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This would look great in the hall way
It’s not every day gelatinous crime boss Jabba T Hutt allows his favourite decoration to go on show. Which was good news for New Walk Museum in Leicester. As you can see, intergalactic smuggler Han Solo – seen here frozen in carbonite – makes a particularly arresting wall feature. Han…
Fairwell to the Wheatcroft Collection at Donington Park
Leicestershire has many claims to fame. One; it has the world’s largest private collection of grand prix cars. Two; it has the world’s largest private collection of WW2 military vehicles. Both have been on show at Donington Park in north west Leicestershire for many, many years. Alas, time moves on.…
@Allontheboard
Joseph Goddard’s beautiful bank
Leicester has lots of beautiful and interesting buildings. Among them is Joseph Goddard’s impressive bank on the corner of Granby Street and Bishop Street. With its stunning stained glass and high lantern beamed ceilings, this French Gothic Revival masterpiece was executed with modern styling when it took shape between 1870…
From 1897 to now – the simplified Sturgess car story
Leicester’s Walter Edwin Sturgess was a man on the move. When he opened a shop in 1897 and became successful selling modern prototype bicycles, he wasn’t planning on stopping there. And true enough, Wal’s first business in Leicester’s Shaftesbury Road was soon eclipsed by a second in Narborough Road which…
Recent images of Leicester, Leicestershire and London
“A perfect tornado of furious sound”: Breaking the Hindenburg Line with the 46th
Riqueval Bridge looks inconspicuous enough, but the goosebumps climbing my legs, arms and neck know otherwise. A hundred years ago it was here the men of the Midlands broke through the Hindenburg Line. Spanning high above the narrow San Quentin canal, the bridge was witness to one of the…
The Royal Mail in 1916 liked a cup of cocoa
The Belgians are here! Head of Steam opens in Leicester
On the edge of Leicester’s newest bar you’ll find a pink elephant, a gnome and two Trappists from Belgium. This unusual quartet is among 150 UK and international beers at Head of Steam in Market Street. The elephant, AKA Delirium Red, is a silky smooth cherry brew, the gnome is…
Recent images of Leicester and Leicestershire
A tour of Leicester Castle with the guy who found RIII
Charnwood Forest, Beacon Hill and Bradgate Park
Charnwood Forest is a special place. Special in the woo-woo sense of the word. And that’s not woo-woo in the sense of Deacon Blue (God forbid), or even a woo-woo in the more pleasing vein of The KLF. This woo-woo is a feeling of something more awesome and intangible. Something…
Western Park Beer Festival is coming next month
It’s Western Park Beer Festival on September 15 and 16. It’ll be ace. This year we’ll be spreading the love for Loros, the local hospice, and saluting the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love. Drinks-wise it means 16 cask, six keg, four ciders and liver-shaped swimming pools of gin…
Leicestershire’s surprising rock credentials
If you flick through the pages of rock’s vast and sticky encyclopaedia, it won’t be long before you come across a Leicester or Leicestershire-related entry. Here, I’ve done some of the leg-work for you. So prepare to be pleasantly surprised by three blokes called Jo[h]n. 1. Disarming rock lunatic…
Recent pics of Leicester and Leicestershire
Words to follow after exercise. Abbey Pumping Station. Aeropark at Castle Donington. Looks organic, doesn’t it? Buddhist centre, Guildhall Lane, Leicester. Our best ever build at Brocks Hill.
Tigers at Passchendaele 100 years on
It’s that time of year again when passports and European health insurance cards get squirrelled away into luggage containing two-pin adaptors and phone chargers. Tomorrow (Monday, May 8) we are taking the EuroStar across the channel and heading for Belgium. Our visit this year coincides with the impending anniversary of…
St Peter has got it going on
They say time is a great healer but a poor beautician. Try telling that to St Peter’s in Belgrave. At almost 800 years old, this 13th century stunner can turn the head of even the most hardened aesthete. St Peter’s is what you may consider the Kylie of the Diocese…
Gig in Leicester
Up on the roof
Joe Wykes, Lee Miller and Nick Reynolds are turning a golden shade of brown under the blazing sun. It’s a glorious, Tarmac melter of a day – the car thermometer reads 33C – and the three thatchers are up on the roof, overlooking a dazzling swathe of pretty, patchwork fields.…
Old Leicester adverts: Everards, Kendalls, G.Folwell and son etc
There are lots of really beautiful adverts from Victorian Leicester. Currently, I’m working out how best to reproduce them in the blog. More will be added, hopefully with better clarity.
