*THIS September marks the 360th anniversary of the Battle of Worcester.

It’s been recalled on several occasions how future American president Thomas Jefferson berated the people of Worcester about their indifference to that fight for freedom. However, I wonder if he knew that one of the greatest soldiers to fight in his country’s War of Independence had links with Worcester.

Harry ‘Light Horse’ Lee was descended from a Worcester man of that surname who emigrated to America from his home near the former St Martin’s gate.

This would have been about 1617, so his house would presumably have been close to the city walls. Harry Lee was a hero of the struggle against the British yet is virtually unknown outside the States.

However, one of his successors is far better known on this side of the Atlantic… Robert E Lee, the great general of the Confederate states during the civil war of 1861-65.

He was quite obviously a man who believed in selfdetermination… although notions of freedom, like beauty, are always in the eye of the beholder.

*WHEN I was a lad growing up in a Warwickshire village, the natural world began at the back door of our house.

Every spare waking moment was spent in the nearby woods and spinneys. In spring and early summer, I would walk up to a nearby rookery to see if any squabs needed rescuing.

It’s always been wrong to remove any wild bird from its natural surroundings. But in the case of these spinney rooks, we were actually saving their lives.

For lying on the woodland floor, 40 feet below their nests, rendered these birds helpless should a fox, stoat or badger come across them. So I would take then home, provide a diet of worms, grubs and milk-soaked bread… and when their flight feathers had grown, I’d release them back into the wild.

These days, such mercy missions would be illegal and those squabs would be left to die.

The principle’s probably right – but like all shotgun legislation, fails to cater for the detail.