The Art of the 1970’s ….

It’s one of those decades that doesn’t always get a good press.

Floral tea tray, circa 1974

For some it is the time of loons, lava lamps, messy wars in the Far East, and “The Winter of Discontent”.

And maybe that explains the lack of an all defining title.

So, there are “The Swinging Sixties”, "The Roaring Twenties" and “The Gay Nineties” [1890s] to which the Great Depression and the build up to war has framed how we see the 1930s.

But the journalists and pundits with all their superficial and instant descriptive labels don’t seem to have bothered with the 1970s.

Now I am a child of the 60s but it was the following decade that marked out my passage from student to a young married man, with a job and mortgage, and a hot potch of a stereo, with a Pioneer deck, Wharfdale speakers and that iconic Sony receiver with its large single dial set in a wooden tower.

And I retain a fondness for that ten years and like others of my generation I have a soft spot for the ephemera, like this tray.

It was sold by Marks & Spencer’s and we bought ours sometime in 1974.  It travelled with me for the next thirty years from East Manchester out to Ashton-Under-Lyne and to Chorlton, before it finally gave up the ghost.

But it’s bright floral design and heavy yellow and brown colours bring it all back.

I can’t remember how much we paid for it was a lot less than the one I came across in pop boutique on Oldham Street.

Tasteless Chicken soup advert, 1979

At which point I could wax lyrical about the loons I bought from On The Eight Day, the larva lamps in the Pit and Nelson or that Sony receiver which was the only item we lost from a burglary in the 1990s.

But instead I chose that tasteful advert for Chicken Soup seen in Chorlton and a promotional song for Leicester called “It’s a Leicester Fiesta" which has it all.

Location; the 1970s

Picture; the tea tray circa 1974, courtesy of Sue Hampson, and Chicken soup advert, circa 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*It's a Leicester Festival, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNUZIWce3cE

What Miss Sarah Kate Sloane did in the Great War ..... part 1

Now, I am only at the beginning of the story of Ms Sloane, who was born in 1871 and died in 1965, but already it promises to be a fascinating piece of research.

British War Medal, 1914-1919

She was born and died in Leicester and spent most of her life there, save for those periods when as a Red Cross nurse she served in hospitals across the country and in France during the Great War.

And it was her wartime medals which drew me into her story, and while I have accumulated some biographical details, I know there is much more.

She was awarded The British War Medal, 1914-18, The Allied Victory Medal, 1914-19, The War Medal Medal, 1939-45, and the Defence Medal, 1939-45, and the first two carry an inscription which includes her name and the letters V.A.D, which refer to her role as a member of the Voluntary Aid Detachment.

Members of V.A.D. performed a variety of tasks in Red Cross Hospitals, from nursing to cleaning, washing, and cooking, as well as administration and many also took on fund raising activities in the community.

Ms Sloane came from a medical family and both her father and brother were doctors, which makes her choice of nursing and unsurprising one.

Evington House, 2022, formerly Kighton V.A.D., Hospital

The Red Cross records show she served from 1915 through to 1917, at various Red Cross hospitals, starting at the Knighton V.A.D., hospital close to where she lived.

From 1916 she was at No.2 B.R.C. Hospital in Rouen, followed by Frensham Hill Military Hospital,  and Ullesthorpe Court, & Charnwood V.A.D. Hospitals.

After which she worked for the Discharged Soldiers & Sailors organization, which was part of the Ministry of Labour and focused on finding suitable employment for men no longer in the forces.

So far, I have no pictures of Ms Sloane, but I know where she lived in Leicester, and some at least of the houses are still standing today, as is the Knighton V.A.D Hospital which is now known as Evington House and stands in Evington Park.

Evington House, 2022, formerly Kighton V.A.D., Hospital

The house dates from the early 19th century, and bits maybe much older.  In its time it was owned by one family with links to the campaign against the slave trade, and in 1914 was lent by its then owner to the Red Cross.