Around the world in 80 Plates: Day two, Portugal
Portugal was founded in the 14th century by a Leicester woman. Seven centuries later and Portugal is being founded (okay, it’s a liberty) in Leicester. Our table for six was at the Madeira a Vista in Woodgate on a drizzly Friday night. The restaurant is sandwiched between Celebrity Pizza and…
Roy Watts and the International Brigades
The niggling human conscience affects people in different ways. In the case of Co-op salesman Roy Watts, it made him leave the comfort and security of his life in Leicester, travel all the way to war-gripped Spain, and take up arms for a cause as black and white as ink…
Brain vomit
KRIII was lost for centuries – but a 1792 map comes pretty bloody close
In the voice of Paul Whitehouse’s enthusiastic Fast Show character, “Int’ maps brilliant?!” Cast your eyes over this beaut from the late 18th century. Okay, now you’ve had a gander, how about having a closer look. Go on, really scrutinise it. Actually, let me give you a helping hand. Below…
Legend of the Hangman’s Stone
Legend of the Hangman’s Stone is taken from Thomas Rossell Potter’s Charnwood Forest – its History and Antiquities, 1842. It’s a traditional slice of folklore about a man out poaching who comes a cropper. In this story a man named John Oxley meets his maker snared on an igneous…
Leicester Comedy Festival’s #deadmonarchs exhibition
I think this was the one the crowd enjoyed the most at the launch of #deadmonarchs last night – Vaz certainly got a lot of laughs. So what’s #deadmonarchs? In a nutshell: several centuries of death has had no bearing on the ability of Richard III to bang out those…
Hibernot at Rockingham Castle: Winter is served
Before 4X4s became a familiar sight on the 9 to 5 commute, they were bounding their way across the English countryside without a care in the world. Which is why we’re in the wintry, puddle-pocked grounds of Rockingham Castle for a spot of rear wheel drive rewilding. Land Rover’s…
Scotland is closer than you think
If you follow the co-ordinates 52.57 latitude and -0.99 longitude you will end up in Scotland. This may come as a surprise to a number of ordinance survey enthusiasts as Scotland, on closer inspection, appears to be in the very centre of England. And it is. You will find that…
The Walcote murder and the hanging of William Henry Palmer
Yonks back there was a series in the Mercury on the men hung and buried inside the steep walls of Leicester Prison. William Henry Palmer was among them…and he didn’t go quietly. They’re supposed to do it with weary resignation; a sniff, a sorrowful glance, sometimes even with a…
Recent images of Leicester and Leicestershire
Ulverscroft Priory, just minding its own business, 13th century. Aylestone Meadows on Sunday, January 22. Poplar skeletons at Western Park on Wednesday, January 25th. Twin Lakes in Melton, back in December. Imagine saying house to that. Twin Lakes. Nothing says Christmas like meerkats shivering under a heat lamp. National Space…
Around the World in 80 Plates. Day one. Cyprus/Greece.
The suggestion came at the end of a terrifyingly large Greek meal. “We should do this again, but somewhere new,” said Emma. “…there’s Madeira a Vista in Woodgate,” I respond. At that moment it was settled. Our group of four had probably eaten enough after the second of five courses…
Gig upstairs at BrewDog on Friday, January 20 – with added Framework beers
Tree porn in Western Park
“Presently both sides were out of their trenches, shaking hands and exchanged tobacco for cigarettes and chocolate. Four of us went over and were met by six Germans.”
