Churchill Portrait

Was Churchill the greatest Englishman? Not if you live in a Nottinghamshire pit village where memories of the General Strike live on.

When Mansfield artist Edna Ricks presented a portrait of Winston Churchill to the Sir Winston pub at Annesley Woodhouse in Nottinghamshire she probably expected the locals to welcome the gift. Not so, as a Labour stronghold with memories of the General Strike the locals wanted to 'chuck it on waste ground'. Luckily for Edna down at Woodford Halse in Northamptonshire there's a pub with an ex-RAF landlord and not a miner in sight.

Confusingly reporter John Swallow refers to the Northamptonshire village in the second half of this story as Woodhouse Apse. He must have been still thinking about Annesley Woodhouse in Nottinghamshire. The correct location for the Sir Winston is Woodford Halse in West Northamptonshire. Not to be confused with Woodford in the same county.