Morning, Clunkers!
On this day in 1016, the Battle of Assandun took place. We can’t be sure where that would appear on maps today but we know it was in Essex so it might have been Ashdon. Wherever it was, it was the final nail for the Anglo Saxons because the army of Edmund Ironside was annihilated by the Vikings led by King Canute.
In 1674, Beau Nash was born in Swansea. That surprised me because Beau Nash was the dandy who made Bath the ‘in’ place. He wielded a lot of influence because when anyone arrived in Bath, he would meet them and decide whether they were suitable to join his select company of 500-600 fashionable people who were the centre of social life in Bath.
Charles Babbage, English mathematician, inventor and mechanical engineer who originated the concept of a programmable computer, died this day in 1871. He invented the first mechanical computer that eventually led to more complex designs (but we all know that Ada Lovelace wrote the first ever algorithm!)
In 1966, HMQ granted a royal pardon to Timothy Evans, wrongly convicted and hanged 16 years before for the murder of his wife and child. The real murderer was John Reginald Christie who had been hanged for mass murder in 1953.
In 2014, a flock of sheep was left feeling a bit woozy after accidentally munching on £4,000 worth of cannabis plants that had been dumped in their field at the edge of a farm in Merstham, Surrey. By the time the police arrived, much of the evidence had been, erm, eaten.
But today belongs to Hilary Bradshaw, who became the first woman to referee a rugby match when Bracknell played High Wycombe on this day in 1977. I can’t find any more information about Hilary - another woman buried in the dusty footnotes of history - but she is there and she broke the mould, so here’s to you, Hilary 🥂