When I kicked off my illustrious career back in 67, I was serving my time with the Manchester Corporation, which owned tens of thousands of houses and buildings of many kinds, including stately type houses. I started off on the maintenance division and we maintained schools. I remember that most of the school toilets had wooden cisterns, lead lined and all high level of course, including every home too. If they leaked we soldered them. Virtually all of the piping was lead and I handled lead all day long, something that would horrify the health and safety gestapo now. I especially enjoyed handling lead to the scrapyards for a weigh in (cash in) and then off to get pissed. Proper apprenticeship that. I've mentioned before about destroying many historic, beautiful ceramic toilets and cisterns, some now worth a small fortune I should think. Nobody wanted anything like that back then, as it was the brave new world of plastic. I remember removing lead lined wooden gutters from a stately type place, including the most ornate, lead downspouts and spitter heads you could imagine, which were a stunning example of the old plumbers art and very historic now. Had a few pissups after destroying that particular piece of history. Y'know, if you own one of these old grade one buildings now, you have to have permission to do anything on your own property and if you needed new lead gutters and downspouts they would cost a mint, as they have to be replaced like for like and there's not many people around who can do that kind of stuff.

‍In the little town I now live near about 70 miles south of Buffalo, we have many historic buildings (history for us is 100 years old). A local developer recently bought one & is renovating it. I had a chat with him at the bar at the local American Legion. He said it was a "nightmare" dealing with the state & county regulations. One tells him one thing, another tells him something else. You know, "change orders." He has run into many overruns on the cost. The exterior has to fit in with what it once looked like. Some interior fixtures as well.

‍January 28, 1977 - A lake effect blizzard hit Buffalo NY. Lake effects are caused by Lake Erie not freezing over & cold Canadian air passing over causing vast amounts of wind which carries the snow with it. Canucks call em Alberta Clippers. Anyway the whole town was shut down for several days.....except for the bars of course. Forever known to locals as "The Blizzard of 77." Had another less severe one in 85.

Not Alberta clippers Tommy, Siberian highs.

28 January 1547 - Henry VIII, King of England 1509-47, died.

Arguably England's most famous and notorious King; six wives, the creation of the Church of England, paranoia etc. 

28 January 1547 - Henry VIII, King of England 1509-47, died.

Arguably England's most famous and notorious King; six wives, the creation of the Church of England, paranoia etc. 

‍Ah yes, England's most famous King. What an interesting life's story with this guy. Created a Church so he could annul one marriage, married six times, and of course there was the song made famous by Herman's Hermits which is another interesting story. Nobody in the band was named Herman. Tell us more about ol' Enery, Mark.

He threw out the oppressive, backward burden of the catholic church and England never looked back

In the little town I now live near about 70 miles south of Buffalo, we have many historic buildings (history for us is 100 years old). A local developer recently bought one & is renovating it. I had a chat with him at the bar at the local American Legion. He said it was a "nightmare" dealing with the state & county regulations. One tells him one thing, another tells him something else. You know, "change orders." He has run into many overruns on the cost. The exterior has to fit in with what it once looked like. Some interior fixtures as well. If you own a grade one listed building over here, you have to have specified and approved builders for certain work and they drive around in Bugatti Veyrons. New kitchen? No bother, new roof? Could be an Epstein job. We got away with all that stuff because firstly it was the 60's and things weren't as tight in those days, secondly the Manchester corporation, who didn't follow the rules, owned them and thirdly they were using them for social programmes. Some were boys and girl's remand homes (junior jail) others were for battered wives and that sort of thing and you can't go giving them insanitary conditions, so out with the old and in with the plastic. I remember going to a few of the boy's remand homes and there were loads of lads I knew! I gave one of the lads two cigs one day and 15 of them got a day's leave removed for smoking. The young lads got the shite kicked out of them in those days but you couldn't hit the girls, even though their officers were women. Big no no. There were some real hard bastards amongst them, even at 16, ugly too, some of them looked like Charles Bronson in drag.

Henry VIII's six marriages can be categorized as follows -

1. To produce an heir/political.

2. To produce an heir.

3. To produce an heir.

4. Political.

5. Randy old goat.

6. Comfort in old age.

The Church of England was not, as many think, the birth of Protestantism in England. It was a halfway house between Catholicism and Protestantism, he kept the parts of the old religion that he liked and discarded the bits he didn't like, such as replacing the Pope with himself as Head. The C of E only became a Protestant Church under Henry's son Edward VI who was a boy under the Regency of the fiercely Protestant Lords the Dukes of Somerset and Northumberland.   

