New chips on the block

It's a mystery... but there are two types of businesses that seem to insist on having puns in their name - fish & chip shops and hairdressers.  In Staffordshire there are hundreds of them: The Codfather; Alias Quiff & Combs, Head-Turners; Our Plaice etc etc

This fish & chip takeaway in Blythe Bridge has managed to go further - and work two puns into its name of 'New Chips On The Block'. 
It is also a literal description, as the shop was taken over by new management recently.

This post was featured on the City Daily Portal Photo Blog

Sat-nav nightmare

This ford is one of those sat-nav nightmares one reads about.  It's on the most direct road from Great Bridgeford to Seighford, yet I'd be unwilling to drive through along here and through that water.  BUT - a sat-nav is quite likely to take you toward it. 
Even during these very dry days of the moment it is six inches deep; and in winter it can rose to eight inches and more.
I'd be interested to know what local drivers think...

This post was featured on My Town Shoot-Out

Warned off swimming

The River Sow, at Creswell, slows down here at this point, becoming a wide & shallow pool, and just quiet enough for this bit to be regarded as a swimming hole.
Yet... even in these hot holiday days, there was a not a child to be seen here.

I'm guessing that - nowadays - parents might be horrified at the thought of their children playing in 'wild' water, and so have warned them strongly not to come here.

Green thought in green shade

All this hot weather (we are into the seventh day of a heat-wave, with temperatures as high as in Bombay), doesn't always serve Nature well.
Wildlife enthusiasts are urging us to put bowls of water for hedgehogs etc.

The sunshine also promotes vegetable growth. 
This pond/still-brook near Eccleshall has now so much algae growth in it it looks as solid as a green pavement.  Whatever fish were in there have either moved on, or are slowly asphyxiating - as this algae steals all the oxygen in the water.

War memorial over the door

World War One is the theme of much media interest at the moment, as its 100th anniversary comes up soon.  A lot of history groups are researching their own war-memorials; and I was surprised to learn from one of them that this installation over the main doorway at Marchington Church is in fact the village's war memorial.  It features Saint Michael.

This cleared up a matter which had puzzled me for a while. Why was Saint Michael figured so prominently on the front of a church dedicated to Saint Peter?    Now I know.

Dead pine gulch

Chartley Moss is not often visited.  It is a floating bog - and in the wrong weather walkers could quickly find themselves in danger of suddenly sinking.  It’s all private land anyway.

It’s a shock when you do get there.  The pines that were planted there a hundred years ago sank under their own weight down through the nine-foot thick peat bed and into the lake below – and then their roots simply drowned. Curiously, as the pines die they get lighter and ‘re-ascend’ – creating this spooky landscape of spiky dead trees.

Natural England do occasional tours of the site; and you have to sign up for them in advance.

Two and a half millennia of Artemis

Artemis The Hunter is surely everybody’s favourite ancient goddess.  Strong, wonderful ... and, without being headstrong, refusing to let any of the other gods interfere with what she wanted to do. Free as a bird. (Also known as Diana by the Romans).

This sculpture at Sandon Hall has a strange story.  It is a 1999 re-creation of a piece destroyed in a storm at Sandon.  The destroyed piece was a copy of a Roman statue ('Artemis of Versailles') from the second century – which itself was a copy of a Greek statue of around 300BC.
You can’t keep Artemis down.

Round and round the village tree

If you want a quiet, remote, pretty little English village, try Caverswall.  Its centre consists of this large tree, which acts (in fact) as the middle of a de-facto roundabout for vehicles. 
Is it ordinary for a tree to act as a roundabout?  Maybe it is.

You can do nothing in Caverswall for hours, which is very pleasant.

This post appeared on the My Town Shoot-Out Photo-Blog

Mystery saint

Saint Editha is a real Staffordshire saint, in that she existed (she lived in the early part of the tenth century) somewhere in or around Tamworth.

After that little fact (ie she definitely existed), almost none of the sources can agree about the details of her life story.  In Amington Church, which is dedicated to her, there is this lovely little stained-glass portrait of her wearing a crown (she may have been a princess) - but that's as fanciful a idea of her as everything else.
A long, lovely article by Christine Smith attempts to sort it all out.  (Well done for trying, Christine!)

Anyway... one source claims that today is her feast-day. 

Time stops on the lake

These long summer days can lead to still & strangely nebulous evenings, especially if there are a few clouds left.  Time stops still a little.
This is Rudyard Lake.

Unique hedgehog

There is only one 'Hedgehog Pub' in the UK (maybe the world?) - at least that's what an internet search seems to suggest.
I don't know why this fact interests me, but it does.

The Hedgehog is on the outskirts of Lichfield.  It dates back to the eighteenth century.

Honouring the woman

Emma Darwin was the wife of Charles Darwin, not to mention his cousin (that sort of stuff was okay in the nineteenth century...).   Emma was a Staffordshire girl, and lived at Maer Hall in west Staffordshire, where Charles was a frequent visitor. The pair married in Maer Church.

Emma is fascinating for lots of reasons.  She brought to the marriage all the intelligence and creativity of the Wedgwood family (she was the grand-daughter of Josiah I), so she was no slouch in understanding and commenting on Charles' work.

So I think it's terrific that Shrewsbury School has named one of their halls after her, despite her not being known for her own work. 
(Why Shrewsbury?  Because Charles Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, she is honoured in Shrewsbury by association, so to speak).

Exclusive view

This must surely be one of the best views in Staffordshire; and you have a very peaceful and secluded spot from which to see it. Barely anyone comes here, despite the fact that a bench or two is waiting for them.

This bench is actually sited at the far end of the large churchyard of St Peter's in Kinver.  The church stands on a hill, high above the actual town of Kinver.

Memorial to a selfless pilot

It's no wonder that the people of Creswell and nearby Stafford put up a memorial to Captain John Perrin of the US Air Force.
It goes back to the last days of the Second World War:  by managing to pilot his out-of-control aircraft away from habitation and crashing it into empty fields, the captain must have saved the lives of a good number of families. It probably cost him his life to do it though.


Each year, the local folk gather to remember him on July 4th, the date of the crash.  This year was the 70th anniversary.

Cave fit for a saint

The eminent local historian Father Michael Fisher postulates that this crop of rock might have been the very cave that once housed the seventh century Saint Chad.  Chad was, for a while, a hermit in these woods near Salt Village.

The soil must have risen quite a lot, I suppose, as you couldn't fit a cat in there now.  However, the people behind the Two Saints Way pilgrimage trail, which runs north-south across Staffordshire, also seem to like the story.

The cave is at Ordinance Survey reference SJ 953 273, just off the public footpath.