The Fen Cottage was built in around 1700 and is one of the last surviving homes of its type

A historic cottage at a popular National Trust site in Cambridgeshire has been given a Grade II listing. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport on the advice of Historic England has given Fen Cottage at Wicken Fen protected status.

The cottage was built around 1700 using clay, peat, and sedge grass for the roofing thatch that had been collected locally It is one of the last surviving homes of its type.

Tony Calladine, East of England Regional Director, Historic England, said: “This 300-year-old cottage is a rare record of how people once depended on their natural surroundings. The Fen fed, housed, and employed the people around it and Fen Cottage stands as evidence of that vital relationship between the people and the land.”

The cottage was originally found in the hamlet of “the Lode” but is now a part of the Wicken Fen Nature Reserve. The fen dwellers used to make their homes by cutting sedge for roof thatching, digging for peat, and digging clay for brick making and floor tiles.

In the 19th century, the cottage was home to Charles and Jane Butcher. The last resident was Alice Butcher, who lived there until 1972 when she died at age 93. The interior of the cottage has back-to-back fireplaces in the two original rooms.

The living room connects to the bedroom, which has a ladder to reach the sleeping loft. The house also has an extended kitchen with an iron range cooker, a bread oven, and a pantry.

The National Trust took over the cottage in 1974. The cottage was restored between 1988 and 1990 and is described as bringing “together natural and social history”.

The Fen Cottage is a popular spot for families to visit with lots of activities on throughout the year including crafting events. There is even a Santa’s Grotto at Christmas.

Emma Ormond-Bones, National Trust General Manager for North Cambridgeshire, said: “We are delighted by the award of Grade II status, which recognises the importance of Fen Cottage, not only as part of Cambridgeshire’s built heritage, but also for its cultural importance as a symbol of the deep, historic relationship between people and nature at Wicken Fen, reflecting the livelihoods and communities that once depended upon this wonderful wetland landscape.

“Whilst the focus for this habitat has shifted away from harvesting for materials and food, Wicken Fen remains vital for our communities, providing access to nature for physical and mental wellbeing, as well as playing a key role in fighting the nature and climate crisis.

”The role of Fen Cottage in storytelling both our past and future is critical, and as such, we welcome Historic England’s protection of this wonderful place for the benefit of future generations.”

Age is just a number, they say. Just ask Bob Odenkirk. At 63, the American star is enjoying something of a late-career switch to action star.

After playing slimy lawyer Saul Goodman in TV series Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, he played a family man fighting the Russian mafia in 2021 film Nobody and last year’s sequel, Nobody 2. Now he’s an interim sheriff facing off with some corrupt townsfolk in new movie, Normal.

Like Liam Neeson before him, Bob’s getting in on the geri-action gigs. It’s 10am when we speak and he’s itching to get down the gym. In the afternoon, he’s off to work out with his trainer, Daniel Bernhardt.

‘It engages your brain,’ he says. From boxing to choreography, he and Daniel spar like demons. ‘It’s just more fun than a workout that a person would do on their own.’

Bob ‘reluctantly’ took up going to the gym in his 30s. But it was only in his early 50s, when he and writer Derek Kolstad started developing Nobody, that he learned how to stunt fight. ‘Now I’m good enough to do all the basics on my own,’ he says.

I ask Bob whether his example might lead to others of his age doing the same and taking up fitness in their later years. ‘I hope so. I would like to inspire people.

‘There’s an advantage I feel that I have in not having used my body. My knees are in decent shape. My hips are in good shape. My back is good. It’s not great, but it’s good.’

Bob was drawn to the script for Normal, not because it was filled with bone-crunching action – which it is – but because of the mysterious first act, as his character Ulysses discovers that just about everyone in the film’s Midwest town of Normal is crooked.

‘I’m just all about the first act,’ he shrugs. ‘Is there a story, a guy that we can relate to? And certain kind of tensions? Things that when we feel them, we go, “I know what that feels like.”’ Raised in Naperville, Illinois, the second eldest of seven siblings, Bob knows something of what it’s like to live in a town like the one in the film.

‘It certainly felt like I was in the middle of nowhere as a kid,’ he says. ‘And as a teenager I couldn’t wait to get out. But the town I grew up in was a quaint, very nice Midwestern town. If I had an issue with it, it was that it was too sedate and too placid.’

In three days, Bob is heading to the real Normal – the small Illinois college town that lent its name to the movie. ‘I’m going to show this movie to a bunch of people,’ he says, presumably hoping they won’t be too offended that he and Derek Kolstad depicted a town on the wane.

