Here I review some of the past history of hunting and eating golden plover and consider whether it should be removed from the quarry list. I also consider how such decisions are usually based upon emotion rather than science.

“The Heron of Oblivion hovers over the drinker; he steals the mind of men.” Here I explore the heronries in South Lincolnshire, the hunting and eating of herons and folklore surrounding this wonderful bird.

In this 8th and last piece about Marsh Fen and Town and Class I comment on where we are in 2026.

"Working hard used to get you something. It got you a house, a nice life, holidays. It got you somewhere....." Hannah Spencer MP Here I allow my thoughts to meander, try and consider where I fit in with class; acknowledge there are many pretenders; and finally consider whether it should be a legally protected characteristic.

My great-grandfather was known by everyone as Frank Elsden, although his birth name was Frederick, who moved to Spalding as a “man from the Pru” – an insurance agent for the Prudential Assurance Company in 1932,  with his wife Ada and his son Cyril Frank Elsden. As such his was a story of social mobility from working class to middle class.

ASPIRATION is the most misused and abused term when referring to working class people. Here is the problem of our time in that we have a university educated class that see the world through their values, standards and experiences in a very narrow view. This dominates in politics and business to the detriment of all in an age where stepping stones of social mobility are being removed.

Here I look at Pigeon End Spalding, how labelling of the area and its people changed over time and some of its effects.

Gang labour has repeatedly been a means of exploiting workers and suppressing wages driven by a food system that loads costs to the producer creating a race to the bottom on the value of labour.

Rural class structures are very misunderstood. A popular history I was taught was that these people migrated to cities to work. This is a little misleading as in fact that they migrated into industry to work, not all industry was city based, especially coal mining as any visit to the former coal mining villages of the Midlands, Yorkshire, Durham and Northumberland will reveal.

“It’s terribly difficult to explain in England to people how much class distinction there is. Its only when you go away and look back that you see it.” Michael Caine

Fed up with cats? These were the proposed remedies in 1866

Here I consider some of the poetry and rhymes arising out of observing and hunting wildfowl

“Sing a song of sixpence a pocket full of rye Four and twenty blackbirds were baked in a pie When the pie was opened the birds began to sing Was not this a dainty dish to set before the king?” At least in the nursery rhyme  the blackbirds are alive. Here I explore the eating of this beloved songbird.

In September 1880 a Gosberton farmer had an effective solution to dealing with unscrupulous bailiffs.

Over time bird names and the their collective nouns have changed here are a few examples.

The Norfolk Broads are an important wetland nature reserve, albeit largely a man made product created by peat digging over the centuries. The following account of a shoot on Hickling Broad in 1934 from the Norfolk & Norwich Naturalist Society may appear alarming.

Nowadays a little over 500,000 pinkfeet geese are thought to overwinter in the UK. Certainly where I live in Northumberland I see my fair share from flocks of a few dozen to many hundreds flying over at times. However, this was not always the case and Kenzie Thorpe shared the following figures in May 1964

The Clarkson Memorial in Wisbech was erected in 1880 to celebrate Thomas Clarkson (1760-1846) who campaigned against the slave trade. However, it should be considered that the area was suffering something of a recession/depression especially in agriculture at the time it was erected and prompted this comment from Spalding press

The cottager was a key part of the rural economy in the Fens is here described in Wrangle in 1848. One of the many pieces not to make my book Marsh Fen and Town South LIncolnshire and Beyond.

Nowadays otters make frequent appearances on the River Welland in Spalding. In November 1964, otters were a much rarer sight as seen in the following extract from a Spalding Wildfowler's newsletter in November 1964: