A dry, cold and icy month which froze the Medway and cut-off villages throughout Southern England as Daniel braved his schoolwork and narrowboat trip and Debbie her horse-riding and return to school but where the Range Rover came into its own for our London Boat Show visit and other trips. We were relatively healthy but our extended family suffered more. I was interviewing older Little Paxton residents and making progress with my researches and writing of the book and not wanting to respond to soundings from John Lamb about returning to business. Ulster Loyalists were protesting over the Anglo-Irish pact s IRA bombs shook Belfast, there were colliery fires, motorway pile-ups, protests at Wapping Plan and Scottish prisons, strikes of BT Engineers’ and London Tube workers, and then a huge scandal over the Guinness affair with corrupt City practises exposed. Sizewwll B was approved but a nuclear arms convoy crashed and disclosures followed by journalist investigative Duncan Campbell into a civil liberties clampdown and to plans for the intrusive Zircon spy satellite but the first BSB/Sky satellite was commissioned for UK domestic services. Terry Waite eventually joined the ranks of the hostages he was trying to release in Beirut, Harold McMillan died after a noble and influential political career but dozens of people perished needlessly in an aircraft crash, floods and a hotel fire whilst there were knife and bomb attacks throughout the world and protests grew for freedom in China and South Africa. Reagan is pilloried over the illegal Nicaraguan Contras arms controversy and a pro-Marcos revolt in the Philippines is crushed by Cory Aquino but possibly the most worrying development was the Iranian advance on Basra in Iraq.
And that is the end of January, which has seen the coldest and iciest weather of the winter so far, after December was quite mild. Little rainfall this month, after the wetness at the end of last year. The river was frozen at some times and the four-wheel-drive Range Rover was very useful on occasion on the icy roads and the cars are fine and we expect the Daimler early in the coming month. We ventured forth to the London Boat Show at Earls Court in our trusty Range Rover on London’s coldest-ever day since records began in 1940 with snow and ice defeating most motorists with maximum temperatures -7degC at noon. The Medway being frozen, preventing navigation and villages in Kent, Essex and Norfolk were cut off by snow falls. There was more than 6ins of snow in Kent and Northern Europe were all experiencing record low temperatures and a missing Scottish solicitor is found dead in the Lake District after a massive search by 30 colleagues. The family are reasonably well, apart from the usual coughs and colds and the children having various growing-up phobias. Di and I are well, but we need further effective slimming as we approach the warmer months. It is my Mum that is cause for concern, as more icy weather causes injuries to others which delay my mother’s operation. There has been no word from Freda and Alf, but they must also be struggling under their bodily complaints.
I always feel that the colder weather puts aching bodies under even more strain. Della’s was having some strange moods before a ‘kebab’ lunch with the family. Daniel struggles to meet the high standards of Kimbolton School but was in his element on their school narrow boating holiday after which we collected him on the coldest day of the winter so far. It was a cold and frosty day for Debbie to go back to school whilst I was looking after Della, she still braved the Baptist Church service and I bought her some postage stamps for Debbie to start her collection. I took Debbie horse-riding on several occasions and received the papers from Kimbolton for Debbie’s entrance test and interview. I collect her from Hail Weston House where she had been at a party for Nigel’s daughter and she persists with her horse-riding, her eating and her relationship with her mum after I intervened and agreed an acceptable diet, She has made more progress with her number-work and homework than Daniel, who I had to press to work harder. I spent some time with Debbie and Daniel; with me trying to improve Dan’s English and he goes with his friend Paul’s family to a firm’s disco. There was a visit from John Lamb who wanted me to consider returning to business with him! With all of these frosty cold days, there are no indications yet that any of my ‘Little Paxton sources’ are the worse for wear, but I do worry that they might pop off before I can take down all of their precious memories. I was introduced to Mrs Davies, Mrs Bunnage, Jack Ramply, Les Forscutt and Mrs Hazelton and, with their help, the book is going very well really. The discovery and loan of the Little Paxton scrapbook was a real find, as a treasure trove of information and everybody at museums and record offices are being most helpful, and so I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I was browsing the relevant books in the Cambridge University Library concerning Lord Overstone , Lord Wantage and John B. Papworth’s family history and his books on property and garden design. A very enlightening and motivating session with Mr Jack Ramply of Southoe, formerly of Grove Farm Little Paxton, who shared his historic scrap book with me that was first complied by Benjamin Inwards and I agreed to buy a Canon portable photocopier from the salesman on the strength of it. There was a meeting at Samuel Jones’ Paper Mill and had also heard from the former Paxton Park Maternity Hospital Matron keen to help with my history. Ulster Loyalists are campaigning against the Anglo-Irish pact and. In the UK, The Seafield Colliery fire has closed at least one of the two coal faces, papers released 30 years ago about the Suez Crisis show Tory ministers misled the Commons and this news eclipses the Chancellor Lawson’s announcement for his wider share ownership plans. Lord Stockton was buried in a private service and the ramifications of AIDS are publicised.. and Prince Edward seems to be unhappy with his Marine training course and is in danger of giving up his commission. 100 cars were involved in a M6/M1 junction motorway collision in the fog., Prince Edward quits the Marines. sign papers with Vinters concerning my Linton Lordships a,. a constable dies in an Ulster bombing. 