On Christmas Eve, more than a century ago, a brave officer from the 1st Leicestershire Regiment climbed out of his trench and walked steadily towards No Man’s Land. Major Archibald Buchanan-Dunlop, who was serving on the frontline at Ypres in Belgium, hadn’t lost his mind. And he hadn’t gone accidentally…
The priest that came back and other odd stories
Old newspapers, journals and books are a rich source of eerie WTFisms …as exhibited by these few pieces of shrapnel below. Having rifled through city and county’s past the most disturbing tale was found in John Nichols’ near biblical History of Leicestershire. Nichols himself relays the story in hushed tones…
When it’s actually okay to get yourself arrested
It’s a tough question. Marlene Yeo looks skyward and then slides her eyes to the left in the hope of tweaking out the answer from a corner of her brain. The grey-haired 74-year-old looks defeated – she can’t remember how many times she’s been arrested. “I should keep a tally,”…
Thornton Reservoir
Lots of people say that you don’t really appreciate what you have on your own doorstep. I think that’s true. Getting out into the countryside is one of the pleasures of modern life. Here, a ten minute drive from where we live, is Thornton…
The mud was scraped away and one word could be seen…Leicester
It was February and raining when they found him, covered in a century-old cloak of earth and chalk. In the dirt near his bones, attached to a shred of uniform, they found a brass shoulder title, green with age and a little twisted. One word could be seen clearly…Leicester.…
When St John’s lads carried swords
In classical parlance I am ‘knackered’. In recent days there’s been a double funeral in France, a christening in South Wigston, an orchestral concert and film on the Somme at Leicester Cathedral, and an archaeological dig at Castle Hill Country Park. Which is why I am sat in my comfies,…
Letting it all hang out in Ratby
It’s a hot day at Charnwood Acres Country Club. So hot, in fact, that people aren’t wearing any clothes. But that’s par for the course at Charnwood Acres, one of the largest naturist resorts in Britain. At this verdant paradise in Ratby, just a 15 minute drive from Leicester city…
You say you want a revolution…
Edward Ludlam’s name didn’t do the decent thing and die with its owner in the summer of 1776. Instead it emerged rudely triumphant more than 30 years after Edward – or Ned – was laid to rest at St Mary’s Church in Anstey. If the name rings a bell, it’s…
You’ll never look at Simon de Montfort the same way again
Simon de Montfort drew his last exhausted breath on a bloody Worcestershire battlefield. Outnumbered four to one, the powerful sixth Earl of Leicester had refused pleas to escape to safety as the Royalists continued their charge forward. “Our bodies are theirs, our souls are God’s,” he boomed as a hit-squad…
A few words on gardening
Earlier today I was at a friend’s house. Her garden has been transformed into an open air larder. Squashes grow beside the fence, cucumbers dangle excitingly from the vine in her green house and tomatoes as fat as your fist seem to grow about everywhere. In an effort to help…
Meet you at the Clock Tower, yeah?
You’ve said it, I’ve said it, we’ve all said it: “Meet you at the Clock Tower, yeah?” It’s a sentence which has been doing the rounds for almost 150 years. And yet, apart from its role as Leicester’s most well known landmark – and a hub for noisy religious irritants,…
Filth and more filth: The Leicesters at Vimy 1916
The 4th Leicesters had sat in trenches overlooked by the Boche on the Messines Ridge and at Hill 60. And now at Vimy the enemy were at the top of the ridge again thanks to those responsible for our shortage in guns and munitions. If you had wished to…
I read the news today…oh boy
We are doomed. I love my cousins in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Portugal, eastern Europe – all of them. Many EU policies embrace better environmental legislation, better laws regarding employment and family, and many have better attitudes towards equality. Sat here this morning, mournful at the…
Recent images of Leicester and Leicestershire
Western Park looking beautiful X 5. P.S. Film director Stephen Frears grew up overlooking the park at a spacious house in Western Park Road. Rowers upon the canalised section of the River Soar which flows through the city. And the award for the most unsuitable wording on a war memorial…
Kilworth House – a little cakey kiss from heaven
Leicestershire, through agriculture and industry, has always had fairly deep pockets. Which means we have quite a number of lovely homes nestled within the gentle gold and green of our shire’s undulating countryside. Kilworth House (Hotel and theatre) is one such place. Former home of genuinely lovely Black Sabbath guitarist…
\,,/(*_*)\,,/ It’s Download time \,,/(*_*)\,,/ \,,/(*_*)\,,/ \,,/(*_*)\,,/
It’s that Paganistic time of year when 120,000 tattooed, long-haired, skinny jeanists come to worship upon the sacred fields of north west Leicestershire. Roll ups? Check. Leather boots? Check. The ability to lose one’s mind/wallet/friends? Check. This weekend, Download festival is serenading Donington Park. Rock’s General Synod first hooked up…
Leicester win the league
Celebratory crisps, naturally. And this is how it happened. Me and a colleague had been working in London. Going up in the lift at St Pancras, to get to the East Midlands train platform, there was a young woman, from Leicester, on her phone. “It’s busy already is it…
New thoughts on an old theme
Braunstone: It’s an old place name meaning brown stone and brown stones y’all can often be mistaken for poo. This scatological parallel fits well with the the general thinking on Braunstone Estate, AKA Braunstone or Brauny. But Braunstone, a name which anoints the housing estate, town and village, isn’t shit.…
Leicester city on Leicester City today
Some clever artist from London came up and sprayed this all over a wall off King Richard’s Road. It’s a corker. Just after taking this pic this morning, I called into Dayman’s DIY store “If you’re going to do it, do it with Dayman’s” – which is a stone’s…
And let’s not forget the new Leicester snooker World Champion
In all the incredible news about Leicester City let’s not forget about Leicester son Mark Selby who last night became snooker world champion for a second time. Nice one Mark. In beating Ding Junhui 18-14 – a repeat of his score against Ronnie O’Sullivan in the 2014 final – Mark…
Good morning world – what a beautiful day
With odds of 5,000 to 1 Leicester City wake up this morning as Premier League Champions. And the rest of city and county wake up with some well earned hangovers.