There are various accounts of the house including its time as a hospital and many also include a fascinating account of the daily routines by Miss Alice Henderson who was the commandment which appeared in the Wyggeston Girls Gazette in 1919.

I suspect much of what Miss Henderson outlined in the article would have been familiar to Sarah Sloane, and was pretty much the lot of many who worked in Red Cross Hospitals.*

And that at present is pretty much all there is.  I know she arrived back from Algiers in 1931, left over £55,000 at her death in 1965 and lived for 30 years at 8 University Road, in Leicester.

Defence Medal, 1939-45

But I don’t have a clue how she voted, what she thought of the big issues of the day or how she occupied her time after war service.

That said I am confident I will find out more.  There are people who have included her in their own family history records, and I await a reply from the Leicester Records Office so there is much more to play for.

All of which leaves me with that odd reflection that history can be messy and can surprise you.

So, when I started the search for the story of Sarah Kate’s medals, I had no idea that she came from Leicester or that our Josh and Polly would turn out to live just minutes away from both Knighton V.A.D., hospital, and her home on University Road.

But then that’s the fun of the past.

Location; Leicester, and elsewhere

Pictures; Miss Sloane’s medal, courtesy of David Harrop and Evington House, formerly Knighton V.A.D., hospital, from the collection of Josh Simpson

Sources; census records, 1901-1921, Red Cross Records, 1914-1919, Baptismal record, 1871, various street directories  and electoral registers, 1920-1930, Probate Records

* Evington’s VAD Hospital, Evington Echo, December 19th, 2014, https://evingtonecho.uk/evingtons-vad-hospital/

& Evington House, Evington Park, https://storyofparksleicester.com/park-histories/evington-park/#:~:text=This%20house%20is%20said%20to,hunter%20gatherers%20roaming%20over%20it.&text=In%20Roman%20times%20and%20on,have%20been%20a%20Roman%20cemetery

On discovering Knighton …… that suburb of Leicester which was once its own place

An occasional series on the village and township of Knighton, as it was and as it is today.

Knighton in 1834

In 1846 Knighton was described as “2 miles S. by E. of Leicester, a village, township and chapelry, containing 465 inhabitants, and 1638 acres of fertile land, intersected by a small rivulet, and traversed by the Midland Counties Railway, and the turnpikes from Leicester to Welford and Market Harborough”.

On the north side of the chapelry "was a pleasant suburb called Stonegate, adjoining the Racecourse of Leicester, and having several handsome houses, occupied by manufacturers, &c, who have their places of Business in that town.  The soil on the north is good loam, and on the south strong clay.

Sir E.C. Hartopp, Bart., occupied the Hall, as a hunting box, and is lord of the manor, and owner of a great part of the soil; and the rest belongs to G.A.L. Keck, Esq., Sergeant D’Oyly, Mr. Joseph Johnson, and a few other proprietors.”

The place was mentioned in the Domesday Book, and over the centuries passed through the hands of several landowners.  Its church predated the Norman Conquest, while Wesleyan chapel was only erected in 1816, and “the commodious National School was built in 1840”.

Knighton's most prominent residents, 1846

The description concluded with listing the 21 most prominent individuals of whom ten lived in Stoneygate  and had their places of business in Leicester.

 The remaining eleven lived in Knighton, and amongst them were two publicans, three farmers, assorted professionals, some shop keepers and Elizabeth Hughes the teacher at the National School.

All of which is a start, and because we have the census returns we can add to the 21, the other 400 or so inhabitants, recording their names, occupations, places of birth as well as the age profile of Knighton.

Added to this we also have the electoral register for 1841, which not only lists the names of those entitled to vote, but just how they cast their votes.

So, I know that Mr. Charles Simpkin, the farmer, voted for the Tories and Mr. Alfred Burgess, who described himself as a “Woolpacker” and was  later a J.P., cast his two votes for the Whigs.

And if I can locate the tithe records and rate books I will have a better idea of how the land was farmed, the size of farms, and  the level of annual rents.

All of which will provide a detailed description of Knighton in the 1840s, before it became a suburb of that big city two miles up the road.

