A drive around East Leicestershire following Tour 1 from the 'Touring Leicestershire' booklet by W.G. Hoskins, 1948. Villages and places on the route include Great Stretton, Kings Norton, Gaulby, Skeffington, Tugby, Launde, Withcote, Tilton and Billesdon Coplow.
Showing posts with label Billesdon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Billesdon. Show all posts
Touring Leicestershire with W.G. Hoskins
A drive around East Leicestershire following Tour 1 from the 'Touring Leicestershire' booklet by W.G. Hoskins, 1948. Villages and places on the route include Great Stretton, Kings Norton, Gaulby, Skeffington, Tugby, Launde, Withcote, Tilton and Billesdon Coplow.
A mud wall in Billesdon
Time for another one in my very occasional series on the mud walls of Leicestershire (also called cob walls).
This one is in Billesdon, where ironstone and bricks made in the village can both be found.
The Old School, Billesdon
George Villiers, later the Duke of Buckingham and a favourite of James I, was educated in Billesdon between 1602 and 1605. (He was born in 1592.)
Most authorities dismiss the tradition that George Fox, a found of the Quakers, was educated there some years later. (He was born in 1624.)
The Old School in the village does not date back quite that far. It was put up by William Sharpe of Rolleston in 1650.
Nineteenth-century antiquarians feared its loss, but - no doubt much restored over the centuries - it still stands today.
Former prisoner of war camp, Gaulby Lane, Billesdon
Billesdon's Woodland Pool nature reserve can be found just outside the village on Gaulby Lane.
With woodland and a pool it is a pleasant spot, but it has a surprising history.
Because the reserve occupies the site of a wartime prisoner of war camp that held first Italian and then German prisoners.
The remains are labelled and, according to Derelict Places, there is a hut still standing (which I failed to find). Another is said to have gone to Thurnby to be used by a youth club.
And the pool was dug out on the site of the camp's football pitch.
After the war the camp housed people displaced by the war.
It is a sobering thought, on a day when refugees are being bundled out of Europe, that they once found a home among the green hills and ridge-and-furrow fields of High Leicestershire.
Tom Plumb: From wicket-keeper to the workhouse
I had lunch at the Queen's Head in Billesdon today a pleasant Marston's pub. The village trail leaflet tells an interesting story about it:
In the late 19th century, the landlord of the Queen’s Head was Tom Plumb, the famous All-England wicket-keeper of the 1860s, described by W.G. Grace as ‘about the best wicket-keeper of his time.’
He coached two Billesdon players who went on to play for Leicestershire: spin bowler William Finney and fast bowler Arthur Woodcock. Woodcock achieved a national reputation as the fastest bowler in England, and his Wisden obituary opined: ‘how much Leicestershire’s promotion to the first-class [in 1894] was due to his bowling is a matter of history.’Grace wrote about him at some length:
Thomas Plumb was born at Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, 26th July, 1833. His height was 5 ft. 10 in.; weight, 12 St. As a wicket-keeper he was not considered quite up to Lockyer or Pooley's form, although I cannot account for it; possibly it was owing to his connection with Buckinghamshire, whose position as a county was not first-class.
I am inclined to believe if he had had greater opportunities for displaying his powers, or if he had been connected with a crack county, he would have taken quite as high a position as either of the famous pair I have just mentioned. Anyhow, I am convinced that he was a great deal better than he was thought, and about the best wicket keeper of his time against fast bowling.
His style was quick and neat, without the slightest show; and while as keen as anyone, he never kept knocking off the bails uselessly as I have seen others do.And you can find Tom Plumb's career record on Cricket Archive.
But there is a sad story about him which did not make my trail leaflet. You will find it in his obituary in the 1905 Wisden:
The death took place on March 29th of the once-famous wicket-keeper Tom Plumb. For some years he had been in very poor circumstances, and he passed away in the workhouse at Northampton.
People moaned about Kerry Packer and Tony Greig, but the improvement they secured in the lot of cricketers means that it is many years since I have heard of a wicket-keeper (even one from an 'unfashionable' county) entering the workhouse.
I did once see Bruce French selling matches in Worksop marketplace though.
