Between the 1870s and 1970s there were extensive open-cast ironstone quarries in parts of Leicestershire. However few traces of these survive. In this video Bob Trubshaw summarises and updates the extensive research of Eric Tonks, which was published in the 1990s, shortly before his death.
From 33.17 you can see the quarries at Nevill Holt near Market Harborough. Most critics now accept that Nevill Holt Hall was the principal model for Bonkers Hall.
Personally, I liked the defence solicitor's statement that "This was a particularly unfortunate incident, perhaps not helped by the layout of the location."
That may have swayed the judges, though they do seem to like headlines involving the word "penis" in general.
Notes
My novel Stalling an Ambush is set in and around the village of Stoughton in Leicestershire, where, in 2009, an eco-town of at least 15,000 houses, called Pennbury, was proposed.
Pennbury met with strong local opposition. It was on the wrong side of Leicester city for motorway access, would have put extra cars on already congested roads and wasn’t even on a bus route. Not only that, it was going to be built on farmland at a time of growing concerns about food security, and would have closed Leicester Aero Club as the site included the airport the club use.
Perhaps then it seems a minor thing to also raise concerns about the so-called Rutland Panther, a large black cat whose territory stretches from the Harborough District in Leicestershire to Rutland. There’s no definitive evidence of the cat, but many sightings have been reported, including one from a surprised motorcyclist in Kings Norton, near Stoughton. Periodically, BBC Wildlife and Big Cat Conversations podcast report on sightings nationwide.
Generally, countryside residents tolerate these mythical cats. If they are real, they are unlikely to impinge on humans. The panther in Stalling an Ambush observes:
She knew two things about humans. They weren’t edible but they were dangerous.
So, in the novel, when radio programme researcher Frances Winter is despatched to interview a Stoughton resident about another sighting, she runs through the interview on autopilot. The interviewee doesn’t have any evidence. Frances drives out to the airfield to take a photo. The novel imagines Pennbury got the go ahead, but was stalled as the economy stalled in the Credit Crunch, and the aero club had abandoned their home.
Frances discovers something that shouldn’t be there – observing waiting, adapting – and now has the unlooked for responsibility of deciding how much the world needs to know and what the cost of knowing can be. Stalling an Ambush is described as an uncomfortable, tense novel of observation, responsibility and the consequences of the wild not being in secluded places. Her manager observes, "You know, when you get over the fact that these are serious killing machines, they’re actually quite attractive."
The novel is firmly rooted in the eastern Leicestershire countryside, drawing on both real and fictional locations. Previously I had a short story, Snowena, printed in an anthology, Gentle Footprints which included what turned out to be Richard Adams' last published short story. His story Leopard Aware was written from the viewpoint of a leopard.
That prompted the idea of exploring some of the story of Stalling an Ambush from the panther’s viewpoint:
"There were old traces of fox, badger and pheasant. No recent scents. No other cats. No recent smell of human either. She slid into the undergrowth. This was her territory now.”
Stalling an Ambush is available from most online bookshops, including Bookshop.org.
Emma Lee was born in South Gloucestershire and now lives in Leicestershire. Her poems, short stories and articles have appeared in many anthologies and magazines in Britain and abroad.
Now here's a story:
Kish Modasia from London, out for a walk at Rutland Water, got more of an adventure than she bargained for when, with very little warning, she got stuck in mud almost up to her waist and needed to call emergency services.
You can hear Kish telling BBC Leicester’s Andy Dayman all about the drama that unfolded on BBC Sounds.
h/t Rutland Ned.
The remains of a lost Rutland village can currently be seen because of the drought, reports ITV News:
Low water levels at Rutland Water reservoir in the East Midlands have uncovered the remains of the buildings which were once part of the village of Nether Hambleton.
Residents in the hamlet, along with other small villages including Middle Hambleton, were relocated to other areas before the buildings were demolished and the area flooded in the 1970s to create the reservoir.
Lord Bonkers has been known to give those who believe the reservoir dates from the 1970s the disparaging label "Rutland Water truthers".
The programme talks about the wider castle site, not just the wonderful Norman great hall you see above.
If you want to know more about the archaeology of this fascinating site, you can listen to an online lecture by Matthew Morris from University of Leicester Archaeological Services, who has led digs there.