Location; Knighton

Next; Who were the 18 Knighton electors in 1841 ..... and how did they vote?

Pictures; Knighton in 1834, from Greenwood’s map of Leicestershire, Greenwood’s Atlas, 1829-1834, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/, and Knighton’s prominent residents in 1846, from History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Leicestershire, 1846

*History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Leicestershire, 1846

The picture …. the municipal venture ….. and half a mystery solved

Here is a picture I keep coming back to.

At the Electricity showrooms, undated

It is a popular one which keeps cropping up on social media and was recently reposted by my Facebook chum, Christopher Roman.

Alas I have never been able to track a date or a source for the image, but the design of the building and the fashions on display would suggest the 1930s.

This was still the height of municipal socialism which saw local authorities continue to advance their responsibilities in a range of activities.

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, in the absence of much from central government it was local politicians who were making their towns and cities better places to live.  As Sidney Webb said the “municipalities have done most to socialize our industrial life.” *

And so a resident of Manchester, Birmingham or Glasgow could benefit from municipal supplies of water, gas and electricity, travel on municipally owned trams and buses walk through a municipally maintained park while knowing his children were being educated in municipally run schools.

Electricity Supply Box, 1915

“Glasgow builds and maintains seven public ‘common lodging houses’; Liverpool provides science lectures; Manchester builds and stocks an art gallery; Birmingham runs schools of design; Leeds creates extensive cattle markets; and Bradford supplies water below cost price. 

There are nearly one hundred free libraries and reading rooms. The minor services now performed by public bodies are innumerable.”*

And chief amongst those was the growing push to provide affordable gas and electrical fires, cookers and a range or household appliances which were promoted through local authority showrooms and supported by municipally run classes on how to cook with gas and electricity.

But the "City of Leicester Electricity Service" remained elusive ….. until last night when Tina turned up the story in a matter of minutes eclipsing my long practised historical skills.

It was all there in an article entitled City Hall, from the Story of Leicester.**

I have no intention of lifting other people’s research and so instead if you want to know the history of the service just follow the link.

Electricity Joan? 1938

Not that I am any closer to finding the date or the source, but I think it will be sometime after 1935 when the newly opened "Municipal Offices housed the Leicester Corporation Electricity Department (later the East Midland Electricity Board) and were specially furnished with a model kitchen for 'housewives who are interested in the modern uses of electricity in the home'. 

Exhibition Model Of All-Electric Kitchen, 1935

A special theatre also presented weekly cookery demonstrations and a Service Centre displayed, sold and hired out electrical appliances".**

Added to which I guess the picture comes from promotional material issued by the City Council.

Shopping for the new, date unknown

Now that is almost the end of the story but not quite, because after an appeal on the Leicester Old and New site and before Tina’s discovery a heap of people suggested the location for the offices as Charles Street.***

And that placed it almost opposite the air b&b we stayed at in January on one of our visits to see our Josh and Polly.

So as they say ….. it really is a very small world and armed with my newly acquired knowledge I will go and stand outside City Hall next time we are in Leicester.

Pictures; City of Leicester Electricity Service, source, and date unknown Manchester Corporation Electricity Works Supply box, circa 1915, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, advert from Manchester Electric Supply and picture of an all-electric kitchen 1935, Manchester Corporation

*Webb, Sidney, from Historic, Fabian Essays in Socialism 1889

**City Hall, Story of Leicester, https://www.storyofleicester.info/civic-affairs/city-hall/

***Leciester Old and New, https://www.facebook.com/groups/483822492579736/?multi_permalinks=855570792071569&notif_id=1691096569147245&notif_t=feedback_reaction_generic&ref=notif

Adventures in Middle England …... no. 6 … a pint ..... a pub .... and a bit of history

This is the story of two country pubs …. both “half as old as time” and both fascinating places whose stories can only best be shared over a pint on a warm summer’s day with the old couple in the corner.

The Bewicke Arms, 2024

Ideally such pubs are best “chance discoveries” which you come across on one of those aimless trips down country lanes with no purpose other than to find out what’s around the corner.