‘The movie was not called “Normal”,’ he says. ‘It was called “The Interim” because my character is an interim sheriff. He’s filling in. And I said, “Could you name it after the town?”’

With Ben Wheatley, British cult director of horror crime film Kill List (2011) at the helm, Bob looks like he could give prime-era Arnie Schwarzenegger and Sly Stallone a run for their money when it comes to action.

‘You get a lot of protection when you’re doing film,’ he says. ‘The stunt team make you look good. So I think anybody who’s being honest with you about doing action knows that the team of people who are taking the hits are making it look just as good as the person delivering.’

What’s intriguing about Bob’s unexpected switch to action star is that he started out as a comedy writer, working on shows such as Saturday Night Live and The Ben Stiller Show.

Performing sketch comedy is a world away from movie fighting. ‘In comedy, it’s fun to smile,’ he says. ‘The character comes out, you know who they are and you want to hug them. You know them, completely, from sight. There’s no ulterior thing going on at all. That works great in comedy.’

Then came Breaking Bad and its equally brilliant spin-off Better Call Saul. ‘Actors dream of parts that are as good as the parts in both of those series. Almost every character gets justification, gets dimension.’

He points to a ‘wonderful’ episode in the latter when the evil Gus Fring’s personal life is shown. ‘I mean, that kind of writing, that kind of world-building with sensitivity and humanity, is just… thank God people liked it so that we got to do it.’

The two shows turned Bob into a major star, with Better Call Saul netting him six Emmy nominations across its seasons. The role of Saul was once-in-a-lifetime. ‘I just went at it with complete earnestness and seriousness of purpose, without any protection of apology or ironic dimension that would protect me.’

Now Bob is developing a comedy with his son Nate, inspired by classic British sitcom The Royle Family, which starred Ricky Tomlinson as a sofa-dwelling, TV-watching curmudgeon.

‘It’s quite different but again, the DNA of people just sitting around is there,’ says Bob, who also has a daughter, Erin, with his talent manager/producer wife Naomi Yomtov.

From action star to couch potato? Not on your life. Bob has no plans to ditch his gym routine. ‘I have to keep it up,’ he grins.

Normal is in cinemas now.

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NEW YORK (AP) — The Long Island Rail Road, North America’s largest commuter rail system, was shut down Saturday after unionized workers went on strike for the first time in three decades.

The railroad, which serves New York City and its eastern suburbs, ceased operations just after midnight after five unions representing about half its workforce walked off the job.

The unions and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the public agency that runs the railroad, have been negotiating for months on a new contract, with talks stalled over the question of workers’ salaries and healthcare premiums. President Donald Trump’s administration tried to broker a deal, but the unions were legally allowed to strike starting at 12:01 a.m.

Kevin Sexton, national vice president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, said no new negotiations have been scheduled.

“We’re far apart at this point,” Sexton said early Saturday. “We are truly sorry that we are in this situation.”

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With Hochul running for reelection, the pressure might be on the MTA to strike a deal to end the shutdown, said William Dwyer, a labor relations expert at Rutgers University in New Jersey, where commuter rail workers staged a three-day strike last year.

“She’s up for reelection, and Long Island is a critical vote for her,” Dwyer said. “So if there’s a significant fare hike, that does not bode well for her on Election Day.”

___

Follow Philip Marcelo at https://x.com/philmarcelo

Assistant Chief Constable Mark Sutherland said: “Urgent discussions with Celtic, wider Scottish football authorities and other stakeholders, including Glasgow City Council, is required to achieve a solution that improves public safety, reduces disruption and prevents this from happening again.”

The Met Office has forecast the weather for Wales today.

It says: “A bright start but cloud will quickly bubble up allowing a few showers to develop by lunchtime.

“Showers then becoming increasingly frequent and heavier later in the day.

“Feeling a little less cool but temperatures still below average. Maximum temperature 15 °C.”

What began as a small Belfast grocery store in 1887 has grown into a coffee and tea empire where the beans are roasted just feet away from where you drink your cuppa

On the Upper Newtownards Road stands a business that has been making a stir for almost 140 years.

When Co Tyrone boy Samuel David Bell took over a small grocery business in Belfast in 1887, he probably never could have known he had just founded one of Northern Ireland’s oldest family-run businesses.

S.D. Bell & Co began life on the corner of Church Lane and Ann Street before moving to East Belfast – the location where it still stands and now hosts its coffee roastery, tea blending facility and popular coffee bar.