Secret Beer Club: It’s not secret and it’s not a club
Wave after human wave crashed against the bar, the demand for beer ripping our prediction of 1.8 firkins per hour a new whatsit, and by the time we were four hours in – four hours ahead of schedule – the beer had gone. GONE! This is what happens when…
The late 14th century Guildhall in Leicester
The Wheatcroft Collection
With the annual French/Belgian battlefield experience rapidly approaching and Download rock festival soon after, my thoughts are currently turning towards Donington, which combines military on one hand and music on the Devil-horned other. Cue an article from 2012… Kevin Wheatcroft next to a German half-track Some people…
Belgrave Hall – words to follow. It’s half term and tonsillitis time.
Bradgate Park today – words to follow
Simon Hoggart
Simon Hoggart was one of our most respected parliamentary sketch writers – and he grew up in Leicester. Back in 2007, he told me about Westminster, Wyggeston and why you had better watch Brown. Simon, much to our loss, left this mortal coil in January 2014. It has been a…
Fresh photos of Leicester
You may recognise this image from the blog’s artwork. It’s the bandstand in Western Park. This piccie was taken this morning and the incremental creep of spring is all around. “It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is…
The Beatles at De Montfort Hall in Leicester
The Beatles played at De Montfort Hall three times. Sunday, March 31, 1963, December 1, 1963 and October 10, 1964. It was as if time at De Montfort Hall had gone into some kind of gloopy slow motion. From the back of the stage, John, Paul, George…
An art lesson at HMP Leicester
Leicester prison is a narrow, claustrophobic building, overcrowded with men who’ve made bad choices. I’ve been to HMP Leicester twice. It is, on the outside, a whimsical concoction. A romantic dream of what a castle should look like – a portcullis, meaty turrets and arrowslits (Image at the bottom). On…
Recent photos of Leicester and Leicestershire
What says Mothering Sunday more than dressing as one of Simon de Montfort’s knights at the Battle of Evesham (August 4, 1265)? Exactly. We were back at Jewry Wall Museum on Sunday to join in the 50th birthday celebrations. There were demonstrations, from Leicester’s many different periods, my daughter had…
In memory of George Higgs age 109
George Higgs passed away on February 27. He was 109 and among the oldest people in the world. I did this interview with George in November 2010 – although this is a totally rejigged version, with lots of info which didn’t get published. As you can tell, George was a…
The Fashion Gallery at Snibston Discovery Park. Part 1 of a Snibby series.
