Being editor of CWN you hear some strange stories – and this headline is truly one of the most fascinating.

But I’ll recount more of our first work day of the new millennium before I’ll tell the cow’s tale.

All staff turned up present and correct and raring to go for a big new year for CWN.

Just before Christmas we learnt that we had won two major contracts that will more than double our turnover and have a major impact on how we operate.

One of these is to provide a business news service for the CW2000 project that is just beginning in Coventry. This will be an exciting development for CWN as it will fund our first full time staff journalist. We’re recruiting now if you know anyone that wants to be in on this groundbreaking project – I’ll more reveal more details soon.

The other project is the design and build contract for the major new ‘destination tourism marketing’ website for Coventry and Warwickshire Promotions. We were already involved in the project as managing agents but now we will, in partnership with local company Cathode, be putting together the nuts and bolts of the website as well.

We’re recruiting for this project as well – particularly web database programmers – the job details will appear soon but if you know anyone in the meantime do tell them to contact me.

So some interesting times ahead – we’re changing our company structure, we’re deciding whether to stay in our current offices or move and we’ll be almost doubling our staff numbers over the next six months.

That’s what makes running a company so much fun!

And the first of our new year recruits joined us today. Helen Cotterill has taken up the post of Marketing and Editorial Officer. She was formerly working for the Students Union at the University of Warwick.

Helen will be looking at ways of promoting and marketing CWN and, on the editorial side, working on the what’s on listings and the competition.

And so to the cow.

In between phone calls and project briefings I sat down for a facinating hour this afternoon with John Russell. John, a true Cov Kid, has spent the last nine years deep in the city’s archives indexing and databasing all manner of historical records primarily for the benefit of family history researchers.

John has already published five books jammed packed with details of the citizens of Coventry’s past. Now he is working on undoubtedly his most intriguing project to date – a history of the County Court.

This grand old building just across the way from the Golden Cross and the old cathedral is shortly to become yet another Cathedral Quarter drinking place. But before it goes John is ensuring no stone of its past is left unturned.

And he is turning up some time-warpingly interesting material. Amongst the crimes tried at the court was the case of Daniel Grimshure who was executed for the murder of his baby by pouring boiling water into its mouth.

And then there was the cow. Thomas Summers was sentenced to death in 1784 for beastiality.