READ MORE: ‘Hospitality was fun in the 80s, now it’s hard but it’s in my DNA’READ MORE: From 1630 licence to modern nightlife complex: How White’s Tavern became an unstoppable Belfast powerhouse

Now in the hands of S.D’s great-grandson, Robert Bell, four generations have put their heart and souls into their tea and coffee, making it an institution steeped in history, passion and family values.

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After a study identified it as the oldest family business in NI still actively trading and under majority family ownership, Robert spoke to Belfast Live about how the business grew from a simple grocery business to a local coffee and tea empire – with beans roasted right here in the city.

“I represent the fourth generation of S.D Bell & Co – we are Ireland’s oldest independent tea merchant and coffee roasters and, in fact, Northern Ireland’s oldest family business.

“We’ve been selling tea, coffee and other groceries since 1887. My great-grandfather, Samuel David Bell, he was a farmer’s boy – he wanted to go up to Belfast to study for the church, fell in love with a young lady called Jeannie McCausland, who was a very wealthy linen merchant’s daughter.

“He got a job working to finance his studies, working for a grocer’s firm called Dunwoody & Blakeley.

“His father-in-law, when they decided to get married, gave him the money to buy out the two grocers, and so S.D. Bell as a grocer and general merchants was founded.”

Tea and coffee have always been at the heart of S.D Bell since the beginning, and Robert said that through business shocks, civil unrest, pandemics and all that life has thrown at them, it has been the humble cuppa that has been the core of what they do.

He explained: “We’ve always roasted our own coffee, as well as blended our own tea and we’ve been doing that since 1900.

“That happens right on location here – in fact, my great-grandfather’s brother built a home for him at this very junction and the shop was on the ground floor.

“They used to have this field where they kept the horses to tow the tea and coffee around the city. By 1926, he was retiring and so he sold that house to the Northern Bank, as then was, and built the building we’re in now and the factory that we use to roast our coffee in that in the field that the horses had been in.

“We’re still very much at the place where it all started.”

Not many coffee shops can say that their coffee beans are roasted or their tea is blended just yards from the front door, but that is another “unique” element of the S.D Bell story.

The business has survived World Wars, The Troubles, a global lockdown and even saw the Titanic leave Belfast. Robert says the secret to longevity is how the business is run within the family and the tight ownership of those working in the firm.

The busy coffee shop element of S.D Bell & Co has been up and running for over 50 years now and was initially opened as another way to diversify the business when they faced harder times.

Robert explained: “We moved out of the centre of town because there were bombs going off and it was a very unpleasant place, and so we thought ‘right, what are we going to do to generate more revenue?’

“It was my father’s idea to just put a couple of seats in the window and give people cups of coffee and see if they want to pay us for them – maybe a scone or a sausage roll too and it grew from literally three seats to six to 12 to 30 odd – and we’ve now got 110 seats.

“It’s a busy place and we serve breakfasts, lunches and afternoon teas. That was really born out of the adversity of the Troubles.”

It is this diversification that has allowed the company to stand the test of time and be recognised as one of the oldest independent family businesses on the island.

It is clear that Robert’s passion for what S.D Bell & Co does best is what drove him to take the helm over 20 years ago, and leading the fourth generation of Bells is something he is “very proud” of.

“You feel very proud,” he continued. “But you don’t want to get too misty-eyed and romantic about it because it’s a business and you’re employing people and that’s a responsibility.

“So if we were to just rest on our laurels, that’s not the right attitude.

“I’m extremely proud of what we do here but I’m also quite passionate about it – that can be good and bad.

“Sometimes it takes others to come to me and say ‘I think we’re doing the wrong thing’ and it can be a learning process for me too, and I have to be open to that.”

Robert joked that the coffee shop has taken on the nickname of the “East Belfast Stock Exchange” with the different faces from all different walks of life visiting every day for whatever reason – to make a business deal, grab a spot of lunch with a friend or grab a coffee after the school run.

What started as a few chairs in the window has become a thriving little social space in East Belfast, and Robert said his family are delighted to be a “pillar of the community” in the 50 years they have been open.

“When you’re concentrating on products like tea and coffee, those are ubiquitous products – everyone all over the world drinks tea and coffee.

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“And everyone who drinks tea and coffee has got an opinion about it, generally quite personally held, and it’s very hard to argue with people if they feel like they know what they’re talking about. You don’t contradict them, because those opinions are generally very personal.

