Bagworth Incline and the remains of one of the world's oldest railway buildings

Steve from the What Once Was channel (like and subscribe, my pretties) writes on YouTube:

Join me as I explore what’s left of the Bagworth Incline House – a forgotten but historically significant structure from one of Britain’s earliest public railways. 

Built in the early 1830s as part of the Leicester & Swannington Railway, this incline control house once helped transport coal across Leicestershire using rope-worked, self-acting incline technology – long before modern locomotives took over.

In the course of this video reveals that he lives in Hugglescote, where I once went to photograph its Edward VIII postbox.

The Joy of Six 1430

David Howarth knows how to make the BBC less afraid of Nigel Farage: "Proportional representation would free the BBC from fear, but more than that, since under PR many parties would enjoy a reasonable prospect of entering government and so of supplying the secretary of state for culture, the BBC would have better incentives to maintain impartiality among democratic parties."

"Calling Andrew entitled is beside the point. He was raised with no economic purpose and now he finds himself as a connector to whom no one wants to be connected. 'I have no idea who he will socialize with,' one Norfolk grandee told me. 'All his friends are Chinese spies.'" Tina Brown claims to have the inside story on how King Charles pulled the plug on Andrew.

AI is supercharging abuse against women journalists, but Megha Mohan argues that it doesn’t have to be that way.

"For a period beginning in the 1960s and ending around the turn of this century, the preferred form of the homicidally inclined was the drawn-out danse macabre of serial murder. This was especially true in America’s Pacific Northwest, where an astonishingly large number of serial killers, from Ted Bundy to Israel Keyes, from the Green River Killer to the Shoe Fetish Slayer, from the Werewolf Butcher of Spokane to the Beast of British Columbia, grew up or operated." James Lasdun on the serial killers of Seattle.

Stephen Prince introduces us to the 1970 book Filming the Owl Service (1970), which is "long out of print and rare as hens' teeth to find second hand, which is a shame as it is a fine companion piece to the series, full of rather lovely photographs, artefacts, anecdotes, background story, prop sheets and designs from the filming and the series itself".

Robert Hartley explores the Leicestershire connections of George Stephenson, the father of railways.

Oliver's Crossing: A disused level crossing in the centre of Coalville

Snibston Colliery was developed by George Stephenson and opened in 1832. Coal from it reached the outside world via his Leicester and Swannington Railway, one of the first of the steam age.

Oliver's Crossing lies on the line that led from the colliery to the Leicester and Swannington, running through what became the centre of the town of Coalville - a name that could have come from Hard Times.

The crossing was named after Oliver Robinson, who became crossing keeper here in the 1880s after suffering a mining accident. The hut that sheltered him can still be seen.

Oliver's Crossing remained in use until the colliery closed in 1983.

The Rex, Coalville: "An astonishing Moderne style façade to find in a small town"

I knew I had to look for a derelict cinema in Coalville and, when I turned my mind to the search, I found I was standing outside it. 

Cinema Treasures reveals that it had 1200 seats and two screens, and says:

An astonishing Moderne style façade to find in a small town, originally surmounted by a neon-lit semi-sky sign. Inside the two-level auditorium, the main feature is the highly-ribbed ante-proscenium, covered in silver plastic paint and up-lit from the balcony parapet. The tabs were up-lit from the false orchestra pit. ...

The Rex Cinema opened on 2nd February 1938 with Errol Flynn in “Charge of the Light Brigade”. Like the Regal Cinema, it was operated by the Deeming family. It was converted into a twin cinema in May 1973.

The Rex Cinema closed on 3rd May 1984. It went over to retail use as a store for the textile company Dunelm Mill, which closed on 26th June, 2016.

You can find newspaper stories about the Rex being reopened, but I don't know if they are more than wishful thinking. For the time being, enjoy the picturesque dereliction.

Hugglescote: An Edward VIII post box with horns

I've been to Leicester's Saffron Lane Estate. I've to Earl Shilton. And now I've been to Hugglescote, so I've photographed all three Edward VIII post boxes in Leicestershire.

Since you ask, Hugglescote is a village that has now been absorbed into Coalville.