Michael Savage reports that journalists are self-censoring their reporting on right-wing protests, Donald Trump's administration and trans issues because of growing concerns about their personal safety.
Alistair Jones on the reorganisation of local government in Leicestershire: "Rutland is deemed too small to be a cost-effective council (although, personally, I remain unconvinced). Similarly, although more contentiously, the population argument was likely to see some expansion of the Leicester City Council boundaries. The question was going to be: how far? And now we know. There will be a significantly enlarged city council, and the remainder of the county and Rutland will form a single unitary authority."
In the latest move to censor US school libraries, one district is considering getting rid of them altogether. Erin Reed reports from Clay County in Florida.
"Both detectives were created or at least popularized by women; both possessed a typically female kind of intelligence that was easy to miss or dismiss. But the women who made them lived entirely different relationships to ownership and credit, and those relationships come through in the characters themselves." As the early Miss Marple and Nancy Drew novels are entering the public domain, Ellen O’Connell Whittet asks what comes next for the characters.
Rob Bagchi recalls the Joe Mercer's short, sunny spell as England's caretaker manager in 1974: "He gave them a blueprint for renovation that was disastrously ignored when the caution and anxiety he had temporarily banished returned with a vengeance."
Warning issued as beach closest to Leicestershire shuts amid health fears
Writing on Oakham Nub News, Lawrence Fenelon, chair of the Friends of Rutland County Museum and Oakham Castle, says:
At March last year RCC's accounts showed over £39m of usable capital reserve. Why can't a small bit of it be used to get the Sea Dragon back in Rutland? If it is not spent by March 2028 it will go to the new combined authority and be lost to Rutland.
Our council is in danger of missing a once in a lifetime opportunity to bring a major attraction to Oakham.
A BBC News story about the campaign for the fossil to be displayed Rutland says:
The authority told the BBC risings costs meant it could no longer afford to proceed with its original plan, but confirmed the petition would trigger a debate on the issue at a future full council meeting.
Readers of Lord Bonkers' Diary, whether in Liberator or on this blog, will have known all about the Rutland Water Monster long before 2021.
Oakham Nub News wins our Headline of the Day Award for a worrying story from Rutland.
Ever fair-minded, the judges point out that though
the document exposes pervasive administrative backlogs, repeated statutory failures, severe asset mismanagement, and critical operational risks.
everything else about the body is tickety-boo.
The council, which is run by a minority Liberal Democrat administration, says the scheme would improve accessibility for residents and visitors, support tourism and local businesses, and reduce reliance on cars.
Oliver Hemsley, the council's portfolio holder for environment and transport, told BBC News:
Rutland Water is one of the county's most valued destinations for both residents and visitors, and these proposals are about making it easier and safer for people to travel there by bike or on foot.
There's more information on the council's website.
Lord Bonkers has asked me to point out that the chances of being devoured by the Rutland Water Monster while visiting have been greatly exaggerated by an irresponsible media.
Bob Trubshaw is our guide. He says in his YouTube blurb:
As with all areas of Britain there are certain wells in Leicestershire and Rutland known as "holy wells" and several dedicated to saints. Almost invariably such holy wells have reputations for clean water and for never running dry.
Leicestershire and Rutland once had over thirty documented wells called "holy well" or dedicated to saints. But few survive. In addition there are some wells that were probably once thought of as holy but aren't reliably documented as such.
Here is my own photo of the well at Beeby.
"There is no need for the UK to replace its warheads. A Holbrook’s maximum yield is ninety kilotons of TNT-equivalent, about six times the size of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. But the US Navy wants a new warhead in the mid-2030s and the UK has to follow suit even though there are no good reasons to do so. No one in Britain played any part in choosing the parameters of the W93." Norman Dombey dissects Britain's nuclear subservience to the US.
Because of the way they are trained, large language models capture only a slice of human language. But it's feared that this slice will come to dominate how humans communicate, report Ada Palmer and Bruce Schneier.
Pam Jarvis offers a personal memoir of the Blair-era widening participation policy for higher education, which promised opportunity but left a complex legacy.
