing him, each evening, with half a dozen boys to beat. Some of Spencer’s fellow pupils still bear the scars 50 years later.

Life was no better at Nevill Holt. In the school’s last years, its sporting teams had to travel up to 50 miles to find other schools prepared to play them. Visiting teams had noticed that the facilities for showering and changing at Nevill Holt were designed to maximise masters’ opportunities to ogle naked boys and declined to return.

Charles Spencer writes beautifully – this is no run-of-the-mill celebrity memoir – and what he brings out is the misery of being sent to board at the age of eight, even if the school is more benign than Maidwell Hall and Nevill Holt were. The child loses his parents, his home, his bedroom, his pets and his toys and is instead looked after by strangers those parents know little about. 

Psychologists liken the experience to bereavement and some children never get over it. Others learn to dissociate themselves from their feelings, building a false personality that will please the school authorities. If you are reminded of some of our recent political leaders, I recommend Richard Beard’s book Sad Little Men, which explores this idea further.

When A Very Private School came out, Maidwell Hall issued a statement saying that “almost every facet of school life has evolved significantly since the 1970s”. No doubt that’s true, but it still comes as a shock to find that a group of parents who opposed the closure of the school lodged a formal complaint about it with the Charity Commission. 

What kind of country has charities that exist to send children away from home at the age of eight? After reading Charles Spencer’s book, you will feel we ought to have ones that campaign against the practice instead.

This review appears in issue 432 of Liberator magazine.

The Joy of Six 1435

"The real scandal here is the behaviour of the board. As Patrick Barwise and Peter York detailed in their 2020 book The War on the BBC, the British right has been trying to cow and weaken the BBC for decades, for both political and commercial reasons. But this time is different because the chief saboteurs were board members, chiefly Sir Robbie Gibb. On the Today programme, former Sun editor David Yelland justifiably described this week’s events as 'nothing short of a coup'. The call is coming from inside the house." Dorian Lynskey says the BBC is the biggest prize in the information war and the right may be about to destroy it.

Stacy Patton shows that Donald Trump is not the first US president to be accused of paedophilia.

"In 2024, Pershore and Thrapston became the first towns in the UK to twin their rivers, the Avon and the Nene, creating the Sister Rivers partnership. The idea is simple and scalable. Each town takes guardianship of its stretch of river, monitors it, and shares results, data, and strategies with its twin. Two councils, two communities, one purpose: to restore what regulation has failed to defend." Michael Chapman Pincher on a new initiative to protect our rivers.

Gordon McKelvie finds that historians must be alert to the dangers of AI and its potential to simplify, and ultimately impoverish, the study of the past.

"At one point the White Lady apparently benevolently watches over the father’s daughters as they sleep but she is revealed to be a form of predatory grim reaper when suddenly the silhouetted arc of a scythe she holds appears over their heads." Stephen Prince revisits White Lady, a lesser-known television play by David Rudkin that was broadcast in 1987

The Crow Inn has a guide to some of the best pubs in Derby.

Redevelopment scheme for derelict Desborough factory site falls through – again

It comes as no great shock to anyone who has followed the site's history, but the Central Co-op has pulled out of a deal that would have seen it pay £1.5m for the derelict Lawrence Shoe Factory in Desborough.

It joins Aldi and Tesco in having planned to build a supermarket there and then decided against the idea. At one time it was also expected that 40 council houses would be built on the site.

Now, reports the Northamptonshire Telegraph, the owners, North Northamptonshire Council are back to square one in their attempt to sell it.

When I was in Desborough a couple of weeks ago – I like the Costa Coffee there – the wasteland in front of the old factory was looking particularly unkempt after a summer's plant growth, and the modern buildings more derelict than when I last saw them.

The Telegraph has included a link to the estate agent's particulars in its report in case you feel like buying the site yourself.