TRANSACTIONS OF THE LEICESTER LITERARY & PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. VOLUME 101 2007 Charnia – – 50th Birthday Is the Grass Always Greener? Dinosaurs & the Modern Biodiversity Crisis The Peaceful Use of Nuclear Energy Multiculturalism & Community Cohesion Victoria Park & New Walk, Leicester Alexander Walker: an Obsessive Collector A Grid for Literary Greatness Pheromones & other Scents Muriel Spark in Tuscany Juggling: Theory & Practice The Magic of Oxygen Architecture: Significant & Challenging Olovnikov’s Clock & CHD Re-introduction of Birds & Mammals TRANSACTIONS OF THE LEICESTER LITERARY & PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. VOLUME 101 • 2007 CONTENTS IS THE GRASS ALWAYS GREENER? Presidential Address by Mr David Beeson ...........................................................................2 DEVELOPMENT OF THE PEACEFUL USE OF NUCLEAR ENERGY: A JUSTIFIABLE OBJECTIVE? Mr Peter Riley......................................................................................................................7 VICTORIA PARK LEADING TO NEW WALK, LEICESTER Dr Helen Boynton .............................................................................................................10 A SEVEN POINT GRID FOR LITERARY GREATNESS Dr Jane Mackay.................................................................................................................11 MURIEL SPARK IN TUSCANY Professor Martin Stannard..................................................................................................15 THE MAGIC OF OXYGEN Dr Mike Batham & Dr Rob Janes.......................................................................................16 OLOVNIKOV’S CLOCK AND CORONARY HEART DISEASE Professor Nilesh Samani ....................................................................................................17 THE SIXTH EXTINCTION? WHAT DINOSAURS CAN TELL US ABOUT THE MODERN BIODIVERSITY CRISIS Professor Norman MacLeod ..............................................................................................20 PROSPECTS FOR MULTICULTURALISM AND COMMUNITY COHESION Mr Ted Cantle....................................................................................................................24 ALEXANDER WALKER: AN OBSESSIVE COLLECTOR Mr Richard Cork................................................................................................................27 PHEROMONES AND OTHER SCENTS FOR THE ALLEVIATION, WORLDWIDE, OF MANY PEST PROBLEMS IN PLANT, ANIMAL AND HUMAN HEALTH Professor John Pickett ........................................................................................................29 JUGGLING: THEORY AND PRACTICE Dr Colin Wright.................................................................................................................33 WHY ARCHITECTURE SHOULD BE OF HIGH QUALITY, SIGNIFICANT AND CHALLENGING Mr Michael Wilford...........................................................................................................37 RE-INTRODUCTION OF BIRDS AND MAMMALS Mr Roy Dennis ..................................................................................................................41 PROGRAMME AND ANNUAL REPORTS ..........................................................................42 Cover picture:‘Charnia: life restoration’ by Mark Evans, Leicester Museums and Galleries, New Walk, Leicester. (cf. Geology Seminar pp. 46-58) Colour versions of the illustrations in this Volume are available in the online edition of these Transactions (www.leicesterlitandphil.org) © Copyright 2007 The Leicester Literary & Philosophical Society, c/o Leicester Museum, New Walk, Leicester. LE1 7EA ISSN 0141 3511 Transactions of the Leicester Literary & Philosophical Society. IS THE GRASS ALWAYS GREENER? Presidential Address by Mr B D Beeson Delivered on 2 October 2006 In April 1953 my father and I walked the herd of cows from their home at Welford to the Hollies Farm, Frolesworth, some 13 miles; at the time animals were regularly walked to the local market. In recent years with increased traffic and open plan gardens it has become essential to use a cattle trailer to move animals a quarter of a mile from the farm to a field on the edge of the village. This is just one small change that I have seen in over 50 years of farming and my father in his lifetime saw many more. In this evening’s lecture I intend to look at the their eggs. The pigs, milk and poultry together with changes in British agriculture from the beginning of home-grown vegetables and rabbits shot on the farm, the 20th century to the present day, covering his and meant that providing food for the family was not a my experiences in farming. problem particularly during the two world wars. Crops grown included oats, wheat, kale