LATEST WHO NEWS Wymeswold Baptist Chapel circa 1960 I recently obtained a copy of Kenneth Lindley's book Of Graves and Epitaphs, published in 1965. To my surprise at the start of the final chapter is this sketch of Wymeswold Baptist Chapel, done by the author. There is no date on this illustration and Lindley first took an interest in churchyards about 1945. However from the text of the book he seemingly visited Leicestershire in the late 1950s or very early 1960s. If Lindley's style reminds you of John Piper then, yes, Piper was Lindley's principal mentor. Hoton's windmill Russell Jones emailed with a photograph of Hoton's windmill. And also informed me the photo the WHO published in 2002 is now thought not to be the windmill at Hoton but the one at Costock. Relevant update here. Pugin's 'godly texts' in St Mary's, Wymeswold As part of a 'Pugin Day' conference organised by Liz Tingle for 11th April 2026 I looked anew at photographs taken by Philip Brown of the interior of St Mary's, Wymeswold. These show three texts painted on the walls as part of A.W.N. Pugin's restoration of the church 1844 to 1846. These texts have not survived. But two biblical quotations on the bier (probably designed by Pugin) are still visible. See Pugin's 'godly texts'. Philip Brown's negatives accessioned at Leicestershire Record Office About 2008 Philip Brown's negatives, taken between about 1890 and the 1920s, were donated by the Brown family to the Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland. At the Record Office's request I have recently supplied digital scans and captions for many of the images. The negatives, scans and captions have been accessioned as DE11058(RD848). Note that Philip's lantern slides were retained by the Brown family. The negatives for these slides have mostly not survived. Predictably the slides are of some of his best images. I have digital scans of the slides as well as the negatives. In 2018 the best of Philip's photographs were included in a YouTube video called Wymeswold Around 1900. Burton's poet Joan Shaw has provided a biography of Edward Mansell Buxton, a prolific amateur poet who was born in Burton on the Wolds and worked for most of his life at Cotes. Prestwold's gravestones Joan Shaw has also typed up a survey of the 'Swithland' slate gravestones in Prestwold churchyard. Wymeswold's stonemasons I have added more photographs of slate memorials carved by the four most prolific stonemasons based in Wymeswold to an article drafted by Ginny Westcott and uploaded to this web site earlier this year. More Losebys A Loseby family photograph of the marriage of Fanny Loseby to Edwin Botham. Taken in March 1901 at Underhill Farm, Leake Lane, Stanford on Soar. Phil Thorpe was sent a copy of another Loseby family photograph taken in March 1901 which led to him researching yet more of his ancestors and family. More details in this PDF: More Losebys This new PDF is a continuation of the article in Discovering the Wolds available online as a PDF and an earlier update. Memories of the Holocaust Heinz and Erica in 1949. When Holocaust Memorial Day comes around each year towards the end of January I suspect few people would think about this persecution being part of the Wolds history of the Wolds. However David Bailey recalls growing up in the late 1940s and visiting an aunt who lived at Willoughby. She was looking after Heinz, a young Jewish refugee from Germany who had come to England with his sister, Erica, on the 'Kindertransport' in July 1939. More details in this PDF: Memories of the Holocaust The WHO is now on Facebook www.facebook.com/share/1DX3WabYV9/ The 1830s restoration of St Mary's, Wymeswold A digitised copy of Dean Alford's book A history and description of the restored Parish Church of Saint Mary, Wymeswold, Leicestershire is online at babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101075431716&seq=22 The 1990s restoration of Church Farm, Wymeswold Photograph by Ginny Westcott. Thanks to Mark Kirk also online are photographs and a video of the restoration of Church Farm (a.k.a. 49 Far Street) in the mid- to late-1990s: 2026 WHO talks programme revealed The WHO's talks and field trip programme for 2026. Wymeswold Stories The 'Wymeswold Stories' project now has its own web page. No less than twenty-five accounts of life (and sometimes death) in Wymeswold between the eleventh century and more recent decades. Go to wymeswold.com/wymeswold-stories Hadfield's special mangold manure Joan Shaw discovered this postcard-sized trade card for Hadfield's 'special mangold manure'. Seemingly this had been used by Burton on the Wolds farmer Bob Seal to produce a bumper crop. Presumably the two gentlemen in the suits, far left and far right, are