"It is impossible not to talk about The Reckoning in the same breath as Get Carter. Both films are about men who have left their working class roots to become successful in their various professions in London, and who are then forced to come home due to a family tragedy. Liverpool, like Newcastle in Get Carter, is depicted as a tough, rainswept working class town. And much like Jack Carter, Marler is intensely uncomfortable in its bleak surrounds, the tiny council house that his family still live in, with its wood panelling and flocked wallpaper, the raucous smokey pubs they drink in, with their bad torch singers and cheap bingo games." Andrew Nette watches Nicol Williamson heading north before Michael Caine.
Chris Baker on an 18th-century plan to build Britain a new capital – in Rutland.
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| Eyebrook Reservoir Dam: John Fielding |
And here's an interesting snippet from it about a nearby reservoir:
For several months in 1943 up to a dozen Lancaster bombers regularly used Eyebrook Reservoir as a training ground prior to setting off on the famous Ruhr "Dam Busters Raid".
Initially the low flying night flights caused considerable disturbance to the surrounding villages. However local residents, who recognised their sleep would be interrupted, regularly congregated around the lakeside to witness the spectacular rehearsals.
Discover Rutland says:
Practice flights took place from the 3rd May 1943, with a full ‘dress rehearsal’ on the 14th May of 14 Lancasters "attacking" the Eyebrook Dam.
The reservoir, which straddles the border between Leicestershire and Rutland, was built between 1937 and 1940 by Stewarts & Lloyds to supply water to its Corby steel works.
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.
"When I got up in the morning, I saw Antigua on the horizon. I was just like, I'm going to make it there today if it kills me.
"So I just like rowed flat out for the whole day.
"I was determined I was not going to spend another day on the ocean."
She said arriving on land was just fantastic after such a long time at sea by herself.
"I was just so happy, deliriously happy to be back on dry land, and loads of people came down to the dock to see me in.
"There were school children singing and, the harbour master had come out to greet me in, and had brought my mum out."
Lord Bonkers wrote of a meeting with her last year:
She is full of her plans to row across Rutland Water, having already bagged the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, but until the Monster is in less playful mood, I shall not encourage her. The chief whip will give me beans if I cause an unnecessary by-election in a seat we hold.
Thanks to an evil billionaire who wants to destroy the planet, I have been able to show you what that encounter might look like.
Some local lithic goodness from the redoubtable Bob Trubshaw.
Long-term aspirations could see native animals including Eurasian brown bears, lynx and wolves reintroduced inside holding pens, according to developers.
Planning documents said the project would showcase "the wonder of British wildlife" if given the go ahead.
Lord Bonkers is all in favour (I suspect he may he an investor om the project). When I ask what would happen if the brown bears, lynx and wolves escaped, he merely replies that the Rutland Water Monster would soon devour them.
I remain unconvinced that the locals will take such a sanguine view, as too many of them will remember the sudden demise of the Bonkers Hall safari park, even if the old boy "still maintains that those nuns were the authors of their own misfortune".
But seriously folks, this sounds rather fun.
The Roman mosaic discovered at Ketton in Rutland five years ago is even more remarkable than first thought. A story on the University of Leicester website explains why:
New research from the University of Leicester has conclusively determined why the famous Ketton mosaic in Rutland – one of the most remarkable Roman discoveries in Britain for a century – cannot depict scenes from Homer’s Iliad as was initially believed. Instead, it draws on an alternative version of the Trojan War story first popularised by the Greek playwright Aeschylus that has since been lost to history.
The mosaic’s images combine artistic patterns and designs that had already been circulating for hundreds of years across the ancient Mediterranean, suggesting that craftsmen in Roman Britain were more closely connected to the wider classical world than has been assumed.
In this video from 2021, Time Team's community archaeologist Dani Wootton talks to John Thomas from University of Leicester Archaeological Services about the mosaic and the excavation of the wider site at Ketton.
Good politics recognises that public opinion is not a fixed entity but is malleable, not necessarily by rational debate alone. Labour likes to present itself as businesslike. But decent businesses advertise their products, respect their customers, and don’t shout about the merits of their rivals. ...
Good politics also requires something else - a healthy public sphere, in which at least the most egregiously bad ideas and bad actors are subject to sufficient scrutiny that they are weeded out. Which is what we don’t have. Instead, we have a system which often selects for rather than against charlatans and incompetents. And, worse still, neither politicians nor the media are interested in why this might be or how we might change it.
You can read the whole article on Chris's Substack.