and My grandfather, Joseph Beeson, started farming in the mangolds, the majority of which was used to feed the early 1900s with his brother Fred at The Chestnuts in animals. All of this was typical of thousands of small the village of Arnesby. A few years later he rented farms until the 1950s. Hubbards Farm, Ashby Magna. With the break up of the estate in 1918 he was able to purchase it. The When we came to The Hollies as well as the dairy introduction of Estate Duty in 1894, the fiscal threats cows and beef cattle, we had sheep, hens and a few to landowners in the 1909 Budget and the death of pigs, not much different from Grandfather’s day. My many landowners in the First World War further mother kept hens which ran loose around the encouraged the sale of estates, often to sitting tenants. orchard. Later the hens were loose-housed in a large In Great Britain during the 1890s, between 85 and shed and the eggs were sent to an egg packing station 90% of agricultural land was farmed by tenants, in Leicester for distribution to shops. The pigs were declining to 82% by 1922. By 1950 only 62% of land kept purely for our own consumption of ham and in the UK was tenanted, falling to 39% by 1980. In bacon. We grew crops of wheat, oats, barley, the following years until 1995 between 60,000 and mangolds, kale and grass for grazing and hay. 90,000 acres per year returned to the landlords, since when this trend has reversed with around 35,000 All these crops were grown to provide feed for the acres a year returning to the tenanted sector. animals and any surplus of wheat and barley sold. After the harvesting of the cereal crops the straw My father was one of six children. He was born in would be baled for either feed or bedding for the February 1909 and when old enough helped to milk animals. In the fifties we only had one small grass the cows before catching the train to go to school in paddock next to the farm and, as the pasture was on Leicester, milking them on his return in the evening. the outskirts of the village, cows were taken along the As today, prices were low and after my father left village street morning and evening throughout the school in 1925 he and his sister Jessie started a milk grazing season. delivery round in and around the south side of Leicester. Later my grandfather introduced waxed During the sixties the development of new housing in cartons instead of bottles for the doorstep delivery, for Frolesworth with open plan gardens where previously his day quite innovative. Some milk was made into there had been high walls and hedges caused conflict butter and cheese for the family’s own use and any between the farming community and the newcomers. surplus was sold, they also kept a few pigs for home The problem was solved in 1972 by an exchange of consumption and a small flock of hens provided all fields with a neighbouring farmer giving us extra 2 Volume 101 • 2007 Transactions of the Leicester Literary & Philosophical Society. grazing land behind the farm and removing the need Later the sheaves were taken to the stack yard of the for this twice daily journey along Main Street. farm or left in the field where they were stacked and the roof thatched to protect them from the winter 50 years after moving to The Hollies there was still a rain. Threshing the corn involved a small army of milking herd and store cattle but no pigs, sheep or men, who travelled from farm to farm with the hens. Mangolds and kale have disappeared from our threshing drum. rotation but wheat, oats, barley and grass for grazing and silage remain. The farm has become more In the 1940s combine harvesters came to this country specialised concentrating mainly on milk but beef from America. These have developed into the cattle and cereals are still produced. On many farms enormous machines we see today with 30 foot specialisation resulted in milking herds disappearing cutting units. One man operates it with systems completely. The 1960s saw a swing away from small controlling the height of the cutter bar and grain loss milk producers with many farmers ploughing up the monitors; some now have radar for steering alongside grassland and changing to the production of cereals the crop, the ultimate system being one steered by and other crops. No more early starts to the day and satellite navigation. As the crop is cut the yield can no cows to be milked twice a day seven days a week be monitored across the field and the information fed resulted in an easier lifestyle. As arable farmers, they into a computer back in the farm office. Having were able to relax a little during the winter months produced a yield map of the crop, the information after the harvest had been safely gathered in and next can be programmed into the fertiliser application year’s crops had been sown. system