The violence of his reign was brought about by a paranoia over the succession. He only ever had one male heir to carry on the line. His daughters would by the nature of their sex fall under male influence and see the end of the Tudor line. He was morbidly afraid of rivals threatening his hold on power. Several Lords were executed simply by having distant claims to the Throne or by appearing too powerful. His paranoia grew increasing worse after his riding accident in 1536 which left him half crippled and therefore irrational and subject to outbursts of temper as he grew older. More titled people were executed under Henry VIII than at any other time in English history outside civil wars.  

And talking of Henry, his dad was born this day in 1457. The Challenger space shuttle blew up in 86, where has the time gone?

29 January 1820 - George III, King of Great Britain and Hanover 1760-1820, died. 200 years ago today.

Six days after his son the Duke of Kent died (see 23 January) the 81 year old King died at Windsor Castle. He had been confined to Windsor for the previous ten years reigning under the Regency of the Prince of Wales since 1811. He was diagnosed as insane, but we now know that he was suffering from porphyria a disease treatable today.  

The violence of his reign was brought about by a paranoia over the succession. He only ever had one male heir to carry on the line. His daughters would by the nature of their sex fall under male influence and see the end of the Tudor line. He was morbidly afraid of rivals threatening his hold on power. Several Lords were executed simply by having distant claims to the Throne or by appearing too powerful. His paranoia grew increasing worse after his riding accident in 1536 which left him half crippled and therefore irrational and subject to outbursts of temper as he grew older. More titled people were executed under Henry VIII than at any other time in English history outside civil wars.   You never crossed Henry in any shape or form, or you were dead. He was a tyrant.

An historic day in the history of mankind today in 1886, as Karl Benz patented the first car. The US icon, Babe Ruth is the first man to enter the baseball hall of fame in 1936.

Here's an interesting fact for you. Babe Ruth, real name George Herman Ruth, never actually knew his true date of birth until he first applied for a passport at the age 39.

Here's an interesting fact for you. Babe Ruth, real name George Herman Ruth, never actually knew his true date of birth until he first applied for a passport at the age 39.

‍The other great ball player from the era was Ty Cobb from Georgia. A mean spirited bloke who of course was racist. Ruth was raised in an orphanage & never knew his background. Because of his looks (wide nose) Cobb rumored that Ruth was a Negro & should not be allowed to play major league baseball.

28 January 1547 - Henry VIII, King of England 1509-47, died.

Arguably England's most famous and notorious King; six wives, the creation of the Church of England, paranoia etc. 

‍The Tower of London was a famous prison way back when. I know Ol' Enery VIII had a his wife incarcerated there where she was tortured. If fading memory serves me, didn't Rudolph Hess get locked up there during WWII?

His two wives who were sent to the Tower (Anne Boleyn 1536 and Catherine Howard 1541-42) were questioned but never tortured. Their associates were but not the Queens themselves. 

Rudolf Hess was briefly held in the Tower in 1941.

A number of German spies were held in and executed by firing squad at the Tower in both World Wars. The Irish Nationalist Roger Casement was held there too in 1916.

Although remembered as a prison and a place of execution the Tower was also a Royal residence up to the 16th century, it was tradition for the Monarch to spend the night before their coronation in the Royal apartments in the Tower. The last to do so was Elizabeth I in 1559. It was considered increasingly uncomfortable when compared with other palaces in and around London by Tudor times.  

The other great ball player from the era was Ty Cobb from Georgia They both went into the hall of fame on the same day but Babe is credited as being first. He had a rough childhood, being fairly poor and 6 of his eight siblings died in childhood and both his parents went when he was young, his poor mother died by inches from tuberculosis and his father in a knife fight. He said in his autobiography he was 13 when she died when in fact he was 16, which goes some way in explaining the traumas of his childhood. He grew up in a home for orphaned children, after his father dumped him on the doorstep and he spent 12 years there. Do you know, he was trained as a tailor and shirtmaker here and years later impressed his team mates with his sewing skills on his uniform, which he carried out himself. His stay there was strict but not cruel or oppressive and really, he felt it was a home.

His two wives who were sent to the Tower (Anne Boleyn 1536 and Catherine Howard 1541-42) were questioned but never tortured. Their associates were but not the Queens themselves. 

Rudolf Hess was briefly held in the Tower in 1941.

A number of German spies were held in and executed by firing squad at the Tower in both World Wars. The Irish Nationalist Roger Casement was held there too in 1916.