6 people are on trial at The Old Bailey charged with murdering PC Blakelock. Thatcher comes out in support of Chief Constable Anderton, but the stock exchange rises up some 8% this month. Civil unrest outside Murdoch’s Wapping plant on the first anniversary of its sacking of printers with 150 injured. The BT engineer’s strike starts to bite,. Four IRA bombs are set off in Belfast and an English language European satellite TV programme, got going today and is being financed by ITV, Virgin and Granada. A deepening crisis at Barlinnie with three wardens held hostage as they protest at the brutality of the Scottish prison system. The Scottish prison occupation ends, with a promise of an inquiry over conditions Inspector Douglas Havelock is brought to justice over his shooting of Mrs Cherry Grace. There is a London Tube strike and Labour seizing on statistics showing that Northern Britain are losing jobs as the South gains them. However, the Tories and Labour are dead equal in the opinion polls to dampen election plans. The BT dispute has 30,000 engineers suspended and 60,000 more on strike before an all-out strike takes place of GPO engineers is on. GCHQ have lost their human rights case for union representation. John Major was taking all of the flack in the House of Commons concerning the North/South divide and the shameful level of homelessness and the political aftermath of the Wapping violence moves to The Commons as Ken Baker is tries to take the school curriculum’s away from schools and under his central control. 3,500 people turn up for David Penhaligon’s memorial service at Westminster Cathedral, Labour are predicted to win the Greenwich by-election a bid by Tory MP’s to bring back the death penalty was lost by 175 votes to 110 and measures to curtail the BBC was thwarted by Douglas Hurd. Ernest Saunders of Guinness starts the month in disgrace over takeover transgressions, the Finance Chief resigns with the Chief Executive still to follow and then Saunders himself is sacked after corruption is proved during the Distillers takeover and £25m-worth of share bribes were uncovered and two more directors of Morgan Grenfell resign over Guinness irregularities at the same time as the news is full of financial corruption in the biggest scandal since the war and now pressure for more safeguards is growing. However, the best story is of Sir Ralph Halpern’s successful shareholders’ support for his share scheme even though the tabloids were full of his exploits with the young model Fiona Wright. This was a distraction to the real news which was that a military vehicle overturns carrying nuclear warheads before the army recovering it but a further radioactivity leak at Sellafield have exposed 12 workers. Then the Sizewell B Nuclear Enquiry, the longest in history, will now allow the project to proceed. Rumours emerge of the BBC being gagged over a secret government project and then a row grows over the decision to suppress the BBC programme on a security surveillance project. Special Branch officers are tasked to try and incriminate investigative journalist Duncan Campbell over these Spy Satellite disclosures and then continue to hound those involved over the Spy Satellite revelation. The bullying tactics of the Special Branch after the Zircon satellite affair were revealed and led to the BBC successfully overturning a search warrant but then another was immediately issued. More oppression is evident as the phone of union leader, John Golding, was tapped. Then 2,000 men in Leicestershire are having their DNA sampled and recorded for crime investigation. Terry Waite seemed to be stuck trying to free a few hostages in the Lebanon by secret bargaining with Pro-Iranian Shiite Moslems, then Lebanese kidnappers threaten to kill four of the US hostages and finally it now seems that Terry Waite has been added to the ranks of the westerners kidnapped in The Lebanon. Overseas, the Puerto Rico hotel fire has 80 people killed and 93 hurt, a Brazilian airliner crashes on the Ivory Coast, killing 49 people, after engine problems and the worst storms for seven years batter the US west coast. Up to 15 people are feared dead, there are floods 9 ft deep in Massachusetts. Opposition parties are revolting against segregation and censorship in South Africa. and a bomb explodes in a Johannesburg which triggered reprisal killings in South Africa. 1,000 students ignore bans on demonstrations and march in Peking and then more Chinese students riot for democracy and a power struggle in China follows. The French unions are protesting at the 3% pay limit and there followed troubles on the currency exchanges with France wanting a re-alignment of the Franc against the dollar as there was concern over the US sanctions against EEC grain trade. Reagan had his successful prostate operation but came straight out of hospital and straight back into Iran arms sales controversy when he had the gall to ask Congress for $100M to aid the Contras in Nicaragua after the recent scandal and a then confused US staff leaks contradicting content of President Reagan’s ‘State of the Union’ speech! Russians and Americans start manoeuvring in Geneva with some chance of arms control talks resuming as Gorbachev denounced predecessor Brezhnev for secrecy and corruption. President Cory Aquino announced an independent enquiry over the mass killings of 8 demonstrating people by her armed forces but then had a pro-Marcos rebellion in the Philippines crushed. Norway join Mexico in joining OPEC’s cut in oil production to protect the price and a whole series of knife attacks take place in Jerusalem, Wimbledon and Soho with a bomb attack killing 21 in Tehran as the Iraqis bomb Ayatollah Khomeini’s headquarters. Thousands free from an Iranian advance on Basra and are within a few miles of Basra with huge casualties claimed on both sides. It is the national and international political scene that is so depressing, with the politics of extremism and economics of self interest taking the upper hand. When Terry Waite is himself taken, what hope is there for mankind? And what further diabolical liberties does Thatcher have to take before the people turn away from her in horror? We shall see. Kohl is the probable victor of the West German elections.