The Dawn Chorus: We're waking up today to a Britain free of coal-powered electricity for the first time in 142 years

Welcome to the first edition of our new daily round-up of news, nature and fun stuff — which we're calling The Dawn Chorus. Each day, either James (Fisher, Deputy Digital Editor) or I (Toby Keel, Digital Editor) will bring you the big story in the world of Country Life, plus all sorts of things that you might otherwise have missed. We hope you enjoy it.

Coal’s well that ends well

This morning, Britain wakes up as a nation free of coal-powered electricity.

It’s an extraordinary moment. Coal is the fuel that literally powered the Industrial Revolution, with the deposits Wales, northern England and elsewhere across the British Isles proving to be a ready source of

‘It's a really remarkable day,’ Lord Deben (aka John Selwyn Gummer, Britain’s longest-serving environment secretary) told the BBC, ‘because Britain, after all, built her whole strength on coal.’

The UK is the first major developed nation to switch off coal-powered electricity entirely, some 142 years after it first fired up electricity generation at the Holborn Viaduct Power Station in 1882, the plant which allowed the then-relatively-new electric street lighting to become more widespread.

Britain’s last operating coal power station at Ratcliffe-on-Soar being shut down for good yesterday, Monday 30 September. The Nottinghamshire power station was built in 1967 and first fired up in January 1968, some 56 years ago.

Quiz of the Day

1. To the south of which London park would you find Wellington Arch?
2. Which Roman city was referred to as Aquae Sulis?
3. In Scrabble, how many points it the letter Z worth?
4. What do Charles Dickens's The Mystery of Edwin Drood and F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Last Tycoon have in common?
5. How many yards long is a standard cricket pitch: A) 11, B) 18 or C) 22 ?

When animals do Uber

Missed this? Take a look

Like a sort of real-life Lara Croft, Lucy Shepherd travels the world, going to exotic places and doing incredible things. But she came back to Britain long enough for her to speak to James on the Country Life Podcast a couple of weeks ago — it's an amazing listen.

Seeing double

We're running a survey

You don't have to answer it, of course, but it really helps us when people do — and so in an unashamed act of bribery to try and persuade you to have a go, we're giving away a Fortnum & Mason hamper to the reader whose name gets picked out of the hat first. Take the 2024 Country Life Reader Survey here.

Still on the market

A Cotswolds home that ticks every box?

Good news: it can be found.

Bad news: you'll need a £12 million budget. Take a look here.

And finally... forget the salary, what about that pension contribution

Fancy running the Civil Service? Following the announcement that Cabinet Secretary Simon Case is going to step down at the end of the year, a job opening at the top of the civil service has opened up. The listing is live now, with the headline figure not necessarily the £200,000 a year salary, but rather the Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%. It might be food banks and Tesco Value baked beans for many of us once we hit retirement, but the Whitehall Mandarins will still be able to party like the retirees of a generation ago.

Other requirements for the role are 'the ability to secure the confidence of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet', 'a sharp intellect combined with an understanding of geopolitical and security challenges' and 'political sensitivity'. Although based on Applications are open until 11:55pm on Sunday October 20.

That's it — we're back tomorrow.

Quiz answers

1) Hyde Park; 2) Bath; 3) 10; 4) Their authors both died while writing them; 5) C