Although remembered as a prison and a place of execution the Tower was also a Royal residence up to the 16th century, it was tradition for the Monarch to spend the night before their coronation in the Royal apartments in the Tower. The last to do so was Elizabeth I in 1559. It was considered increasingly uncomfortable when compared with other palaces in and around London by Tudor times.  

‍"Increasingly uncomfortable" for most of the residents for sure, Mark. Did Casement die there too?

No, he was hanged at Pentonville Prison. Execution by firing squad at the Tower was for foreign nationals convicted of spying, Brits convicted of treason were hanged.

Hanging is usually reserved for treason (among other crimes) Major Andre was hanged as a spy on orders from George Washington. Hermann Goehring was sentenced to hanging & requested a firing squad which was more military. Of course suicide ended him.‍

A little more on the phenomena that was Babe Ruth. Ruth always had the face of a bulldog chewing a wasp, which made him look older than he was and he was a big lad for his age. Despite the awful hand life had dealt him, he was always a happy soul and forever giving. One Christmas charity workers were handing out sweets and passed Ruth by because they thought he was one of the staff. When they discovered their mistake they were so remorseful they gave him a full box of chocolates. Imagine that? Never had this boy held anything so desirable and the first thing he did was to hand them all out to the rest of the kids. It was an example of his generous nature. This school he was in was baseball crazy and the Canadian teacher he had, Brother Boutiler was a baseball nut, who took the youngster under his wing and transformed a natural talent and coached him on the road to perfection. Ruth called him.... the greatest man I ever knew. The top scout for the Baltimore Orioles heard about him and went to watch. Although Ruth smashed a number of balls out of the ground, they actually signed him up as a pitcher, he was 19. He now boarded a train for the first time in his life and landed in North Carolina. It's endearing to think just how worldly unwise Ruth was. He found himself looking across open countryside for the first time in his life. He entered a hotel for the first time and would ride up and down in the lifts for hours with a childish glee. He saw and ordered from a menu for the fist time and had to be coached about a multitude of ordinary tasks. Know the first thing he did when he got his first pay cheque? He bought himself a bicycle. Growing up in a home for poor kids, he possessed a childish innocence and had no sense of modesty. He thought nothing of being naked in front of anybody, or even sitting naked on a toilet right next to his room mate, who incidentally discovered that Ruth had been sharing his toothbrush for weeks. So naturally innocent was he that his teammates nicknamed him Babe.

30 January 1649 - Charles I, King of England and Scotland 1625-49, executed.

After his defeat and capture in the English Civil War King Charles was eventually put on trial for treason in January 1649. Convicted and sentenced to death he was beheaded on an elevated scaffold erected outside a first floor window of the Banqueting House, Whitehall Palace. A window was removed so he and the execution party could step out of the room directly onto the scaffold.

The identity of the executioner has never been identified satisfactorily, the most likely candidate is Richard Brandon the executioner for London who had beheaded other Royalists before and would go on to execute others before his sudden death in June 1649 less than five months after the death of the King.

The wonderful American author Barbara Tuchman born in 1912 and once posted by Mark, the sinking of the German liner Wilhelm Gustloff by a Russian sub in 1945, resulting in the death of around 9000 people.

Hanging is usually reserved for treason (among other crimes) Major Andre was hanged as a spy on orders from George Washington. Hermann Goehring was sentenced to hanging & requested a firing squad which was more military. I recall a documentary on the Tower a few years back in which a particular action made an impression. A German spy was held there, tried and sentenced to be shot. He conducted himself with such nonchalance that when he was about to be shot, he asked his jailer, who had treated him with respect, if he would shake the hand of a German spy. His jailer replied, no, but I will shake the hand of a very brave man and did so.

Hanging is usually reserved for treason (among other crimes) Major Andre was hanged as a spy on orders from George Washington. Hermann Goehring was sentenced to hanging & requested a firing squad which was more military. I recall a documentary on the Tower a few years back in which a particular action made an impression. A German spy was held there, tried and sentenced to be shot. He conducted himself with such nonchalance that when he was about to be shot, he asked his jailer, who had treated him with respect, if he would shake the hand of a German spy. His jailer replied, no, but I will shake the hand of a very brave man and did so.

‍Gandi assassinated 1948

30 January 1649 - Charles I, King of England and Scotland 1625-49, executed.

After his defeat and capture in the English Civil War King Charles was eventually put on trial for treason in January 1649. Convicted and sentenced to death he was beheaded on an elevated scaffold erected outside a first floor window of the Banqueting House, Whitehall Palace. A window was removed so he and the execution party could step out of the room directly onto the scaffold.

The identity of the executioner has never been identified satisfactorily, the most likely candidate is Richard Brandon the executioner for London who had beheaded other Royalists before and would go on to execute others before his sudden death in June 1649 less than five months after the death of the King.

