What is the most exciting thing that has ever happened in your village or small town?

[Puffinshop]

Obviously when you live in a big city, newsworthy stuff is happening all the time. If you've lived in small towns you know that it's often slim pickings for the local papers and it can be quite exciting when something happens close to you. What's the biggest local news story you remember from your town?

The most dramatic thing that ever happened where I live now (in my memory) is the body of a whale washed up on the beach. Sadly it was already dead so there was no rescue possible but so many people went to see it - quite a grisly and depressing sight but also impressive to see an animal of that size I suppose. I didn't go, partly because I had the kids with me and I didn't think a dead animal was something they'd enjoy (or me tbh) but loads of people took their kids It was certainly quite an event and everyone was talking about it.

In my childhood village there was once a man running round at night dressed in a gimp suit and frightening the villagers.

Edge of a very small old village, afraid 1960s, the olde part is flint cottages. We have a Tesco express, the manager was held up at knife point about 7 years ago.

@Goneback2school we might live in the same place. Is it also "normal" to find dead cats in walls? And have we had what must surely be a disproportionate number of fires recently?

Childhood village, the village bobby's house got firebombed. I think it was on election night.

Moors Murders

Occasionally the local nude rambling group make an appearance on the paths close to the village. Most people are used to it now, but newcomers usually post on the village FB site in surprise.

Prince Charles allegedly (Now King Charles) took a wee behind a tree whilst out hunting.

The brother of a famous bond star lives there.

Sadly the previous occupant of our house in the countryside hung themselves in the outbuilding.

My parents bedroom door would occasionally lock from the inside with no one in it.

Baden Powell had a mansion in the village high atop the hill.

A famous artist also lived in the village and had a amazing sculpture garden that could be seen above their hedge whilst riding.

It was all go for such a tiny hamlet!

@Elliebee22 Did you go and see the dead whale?

A real mixture of grisly, tragic and bizarre on this thread.

Not in my actual village, but 3 miles away...the girl who I sat next to for 5 years at school and who made my life hell murdered our teacher's partner.

It had a very Lil' Sebastian vibe! We couldn't work out what was so special about him. The horse was normal sized though.

Childhood village, in the middle of nowhere in rural England and they came and filmed quite a big Hollywood film. Actors like Matthew Modine and Harry Connick Jr were here and loads of locals got roles as extras.

Are you in Notts? If so I’ve come across them! 🙈

Novichok poisonings (would not describe as exciting obviously - it was tragic).

Oh yes, in my current village, someone blew up the post office fairly recently. A fairly innocuous oap was also imprisoned for illegally trading arms with foreign countries. It's not a rural village though, so I'm not sure that it counts.

I didn't. I knew I'd be traumatised 😫

Also not exciting in fact it's terribly sad. Recently somebody murdered their dad at a house approx 3 mins down the road from me.
I live in a relatively small, safe village so it was pretty shocking when it happened.

Back when i was a teen, a plane crashed into the ocean carrying 8 locals, awful for the town. My old netball coach was on board and they never found the body of one of the men.

More recently a new jetty...

As a PP already posted - Moors murders. On a lighter note Richard Gere shot a film here.

A murder/suicide - guy killed his wife and kids and then killed himself.

Quite a shock for a small village.

Since then we've had a helicopter crash (killing the pilot). Years ago, we also had a main line fatal train crash. Last month, there was a body found in the canal!

It may be a village, but it has the west coast main line, a canal, a motorway, and a main A road, all converging within a mile or two of the village.

We had two dead whales, different species, wash up in six months. Only ones I know of here. It's a town though.

My old village...bloke shot at his wife with a 12 bore. Vicar moved elsewhere and was in News of the World for shagging a member of the congregation. Accountancy or law firm partner in same rag for something, not sure what now. Fella hanged himself in the church. Bloke died in a fight at the pub. Woman had her throat slit by her lover. Horse drawn coachman killed in an accident. German V2 missile landed short on its way to our local city. Former village shopkeeper was banged up for historical noncery while a teacher or cub scout leader. Fox killed my parent's geese. Local landowner/farmer ploughed and planted the cricket pitch (they decided he wasn't to be captain any more. He decided his land wasn't going to be a pitch anymore!) Kid drowned in one of the gravel pits. Oh, and a bunch of kids I went to school with and who are all still friends now (50's) came from broken homes (primary age) thanks to some 1970's 'party games' from what I heard. And the former egg farm was raised as they were ringing cars. A stripper lived down my road then 39 years later, same house, a couple lived there who were doing some kinky prostitute stuff around the country. She was later banged up for robbing her gran I think. Local kid went inside for robbing a post office. This was over many years (the throat slitting was a couple of hundred years ago for example).

Currently the village us up in arms over an application to dig a gravel pit. There were four dug in the past. It's all go. Just need a model village and a swan really.

A middle aged couple next door but one befriended a very sensible gracefully aging single woman from round the corner. Two years later they’re still in a throuple! They all look loads younger and happier for it but it definitely made waves at the time in our sleepy village!

Infamous twin adoption from America. Sure they are on a netflix documentary somewhere.

Friend of my Dad's was the copper who murdered his wife then tried to set it up as a 'car crash' in the local woods.

The local hunt (well, their dogs, witnessed by the hunters) chased a deer into a neighbour’s garden and savaged it to death in front of the family. Not exciting so much as distressing.

Wife swapping (twice) - people literally swapped wives permanently.

Ghost.

Flooding (unfortunately)

The village I grew up in is now home to Theresa May and George Clooney. Uri Geller used to live there as well.

The village where I live now, there was a fight outside the Chinese takeaway on Friday night. We were eating in the Indian restaurant opposite and all of the waiters rushed out to see what was going on. That’s as exciting as it gets here.

Long before my time in the village Christine Keeler (as a child) lived on our road.
Other than that - flooding.