A view of the English Democrats Party effort in this May’s local elections.

Although now a former member of the English Democrats I still follow their electoral adventures with interest.  I am not aware of the Party standing any candidates in local council elections, but I did note that a handful of its candidates stood in Mayoral and Police and Crime Commissioner elections.

Robin Tilbrook, the Party Chairman, was a candidate in the Essex PCC election and garnered 42,381 votes, almost 10% of the vote – figures not to be sneezed at.

Stephen Morris, a Party veteran of many years campaigning and electioneering, stood as a candidate in the Greater Manchester mayoral election.  Labour’s Andy Burnham was re-elected as mayor while Stephen received over 9,000 votes or 1.4% of the ballots cast.

Therese Hirst, who joined the English Democrats following the absorption of Veritas, stood in the West Yorkshire mayoral election and received 8,969 votes or 1.5% of ballots cast.

A stalwart effort by Stephen and Therese!

The English Democrats also stood a candidate, Antonio Daniel Vitello, in the Bedfordshire PCC election.  He received 3,387 votes – almost 3% of those cast.  I had not heard of him before, but I admire his willingness to step up to the plate and produce a very respectable showing.

The English Democrats did as well as could be expected considering their limited numbers and resources, and the lack of fair coverage by the MSN.

British Military coup? No Chance! A letter in The Week.

The letter below, which was first published in The Times, appeared in The Week on May 8.  It followed much publicity given to a group of French generals who suggested that their nation was heading for civil war and a possible military coup.

Why it couldn’t happen here.

To The Times

To answer David Aaronovitch’s query as to whether a French military coup could happen here, those of us who slaved in the recesses of the Ministry of Defence know that it could never happen here, for the very good reason that UK service and security chiefs would never be able to agree amongst themselves as to who should be Il Duce,

Andrew Brookes, former CEO, The Air League, London

Obviously such a coup is a non-starter here!

Sunbeams over South Somerset.

Sunbeams over South Somerset on the late afternoon of May 1st.  I thought they made an attractive and interesting photo.  They don't last long and it pays to have your camera handy!

Walpurgisnacht - which bears the name of an English nun born in the neighbouring county of Devonshire.

Chambers' Book of Days tells us:

"The eve of May Day is a time when witches are believed to fly abroad.  In Germany it is known as Walpurgisnacht, a night that bears the name of an English nun, St. Walburga (or Walpurgis), who became the abbess of Heidenheim in the eighth century.  On Walpurgisnacht, witches are said to gather at the Brocken, the highest peak of the Harz Mountains in Germany.  There they carouse with the devil until midnight , when the Queen of May appears.  (In other parts of the country, other high places are said to be the scene of the revelries.)  The night is marked by fancy-dress celebrations, with costumes similar to those of Hallow'een, and by singing and dancing around bonfires."

St. Walburga was born, c. 710, in the county of Devonshire into a local aristocratic family.  She was the daughter of an under king of the West Saxons.  At the age of 11 Walburga was entrusted to the abbess of Wimborne Abbey in Dorsetshire and in the course of time became a nun.

Eventually Walburga, after 26 years at Wimborne, travelled with her brothers to Francia to assist St. Boniface in evangelising the still pagan Germans.

Walburga became a nun at the double monastery of Heidenheim amm Hahnenkamm which was founded by her brother Willibald.  He named her as his successor and she became abbess of the monastery following his death in 751.

Walburga died in February 777 or 779 - the records are unclear - and was canonised by Pope Adrien the Second in 870.

Forget-Me-Nots in a South Somerset garden, and a poetic tribute to them.

Lots of wood forget-me-nots have sprung up beneath a holly hedge in my garden.  Below are a couple of photos of them and a very appropriate poem in tribute to them. 

And closer in!

The Forget-Me-Not Fairy

By Cicely Mary Barker

So small, so blue, in grassy places

My flowers raise

Their tiny faces.

 

By streams my bigger sisters grow

And smile in gardens

In a row.

 

I’ve never seen a garden plot;

But though I’m small

Forget me not.

The Somerset village of Corfe and its Church of St. Nicholas.

The Somerset village of Corfe straddles a short stretch of the B3170, the road linking Taunton with the A303, a mile south of Taunton Racecourse.  I visited the village a couple of years ago and had a stroll around after leaving the car in the small car park alongside the Church of St. Nicholas.

The Somerset Federation of Women’s Institutes beautifully described Corfe in their The Somerset Village Book (Countryside Books, 1988).

“Corfe is a small, pretty village on the northern slopes of the Blackdown Hills , four miles south of Taunton.  The name is said to have been derived from an ancient word meaning ‘gap’ or ‘pass’ and this is borne out by the cleft in the hillside which takes the Honiton road over the Blackdowns from the village.  Although it is not mentioned in the Domesday Book the village has existed since Norman times.

Calamine and limestone were quarried on the hills around the village and there were numerous lime kilns for burning the lime for agricultural use.

The ancient woodlands which provided fuel for the kilns remain and provide a magnificent backcloth to the village.”

The Church of St. Nicholas in the Somerset village of Corfe.

The charming little Church of St. Nicholas with its uncommon tower has its rebuilding chronicled by Ronald Webber in his The Devon and Somerset Blackdowns (Robert Hale & Company, 1976).

"The church of St. Nicholas at Corfe is built in Norman style, but this was done in the nineteenth century – most of it in 1844 and the rest (including the tower) in 1858. The old (1844) tower was small, low, square and ugly, so it was replaced by the present one of blue stone with a peal of four bells; a great improvement, it would seem, to the old one."

The village war memorial outside the Church of St. Nicholas in the Somerset village of Corfe.

The plaque on the village war memorial in Corfe, Somerset.

I came across this just inside the gate at St. Nicholas Church, Corfe, Somerset. Never seen one like it in a churchyard before!

Dragon's teeth in the undergrowth defending Ilminster in South Somerset.

While on an afternoon stroll in South Somerset a couple of days ago I came across some relics from World War Two.  What looks like some strange form of alien plant life lurking in the undergrowth are actually concrete dragon’s teeth covered in ivy.  For most of the year they are hidden by the greenery, but at this time of year they are easily visible.  

 They were used to form part of the Ilminster Anti-Tank Island in the early years of the Second World War when a German invasion was considered possible.  The dragon’s teeth originally ran all along the eastern side of Dillington Park Drive.  An information board near a concrete pill-box in the Drive is very informative and explains the role of Anti-Tank Islands.

World War Two dragon's teeth in Dillington park Drive, Ilminster, South Somerset.