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Dawn Chorus: Witches at Gainsborough, raccoon sausages and how fax machines power the railways

James Fisher James Fisher

Plus, the quiz of the week, Britain's best road and a glorious Cotswold property.

Witches marks at Gainsborough

The witches have made their marks at Gainsborough Old Hall in Lincolnshire, according to English Heritage. A ‘staggering’ array of carved ritual protection, or apotropaic marks, have been discovered and mapped by English Heritage volunteer Rick Berry over a period of two years. The 20 carvings at the property, which was once visited by Henry VIII, is the most identified at any of the charity’s 400 sites.

These ‘witches marks’, as they are sometimes called, consist of a wide range of designs. Concentrated in the servants wing, examples include six-petalled flowers within a circle (known as a daisy wheel), which were used to trap demons. Others include overlapping Vs, which call on the Virgin Mary for protection, and a pentagle, which was originally used to protect against evil. 

An as yet undeciphered message/curse/complaint on the walls. Credit: English Heritage

The research also revealed rare ‘curses’, such as the name of owner William Hickman written upside down. The practice of defacing a name was widely believed to curse the relevant person and this is the first example found at an English Heritage site. I suppose it is the 16th century equivalent of complaining about your boss via email.

‘It is astonishing that centuries on the amazing old buildings in our care still have secrets waiting to be discovered. The Old Hall has undoubtedly had a tumultuous past, not least under the ownership of the apparently unpopular William Hickman, but why it’s the scene of quite such a high concentration of protective carvings remains a mystery,’ says Kevin Booth, head of collections at English Heritage. ‘We have a great team of volunteers across the country and it is testament to Rick’s passion for the place that these incredible protection marks have been found at Gainsborough.’

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Quiz of the day

1) What is the name of the hooked staff carried by a bishop?

2) Hippophobia is a fear of what?

3) What was Agent Orange, deployed by the USA during the Vietnam War?

4) Who was the Greek god of dreams?

5) Nacre is more commonly known as what?

Britain’s best road revealed

Here it is folks, Britain’s best road. Credit: Alamy

The best road in the country is the A19. Don’t take it from us, take it from the 9,000 road users who answered the Strategic Road Users Survey conducted by independent watchdog Transport Focus. Praise included its ‘clear road, decent surface, and good markings’. Other major roads on the top-10 list were the M40, M4, A1(M), A46 and A30. Now you know.

Raccoon sausages

There’s a plague of raccoons taking over Germany. All that stands between the masked little bin dippers and domination is one butcher, who is turning them into sausages. So reports the Times, which has revealed the strange new tactic used by sausage-seller and hunter Michael Reiss in Saxony, who has seen the popularity of his raccoon-meat delicacies soar in recent months.

He originally included them alongside his venison and wild-boar products back in 2023 but ‘the feedback was so great we decided to include it in our range,’ he said. His shop in Wildererhütte Kade, near Berlin, is the first in Germany and perhaps Europe to serve raccoon meat.

Credit: Getty Images

‘It has a delicate taste,’ said Herr Reiss. ‘It’s difficult to describe but if you eat one of my regular Bratwursts and then a raccoon sausage you’ll know the difference. I’ve looked into thousands of faces at my food stand and they looked happy.’

His products include raccoon ‘breakfast meat’, which is like spam, apparently, raccoon liver sausage and solyanka soup made from the animals bones. He also mixes the meat with venison to create a salami.

It’s believed that there are about 2 million raccoons in Germany, so supply will not be an issue. The invasive species has no natural predators in Europe, so numbers will continue to rise, threatening amphibians, birds and bat populations, warns Herr Reiss.

Facing the fax

If you ever questioned why your train was late, now you know the answer. Credit: Getty

Yesterday was the first budget of the new Labour government and, while the new Chancellor has made it quite clear that things are not as good as they should be, perhaps this was made most clear by news that Northern Rail are still using fax machines to send messages to its train crews in the year 2024.

The news was revealed in a meeting of the Northern Rail Committee, which was chaired by Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham. He asked the two Northern Rail officials present if it was ‘true’ that they were still using fax machines, to which one replied ‘it is very much true’. Naturally, Mr Burnham and the rest of the country was incredulous. 

Life’s a beach

When you own 56 acres of land, several properties and a grand manor house in the foothills of the Cotswolds, you might think that you have everything you might need. But what if you also needed a specialised poker room? Thankfully, Beach House in, err, Beach, has you covered. It’s the magazine’s lead property this week. Read all about it here.

Barkitects journal

Do you come here often? Assorted canines are welcome to settle in at Goodwood’s Hound Lodge, with warm beds and space to run.

Lots of people do silly things for their dogs. It’s Hallowe’en after all, so probably lots of them will be in costumes. However, these owners went the extra mile, and built them special houses. Want to read about dogs that live better than you do? Right this way.

That’s all for today, see you tomorrow

Quiz answers

1) Crozier

2) Horses

3) A herbicide/defoliant

4) Morpheus

5) Mother-of-pearl