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.
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.
Six of the Best 586
There is no such thing as a humane execution, says Maya Foa.
Nat Jester believes we need to talk about men.
"If we’re not careful, we will soon find ourselves operating trials in Kafka-esque fashion ... where a Defendant will be arrested on charges of which he is unaware, and plunged into a court system where everything is secret, from the charges to the rules of the court, and the guilt of the Defendant is assumed." CrimBarrister stands up for old-fashioned values in the law.
Clinical psychologist Jay Watts on the Archers, domestic abuse and gaslighting.
Chris Havergal reports on a study exploring the role of the Jack Wills brand in student life: "In choosing Jack Wills as their uniform, students from less privileged backgrounds were taking their lead from role models around them, Dr Smith argued, and his research details the role that the company has played in this process."
Ziggy Stardust came from Isleworth
A treasure turned up on BBC Radio 4 Extra the other day: Ziggy Stardust came from Isleworth.
It tells the story of Vince Taylor, a British rocker from that lost period before the Beatles.
As the iPlayer blurb says:
Ziggy Stardust was a rock and roll fantasy. But David Bowie's fictional rockstar, around whom his 1972 album, stage show, and film were built, was inspired by a real performer, Vince Taylor, born in Isleworth, Middlesex.
This programme uncovers the truth about a singer whose wild lifestyle ultimately destroyed him, but in so doing he gave rise to a myth that transcended glam-rock and science fiction.
His record "Brand New Cadillac" remains to this day a British rock 'n' roll classic, covered later by The Clash.And Bowie is interviewed in it:
Vince Taylor underwent a kind of public breakdown at his next gig, where he started claiming he was a divine being. David Bowie bumped into him in London and later said:
"Vince Taylor was the inspiration for Ziggy...He always stayed in my mind as an example of what can happen in rock n roll. I'm not sure if I held him up as an idol or as something not to become. There was something very tempting about him going completely off the edge."
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.