representatives of Hadfields. Similar trade cards featured other parts of England. They seem to date from around 1908 to 1918. Mangolds are also known as mangelwurzels, especially in south-west England. They are primarily used for feeding livestock but the roots and leaves can be prepared for human consumption, especially when harvested young. They are closely related to red beetroot, sugar beet and chard. They were chopped using 'root cutters'. A fine example was made by the forerunner to the company that makes JCBs. Bob Seal lived at Town Farm which stood on the Melton Road in Burton opposite the Greyhound. He is pictured on the left-hand side of the mangold heap, his son Harry on the right. Both Bob and Harry were prominent members of the Burton community. The young man holding the prize mangolds is Walter Harrison. WHO Christmas meal 1990 When looking for something else I came across this. Almost certainly written by Angela Thorpe who was Chair at the time. Joan Shaw says the meal was held at the Willoughby Motel, which is the building next to the karting track at the side of the A46. I think we lost electricty for the best part of three days and nights. Other early venues for WHO Christmas meals were the White Horse in Wymeswold, the Pullman Restaurant (at the former railway station near Upper Broughton) and Stonepits Farm tearooms near Wartnaby (now David Musson fencing and garden furniture). All three ceased trading in the 1990s. The Willoughby Motel ceased being a motel about 2005 to 2010. Sepulchral effigies web site The alabaster effigy inside Prestwold church commemorating Christopher Packe who died in 1682. Back in the 1990s Max Matthews and myself visited every sepulchral effigy in Leicestershire and Rutland (well, fess up, we missed a late C19th one inside Emmanuel Church, Loughborough). The result was a CD-ROM published in 2002. But the world has long since moved on from CD-ROMs so I've finally recoded the pages as a stand-alone web site. Here's a direct link to the Prestwold effigies. Wymeswold's slate gravestone engravers A posthumous contribution from Ginny Westcott based on notes she shared with the WHO in 2003. Goodbye 'Belvoir Angels'. Hello 'soul effigies'. Why did a motif on early eighteenth century gravestones get the misnomer 'Belvoir Angels' in the 1970s? And what did the people who carved them call them? And why are so-called Belvoir Angels found in Boston, Massachusetts? All the answers here. Leonard Wheldon's car This splendid car was bought by Leonard Wheldon in 1935, just a few years after he had moved to Wymeswold House. More detail here. Sisters' Well Photograph by a friend of Sandy Haddington taken in 2015. Joan Shaw has been delving into old newspapers to find out the key social event of 1848. All the details here. Chris Kirk photographed all the war graves in Burton on the Wolds cemetery and kindly donated copies of the files to the WHO. If anyone is researching these men but does not live locally then email me and I will send relevant file(s). Thanks to Richard Ellison I can share scans of two articles from the Loughborough Echo from the 1980s when Wymeswold Dairy was still operational. Click on each of these two thumbnails to open full-size: Wymeswold Dairy, originally the Primitive Methodist chapel, shortly before demolition in 1989. Photograph by Alec Moretti. See also this 1990s article from WHO publications. About 2013 David Hayward uploaded videos of several Wymeswold Waddles and the Olympic Torch event. His YouTube channel is @WymeswoldTV Peter Speechly videos his Wymeswold Waddle runs. Best way to find them is via Google Search. There is also a Memories of Wymeswold YouTube channel with video of village events in the 1990s. Not in the Wolds but of local interest are good quality drone shots of Garendon Park. David Smith (son of Nell Smith) emailed to say: [re] the photo of East Street or East Road, showing the farmhouse where I grew up, all I can add is that the shop across the street was run by Joe Bond, his wife and their daughter Dorothy. Joe and his wife were painfully slow, Dorothy was even slower. Mrs Bond played in the weekly whist drive and was notorious for leading her unsupported kings. Joe was a grocer but also the village newsagent. During my childhood (I was born in 1932) he moved to the shop in the square. The thatched house was the home of Mr and Mrs Malyon and their widowed daughter, Mrs Farnsworth. I believe the Malyons had another daughter whose son was Stewart Hodder. Jim Mackley's memoir seems not to mention the Malyons or their successors in the house, but he lists the shop in the square as occupied first by Joe Bond, then by Ben Thorpe. These musings can help establish a terminus ante quem, perhaps about 