This way of exploring somewhere to drink, is in start contrast to those friends of mine who buy the guides to pubs and during quiet winter evenings plan the spring and summer day outs with the option on a series of stay overs.

But for us falling across The Bewicke Arms was pure chance on a day when we had hit on the village of Hallaton.  

Sadly it was closed but a quick glance on line offered this from CAMRA,  “17th century pub, thatched roof and low beams, but modernised interior. 

A sign to light the way, 2024

Pub reopened August 2023 after a long period of closure. Popular for Thai food. No bus service to Hallaton these days.  The pub is located within a grade 2 listed building”.*

And that led me back to Historic England who told me it was a listed as a Grade II building in 1984 describing it as a “Public house and dwelling. Late C16 - early C17. Render over ironstone rubble with thatched roof. 2 storeyed, large 2-unit plan with gabled right hand bay containing canted bay window to ground floor and 3-light casement above. 

Doorway left of this, and a 3-light casement beyond it. 2 other upper 3-light casements. Fenestration probably C19 or C20. Coped gables. Gable and axial stacks”.**

Now, Hallaton is a small village of just over 590 people about 17 miles from Leicester and despite CAMRA’s dismal warning, there does appear a bus.  

In Hallaton walls have their own flowers, 2024

And for those who are interested it’s the 747 from the Haymarket bus station in Leicester, takes  36 minutes but and there always is a but there is only one every four hours.

So best watch the time before ordering another round of drinks in The Bewicke Arms, which brings me back to the pub which I know was run by a Thomas Peck in 1891.  He was 79 a widow and was assisted by his daughter Phobe and Sarah Simpkin who described herself as a “General Servant was aged 14 and like the Peck’s had been born in Hallaton.

Back then the occupants of the village derived their living from the land, and associated trades like blacksmith with a high proportion working for the railway, along with some charwomen, a grocer, butcher, a dressmaker and the schoolteacher.

A decade later the job profile had changed little, and the population stood at 609.

In the fulness of time I will dig deeper into the village and perhaps we will return during opening times.

The pub in Great Tew, 2024

And that is what we had done when we visited the Falklands Arms in Great Tew.  

It dates from the 16th century, and the interior is all you would expect from an old pub in the heart of a rural village.

The rooms are small, boast wood and stone floors with a mix of panelling and bare brick walls.

All of which is perfect for a night with a series of pints pondering on the pubs stories, but that is a tad unhistorical and so I shall go offer and look its past in the historical records.

Inside with stories from the 16th century, 2024

But not before I call back the memories of similar nights in the pubs of Kent which were just a short journey from Eltham, that bit of south east London where I grew up.

Never underestimate  the joy of being 18 with friends who not only had cars but didn't drink, all of which was a recipe for long summer evenings exploring picturesque villages and sampling rough cider at a shilling a pint.

But that is for another time.

Location; Hallaton & Great Tew

Pictures; pubs with history, 2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Bewicke Arms, Hallaton, CAMRA, https://www1.camra.org.uk/pubs/bewicke-arms-hallaton-174431

** The Bewicke Arms Public House, Historic England, https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1061672?section=official-list-entry

Census returns, 1891 & 1901, Enu 4 Hallaton, Leicestershire

Adventures in Middle England ……… from Leicestershire into the Cotswolds … No. 4 ..... fields … the empty road …. and no one to talk to

 I had forgotten just how quiet and empty bits of Britain can be

It’s an obvious observation but when you live in a city which is at the heart of an urban region it is possible to traverse a heap of other neighbouring cities and towns along with their suburbs without encountering a field, a farm or flocks of sheep and the odd herd of cattle.

True if you take to the motorways, you do get glimpses of fields, which may host a tractor, a rusty piece of farm equipment and some livestock, but the speed of travel means they are gone in a glance.

Not so if you choose to travel by country lanes, advised of course by Sidney Sat Nav and accompanied by Vera the Voice whose pronunciation of places can at times be eccentric.