“So because we are so associated with staples like tea and coffee, we’ve always got something to talk to the customer about and I think in any form of sales role, if you’ve got nothing to say, that can be extremely dull, but with tea and coffee, there’s never a dull moment.”

As for the next 140 years of S.D Bell & Co, Robert admitted that the succession plan hasn’t been written up just yet, but that they hope the people of Belfast and beyond will still look to them for a real good cuppa for many years to come.

“There’ll definitely be an S.D Bells in one sort or another – it’ll evolve, and it’ll evolve again and when the men or women in white coats come to me and say it’s time for me to take a step back, I’m sure I’ll do the same thing too, but we’re not in any hurry,” he laughed.

VIDEO BY JUSTIN KERNOGHAN

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Campaigners said the 2026 paper was confusing due to being ‘poorly worded, inconsistently structured, and out of step with every previous paper’.

Nearly 15,000 Scots have demanded a probe into this year’s “shambolic” Higher Maths exam which left pupils “shell-shocked and gutted”.

Campaigners said the 2026 paper was confusing due to being “poorly worded, inconsistently structured, and out of step with every previous paper”.

Some 14,600 people have now signed a petition calling for newly created exam body Qualifications Scotland to review the exam paper.

The Higher Maths exam is split into two papers and both have caused problems for pupils – though the petition only complains about paper one.

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One mum, from Lanarkshire, told the Sunday Mail the exam paper was “scandalous” and “not fit for purpose”.

She said her 16-year-old daughter – normally a straight-A student – had been left baffled and upset by the exam – especially the first of the two papers pupils did on May 7.

The parent said: “When they had the break between Paper 1 and Paper 2, a lot of the students coming out of the hall were shell-shocked.

“The general consensus was they didn’t know what the questions were even asking them – therefore, they couldn’t start the question, never mind complete it.

“My daughter was getting between 80-90 per cent in the previous past papers and she’s worked so hard all year, so going into the exam that morning, she felt really good.

“But then afterwards I could see from her face walking towards my car that she was absolutely gutted.

“Now she’s panicking about whether she’ll have to retake the course and if it’s going to impact her applications to universities.”

The grade for Higher Maths, unlike other courses, is 100 per cent based on the exam rather than mixed with other assessments or coursework.

It is the first year of exams under Qualifications Scotland, which replaced the controversial Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) earlier this year.

One of the chief complaints about the paper is that some “command words” – the words that indicate how you should answer the question – were different from what pupils had been taught to expect.

Qualifications Scotland said all papers were checked to make sure they are “clear, fair and suitable”.

About 20,000 pupils sat the Higher Maths exam last year.

The petition states: “This is not a complaint that the paper was too hard. Students expect to be challenged.

“The problem is that the 2026 Higher Maths Paper 1 used language and phrasing that was confusing, ambiguous, and inconsistent with every past paper students had revised from.

“Questions were not simply difficult — they were worded in ways that made it genuinely unclear what was being asked.

“Past SQA Higher Maths papers have followed a recognisable style… the 2026 Paper 1 departed from this in ways that penalised well-prepared students.”

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Rousey has described the event as a potential landscape-shifting moment in MMA with potential to challenge the UFC’s dominance if regular events occur under the banner.

In an interview with BBC Sport before the fight, Rousey said she “would not be here if the UFC paid their fighters better”.

Rousey had been critical of the UFC’s fighter pay, suggesting she wanted the MVP-Netflix partnership to provide an alternative for fighters.

During the broadcast, former UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones, who was working as a pundit, also shone a light on the restrictions of UFC contracts by saying a bout with Francis Ngannou is unlikely because he is tied to the organisation, despite retiring last year.

The UFC has been a regular topic during fight week, and the organisation appeared to take notice by announcing Conor McGregor’s bout against Max Holloway during the broadcast.

McGregor is one of the biggest MMA stars of all time, so announcing his return after five years away from the sport means the story will compete with Rousey’s headlines in the media.

It also points to the UFC taking notice.

“That just shows how pressed there are. Little insecure boys trying to piggy back off our event and try to put some news over top on us – not going to work,” Paul said.

“Dana White, all of you – be prepared, because this is the takeover.”

In the UFC, under 20% of revenue goes to fighter pay while in boxing, fighters can expect to receive as much as 60% of event revenue.

Disclosed fight purses show every fighter on the card got a minimum £28,800 ($40,000) while Rousey collected £1.7m and Ngannou £1.1m.

In comparison, the UFC pays about £8,960 ($12,000) to £14,900, plus performance-based bonuses, to its entry-level fighters.