Category: Community

If hero plants, the new name for weeds, plus insects, birds and hedgehogs could speak, how many marks out of ten would they give us for the way we care for their homes – our gardens?

Following on from the success of our opening weekend when we greeted over 100 visitors to the mill, and the recent feature about the mill on ITV regional news, we have been delighted with the level of interest and support shown by the community. 

I recently found a vintage photograph of the Old Rectory in Mill Lane, Smeeton Westerby, together with an obituary issued by ‘The Times’ newspaper in London dated Thursday 16 March 1911. Which relates to a member of the Sale family who occupied the property for 25 years. 

It is a sad statistic that one in five children cannot read well by the age of 11. The Summer Reading Challenge, with the support of public libraries, is on a mission to change this. The Challenge will launch on Saturday 1 July and will run until Saturday 2 September.

Odonata are the ‘tooth-jawed’ insects, a group which includes Damselflies and Dragonflies. Late May to early October are the best months to look for these insects which are often stunningly beautiful when seen close-up but ferocious, as the name ‘dragonfly’ suggests, if you are a smaller insect. 

Kibworth Grammar School Hall Trustees held their monthly meeting on 17 May with our main focus on fund raising ideas to meet the ever increasing costs of running the hall. Although the hall has regular bookings and plenty of children’s parties, we are approaching the summer holidays and the annual slowdown of usage. Our brainstorm included a musical Film Night with attendees theme-dressed or maybe an afternoon Tea Dance with delicious homemade cakes.

We are a local company based at Kibworth Business Park and are able to offer each member of our team the opportunity for a paid Corporate Social Responsibility Day each year.

The boating season is well under way now. Numbers are still down on past years, when 40 through the locks on a high-season day was not unusual. New boats are still flooding into the system, many of them wide-beam (over 7ft). Although spacious for living on, they can cause problems on our rapidly narrowing canal, vegetation is encroaching on all sides. Meeting one with passenger boat Vagabond (10ft 6”) can be quite interesting.

Sometimes we can be deceived by what we see, and we here at Foxton Canal Museum are a case in point!

Every time you visit a website, send or receive a message or email, buy or book anything online, comment on a post, upload a photo, or find directions on your phone, you’re adding to your digital footprint.