YESTERDAY IN MELTON MOWBRAY

1 A fair chunk of Melton Mowbray has been missing from Burton Street for quite a while now and for a longer time than most of us might have wished it has remained an ugly and unwelcome blot on a very historic part of our old market town.  Like a front tooth missing from a pretty lady's face, a portion of the footpath has been fenced off, with bright green laurels implanted in a vain attempt to maintain a scintilla of tidiness or decorum.

TIME FOR A CHANGE      I live within a stone's throw of the railway bridge at Burton End in Melton Mowbray which serves to convey traffic and pedestrians across both the Midland railway line and the River Eye which passes underneath on its way to join the rivers Wreake, Soar, Trent and finally into the River Humber on its winding way and wide estuary into the North Sea.  On many a Sunday morning I can be found to be scratching around beneath the large blue-brick and steel structure which was contructed over 100 years ago, or in and about the nooks and crannies of our railway station, or the hospital fields in an effort to discover how much the original topography of the area has changed since the dying days of the 19th century.  My curiosity was initially aroused when I first saw the now iconic - and very early - photographic view of the Burton End Basin and began to realise just how much the area has adapted to its more modern needs.  I...