Giant spiders, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen on leather, velvet and growing old disgracefully and a home fit for Gunpowder Plotting

Chester Zoo apologises for releasing giant spiders

At some point in the not-too-distant future, I am going to spend the enormous budget of countrylife.co.uk on a deep-dive into the rich British tradition of ‘seeing an animal in the distance and completely overstating its size’. The examples, of course, being the regular news reports of some kind of panther on the loose in the countryside. 

Along a similar vein is the annual scare story of giant spiders invading our homes over winter. Today, the Independent tells us that these little blighters are ‘the size of rats’ and that they are making a comeback. I’m not sure what I would do if I saw a rat-sized spider heading for my front door, but it would probably involve hammers.

What are the rat spiders? Are they real? Are they coming for you? We had a look.

Per the Independent, the breed of spiders (whomst are as big as rats) are known fen raft spiders, presumably because they either lived on rafts in the fens, or because they were the size of them. 

They apparently almost went extinct 14 years ago, until conservation efforts at places such as Chester Zoo boosted their population through breeding programmes. Now, it was general opinion that things escaping from zoos was a bad idea, but Chester Zoo loudly and proudly declared that ‘ten years ago we helped release THOUSANDS of GIANT spiders back into the UK’ (emphasis theirs). Not only that, they have said that this year their army of 10,000 breeding females just had their biggest mating season on record. So that’s good.

To be fair to the Independent, this isn’t another ‘big cat spotted’ story. These spiders are big — the biggest of the UK’s 660 native species. They can grow to the size of your hand, spin webs 25cm in diameter and eat you and everyone you ever cared ab… oh no they are harmless to humans apparently. Phew.

If you would like to avoid these giant spiders, then stay away from their habitat, which is fens, marshes and wetlands. You are welcome.

Quiz of the week

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?

Band or police conference? In Glasgow, you can do both

Last night a funny thing happened in Glasgow. Interpol, and Interpol, were both in town. As Twitter/X user ‘gilly’ pointed out, Monday November 4 saw the opening evening of the 92nd session of the INTERPOL General Assembly begin in Glasgow. It also happened to be the evening where the American alternative rock band Interpol were playing at the city’s Royal Concert Hall. Interpol, the organisation, are in Glasgow until November 7. Interpol, the band, continue their tour tonight in Newcastle. Their best album is Antics.

Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen joins the Country Life Podcast

Yes you read that right. One of Britain's most famous tastemakers, cravat and all, joined me on the Country Life podcast this week to talk about Changing Rooms, leather and velvet, growing old disgracefully and just about anything else that he felt like. Maybe our best ever podcast. Listen here and decide for yourself.

What you might have missed on the weekend

While the rest of the UK takes two well-deserved days off, Country Life never sleeps. Over the weekend, we published a great story on how dogs and animals use urine to communicate, we featured an incredible story on the lost interiors of London, and the incredible legacy of ‘the only an ever to get away with smoking in the RHS library’. We also did a roundup of the best property for sale in the current issue, which you can read here. It’s just pictures of really nice expensive houses. You’ll love it.

Gunpowder, treason and plot

A charming manor house in the pretty Northamptonshire village of Ashby St Ledgers is the last place you’d suspect as a hotbed of sedition and murder. Perhaps that’s precisely why the conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot used this home for a series of meetings leading up to the attempted attack on King James as he opened Parliament on November 5, 1605.

That's all for today, we'll be back tomorrow

Quiz answers

1) Crozier

2) Horses

3) A herbicide/defoliant

4) Morpheus

5) Mother-of-pearl