On New Year's Eve 1892 Saddington played Kibworth at cricket on a frozen reservoir

Here's a another story I discovered when I visited Kibworth Library last week. This report is from the Market Harborough Advertiser and Midland Mail (3 January 1893), but the story appeared in newspapers across the country.

A Novel Cricket Match. Saddington v. Kibworth

Teams representing the respective cricket clubs of Saddington and Kibworth, met in an extremely novel encounter on Saddington reservoir on Saturday, when an amusing match on the ice ended in a draw. 

The match was played on skates, and the ice being in splendid condition, the leather hunting was very considerable, and consequently there were many boundaries scored. The wickets were a combined structure, so that the fall of one occasioned the toppling over of the lot, but despite its drawbacks the game was a very interesting one. Smith, one of the Kibworth players, took four wickets in one "over," while on the opposite side Capell and Richardson were very conspicuous for their good fielding. 

Saddington batted first, and though the wicket of their first player was lowered by the very first ball, they were not dismissed until they scored over 200 runs. Owing to the failing light stumps were drawn before Henson and Badcock, the first two Kibworth men, had been separated. A large number of spectators witnessed the match.

The final score was: Saddington 205, Kibworth 95-0. Match drawn. My photograph shows Saddington Reservoir on a warmer day.

Foxton Locks to reopen after the drought – for just a week

A major victim of this year's drought has been the canals of the Midlands, with many lengths of them closed to boats.

Among the closures are the two flights of staircase locks at Foxton near Market Harborough. Now BBC News reports that they are to reopen - but only for a week.

The Canal and River Trust said the site, near Market Harborough, will be open for a week between 27 October and 2 November.

The locks will be open from 10:00 BST to 15:00, with the last boat allowed in at 14:00. 

The locks between Foxton and Leicester will also open between those hours during the same week.

Explaining the brevity of Foxton's reopening, a spokesperson for the trust said:

"We're really pleased that recent rainfall has at least allowed us to reopen locks for a short period and enable boaters to get to where they need to be ahead of winter.

"While recent wet weather has been very welcome, it's not been enough to make up for the prolonged dry weather we've experienced for the majority of the year.

"Reservoir holdings are still well below what we would normally expect for this time of year, so we still need to be careful with our water and allow our reservoirs to refill ahead of next year's boating,"

And the BBC also reports that Saddington Reservoir, the nearest canal reservoir to the locks, was still only at 25 per cent capacity last month.

The drought has certainly brought home how vulnerable the inland waterways are to climate change. See the Canal and River Trust's Climate Adaptation Report for its own thinking on the subject.

In the mean time, you can see Foxton Locks above and Saddington Reservoir below.

Later. Due to the low water level, the section from Kilby Lock 30 to Kings Lock 38 will not be open for navigation after all.

Drought on the Leicestershire-Rutland border, 1947

Early in 1947 England was hit by serious flooding, but by September there was a different problem: drought.

The video above comes from this part of the world, and there's more detail in this cutting from the Leicester Mercury (28 October 1947):

Harborough Villages Short of Water 

A water shortage in several villages near Market Harborough has reached serious proportions and arrangements never been more extensive in the 12 years Mr R. W. Turner has been surveyor to the Harborough Rural District Council.

The shortage is particularly acute at Husbands Bosworth but wells have also dried up at Saddington, East Langton, Shangton, Stonton-Wyville and Slawston. 

To all these villages the Rural District Council is sending emergency supplies on alternate days, when a lorry with a 500-gallon tank is met by villagers with buckets baths and other receptacles.

I remember following a village heritage trail around Husbands Bosworth and being surprised at how late mains water came to the village.

And Stonton Wyville gets another mention on Liberal England, but it's odd to see the name hyphenated like that.

Market Harborough buses under threat from Conservative chaos

Some bus routes serving Market Harborough could be scrapped because of the the budget crisis facing Leicestershire County Council.

HFM News, with a clip from an interview with Liberal Democrat councillor Simon Galton, reports:

The authority has warned its financial outlook is ‘dire’ and ahead of budget proposals being made public next week, some details have been shared with councillors.

Cuts could be made to bus services subsidised by the authority, which include the number 33 town service in Market Harborough and route 44, which links the town with Foxton and Fleckney.

Conservatives are now a complete shambles. Only last year the government announced a £3bn scheme to improve bus services outside London.

We were promised hundreds of miles of new bus lanes, fares with daily price caps so people can use the bus as many times a day as they need, more services in the evenings and at weekends, integration with train tickets and that all buses would accept contactless payments.

The Guardian caught the rapturous tone of the announcement:

The DfT said it expected to see local authorities and operators working together to deliver bus services so frequent that passengers could just "turn up and go" - no longer needing to rely on a traditional timetable and no longer having to wait more than a few minutes.

