Successful day researching the history of Little Paxton in thee St Ives Norris Museum and Library as the girls struggled to go shopping in near gale force winds and rain and then news of progress on my family history research in Bermondsey as Norman Tebbit tries bashing the BBC and Ken Bakers plans to appease the teachers are emerging
A little lay in this morning as, with Daniel at his friend’s house and not being at school, Di could lay in. Poor Della wet her bed, due to the delay of serving breakfast, but it was a pleasant enough affair, with Debbie’s friend Amy joining us for the meal. Read today’s paper and this morning’s mail, after, in the playroom, but then got Amy away and the rest of the family into the Range Rover for a trip to St Ives. I had phoned Norris Museum & Library’s Burns-Murdoch earlier and he had a catalogue of the 1920 Paxton Park auction ready for me when we arrived.
The girls did their shopping in the gale-force winds and rain, whilst I scanned for other Little Paxton data. There was a list of legal documents, an album of press cuttings, but, best of all, a large folder of gleanings from the estate of the author who had written the Victoria History of Huntingdonshire. There is a life’s work examining that lot and ample basis for my history of Little Paxton. Met up with the girls at the rendezvous café for a nice lunch at 1.00pm and they really looked after us. Then picked up Daniel from Great Gransden on the way home and had a nice cup of tea on arrival. A message from the Allied-Lyons Breweries Historian on my answering machine started a whole sequence of calls to other historians that may have led to a breakthrough in studying the Broads of Bermondsey, pre 1830. We shall see! Out to put the ducks away and then tea time. The news today is of an attack by Norman Tebbit, the Conservative Party Chairman, on the BBC and the Corporations response to it. The Director General says that the criticisms can and will be met. Tebbit had claimed the BBC’s coverage of the Libyan raid was too pro-Libya. Kenneth Baker has announced that a 16.4% pay rise may be on offer to the teachers over the next two years, but must be linked to agreements on conditions of service, including extracurricular activity. Immediately, the two teachers unions have rejected the offer and the local authority employers are also unhappy about this interference. At the Old Bailey, a stepfather, Ronald Barton, has been found guilty of the murder and abduction of his 14 year old step daughter, Keighley, and has been sentenced to at least 25 years in prison. The sky is clearing for a bright and cold night, the wind has dropped to make frost a possibility, but after a bright start tomorrow, clouds and rain are forecast to spread for our trip to London.