East Leake

TIGHT GAME FOR

CRICKETERS. East Leake figured in a tight game with Notts Unity Casuals, winning by 12 runs after making 143-8 in their 45 overs in their Gunn and Moore South Notts Cricket League game on Saturday.

Jonathan Clarke was top scorer with 45, followed by Nick Briggs on 32. The home side recovered somewhat after being 21-2, the score going to 77 before the third wicket fell.

Unity lost quick wickets, with opening bowler Alex Cufflin getting both opening batsmen cheaply. Only one Unity batsman got double figures, Uneeb Zafar getting 61. Grant Newcombe had figures of 5-21 in 8.2 overs and Alex Cuifflin followed up with 3-29.

This week East Leake figure in a local derby, entertaining Sutton Bonington at their Costock Road ground.

ANNIVERSARY OF THE TREATY OF LEAKE. Over 120 people , double the amount that had been expected, attended the East Leake and District Local History Society’s special event meeting on Thursday last week at the village library when they were marking the 700th anniversary of an important event that took place in the village all that time ago to the day in the year 1318.

The Treaty of Leake, which was agreed between King Edward II and Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, exactly 700 years ago – 9th August 1318 with the ceremony taking place in “Leake”.

It was on August 9 in the year 1318 that King Edward II and his huge entourage were in to Leake --as it was then termed and as many people to this day shorten it to say just ‘Leake’ - in south Notts to negotiate and agree a formal peace treaty with Thomas, Earl of Lancaster.

Nationally renowned historian Kathryn Warner gave a detailed account of the life of the “unconventional king”, Edward II, and his estranged relationship with his powerful cousin Thomas Earl of Lancaster.

Events leading up to the treaty itself were explained by local historian Keith Hodgkinson, while Kathryn rounded it off with the story of Thomas’s execution, the descent to open warfare and Edward’s dramatic abdication. Needless to say, the people of East Leake suffered more than the rest of the kingdom, for they had to provide the food for over 600 of the royal household, prelates, knights and all, plus the Earl’s own entourage of a thousand. As is known Edward’s reign was a complete disaster – but the talk was a great success for everyone. Kathryn was interviewed afterwards for the Youtube site Viral History, and discount tokens for her superb book “Edward II – an unconventional king” were offered to the audience.

Paperwork from history says this was an important event in the long drawn out struggle between King Edward and his lords, and it was very unusual that it took place in this small village.

The village History Society held the very successful meeting to commemorate the special anniversary of the Treaty of Leake and it was standing room only for many of the visitors who packed into the main room of the library.

Guest speaker was Kathryn Warner, the renowned author and expert on the reign of Edward II and who grew up in the north of England, and holds two degrees in medieval history and literature from the University of Manchester.

She says she has run a blog about King Edward II since 2005, and has had work published about him in the prestigious academic journal, the English Historical Review, and in the academic essay collection Fourteenth Century England. She has appeared talking about him in the BBC documentary Quest for Bannockburn. and her biography, titled Edward II: The Unconventional King, was released by Amberley Publishing in October 2014, and her biography of Edward II’s queen Isabella of France was published in March, 2016.

In July 2016 she gave a paper about Edward at the International Medieval Congress at the University of Leeds. Her latest third book is an account of Edward’s murder in 1327 or survival past that year, which came out in June last year and now her fourth is a bio of Edward II’s great-grandson Richard II, published on 1 May this year.

Her fifth and sixth books will both be out in October this year, one being a biography of Edward II’s malevolent favourite Hugh Despenser the Younger, and the other an account of the royal houses of Lancaster and York from 1245 to 1399.

Kathryn say future projects include a biography of Edward III’s queen Philippa of Hainault, a joint bio of Edward II’s nieces Eleanor, Margaret and Elizabeth de Clare, a joint bio of Edward II’s five sisters, a bio of Edward III’s son/Henry IV’s father John of Gaunt. Duke of Lancaster, and a history of the Despenser family from 1265 to 1439.

Her book , “Edward II, the unconventional king” is the best of several recent books on this rather strange individual who had so few of the traditional kingly virtues.

The talk at East Leake last week described events leading up to the treaty and the treaty itself, plus the rather dramatic impact the meeting had on the village people themselves.

Refreshments were served on Thursday until the glasses ran out, the organisers having been caught out by the large number of visitors who turned out to make it a most successful event.

The guest speaker signed copies of her latest book at end of the evening which was held under the chairmanship of History Group chairman Mike Saunders who said the event was an exceptional one in every sense, admitting they did run out of chairs and even cups for the celebratory drink.

EXTRA TIME FOR SHOW ENTRIES. Competitors in the revived East Leake show on September 8 are being given extra time to make entries for the various classes, flowers, vegetables and crafts – because of the international renowned Tour of Britain that will be passing through the village on the same day.