The lanes and small roads my twist and become incredibly narrow while the occasional lumbering tractor creates a backlog of snaking traffic but it’s worth it.

Worth it because setting aside the tractor, there can be so many surprises from the wealth of wildflowers that grow beside the road, to the tunnels of trees which envelope you and the variety of cottages which just hove into view.

And to these can be added the sleepy villages, some more picturesque than others, which may still boast a pub but will almost certainly have a church with or without medieval bits and which if you are very lucky may be open to casual visitors.

Nearly 60 years ago on an ill-advised holiday when six of us booked a four berth caravan in Dorset  I remember the day we had gone our separate ways for the afternoon and I came across a small church in the middle of nowhere.

The door was unlocked, and I was the only occupant.  

The sunlight shone through the stained-glass windows illuminating specks of dust and casting shadows across the pulpit, font and stone tomb of a long dead squire and his wife.

But it was the mix of silence save for the ticking clock in the tower and the coolness of the interior which struck me after the fierce heat of the summer sun and the incessant buzz of insects which had accompanied me to the church door.

It was an experience only bettered when aged nine I was allowed to wander off from my grandparent’s house in a village outside Derby and explore the empty lanes, where nothing stirred in the heat of the day apart from the flitting butterflies and that hum from the telegraph wires.

For a boy from southeast London, it was magical if a little unnerving given that I never came across a soul, and only had those finger posts at crossroads as a point of reference.

Still, I never got lost, and the worst that happened was a bit of sun burn and a scolding for being late for tea.

Location; across Leicestershire into the Cotswold

Pictures; journeys in a rural background, 2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

One barn ….. three stories

Someone will know the full story of the bricked-up barn in the village of Hallaton.

It looks like the large entrance was filled in on two separate occasions.

Just when those alterations were carried out I have yet to find out.

The barn is now a residential property, and there at present the story stops.

Location; Hallaton

Picture; the barn with stories 2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Adventures in Middle England ……… from Leicestershire into the Cotswolds …no. 3 …. starting out

All adventures start somewhere and ours started in Market Harborough which my Wikipedia tells me is “a market town in the Harborough district of Leicestershire [with a] population of 24,779 in 2021”and was settled by the Saxons*

From the Grammar School, 2024

Just when that was is unclear, but like many such places it come into history after the Normans arrived, gaining a market in 1204 an extension to its church a century later and a grammar school in the early 17th century which stands on wooden posts which allowed the space below to be used as a market.

In the same century it was chosen as the headquarters by the Royalist army during the Civil War as the base for which to confront the Parliamentarian forces camped nearby at Naseby.  This turned out to be not so good, as during the Battle of Naseby the Royalists were defeated and the chapel in the town was used to house Royalist prisoners.

People watching in the square, 2024

None of which I knew as we sat in the town square, part of which was given over to a Turkish restaurant.

The sun shone, we ate under a leafy tree and I people watched.

The memorial, 2024

I now know heaps more about its history including the war memorial, and that “in 1950 the canal basin was the venue for a week-long National Festival of Boats, the first such festival organised by the Inland Waterways Association and marking the beginning of the revival of the canal network for leisure use”.*

There is plenty more, but I leave that to you to discover.

Location; Market Harborough

Pictures; Market Harborough, 2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Market Harborough,  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_Harborough

Adventures in Middle England ……… from Leicestershire into the Cotswolds …no. 1 the village

When you were born in a city and at the age of 19 exchanged one for another wandering our rural villages can be fascinating.

St Michael's parish church from Eastgate, 2024

It was last week when on a hot sunny day we left the hamlet of Kibworth Harcourt and drove the small twisty lanes with no clear purpose, other than to see what was there.

And that is how just eight miles out from Kibworth Harcourt we arrived in Hallaton which has all you might expect of a village in the heart of the English countryside.

The War Memorial, 2024

These included the war memorial, the church, a school and even a museum which to be fair was only open at weekends.

My Wikipedia tells me that, “The parish church is dedicated to St Michael and is mainly of the 13th century: the aisles were added a century later. 

