A L Waddington-Feather

A little something I've been working on with friends.... The Poetry Trail at Eaton Manor Country Estate is officially launched today, #WorldPoetryDay. (It includes my father's poem!) The walk is opne to all on 10 May as part of the Open Gardens scheme. eatonmanor.co.uk/poetry-trail/

Leonardo da Vinci invented the self-supporting bridge, which works like this, between 1485-1487

I don’t use the word “evil” lightly but abortion up till birth…? My column: Britain is about to make a sickening change to the abortion law telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03/1…

“May your troubles be less, and your blessings be more, and nothing but happiness come through your door.” — Traditional Irish blessing Green flowers, symbolising good health and good fortune, to wish the Emerald Isle a happy St. Patrick’s Day. #StPatricksDay #LaFeilePadraig

I should be on the farm today planting barley or spreading fertiliser, but instead we’re at the High Court for a Judicial Review where we’ll ask the Court to step in and declare that the Chancellor’s decision not to consult properly over IHT changes with the public was unlawful.

Every pane of glass around you. 🪟 Every window. Every phone screen. Every car windscreen. Every skyscraper.🇬🇧 All made the same way. All using the same process. Invented in a kitchen sink in Lancashire. His name was Sir Alastair Pilkington. He wasn't even related to the glass company. He just happened to share the name and married into the family. In 1952 he was doing the washing up at home. He watched the grease float on the water. Perfectly flat. Undisturbed. And thought: what if molten glass could do that? Before this moment, flat glass had been made the same way for three hundred years. 😰 You melted sand. You poured it into sheets. Then you ground it. And polished it. By hand. For hours. A third of every sheet was wasted in the process. The work was brutal. The results were inconsistent. Nobody questioned it. That was just how glass was made. Pilkington went to his bosses at Pilkington Brothers in St Helens with his idea. They backed him. It took seven years. It cost £7 million. An enormous sum in the 1950s. There were years where nothing worked. The company nearly went bankrupt. His idea: pour molten glass at 1,100°C onto a bath of molten tin. Glass is less dense than tin. It floats. It spreads. Both surfaces fire-polished perfectly flat by the heat. No grinding. No polishing. No waste. 🔥 In January 1959, it worked. The float glass process was licensed to manufacturers across the world. Over 40 companies. Over 30 countries. Today it accounts for over 90% of all flat glass production on Earth. Every window you have ever looked through in your entire life was almost certainly made using this single British process. Sir Alastair Pilkington was knighted in 1970. Elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1969. Made a life peer in 1995. Baron Pilkington of St Helens. He died the same year. Before he could take his seat in the House of Lords. A British man with an idea who changed every building on Earth. 🇬🇧 Be part of us - proudofus.co.uk Be proud of us. 🙏🇬🇧

"There is some good in this world, and it's worth fighting for." — J. R. R. Tolkien

Dear Prime Minister, Dear Bank of England & Dear Guardians of the Nation’s Piggy Bank, I see we are now considering removing the likes of Winston Churchill, Jane Austen and Alan Turing from British banknotes and replacing them with wildlife. Yes. Animals. Apparently this bold intellectual leap comes courtesy of a panel of wildlife experts, including Nadeem Perera, who believes animals on banknotes are “long overdue.” Right then. For decades our currency has honoured the people who actually built the country — scientists, writers, leaders and innovators who shaped Britain’s history. But now, after a consultation where a majority of respondents apparently quite liked the idea of wildlife, the plan seems to be to quietly retire the giants of British history and replace them with creatures from the hedgerow. Because when I reach into my wallet, what I’m really thinking is: “You know what this £20 note is missing? A particularly photogenic woodland animal.” Now don’t get me wrong — Britain loves wildlife. We’ll happily halt traffic for a duck crossing the road, spend millions protecting a rare beetle, and build a luxury underpass so a newt can commute safely. But surely the purpose of our national currency is to honour the people who shaped the nation… not the animals who occasionally raid our bins or steal our chips at the seaside. Replacing Churchill — the man who helped steer Britain through World War II — with a badger feels less like progress and more like a plotline from a children’s book. Which brings me neatly to the inevitable next step. If we’re going down the wildlife route, why stop at animals? Why not go the full distance and put one of Beatrix Potter’s characters on there. After all, if we’re retiring Churchill, Austen and Turing, we might as well commit properly and let Peter Rabbit take over the £20 note. At least he already knows a thing or two about digging around in other people’s gardens. Yours sincerely, A mildly baffled taxpayer who quite liked having actual British legends on the money.

When the Oxford children's dictionary discarded dozens of nature-words—"dandelion," "fern," "starling"—as irrelevant to children's imagination and replaced them with words like "broadband" and "cut-and-paste," this inspired act of resistance was born: themarginalian.org/2019/06/17/the…

I genuinely can’t wrap my head around how they do this. Worth mentioning that they have no support or reinforcement and they're dancing literally on their toes! An encore worth watching from the Georgian National Ballet.

Be the third donkey 🐴🤣

A carousel on a ring by wlgmetalcouture

Many everyday British sayings come from the sea. For centuries Britain was a maritime nation, its sailors shaped the language as much as the tides shaped the coast. You may use these phrases without even realising their origins. “Learn the ropes” – new sailors literally had to memorise the maze of rigging on sailing ships. “Show your true colours” – warships sometimes sailed under false flags before raising their real flag before battle. “Taken aback” – when wind suddenly pushes sails backwards, stopping a ship dead. “Taken down a peg” - On sailing ships, the ship’s rum ration was measured using pegs in a barrel. “By and large” - A sailing term meaning a ship could sail both into the wind (“by”) and with the wind (“large”). “Loose cannon” – an unsecured cannon rolling across a ship’s deck during battle could cause chaos. Britain’s language carries the memory of its seafaring past. @RoyalNavy @RMGreenwich

Did you know that the composer of the famous Game of Thrones soundtrack is Iranian? This is a cover of the iconic piece on the Iranian Daf, arranged by Reza Sajjadi and the original composer of this music is Ramin Djawadi 🔥 Notice who is playing it?

Still one of the funniest love TV moments... But was it really nine years ago?! Love the updated family pics.

This is truly the most beautiful video I’ve seen lately So tender and heart-warming, yet it makes you stop and reflect, with a subtle touch of sadness We may have gained so much, but perhaps we’ve lost even more✨

A single 400-year-old ancient oak produces 234,000 litres of oxygen a year while soaking up carbon dioxide, and can support more than 2,000 species of bird, insect, fungus, and lichen. 📍my favourite oak #lakedistrict

To all women, particularly those working in the adult social care sector, we celebrate your achievements and thank you for making a positive difference to other people's lives.

Now 4 Tax Returns a Year - Digtial ID on steroids! Scrap Digital ID! Make your voice heard - they’re pushing us into this @10DowningStreet @CompaniesHouse “Government come up with new & unpleasant ways of making our lives a misery. Nothing fails the test more comprehensively than the Government’s intent to push through the benign-sounding Making Tax Digital (MTD) programme, starting next month a sole trader with £20,000 of annual income and £20,000 of rental income, all gross and before deductions. The two types of income mean two quarterly MTD returns will be needed and an end of year tax return as usual. That’s nine returns. A VAT registered trader will need to file a further four quarterly returns. That’s a lot of aggravation, hours of compliance work, cost of new software and higher professional fees. @SciTechgovuk