1938 (?), but not a terminus post quem. Two updates about Wymeswold's Youth Hostel. An update from Joan Shaw about the dates of operation of Wymewold's gas works. St Mary's Wymeswold has excellent stained glass designed by A.W.N. Pugin. Many other churches in Leicestershire and Rutland also have interesting stained glass but it is difficult to establish who designed and made them. However the late Paul Sharpling compiled a comprehensive gazetteer for Leicestershire and Rutland and this is available online as a free PDF. More information about the history of stained glass on The Stained Glass Museum's website. Richard Ellison has prepared a building stone survey of St Mary's church, Wymeswold and attempted to identify the medieval quarries and transport routes used. David Fogg Postles has written about the rare survival of early fifteenth century bye-laws for Wymeswold covering many aspects of daily village life. See this LAHS 'blog'. Two WHO books are now available as free PDFs. Click on covers to download.     Preserving A.W.N. Pugin’s Church: St Mary’s Wymeswold Roof Repairs and Community Heritage Stories In September 2024, St Mary’s church, Wymeswold, was fortunate to be awarded a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The award is for repairs to the roof and a community heritage project to be known as 'Wymeswold Stories'. The bid was prepared in partnership with the Wolds Historical Organisation (WHO), the Wymeswold Church Appeal Fund (WFCA) and Wymeswold Methodist Church. More details in this PDF. Thanks to William Tingle's skills with a drone we can share this bird's eye view of St Mary's church and churchyard. Craddock's Ashes The Quorn Hunt met regularly at was, at the time, the Durham Ox. In 1951 they purchased a nearby fox covert called 'Craddock's Ashes'. And erected a commorative stone near the road. Which has since become somewhat overgrown. WHO member Nick Hando set out to find the stone. I first became aware of the Craddock's Ashes memorial stone about fifteen years ago. While with a friend on a long training run for the London Marathon we ran past the copse on the way up to Six Hills we and noticed a plank laid across the ditch separating the road from wood. Thinking it was an odd place and method for access into a private wood, we crossed the plank and followed a vague short trail of trampled undergrowth that led, rather surprisingly, to a memorial stone. At the time, I remembered seeing the wood marked as Craddock's Ashes on the OS map so it was nice to find out how it had been named as such. Fast forward to 2024 and this is where it gets a bit weird. Both my running partner, Niall, and I independently recall the memorial stone giving details of a Second World War airplane that crashed in the location and the deaths of the airmen. Niall thought they were Canadian but I 'remembered' them being Polish. Odd how memory plays tricks. I tried to find it in July but was unsuccessful due to impenetrable overgrown vegetation and the plank no longer being there. And wearing shorts and sandals wasn't the best preparation. Discussion with Niall led to investigating Google Earth and its history option. It didn't take long to spot the plank on the 2010 images and spy the stone peeping out next to a tree trunk. Pinning the location and scrolling forward in time gave a more accurate point to search and so armed with better data I went back up in October and found the stone almost immediately. It took quite a bit of effort to actually reach the memorial as the brambles and nettles had run amok, but I had come equipped with wellies, gardening gauntlets and secateurs so was able to trim back the vegetation. A few geotagged photos recorded the details for posterity and I left it in peace, noting that a pretty clump of purple cyclamen had chosen to flower right by the memorial. There is currently a "For Sale" sign very close to the access point. I wonder whether the vendors have any idea of the history of the wood or its memorial stone? Craddock's Ashes (shown as 'Ash Plantation') in 1883. The Eagle mural Ever wondered why there is an eagle made from stone on the wall of the pharmacy on Hoton Road? It was created in 1983 by Russell Hubbard to commemorate the deaths of nearly all the crew of a Wellington bomber which crashed after barely missing the village. Ralph Emmerson is related to one of those who died and has written up a detailed account for the WHO. He also organised funding for a memorial plaque which gives the names of the airmen; this was unveiled next to the eagle during a Service of Dedication on 20th March 2025. lots of older news from the WHO

WHO pages only All the Web Two WHO books are now available as free PDFs. Click on covers to download.