The church is sited on rising ground and has a dignified tower with a fine broach spire (one of the best in the county); the nave and chancel and aisles have nobility and beauty. 

The sculptured stonework of the north aisle contrasts with the plain battlemented south aisle. A former rector is commemorated by a handsome monument attached to one of the corners.

The village has a famous bottle kicking ritual and "Hare Pie Scramble", which take place usually on Easter Monday. There is a small village museum, offering history of the area. 

Flowers, green stuff and a thatched cottage, 2024

The Hallaton Treasure, a late Iron Age hoard of more than 5,000 silver and gold coins was found at a site near Hallaton in 2000”.*

Alas the pub opposite the war memorial was closed but then it was only 10.30 in the morning.

And at that time little was stirring, apart from a Waitrose grocery van, two teenage girls, and the stone mason working at repairing a wall of the church.

But then there are only 594 people and given it was the summer holidays I guess we shouldn’t have been surprised.  

Through an entrance, 2024

A century and half ago I suspect many of the adults would have been engaged in the fields along with some of the children and others would have been about chores in their homes, making an equally quiet place.

Alternative horizons, 2024

And quiet it was all of which added to the magic of the place, but then I wasn’t a local in my teens wondering how to pass the long days a full sixteen miles away from Leicester.

But I wont end on a down note, because My Wkipedia also tells me that "Hallaton Hall and its lands were owned by Calverley and Amelia Jane Bewicke in 1845. 

Their daughter was the writer and campaigner Alicia Little. 

As the site of two markets Hallaton was despite its size regarded as a town, even if one of little significance".

The church yard, 2024

And so I should perhaps correct my description of the place as a village and  reinstate it as a town, along with saying "Alicia Little or Mrs Archibald Little (1845 – 31 July 1926) was a British writer and a campaigner for women's rights and later against foot binding in China".**

Not bad for a place of just 594 people.

Location; Hallaton

Pictures; Hallaton, 2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Hallaton, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallaton

**Alicia Little, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alicia_Little

A quiet day in Hallaton with a war memorial

This is the war memorial in the village of Hallaton.

The memorial, 2024

We came across it on a hot sunny day as we made our way through Leicestershire to the Cotswolds.

It was one of half a dozen we encountered, and the sheer number in what was a short journey reinforced that simple fact of how many young men died during the Great War.

Such was the suffering and profound sense of loss along with the wish to remember their sacrifice that war memorials were erected by local subscription across the country.

They come in different designs and sizes, but all reinforce the magnitude of the deaths.

More so when you compare the number killed with the size of the communities who built them.  

The 45 Sentinels, 2024

I have yet to find out the population of Hallaton in 1918, but I guess it will be a tad smaller than the 594 who were here in 2011, and that is telling given that the war memorial records the names of 41 men who from the Great War and 4 from the Second World War.

And as if to underline that loss we saw just four people on a day when nothing else stirred, save the occasional passing car and the work of a stone mason repairing the church wall.

But the community has not forgotten the men, because close by was an information board to “The 45 Sentinels” which records the site of 45 trees planted around the village for each of the fallen. “Each tree has an engraved plaque with the man’s name, regiment and date of death”. And those details are replicated again on the information board.

Location; Hallaton

Pictures; the war memorials, 2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Heaps of history ….. and the Market Harborough challenge

 I must confess I had never come across that 17th century timber building in Market Harborough which once served as the towns grammar school and covered in market.

2024

According to one source “the former Grammar School of 1614  is a small scale timber framed building with an open ground floor designed to "keepe the market people drye in tyme of fowle weather" and having above it the former school room. This building represents the close of the timber framed tradition of buildings in the area”.*

It is in the heart of a conservation area which includes the former sheep market. 

"The middle section of the original market space now comprises the lower High Street, Church Street, Church Square and Adam & Eve Street. This is the traditional retail hub of the town. It is an area of small-scale buildings of varying ages. ….. 