Boris Johnson said: "Just as they did in London, our reforms will make buses the transport of choice, reducing the number of car journeys and improving quality of life for millions."

Leicestershire County Council did put in a £58m for more government funding for bus services earlier this year, apparently because it "lacked ambition".

How things have turned out is a classic illustration of Boris Johnson's ability to identify issues that matter to voters and his inability to be arsed to do anything about them, and also of the damage done by too many changes at 10 and 11 Downing Street.

Because Market Harborough is not alone in facing cuts to its bus services. 

Back in July, the Guardian reported that at least 135 bus routes across England were due to be cut or scrapped altogether.

And in case you thought "levelling up" would save the North of England from cuts, 25 routes in Liverpool and 40 across the North East were affected.

But that's the modern Conservative Party for you. The right hand doesn't know what the left hand's doing, and you can be sure that, if it ever finds out, it will do its best to stop it.

Harborough less affected by boundary changes than expected

HFM News has the news about the Boundary Commission's final proposals for Leicestershire. The idea of a radical redrawing of boundaries within the county has been dropped, with the result that the Harborough constituency will keep its spine of Oadby, Wigston, Kibworth and Market Harborough.

As the trend has been at many boundary views now, the proposals would mean more villages will be moved into other constituencies. 

Fleckney, Saddington, Husbands Bosworth and the Kilworths would move into the South Leicestershire constituency, while villages in the north of the District, along with Hallaton and Melbourne, would become part of a new Rutland and Stamford constituency.

I'm happy to see this. The original proposal was that the Harborough constituency would have the same boundaries as the Harborough local government district. But that is a swathe of rural Leicestershire with few transport links.

Keeping the traditional Harborough constituency much as it is will also encourage the Liberal Democrats. In 2005 we came within 4000 votes of winning here, and these boundary changes look favourable to us.

All we have to do now is return the Labour Party to third place and establish ourselves the clear challengers once more,

You can read the final proposals for Leicestershire and make your comments on the county council website.

Harborough District Walking Festival, 26-29 May 2022

"Come and discover an often overlooked part of England," says the website for this month's Harborough District Walking Festival:

The Harborough district is an area of rolling countryside, ancient pastures and farmland, streams, woodland spinneys and beautiful villages. Canals, battles and buried treasure are all there to be explored – not to mention local characters and ancient customs.

All the Festival walks are led by two experienced guides, so your walk will be enhanced with fascinating details of the local area and its history

Thursday 26 May

Morning walk: Rolleston and Noseley (no stiles)

Afternoon walk: Tugby, Rolleston and Skeffington

Friday 27 May
Morning walk: Claybrooke Parva and Fosse Way

Afternoon walk: Brampton Valley Way (wheelchair friendly)

Saturday 28 May
Morning walk: Hallaton, Cranoe and Slawston

Afternoon walk: Saddington, Gumley and Laughton

Sunday 29 May
The Langtons

There is a charge for each walk and places are limited. You can book via the Festival website.

James Carpenter, one of the Festival guides, runs an extensive programme of public guided walks based around Market Harborough and Lutterworth. Full details can be found online.

"Teas in the Church", Saddington

I took this a couple of weeks ago. There is something pleasing about the light.

Saddington reservoir, the 44 bus and Richard Jefferies

What to do this Saturday? Now we have reasonable weather again, a country walk sounded like a good idea. One by water even more so. But where to walk?

Yesterday the idea hit me. I have seen Saddington reservoir from the garden of the village's pub, the Queen's Head, and remembered a very minor road that went past it from a cycle ride decades ago.

Saddington reservoir was built to supply water to the Leicester line of the Grand Union Canal and now has a sailing club. Despite the many minatory notices, it was possible to walk the length of its dam.

There were no yachts out on the water, only anglers. And, inevitably, I was reminded of Richard Jefferies and Bevis.

After the reservoir, I climbed up to Gumley, walked down the main street of the village (finding its pub open) and then across the fields to Foxton locks.

One sad note: this walk was only possible because the 44 bus took me out to Saddington and home from Foxton. It is one of the routes under serious threat because of cuts to council spending.

Saddington canal tunnel

Opened in 1797, Saddington tunnel is on the Leicester line of the Grand Union Canal.

It is reputed to be haunted by Anna, a headless female ghost.

As at Husbands Bosworth, you can still follow the path that the horses that drew the narrow boats used to take over the hill.

Leicestershire landscape

The road from Saddington to Smeeton Westerby.

A mud wall in Saddington

It's been a while since we had a mud wall, so here is a photo of one taken in Saddington this afternoon.

Cat of the Week visits Saddington