It wasn’t all bad

Paignton Picture House in Devon – believed to be the first purpose-built cinema in Europe – is to be restored to its former glory, with the aid of a £200,000 English Heritage grant. First, the hoarding covering the building will be removed, and its stained glass window and stonework will be repaired; then, work will start inside. Opened in 1907, the cinema was Agatha Christie’s favourite. She would book two seats, one for herself, the other for her butler who would serve her drinks during the film.

A giant labyrinth made entirely of traditional Cornish hedges – unique structures made from stone and vegetation – is being built on Bodmin Moor. The “grounders”, the foundation boulders for the 183ft-wide maze, are in place, having been hauled out of the shallows of the nearby Colliford Lake by horse and sledge; and as soon as Covid allows, hundreds of local children and volunteers will help plant up the hedges, as part of a project to pass on hedging skills to a new generation. The project director, Will Coleman, described Cornish hedges, some of which are believed to be 4,000 years old, as an “unsung wonder”.

Archaeologists excavating the site of a new public park in Manchester have uncovered the “stunning” remains of one of Britain’s earliest Victorian wash houses – including its two 65ft-long tiled pools. The Mayfield Baths were opened in 1857 to cater to the city’s army of textile workers, many of whom lived in cramped, unsanitary conditions. Generations of the city’s residents used the baths to wash themselves, and their clothes, until it was bombed in the Second World War, and then demolished.