It wasn’t all bad

The longest and deepest canal tunnel in the UK is to open to canoeists. Enthusiasts can apply to join a guided trip down the narrow Standedge Tunnel, which was built in 1811 and runs 3.5 miles from Marsden in West Yorkshire to Diggle in Greater Manchester. At 194 metres under the ground, it is “cold, grimy and not a place for claustrophobes”, reports The Guardian. However, it offers a “thrilling” opportunity for adventurous canoeists to paddle under the Pennines.

When a mother collapsed following a major operation, her five-year-old daughter saved her life. Poppy Davies was playing in a princess costume at home in Caerphilly when her mother Leisha, who had recently had surgery on her bowel, slipped into septic shock. Poppy’s father was working a night shift, so Poppy stayed by her mother’s side; then in the morning, she pulled on her wellies, walked to school and told her teachers: “Mummy’s on the floor and I can’t wake her up.” They rushed to the house and then dialled 999. “I was incredibly proud of her,” said her mother, who is now on the mend.

A 95-year-old farmer has been reunited with the treasured Rolex he lost half-a-century ago, when it was eaten by a cow. James Steele’s watch fell off his wrist one day in the 1970s as he was tending to the cattle on his farm in Shropshire. He searched the field, but couldn’t find the watch, and concluded that it must have been eaten by a cow. But recently his son gave metal detectorist Liam King permission to search the farm, and he turned up the Rolex. “It was an amazing stroke of luck,” Steele said. “I never thought I‘d see the watch again.”