Leicestershire intelligence

Here I am in sunny Leicestershire, about to embark on the third stage of my journey - making for Oakham, and my first visit to Rutland. Yesterday, I had a lovely - if tiring - ride through rural South Warwickshire and Northamptonshire. I passed signs saying first, No to some crematorium; then No to HS2, and finally No to the Kelmarsh Windfarm. Community feeling is vociferously expressed in these parts!

Starting off within sight of the battlefield of Edgehill, I passed through Naseby, another famous Civil War battleground.

One minor disappointment was that I found several churches locked, which I’d like to have looked round - including the large church in the centre of Market Harborough. I did arrive there rather late, I suppose, having had the wind against me most of the day. The final stretch into Harborough was an easy spin along the Midshires Way, the disused railway line which starts from Northampton. The spooky bit was the long tunnel some three miles south of Harborough - no lighting, and plentiful puddles.

I’ve been staying with kind John and Mary Twedell, the walls of whose old house are newly clad with insulation, they already having inserted under-floor insulation. (Their electricity bill is £7 a month!)

Victorian U-Values

We have lived in our house (built: 1870) nearly 15 years, over which period a running battle has been fought with draughts. Most of the rooms have open fireplaces: apart from the couple in which a fire is ever lit, I had long ago stuffed the chimneys with fibreglass.

Last week, though, there was much reference in the paper to chimney balloons, which were new to me. Would these be a better solution for our unused fireplaces, I wondered. Well, in the process of inspecting our chimney openings, I discovered that no less than three of them had neat little trap doors, hinged so that they could be pulled down when the fire was not lit. And I'd never even realised. Amazing!