The clothes you see below have recently been put into storage. The exhibition has been dismantled. Packed into boxes and put in a loft at Beaumanor Hall. To see them now you require a special appointment. Snibston Discovery Park in Coalville – and I’m going to stick my neck on…
Coming soon…The Fab Four
A true story in 56 words
Ellis was a boy born with a number of conditions. “He’s not going to make old bones.” He couldn’t speak but to say “Hiya!” At the crematorium he went into the flames to the sound of Summer Lovin. He came out to the sound of Grease Lightning. His mother a…
I never spoke out until I was 40. It was taboo. Men aren’t victims of abuse
Tony Magee is searching for the right words as he absently taps his fingers on the table in an airless conference room at Mercury headquarters. “What do you call it when something is like something else?” asks the grey haired 55 year old, his accent a disarming patter of Midlands-softened…
The Turkish Baths
The people of Leicester and Leicestershire have always enjoyed their baths. Always. Since at least AD150 (See Jewry Wall for proof). The Victorians, the people who made the city into a pleasure dome, also enjoyed getting steamy, cold, hot and wet. The Turkish Baths in Friar Lane had been going…
Our World War – nice job Bruce Goodison
I’ve just been watching Our World War on BBC iPlayer. It was moving, factual and the action was brilliantly done. Got to the final credit, and saw the name of the director – Bruce Goodison. Bruce is a Bafta winner who did Our War – a real eye opener…
Paganism in Leicester
It’s a drizzly Tuesday evening and at a city centre café, a steady trickle of people are pouring through the door as the time inches towards 7pm. On cue, a lady in a long skirt and a mop of brown hair enters in a swirl of fabric. She starts…
The virtually unknown Battle of Losecoat Field
There were two Wars of the Roses battles in our neck of the woods. There was one on Bosworth Field that saw Richard III lose his crown… and the other one happened in Rutland. Farmer Andrew Beckingham has a battlefield in his back garden. Not that you’d know it. A…
The Battle of Frezenberg Ridge
Tony Roe glances at the sloping field behind him and up to the trees on the horizon backlit by bright morning sunshine. It seems hard to believe, but 100 years ago almost to the hour, Tony’s dad was here, holding the line with the Leicestershire Yeomanry, fighting off a…
Photos of Leicester and Leicestershire
William Flint’s Corn Exchange with the Venetian steps designed by FW Ordish, currently in need of some TLC. To the far right is the new food market building. This is the view from the bar at Cinema De Luxe, looking out onto St Peter’s Square. The bar has Brew…
Jewry Wall
When you live in an unfashionable city with two thousand plus years of history, it’s easy to be a bit meh about the things you graze past every day. Easy and a bit, well, silly. A 25 minute amble from my house and you’re in Roman Leicester. Jewry Wall…
Great firkin news for people in Leicester who like beer
What in the blazes is going on? Beer. Firkins and firkins of it. For £3 a pint. Where? St Anne’s Church Hall, Letchworth Road, Leicester. And when is it? Friday, March 4, from 5pm. Eh? It’s a pop-up pub serving the liquid gold of Leicestershire’s finest brewers; Charnwood, Tres…
King Dick’s bed (Not a porno)
Heard the one about the vilified king, the long-lost Leicester pub and the bed secretly stuffed with regal riches? It’s an ancient murder-mystery with a plot which takes in avarice, ambition and execution and boasts a cast led by one of the nation’s most notorious monarchs. Our story begins on…
Catching up with Albert – the safe-blower who broke out of Leicester Prison
In a semi-detached on the outskirts of Sheffield, Albert Hattersley glances at the Leicester Mercury headline of Saturday, December 19, 1953, 30FT JUMP TO FREEDOM IN PRISON ESCAPE “It was 36ft,” says the pensioner, jabbing a peevish finger at the front page. “I should know.” It’s been 57 years since…
Thought for the day: Imagine waking tomorrow and all music has disappeared
In the distance is one of Leicester’s oldest churches, the 12th century All Saints, in High Cross Street. In the foreground is an old Great Central Railway bridge with some ponderous, chin-scratching graffiti. How would you feel if all music had disappeared? Me: I would have to express some…
Who knew the zombie apocalypse would be so much fun?
