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,…
Yes, Minister?
Before we go any further, you need to know this is an old post. This feature ran in 2005 but it still shines a light on politicians kicking around today. Some of them even gave some considered and interesting quotes. Some, like Vaz, dodged the question. The original outro,…
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…
Leicester legacies: The life and times of The Charlotte
It was the sort of place where it was okay to spill your pint, ruminates Andy Wright. “It was what it was – stage, bogs, bar. Some called The Charlotte a toilet stop,” he shrugs, “I don’t have a problem with that.” For many, The Charlotte needs no introduction. For…
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…
The Leicestershire Christmas quiz – how Chisit are you?
1. The Beatles’ AA Side Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane was kept off the Number One spot by which county singer? 2. Which world religion was founded in Leicestershire? 3. Which well-known TV fashion stylist once told me, “I was fat, gay, mixed race and grew up on a council…
The man who turned the tower blue
The voice on the other end of the phone needs convincing. Amir Zarbafi has spoken to the Mercury three times already – why, he says, do you need another interview? It’s the advert in Saturday’s property guide, he’s told, a full-page invitation to “meet the most controversial developer to hit…
When the World Heavyweight Title took place in a county field
Wymondham is a pretty village six miles east of Melton Mowbray. It boasts a windmill, 12th century St Peter’s Church and the ever so lovely The Berkeley Arms, where the food and welcome is always amazing. The village was also home to Frances Pawlett, the person who pioneered Stilton and…
Seven storeys of student housing in London Road – the planning committee fails again
Mr Azim Walters is a defence lawyer with a handsome office at 58 London Road, but, as you may be aware, his Georgian building, along with neighbouring properties at 52, 54 and 56, are now on borrowed time. “We don’t want it demolished, for historic reasons,” he says. Set…
The tale within Fairytale of New York
“And the boys of the NYPD choir were singing Galway Bay, and the bells were ringing out for Christmas Day.” Shane MacGowan and Kirsty MacColl’s Fairytale of New York gets everywhere at this time of year. Even Tesco in Narborough Road, where this week I was shopping and…
Fear of falling on Wheel of Light in Jubilee Square
You’re high above the ground in a revolving transparent cage. A six year old girl sharing this cage is talking about the cage dropping and falling, and everyone dying. A four year old boy hearing all this is getting nervous. A 40 year old with newly discovered vertigo is hoping,…
Leicester bogs – a new one on ‘Now wash your hands’
And there I was, clearing my throat, hocking up as much snot as I could, making that awful clawing noise which sends many a person queasy of stomach, and then I stopped in my tracks. The sign on the wall in the ladies toilets in the Market Place…
Stoneywell – our National Trust piece of skirt in Charnwood Forest
Newish among the artillery of the National Trust is an Arts and Crafts family home nestled in the scenic folds of Charnwood Forest. “This is the postcard shot, really,” grins Joe Thompson, the head gardener, as he leads us down the proverbial garden path, past a crest of heather…
From Leicestershire to Middle Earth, calling at Westeros and Camelot
It was supposed to have been a little chat about coracles, a gentle natter about how the ancient river boats handmade in rural Leicestershire end up in the waters of Westeros, Middle Earth and Camelot. And it was, mostly. But then, like the boats themselves, you end up going…
Audrey takes a bow with The Smiths…Muse, Coldplay, Foo Fighters, etc.
There’s a smidge of a lady talking in the middle of The Smiths’ Pretty Girls Make Graves. “Oh, really?” says the voice. And that’s it. Many years later and the identity of that voice’s owner is still adding intrigue to numerous Smiths’ biographies. Each time, the writer invariably points…
Teatime in Barrow on Remembrance Sunday
On the trail of Leicester and Leicestershire soldiers a century ago
A century ago the world was at war. Leicester and Leicestershire’s boys and men were packed off to the Front. Here’s a feature which gives you a little taste of where we were in 1915, although do remember that not all of our lot would have served in the…
He’s here, he’s there, he’s every ****ing where, City Mayor
He is Leicester’s head man, giving the biggest say so in the city every day of the week. And, let’s be honest, Sir Peter Soulsby could quite easily get a warm seat in an executive box or the director’s box at the King Power. With the other people…
Lilian Lenton – the Leicester suffragette who the Home Secretary wanted stopped
Lilian Lenton in court in Doncaster with co-accused Harry Johnson in June 1913. Lilian Lenton’s prison photograph sits in a display case at the National Portrait Gallery in London. The sepia image, now more than a century old, was taken covertly by police when she was among…
Graham Dury the Viz editor is a lovely man with a TJ’s veggie burger fixation
Graham Dury was working on a botany PhD at the University of Leicester when he accepted a job at Viz, the cult comic which parodies the likes of The Beano and The Dandy for a kidult audience. Fast forward 27 years and Graham’s now editor of the mag famous for…
