The 2nd February 2026 is World Ostrich Day and to mark this, as well as the 350th anniversary of the year of the publication of Francis Willughby’s Ornithologia, this post will focus on some of the description of the ostrich provided in Ornithologia. Francis Willughby and John Ray had actually seen an ostrich. They saw it on their European Tour, on 30th April 1663, when they were in Brussels, in what is today Belgium. They wrote that between Coudenberg Palace and Bruxelles Park there was a...

On 28th January 1376, the husband of an owner of Middleton Hall lodged a complaint with the justices in Lindsey, Lincolnshire after he had been attacked whilst carrying out official duties. His name was John Dymoke and he was the husband of Margaret de Ludlow, the great-granddaughter of Philip de Marmion via his youngest daughter Joan. In 1349, Margaret had inherited half of what had been her grandmother’s third of Middleton, but in 1362 Margaret and John had sold her sixth to Sir Baldwin II...

The 25th January 2026 is the 300th anniversary of the birth of an owner of Middleton Hall, Francis Willoughby 3rd Lord Middleton, who was born on that date in 1726. Francis was the eldest son of Francis Willoughby, 2nd Lord Middleton, and Mary Edwards. He was educated at Bury St Edmund’s School and then, in 1744, at Jesus College, University of Cambridge. Following his father’s death in 1758, Francis inherited Middleton and the remainder of the Willoughby Estates. He continued the Georgian...