‍If he was King of both England & Scotland, why was he executed. Grievances should have been settled eh?

30 January 1649 - Charles I, King of England and Scotland 1625-49, executed.

After his defeat and capture in the English Civil War King Charles was eventually put on trial for treason in January 1649. Convicted and sentenced to death he was beheaded on an elevated scaffold erected outside a first floor window of the Banqueting House, Whitehall Palace. A window was removed so he and the execution party could step out of the room directly onto the scaffold.

The identity of the executioner has never been identified satisfactorily, the most likely candidate is Richard Brandon the executioner for London who had beheaded other Royalists before and would go on to execute others before his sudden death in June 1649 less than five months after the death of the King.

‍If he was King of both England & Scotland, why was he executed. Grievances should have been settled eh?

‍Jan 28, 1988 - Space Shuttle exploded, crew lost.

30 January 1649 - Charles I, King of England and Scotland 1625-49, executed.

After his defeat and capture in the English Civil War King Charles was eventually put on trial for treason in January 1649. Convicted and sentenced to death he was beheaded on an elevated scaffold erected outside a first floor window of the Banqueting House, Whitehall Palace. A window was removed so he and the execution party could step out of the room directly onto the scaffold.

The identity of the executioner has never been identified satisfactorily, the most likely candidate is Richard Brandon the executioner for London who had beheaded other Royalists before and would go on to execute others before his sudden death in June 1649 less than five months after the death of the King.

‍If he was King of both England & Scotland, why was he executed. Grievances should have been settled eh?

King Charles actually surrendered to a Scottish Army in 1646 in the expectation of better treatment, but the Scots handed him over to the English.

Initially there was no thought of even a trial let alone execution, but Charles refused to negotiate in good faith and was in communication with loyalists in England, Scotland and Ireland throughout his two and a half year incarceration. In the end Parliament realized he would never agree to any form of Constitutional Monarchy so the decision was made to get rid of him, hence the semblance of a "fair" trial to justify their decision. 

If you can get hold of it, I highly recommend a very good film on Charles' campaign in the civil war, his dealings with Cromwell and Parliament and his trial and execution. It's called Cromwell, starring the inimitable Alec Guiness as Charles and Richard Harris as Cromwell.

And on the subject of films, I went to see the film 1917 the other day and I highly recommend it. Besides being a great story, well acted, it was an astonishing breath of cinematic fresh air. For the last decade a malaise has gripped the film industry, a compulsive habit, nay obsession, with the one, two and possibly three second action scene, if you're lucky. I think it might have originated from the first Daniel Craig Bond film, a style which suddenly become compulsory in film land. Two people in a fight was suddenly made up of 50 one and two second clips. Maybe this was as a direct result of the modern generation's inability to maintain concentration beyond that time frame, I don't know, but it annoyed the life out of me and made me quit quite a few films along the way. Let's face it, the modern film world almost exclusively concentrates on the pubeless generation now. Take the film Lawrence of Arabia, a masterpiece I'm sure you'll agree. In the scene with introduces Omar Sharif from a spec out of the desert, the original scene took a full two minutes for him to arrive. David Lean knew how to frame suspense and it was riveting cinema. I notice that now, if it does appear on TV, they have cut the timetable of his arrival by a minute or more to cater for the mentally impatient of the me me. now now generation. STOP IT! Bollocks to'em, stop catering for the lowest common denominator. Steven Spielberg was inspired to become a director by watching his hero's films, his hero being David Lean. His first viewing of the very first scene of Lean's Dicken's classic, Great Expectations, captivated him and from that moment on he knew he wanted to make films. You can find film of him eulogising about the desert scene, when they knew how to keep a camera rolling. They say, never meet your hero but Spielberg did meet Lean and found him to be everything he hoped he would be. Anyway, where was I? yes, the film 1917. It is filmed almost with just a few changes of scene and it's so refreshing to see, as you will find out. Go see it.

King Charles actually surrendered to a Scottish Army in 1646 in the expectation of better treatment, but the Scots handed him over to the English. Initially there was no thought of even a trial let alone execution, but Charles refused to negotiate in good faith and was in communication with loyalists in England, Scotland and Ireland throughout his two and a half year incarceration. In the end Parliament realized he would never agree to any form of Constitutional Monarchy so the decision was made to get rid of him, hence the semblance of a "fair" trial to justify their decision.   Topically, it's just been announced that Charles 1's bloodstained shirt, which he wore at his execution, is to be put on display at the British museum in the next few days.