YESTERDAY IN MELTON MOWBRAY

A Figure of Fun? When Messrs. Gilbert and Sullivan sat down to write the 'Pirates of Penzance', the comic aspect of the British policeman - or 'bobby' - as a figure of fun was to be cruelly exposed on the public stage  in an effort to show off the less serious side of law enforcement in Queen Victoria's often stodgy England. Premiered, surprisingly, in New York on New Years Eve 1879, it presented, in the true tradition of the now famous couple, it served to poke yet more fun at so-called respectable civilisation and to take away the rigidity and solemnity of people in authority. I present this musical aside as an adjunct to an amusing newspaper article I recently unearthed in an old local newspaper and which, as a former police officer, entertained me wonderfully for a while.  In 1893 in England, each and every one of the small villages in all the counties had their local constables who would totally rule the roost from sunrise to sunset, ...

Rootling Around the Old Town Circa 1820 - spot the two windmills! Whilst indulging in my very favourite habit of searching the columns of old newspapers - some from as long ago as 200 years, I occasionally venture upon an article or other piece of writing which just jumps off the page to grab my attention.  Such was the case quite recently when, whilst perusing the pages of the once widely distributed and popular Saturday publication known as ' The Graphic, '  (1839-1932) I came across the following short piece by their hunting correspondent whom I can only identify as 'C. H.' As is recognised far and wide the small market town of Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire is long famous for its introduction to the world of pork-pies and Stilton cheese, but before this time the area was to create great celebrity and recognition as the venue for the origins of fox-hunting.  It is generally accepted that in the 1750's Leicestershire man Hugo Meynell was de...

I recently offered this small, festive piece of personal memorabilia to my good colleague in Bermuda, Roger Sherratt for his police 'bygones' blog relating to those of us privileged few who were once lucky enough to have lived and served on those idyllic Islands in the mid-Atlantic.  After posting it to him, I have decided to offer it up as my own little blog for an exposure to the rest of the world. ’Twas the Night Before Christmas … Twas the night Before Christmas When all through the house Not a creature was stirring Not even a mouse The stockings all hung By the chimney with care In hopes That St. Nicholas Soon would be there … Clement Clarke Moore (1779 - 1863) At this festive time of year Roger asks of his colleagues past and present, to remember and record bygone memories of Christmas times spent in the Islands - for me, a span of some 50 years since.  Lynn and I were to marry at Hamilton Register Office in 1965 and so next year ...

Who Walked Around in my House? I recently had reason to peruse the Conveyance Deeds of my family home over a small social and boundary issue which had cropped up in the neighbourhood.  In a quiet moment and with my deeds so infrequently exposed to day light, I chose to read again through the legalese of the pompously worded document. Little of much interest arrested my attention, but one astonishing fact did jump from the document to catch my attention was the price paid for the house, a standard three bedroom, pebble-dashed dwelling which had changed hands for the princely sum of 270 English pounds when it was first purchased on the 22nd day of September 1927 - more than the cost of buying a new front door today! to buy a new front door for the house would cost me twice that today!  I do know that today I would get around £200,000 This fact was to lead me to become curious as to who, just a few years after the end of the Great War, had paid out this then princely su...