It’s Saturday afternoon and a crowd of twenty-somethings are listening intently to a tall man holding court in the corner of a pub. That man is Richard Wheatcroft, the events director of Requiem:Live, and he’s in the middle of what will easily be the most surreal team-talk in the city…
The future of Leicester Central
It’s one of Leicestershire’s unofficial tourist destinations. Tucked away down a side street, removed from the bustle of the city centre. “I get plenty of visitors,” nods Mukhtar Shah, who has a car workshop in Great Central Street. “Sometimes 10, 15 people come a month, a lot of people who…
Images from LE1 and elsewhere
Currently on display in Dover Street, Leicester. Just excellent. Walkers. Best pies. No contest. Leicester Market vinyl stall. Leicester Fridge do Naked Comedy at Manhattan 34. Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival on Friday, February 5. Leicestershire love god drops by the Mercury offices and visits the newsfloor. Pre-Eurovision. Nicely…
46 interesting facts about Leicestershire…
Leicester City FC won the league in 2015/16. But what do you know about the city and county which spawned them? 1. Leicestershire is the Spiritual Home of Rock Music. It started back in 1980 with the first Monsters of Rock at Donington Park. It continues today…
Pay It Forward Day or summat
There are some days as a journalist that you’d rather not remember. The crown court cases, the inquests, the death knocks, dealing with Tory MPs, the endless parish council meetings about dog poo bins and street lighting. And then you get a job like this one. I can’t remember what…
Greyhound racing is a thing of the past…like jousting
It was once as English as eating fish and chips from newspaper. No longer. As developers eye up Hinckley greyhound track, Cat Turnell goes to the dogs. There’s a chill in the air at Hinckley Greyhound Stadium, but it’s nothing to do with the temperature outside. While men in flat…
The secret to a long life? Keep breathing
On January 19, Stapleton resident George Fray will be celebrating his 101st birthday. Catherine Turnell went round for a cup of tea. In the kitchen of a farm house in the tiny village of Stapleton the temperature is nearing the mid-20s. Sat in the corner by the electric heater, centenarian…
Je-eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-suss
It’s 7.30pm on a Friday at Leicester’s All Nations Hall and almost 600 people are standing shoulder to shoulder to witness the healing power of the reverends David Carr and Richard Taylor. Tonight’s Free American Methodist service in Frog Island has drawn people from all parts of the city, from…
One of Hitler’s bodyguards…and his English wife, on how they got together
Betty Dickinson met Hans Kuhn, one of Hitler’s bodyguards, while he was a prisoner of war in Melton. They have four grandchildren, five great-grandchildren and live in Houghton on the Hill Betty: When I first met him I worked at the George Hotel in Melton. It was 1948. My friend…
The Anchor Centre
John Chalmers thinks for a moment about what time would be best for a visit. In the morning, he says, there might be nobody there, but in the afternoon, they might be too far gone to make sense. In the end, he suggests coming along at noon. “Welcome to the…
Letzgo Hunting – the Leicestershire dads bringing hebephiles to justice
Fingers clatter across an iPad and up goes the internet chat room profile of 14 year old Jess. A couple of seconds pass and the phone vibrates to indicate a message. The date is December 14, 2014 and this is the first contact from Peter Hyam in Essex. “Hello Jess…
Interview with a porn star
It’s a sweaty Friday night and scores of people are enjoying the bars of Leicester’s leafy New Walk. Basking in the fading rays outside Pause, the time has just gone 8pm when Tony de Sergio arrives. Tall, toned and tanned, he takes a seat and soon, perhaps expectantly, the conversation…
Who killed Leicestershire’s most famous son?
Leicestershire’s most famous son Action Man was killed by the figures from Star Wars. Have you got that visual in your head? Good, because this is a true story. Today, on Action Man’s 50th birthday, we lift the lid on what happened to the Leicestershire boy toy who revolutionised…
So you thought you’d like to go to the show, to feel the warm thrill of confusion, that space cadet glow
In the moth-tattered annals of De Montfort Hall, many a band have turned up, plugged in and rocked out. Yet none have executed an edge-of-your-seat show with quite the same singular panache as Pink Floyd. Technologically advanced and technically adept, Floyd swept into the city on February 10, 1972,…
The Tiger, the Gurkha and the 100 year mystery
If Bill Keightley had been a betting man, he would have thought the game was up. Machine gun fire had ripped through both his knees as he cleared the final few yards of No Man’s Land and gone tumbling down into a German trench. Alone, in terrible pain, and with…
Vicar bonking, Toffos and such like
It’s a riches-to-rags story where the ponies, nannies and chauffeurs are swallowed in the vortex of a collapsing city knitwear firm. It’s a story where the finishing school-raised family matriarch, recently divorced, finds herself making a living changing roller towels in pubs and clubs across Leicestershire. It’s a story which,…
Love, Nina x
Author Nina Stibbe talks to Catherine Turnell about her past life as a London nanny, how Leicester City almost ruined her job chances and why Alan Bennett’s a good man in an emergency. Nina Stibbe is hotly tipped to be the author of this Christmas’s best-seller. Every review, from the…
Where’s Wolsey?
With a world class archeaology department on our doorstep and a 16th century churchman at large, is it time to start disturbing the soil in Abbey Park? Cat Turnell reports. The mortal remains of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey have lain sleeping beneath the ruins of Leicester Abbey since the winter of…
An abandoned baby, a possible suicide and a family searching for roots
At her home in Sileby, Ina Napthine gently holds her father’s birth certificate. This fragile piece of paper reveals Percy Faulkner Hawkins was born in the middle of a red brick terrace at 19 Payne Street, Leicester, on December 21, 1904. Just a few weeks later, this same certificate…