Weekly round-up: Five stories you may have missed

Rag'n'Bone Man and Amy Winehouse, by Adam Brown

A story about a telephone box full of caricatures was among our most read stories in the south this week.

We have picked five stories from the past seven days in Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Dorset, Berkshire and Oxfordshire to keep you up to date.

Barge resident keen to start 'second chance at life'

Cedrick spoke to the BBC's Sophie Cridland about life on the barge

Cedrick is keen to properly start his “second chance at life” when he leaves the Bibby Stockholm, which houses asylum seekers off the Dorset coast.

The qualified teacher said he had fled his home country of Cameroon after he and his family were targeted.

He flew to Heathrow in March, was moved onto the barge within weeks and has been there ever since.

“I was overwhelmed. The moment I knew I could apply for asylum was a great relief, I was very joyful. I had a second chance at life after all that I had been through,” he told the BBC.

England's last executed 'witch' may have survived

The final execution for witchcraft in England came just a few years before the infamous Salem Witch Trials in the USA

The last woman believed to have been executed in England for witchcraft may have avoided the gallows, according to new research.

Prof Mark Stoyle, a historian at the University of Southampton, believes a spelling error by a court official meant the accused woman was not hanged, but instead lived for several years.

Alice Molland was sentenced at Exeter Castle, Devon, in 1685 for "bewitching" three of her neighbours.

She was presumed to have been executed in the city's Heavitree area in the same year, making her England's last executed witch.

Caricatures on display at phone box gallery

The decommissioned telephone box serves as an art gallery in Lind Street

An exhibition of caricatures has opened at a telephone box repurposed as an art gallery on the Isle of Wight.

Former art teacher Adam Brown, who has never had his own exhibition before, has created more than 30 humorous drawings of people who have a connection with the island.

They are displayed in a decommissioned telephone box in Lind Street, Ryde.

Mr Brown said: "I try not to be too nasty. It's really nice when you see someone coming towards you and you think oh yes, I know exactly how I'm going to exaggerate you and take the mickey."

Cash-strapped council paid staff over £1k a day

The authority effectively declared bankruptcy in 2021

A cash-strapped council forked out tens of thousands of pounds for temporary staff in just three months after recruiting new bosses, figures have revealed.

Slough Borough Council in Berkshire saw its wage bill for interim staff rise by £65,200 between April and July.

It comes after the government hired Will Tuckley as the authority's interim chief executive on a day rate of £1,100, and Annabel Scholes as interim chief finance officer on £1,375 a day, including agency fee.

A council report said the rise was due to "an increase in new placements at a higher level".

'Pressing need' to save Tolkien and Lewis pub

The Eagle and Child in St Giles' has a plaque inside commemorating the writers' get-togethers

A plan to protect a pub frequented by authors CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien ahead of extensive repairs has been submitted.

The Eagle and Child in Oxford, which shut in 2020, is owned by US tech billionaire Larry Ellison's firm, the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT).

Dating back to 1650, the pub in St Giles' has a plaque inside commemorating the writers' get-togethers.

The EIT said it was “committed to reopening” the pub but that there was a “pressing need” to protect it and surrounding buildings, which were in an “extremely poor” state.