Flashback to 2003: Unique asparagus, a buzz at the castle and a police award

Trevor Lee, of Lodge Farm, in Quatt, near Bridgnorth, was credited with changing the face of asparagus growing in the UK

With his 30 years experience of growing asparagus, Mr Lee in partnership with Marks & Spencer, devised a new growing method which resulted in an early crop.

The success was also said to be thanks to the retailer giant's work with growers to extend the UK asparagus season.

Traditionally, the British asparagus season lasts eight weeks but Marks & Spencer has added up to three weeks on to the season.

Mr Lee said that he was keeping his farming techniques a closely guarded secret but was thrilled that Marks & Spencer was selling his produce.

“About 12 months ago I was just a small farmer. I have a number of colleagues and we got together and set up a company called Western Asparagus Growers and now we sell to multiples,” he said.

He added that the protected crop of asparagus was being sold exclusively by Marks and Spencer.

Mr Lee said: “We have managed to produce asparagus early, I promised them they could have it for Easter and I have achieved that. I started cutting about 10 days ago when normally cutting doesn’t start until the first week of May.”

Mr Lee and his workforce cut the entire crop by hand, with the last cut being made on June 21 – the longest day of the year.

In 2003, Lodge Farm expected to harvest a massive 22,222 bundles of early asparagus for Marks & Spencer.

Meanwhile, the Queen was amused when a rival and a swarm of bees took on the British Army.

A Royal beekeeper rushed to the rescue when a queen bee sent a buzz of excitement around Windsor Castle.

An angry swarm colonised chairs set out in the Castle’s quadrangle for VIPs at a ceremonial review of the Army’s elite Queen’s Company, Grenadier Guards.

As the beekeeper, in protective visor and gloves, struggled to contain the threat, the Queen looked on through a Castle window.

Beekeeper and pest control contractor Peter Sheppard had just 30 minutes to save the day and the blushes of the British Army’s finest.

Guardsmen, standing well over 6ft tall in their black bearskins, never flinched in the face of the mini-enemy.

Men in top hats and tails reinforced the ranks and helped to move the chairs.

According to a royal source, the Queen initially considered moving the ceremonial parade inside and away from danger.

In the event, the beekeeper was victorious and only one man, a former sergeant major, was stung on the forehead.

Victor of the battle Mr Sheppard said: “The queen bee had left her hive and was looking for a new place to stay. She found a chair and took her attendants with her.”

And there was a celebration as a Staffordshire police officer received one of the highest accolades in the force after clocking up a record-breaking 218 arrests in a year.

Pc Christopher Dean, who worked in Chase Division, was believed to have the highest number of arrests for one officer in the force's history.

The 34-year-old was awarded the John Taylor Memorial Award for outstanding work by the Lord Mayor of Stoke on Trent, Ellis Bevan, at a ceremony. The award was also for his bravery in an incident in Stafford in 2001.

He and his partner, Pc Andrew Drayton, saw a man arguing with his young female partner carrying a baby in Tennyson Road, Highfields.

As they tried to break up the fight, the man shoved the woman and child into a ground-floor flat and then produced a loaded cross-bow and tried to fire at the officers from inside before taking the woman onto the roof of the flats.

Pc Dean, who has been with the force for 11 years, broke down the door to the flat and, with no protection, grappled with the man to rescue the pair and arrest him.

Inside his flat, the two officers found an array of lethal weapons including a machete, two axes, throwing knives, a machete, the cross-bow and a Samurai sword.

The 20-year-old man was charged with affray and sentenced to 18 months at Stafford crown court.

Before Pc Dean joined Chase Division, which covered Stafford, Stone, Rugeley,Penkridge and Wombourne, he was store manager of Sainsbury's in Stafford.

He said: "To win this award is a huge honour, and I am sure my family are very proud. Pc Drayton was instrumental in me getting it, and without doubt, that incident inHighfields was one of the most dangerous Ihave been involved in."

The John Taylor Memorial Committee was set up in memory of Pc John Taylor who died on duty in Stoke in November 1986.

The award, set up with the help of his close friend, Detective Constable Mark Blandford, has been running for more than 12 years.

Pc Dean was only the second Stafford officer to receive the honour.