Of course being a Tuesday I was joined once more by local historian, Margaret Mills.

You may remember that last week, Margaret took us on a trip to Witham to look at the time that the town was involved with the weaving trade, and later after spa water had been found, for a short while the town had become a bit of hit with those wishing to take to the water.

This week Margaret returned to Witham, but on a much sadder occasion when in September 1905, the town became the scene of an horrific rail smash after an express train de-railed at Witham station.

If you missed what Margaret said, you can listen again here:-

On a somewhat brighter note we examined two unrelated incidents that occurred in the USA, both of which needed the involvement of the local law enforcement officers.

Now believe this if you will!

Jerald Kirkwood of Memphis, Tennessee, was allegedly just relaxing and talking with a female friend at 4am in his bedroom – likely story for a start to my mind – when his a one-year-old pitbull terrier, Oreo, excited to have made his way into the bedroom jumped, onto the bed.

No problems so far, but then the dog allegedly stepped on a gun lying loose on the floor and supposedly got its poor stuck in the trigger guard.

This we are told caused the weapon to let loose a shell, thereby wounding Mr Kirkwood on his left thigh, resulting in his having to be taken to the local hospital for treatment.

Before the paramedics arrived to administer initial treatment, his female friend, departed at a rate of knots, taking the shotgun with her.

A single shell casing was recovered by police at the scene.

The lady in question subsequently stated that the dog was very friendly, whilst the police declared the incident as “an accidental injury”!

Meanwhile a mother in the state of Wisconsin was told by her 4-year old son that he had called the police because she had eaten his ice cream.

She needed to be punished, he said, and should go to jail.

Presumably she thought he had been joking so was mightily surprised when a short time later there was a knock at her door, following which she found herself confronted by two police officers.

The officers then proceeded to question the boy to confirm the reason for his call.

Frankly I think they were pretty lucky to get such a quick response, as these days here, even if you were actually being broken into at that very moment, you’d probably be told that there was no one available to attend to your call!

I very much hope you will be able to join me next week at the same time,
Scott