The scary Sir David Attenborough interview
He’s a reluctant national treasure who has been exploring the natural world for 60 years. Sir David Attenborough talks to Catherine Turnell about growing up in Leicester, not discounting the yeti and nature fighting back. Sir David Attenborough is a man who requires little in the way…
Leicester Fosse FC V Leeds City back in October 1915
How they covered football in the old Leicester Illustrated Chronicle. These two pictures were published in an October 1915 issue of the Leicester Illustrated Chronicle. Helpfully, there is no final score mentioned. Or when the game was played. A cursory glance at the internet and I can find…
A sunflower field between Thurcaston and Rothley at the start of October
Pix of The Chapel Cafe in Bishop Street and Trinity House Chapel in The Newarke
My, what an impressive organ. This is the dazzling interior of Bishop Street Methodist Church. It overlooks Town Hall Square and is just a couple of doors away from the library. They run the Chapel Cafe here, where, for a nominal fee, you can get…
In need of TLC. New and old pics of Leicester’s listed Western Park Open Air School
With vandals on one side and the elements on the other, Western Park School – formerly Western Park Open Air School – has taken a bit of a kicking in recent years. Shut in 2005, this elegant 1930s building – Grade II listed and one of very…
There’s a new film Suffragette – here are some suffragists, they’re usually less camera shy
“Always and always facing toward the light.” They’ve not seen Poltergeist, have they? Here are some magnificent suffragists standing proud in Bowling Green Street. I don’t know their names but I’d like to buy each of them a drink. Which they’d most likely turn down, cos they’re probably part…
Here’s a highly suspicious 110 year old Leicester advert for male hair restoration
Take Mr Henry Lee, the verger of St Peter’s Church in Leicester. Add Professor GF Moss, who had consulting rooms at 70 Sparkenhoe Street. And then throw in photographer Mr HJ Hitchcock to take a picture. What do you get? The answer is this rather spiffy advert…
Sometimes on a lunchbreak I go and sit in front of this and get all awestruck
Salford, Manchester. 1950. Green hills in the foreground, smoking chimneys in the distance. Life in between. Laurence Stephen Lowry was a genius. And generally I dislike the word genius, but in this instance it’s bang on. You’ll find this magnificent painting in the little gallery on the left in…
Leicester whingers can do one
Here are a few piccies I took on my walk to work on Tuesday. The first is on West Bridge (Decorated with Chaucer’s characters, fave is Wife of Bath), looking at the river and over to Castle Gardens. There was a load of graffiti on the…
WW2 refugees on today’s refugee crisis
Sometimes she’ll find herself alone in the middle of a deep forest. In the dream, she’s a shivering nine-year-old girl again, searching for mushrooms and berries. It’s then, as she hunts for food among the trees, she’ll be gripped by an old terror. You’re lost, says the panicked voice in…
It’s all about the Dalek scarecrow
At this time of year the people of Heather like to go a bit batty. In a nice way. Across the village, wherever you turn, the streets and gardens are full of scarecrows. Some will have a contemporary theme, some will be traditional and the rest…
Inside Old John at Bradgate Park
You don’t need me to tell you this, but Old John, a chubby stone tower that looks a lot like a beer tankard, is Leicestershire’s most iconic landmark. This photogenic enigma has been crowning the highest, rockiest peak in the tumbling, well-loved acres of Bradgate Park since the autumn…
Daniel Lambert – big trousers, big everything
Fat doesn’t really cover it. Nor does chubby or rotund. Daniel Lambert was fat in the way Mozart was a composer. Known throughout the British Isles for his spectacular girth and even, believe it or not, admired for it Dan was a horizon-blocking 52 stone 11lbs. For generations, children and adults…
The Electric Cool – Festival of Psychedelic Rock @ University of Leicester 17th October
The headliners Sienna Root were rocktastic organic man-flesh from Sweden. The Cult of Dom Keller were a Leicester-Nottingham hybrid with an awesome drummer. And my oldest mate Ben, representing Western Park, and to some extent Hinckley, did the opening Moog atmospherics under the moniker The Early Remains. Oh,…
Graham Chapman – the Python with the pipe
Graham Chapman helped make the world a much sillier place. The Life of Graham, a new book about the pipe-smoking Python, retreads his formative years in the county. Graham Chapman was the Leicestershire-born hero of British comedy. One-sixth of trail-blazing surrealists Monty Python, the pipe-smoking Chapman was…
Modern Toss creator and former Leicester resident Mick Bunnage, also of cult musos Deep Freeze Mice
Mick Bunnage is a dream interviewee. The former musician, Loaded writer, cartoonist and Leicester resident has an unerring habit of making the mundane seem peculiarly jocular. Even when he’s trying to pronounce the address of his old stomping ground in Belgrave. “Leer-rah Street,” he hazards. “Leer-eh?” He…
The prettiest industrial estate in England?
It’s a sunny Sunday in October and I’m pootling around Faircharm Industrial Estate with a camera. Faircharm is a mixed use industrial estate on the edge of Aylestone Meadows, bisected by the River Soar and the Grand Union Canal. On first appearance it’s pretty underwhelming, but carry on walking, graze your…