2024

The centre of this area is Church Square dominated by three buildings, the first two on island sites rising from the pavement. First is the great Church of St. Dionysius with its soaring spire of white limestone. The Church rises directly from the pavement without a churchyard, as it was until 1901 a chapel of the Parish Church at Great Bowden 2 miles away. Secondly, alongside the church is the former Grammar School of 1614,  [and] the third building overlooking the Church and Square is the Council offices, Library and Museum. It is a 4-storeyed former corset factory of 1889”.

We washed up there on a hot day on the way to the small village of Kibworth Harcourt. And as you do we stopped to explore and find somewhere to eat.

The restaurant turned out a good choice, more so because the tables spilled out across the square under the shade of a tree.

2024

And from there we watched as the townspeople went about their business or like us enjoyed a drink, and a meal.

After which we sauntered across the square and while the others  “did the shops” I did the conservation area, but despite all my best attempts I couldn’t get a decent picture of the  grammar school and was left with falling back on a 1905 picture postcard from the company of Tuck and Sons.

1905

To be fair when our commercial photographer did his picture the space in front of the hall would have been less busy and I doubt he would have to have dodged the traffic and snapped away before the traffic lights turned colour.

So that's the challenge .... better the 1905 image.

Location Market Harborough

Pictures; The grammar school, 2024 from the collection of Andrew Simpson and in 1905 from Tuck and Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, https://tuckdbpostcards.org/ 

*Conservation Areas in Harborough district - Market Harborough Conservation Area, Market Harborough District Council, https://www.harborough.gov.uk/directory_record/1276/market_harborough_conservation_area

That house “half as old as time” ….. and heaps of stories ...Kibworth Harcourt

This is the Old House in Kibworth Harcourt. 

The Old House, 2024

It dates from 1678 and along with its garden walls is a Grade 1 Listed Building.

I can think of only a few houses which have so caught my interest that I have to confess to being a tad envious of its residents.

"Half as old as time" and with great style, 2024

It stands on the corner of Albert Street and Main Street and consists of sixteen rooms with a large garden to the rear and side.

I went looking for its story and tracked some of its owners and occupants back to 1841 and on through the centuries to 1962.

They were a mix of the well to do, with a sprinkling of high-ranking soldiers including Brigadier – General James Lockhead Jack, DSO who lived there from 1924 till 1962. He is remembered by a green plaque on the side of the property along with Anna Letitia Barbauld “essayist poet and innovative children’s author”. 

She was born in the house in June 1743 and rightly has her own blue plaque located on the garden wall close to the front entrance.

And having trawled the historic records I also came across a fine description of  the Old House on a Kibworth site which describes both the house and some of its history through the centuries  from 1678 down to 2011.*

"The essayist, poet and innovative children's author"

It would be tempting just to “lift” the information but that would not be right, and instead if you want to read about the Parker family who purchased the land in 1609, and built two houses on the site, along with heaps of other residents I suggest you follow the link.

Afterall I could never better the research of Mr. Adams and it would be churlish to try.

So, instead I will fall back on a brief reflection of Kibworth Harcourt, which I first came across last year while looking for old picture postcards of Leicester.

There were only two, dated from the 1920s, but offered up one of those challenges to locate them in the village and tell some stories.

And as you do I found out lots.

Kibworth Harcourt was and still is a small village just 10 miles south of Leicester, with a population of 990, which has only doubled in a century.

"Elegance in the sunlight", 2024

Back in 1916 there were just 446 people with the usual list of tradesmen, and those linked to the land, but also a number who were engaged in the hosiery trade.  

To these can be added the 15 “posh people” who got their own listing in Kelly’s directory for 1916 including Col. Worthy Chaplain C.B., V.C., at Kibworth hall, and Major George Travers in the Old house.

It boasted three pubs and a beer seller and those hosiery frame knitters one of whom also ran the Admiral Nelson.

And without realizing it when we booked a small cottage on Main Street we would be in the heart of part of the village.

Added to which from the cottage we had fine views up the road to the Old House and the rest as they say is the story.