The show entries were originally to be received from 9am on the Saturday morning of the show, prior to judging at 11am and that will remain unchanged, but because of expected vehicular travel difficulties likely to occur on the Saturday when there will be road closures in the centre of the village because of the Tour, show organiser Melvyn Stevenson says they will now be in a position to take entries between 6-30 and 7-30 as well on Friday evening, at the village hall.

It is hoped there will be good support for the show itself, offering as it does a wide range of classes for competitiors to support. Artists are catered for and there are lots of categories for them to show off their skills , with an invitation to take that masterpiece along and enter it in the Show. The range of entries for them include classes for an Oil Painting, Pencil/Crayon Art, Water Colour, Collage, An Acrylic Painting and Miscellaneous Art/Craft

MOTHER’S UNION. East Leake Mother’s Union moved a short distance down the road from the village to Costock for a branch meeting in the form of a Fundraising Garden Party for the Mothers’ Union Summer of Hope appeal. The event was held at Gill and John Young’s home, Holme Farm Stables in Costock.

The ambition of the Hope Appeal is to raise £125,000 to help more families, parents and communities worldwide turn their hopes and prayers into reality.

The Costock event followed the one for members when they made a very enjoyable visit to Reg Taylor’s Garden Centre, near Southwell, where members enjoyed tea and scones and other delights from the menu at the tea rooms, before looking round the various displays of beautiful plants and other attractive items for sale. The afternoon concluded with an inspiring service of Festal Evensong for St Barnabas day, beautifully sung by the Minister Chorale.

Contacts for the branch are Judith James 01509 853126 and Gill Young 01509 852536

CONCERN OVER HOUSING TRAFFIC PROBLEMS. Concerns expressed by East Leake residents about traffic problems that will be caused if the planned development of new housing goes ahead with the Lantern Lane housing scheme for Gladman Developments following a decision by a public inquiry to overturn a decision by Rushcliffe Borough Council to refuse the plans.

Mike Hayden an Inspector appointed by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, conducted the inquiry and said a series of mitigation measures were proposed to improve the safety of the section of Lantern Lane involved, including two speed reduction plateaux, an extension of the school keep clear markings and a financial contribution in the S106 undertaking to fund a school crossing patrol. A Traffic modelling undertaken as part of the Transport Assessment also demonstrated that the junctions likely to be affected by traffic from the proposed development would all be able to operate safely without the need for further mitigation.

He said the main parties now agreed a safe and suitable access to the development can be achieved off Lantern Lane, a view supported by the Local Highway Authority which stated that traffic generated by the proposed development could be safely accommodated by the highway network and that the LHA were not objecting to the proposal, subject to a package of mitigation measures.

The Inspector said he had carefully considered the concerns raised by local residents, the Parish Council and Lantern Lane Primary School, particularly about highway safety along Lantern Lane at school opening and closing times. I observed the school opening period during my site visit. Whilst I noted the high volume of traffic and pedestrian movements along Lantern Lane during the school opening period, the speed reduction measures, extended no waiting and school crossing patrol would noticeably improve the current situation. The raised plateaux should improve the safety for school pupils crossing Lantern Lane between the primary school and its annexe, albeit the crossing movements I observed were already safely marshalled by school staff. The widening of the footway on the north side of Lantern Lane would also improve the safety of routes to and from the schools and the bus stops on Gotham Road.

The Inspector said the requests by the Parish Council for S106 contributions towards the improvement of the Main Street/Gotham Road T-junction and parking facilities in the centre of the village and towards the improvement of Sheep Plank Lane were not justified by the transport evidence which was before me nor required by the Local Highways Authority to mitigate the highway impacts of the proposal. “Subject to the highway design and mitigation measures proposed, I conclude that the proposal would not result in unacceptable harm to highway safety or to the efficient operation of road network.

“The appeal proposal would provide up to 195 dwellings of which 39 units (20%) would be affordable housing to be secured through the S106 undertaking. Not all of these would be built within the next 5 years allowing for the time required to secure a detailed planning permission. Nevertheless, the scheme would make a useful and timely contribution to addressing the shortfall in the supply of both market and affordable housing in Rushcliffe. Given the size of the shortfall and the imperative in paragraph 47 of the Framework to boost significantly the supply of housing, I attach significant weight to the contribution the proposed development would make to the provision of new housing.”

LITTER PICKS. A group of 15 volunteers turned out for the latest of the village litter picks at East Leake and organiser Mel Roper says they are very grateful for the support they continue to receive. The group have been operating for some time and particularly were out cleaning up before the village carnival.

FRACKING GROUP. Village supporters of the Notts Free Frack group in East Leake are being asked to get the anti fracking message heard. The group say they require as much help as possible to get heard.

The group has recently held several leaflet dropping exercises in the North of Nottinghamshire where currently there is likely to be more actively because of firm movement by would-be developers in that part of the county.

The East Leake area group continues to be active in their efforts to bring to the attention of people in their area the current situation and the possibility of future fracking activity in the area