Apologies for the early-PC style of music, but this is lovely footage of an industrial locomotive in a Northamptonshire ironstone quarry.
Hauling ironstone towards Corby in 1968
Apologies for the early-PC style of music, but this is lovely footage of an industrial locomotive in a Northamptonshire ironstone quarry.
Chelsea win the Premiership for Leicester
Congratulations to Leicester City on winning the Premiership.
For weeks I have been terrified that Leicester would go to Stamford Bridge on the last day of the season needing a point to be champions.
If that happened we would have beaten them with a late disputed goal - probably handled in from an offside position by John Terry while racially abusing someone - and everyone would hate us even more.
But tonight's draw with Spurs - we were two goals down at half time - has given Leicester the title.
It is great for the club, great for the city and a great relief to this Chelsea fan.
SNP candidate wrecks one of island's two phone boxes
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| A phone box yesterday |
Prize for the worst voter outreach effort of the whole election surely goes to the SNP's Danus Skene in Shetland. Canvassing Whalsay recently, the Old Etonian crashed his car into one of only two payphones on the island, wrecking it completely.
The locals, who don’t have the world's best mobile coverage, are reportedly livid. "I didn’t wish to deprive them of it," sighs Danus. "I don’t have an excuse or an explanation."
And they said Alistair Carmichael was unpopular up there...
Six of the Best 594
John Blake puts Ken Livingstone right on Hitler and Zionism.
"The evidence built into a startling indictment of South Yorkshire police, their chain of command and conduct – a relentlessly detailed evisceration of a British police force." David Conn on the lessons of Hillsborough and the longest inquest in British legal history.
The Shropshire Star collects local residents' memories of the filming of Powell and Pressburger's Gone to Earth in 1949: "I shall never forget Jennifer Jones’ feet. She did all the running up Pontesford Hill and up to the Devil’s Chair in bare feet, and her feet were bleeding. She was absolutely brilliant, a lovely looking girl."
James Curry remembers his grandfather, the Revd J.P. Martin, who wrote the immortal Uncle books.
Adam Gopnik reviews a new biography of Paul McCartney.
Billy Fury: Silly Boy Blue
It's a sign of how quickly music developed in the 1960s that Billy Fury and David Bowie seem to belong to quite different eras.
But here (played by Danny Baker yesterday morning) is an early Bowie song recorded by Fury.
Anorak Thing explains its genesis. Bowie's manager Kenneth Pitt:
managed to convince Billy Fury's manager Larry Parnes that Bowie had something to offer his client. By 1968 Billy Fury's hit days were long gone. Despite a switch from Decca to Parlophone in January 1967 he hadn't scored a hit on EMI's label. Game for a chance at anything Parnes agreed to record a version of "Silly Boy Blue", a track that had already graced Bowie's debut album, as Fury's next single. Sadly it did nothing for either the artist or the composer.Which is a shame, because it was a good record.
Leicester Oral History Trail 6: Church Gate
The latest of these recordings deals with what is now a slightly disreputable street.
Read about its history in the city council's Church Gate Conservation Area character appraisal.
Zac Goldsmith: "I'm a Bollywood fan"
This must be most awkward exchange since Tony Blair was asked to name one of the Newcastle United players he claimed to have watched as a schoolboy in the 1960s.
Thanks to Tom King on Twitter.
Electoral Commission asks for more time to consider Conservative election expenses
The elections watchdog has asked for more time to pursue possible criminal prosecutions regarding Tory election spending, as a summit is called to consider the evidence revealed by Channel 4 News.
Following months of investigations by Channel 4 News, the Electoral Commission has requested an extension to the time limit available to pursue possible criminal prosecutions regarding Conservative Party campaign spending returns.
Bob Posner, Director of Party and Election Finance & Legal Counsel at the Electoral Commission said, “The police and the CPS both have the power to apply to the Courts to extend the time limit on bringing criminal prosecutions for electoral offences to allow for full investigations to take place. We have requested that they consider doing this.”
Representatives of the Electoral Commission and the Crown Prosecution Service will hold also hold a summit with a number of police forces to discuss the Conservative Party’s election expenses next week.Meanwhile the Cornish Guardian reports:
A Devon and Cornwall Police spokesman said that following complaints from "a small number" of members of the public, officers had launched an inquiry into allegations that Mr Mann's declared election expenses did not portray an accurate picture of his spending.
Mr Mann has vigorously denied any wrong-doing but has conceded that he did not know details of how some of the Conservative Party campaigning in his constituency had been accounted for.
The national party repeatedly sent campaigners to North Cornwall in a touring "Battle Bus."
At issue is whether the travel and accommodation expenses for those campaigners should have been declared locally, or as part of a national campaign spendIf the Electoral Commission, as it should, is taking this affair seriously, there is much more chance of it coming to something substantial than there would be if it were left to isolated local campaigners.
Ashdon Halt revisited
When I posted the video of disused stations in Essex, I was rather taken with Ashdon Halt. Its platform building, an old coach, was still in situ years after the last train called.
The video above shows Ashdon Halt in 2011 1997 and whilst open.
The station was on the old Great Eastern line between Audley End and Bartlow, It opened in 1911 and closed when the line was closed in 1964.
You can read more about it on Disused Stations.