That wall, 2024

All of which leaves me to admit that each night we parked up beside that long garden wall and while we never got to see inside either the house or the garden our location let rip my historical imagination.

The long garden wall was an addition built in 1862 along with an extension at the rear of the house.

And while that wall maybe the baby of the property, its old enough for me marvel at its 2 meter height and its construction.

Location Kibworth Harcourt

Pictures; the Old House and its plaques, 2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*THE OLD HOUSE KIBWORTH HARCOURT - part 1, David Adams, 2019, Kibworth Village, https://www.kibworthvillage.co.uk/museum/item/51-oldhouse.html

Adventures in Middle England …... no. 5 looking for ghosts

I say looking for ghosts but when we washed up in the village of Hallaton it was less ghosts and more just people that were absent.

The wall, 2024

The village is 17 miles from Leicester, has a fine church, a pub, a museum and a war memorial which shares the spot with the old market cross.

In 2011 it boasted a population of 594, and according to my Wikipedia is famous for the discovery of a hoard of Iron Age coins, runs a bottle kicking event and a "Hare Pie Scramble", which takes place usually on Easter Monday.*

And for those that sneer at the use of Wikipedia, I can testify that Lewis Samuel’s A Topographical description of England published in 1840 reports that “Hallaton is distinguished by a singular annual custom [when] on every Easter Monday the inhabitants meet on a piece of ground which was bequeathed to the use and benefit of the rector who then provides two hare pies a quantity of ale and two dozen of penny loaves to be scrambled for.”**

The house, 2024

And by all accounts it’s a brutal affair and once ended with a riot.  

Now after a bit of a rough and tumble the event finishes in the pub.

There is more but for that you will have to look up the details leaving me to reflect that back in 1840 the population was 664 when some might say its best days were behind it.  

It had been granted permission to have a market in 1224 but this lapsed in the late 17th century, and despite attempts to revive it in 1767  according to Mr. Lewis this “proved abortive owing in great measure to the badness of the roads, which were then nearly impassable in winter”.

Still the market cross or Butter Cross remains as a marker for busier times.  

I have to confess I had never seen one before and couldn’t quite work out its purpose.

But a trawl of Historic England revealed that “A standing cross is a free standing upright structure, usually of stone, mostly erected during the medieval period (mid 10th to mid 16th centuries AD”, and were used for a variety of purposes. *** 

The Butter Cross, 2024

That said the entry is somewhat confusing in that it describes it as a “a good example of a medieval or post-medieval Butter Cross”, but also asserts that the cross is thought to date from the 17th century, with modern repairs and refacing, and marks the location of the weekly village market”.***

The church, 2024

So, you “pays your money and takes your choice” and had we been in Hallaton at the weekend we could have also chosen to do the Museum, but we couldn’t because it was closed.

And that was a shame given that the museum’s site records that “Hallaton Museum was the inspiration of Mrs Honoria Whigham who wanted to record, for future generations, a way of life in a small village community which was rapidly changing.

To this end a great variety of artefacts were gathered to form the nucleus of an historic local collection and a display mounted each year”.****

Still, we wandered through the church yard and had a conversation with a stone mason from Birmingham who was repairing one of the walls.

Alas the pub was also closed, and in all our time in the village we encountered just four inhabitants along with a Waitrose grocery van.  

Walking the graveyard, 2024

But that was enough especially as we discovered a remarkable scheme to honour those from the village who had died in the two world wars.  I could say more but it’s a story I have already written.*****

And by then it was time to move on.

Cottages, 2024

The place remained as quiet at the end of our visit as it had at the beginning and there is nothing wrong in that.

Location; Hallaton

Pictures; walking Hallaton 2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Hallaton, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallaton

**A Topographical description of England 4 vols, Lewis Samuel 1830-40

***Butter Cross, Historic England, https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1017498?section=official-list-entry

****Hallaton Museum https://www.hallaton-museum.co.uk/

*****Adventures in Middle England ……… from Leicestershire into the Cotswolds …no. 1 the village, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2024/08/adventures-in-middle-england-from.html