Swapping a crab for a ram

The old Wedgwood Institute in Burslem is a lovely building, built in the Venetian Gothic style.
As you can see, it has an ornate frieze around its top depicting the astrological signs of the zodiac named with their corresponding months and a scene referring to the sign.

But... the makers got muddled up.
As you can see in centre of the the photo, the roundel at the top depicts Cancer The Crab (June 22 to July 22), the month says June, but, er, the scene depicts a man holding down a ram (March, Aries!). 
Where is the usual scene for Cancer, a woman collecting crabs?  Yep, you guessed it: over where the ram should have been.
Somebody clearly wasn’t concentrating.

Wedgwood himself seems unbothered though.

Elegant dovecote

This dovecote sits in a field east of the Swainsley Tunnel in the Staffordshire Peak District.
Doves and pigeons are drawn to nest in dovecotes; meaning the owners could have another source of meat & eggs.
Apparently dovecotes were often built away from the lord’s main house and near a public highway, because they could act as status symbols: as only a rich man could afford them.
But this one is a nineteenth century construction, so it was probably designed as a decorative and elegant pastiche. It is certainly lovely in its simple way.

Green man welcomes Spring

This 'Green Man' carving at Longdon Church looks out from a Norman column - which makes him 1000 years old, almost.  The church is remarkable, not just for this figure but a number of sights, and is worth a visit.

Incidentally, that is not a huge handlebar moustache that he sports (though it looks like that!) - it is vegetation, growing ivy-like, from his mouth.  He is a symbol of Spring and re-growth.

Penny-bank colours

This rather striking coloured panel can be found on Pennybank House in Leek.  The name recalls the Leek Co-operative Society, which used to have a base in this building. (Children were once encouraged to save a penny a week by the Co-op).
Pennybank House is not on the normal tourist trail, so not many people see this work, which is a shame.

Veolia grass up top

Yes, look again - here we have a "living roof", with a stretch composed of grass, mosses and flowers. This growth is all deliberate too, as the construction here is claimed to be the most environmentally-friendly (man-made) in the county: described as a "breathing building".

Actually, this is the county's major recycling centre - where all sorts of processes derive energy from waste. Veolia, the owners, are very proud of it and say more developments are to come.

Lapley's 'castle'

The castellated Park House, in the nice posh village of Lapley, would certainly be a dream place to live (I'd guess!). As you walk round the bend on a road from the village green, there it suddenly is...

I imagine that this thoroughfare in front of it must have been made public sometime after it was built; otherwise, the road is very strangely intrusive for such a grand house. However I don't know its history.

What I enjoy about scenes like this is that they are confirmation that sudden eccentric surprises are still simply part of the daily experience for visitors to villages in rural Staffordshire.

Enigmatic pediment

There is no indication on this building, in Uttoxeter’s main square, Market Place, as to who once owned it in times past. There are almost no clues in the sculpture relief you see here in the picture.  If I knew its history, I could perhaps tell you more about it.  However, its secret is safe, until I get some time to research it.
The enigmatic smile on the face at the top seems to be mocking my ignorance...
Oh well!
(If anyone knows more about this relief, and its significance, you’d save me a trip to the library if you’d leave a comment below. Gratefully received...)

Salt Pepper and Vinegar

These three bottle ovens are known locally as Salt Pepper and Vinegar, because they are as long and slender as table cruets.  And yes, they are different in shape to most of the squat, fat bottle ovens in north Staffordshire.  They have a different function – being used not to fire pottery ware, but to calcine flint, so that the flint could more easily be ground down for use in various processes.

Their heyday was the 19th century of course, and now they are preserved (as Grade 2 listed) memories of the past, as part of the Bottle Ovens Conservation Scheme. James Kent Pottery now owns the site, and they have occasional open-days when the public can get a little closer.

A wonder house - in an ordinary place

This ‘Gothick’-style wonder of a house is Speedwell Castle, which is slap-bang in the middle of Brewood on the main crossroads.
It’s said that, around 1750, a local man won such an outrageous bet (that he had placed on a horse called Speedwell) that he was able to fund this building project with the winnings.

The story seems odd to me. 
Why did he build right on top of the crossroads (unless it was an extension to an existing house, I suppose)? 
The fact is that: two rather uninteresting pubs face the house; the frontage is right on to the road (ie a very less than grand entrance); and the posh end of Brewood is actually 200 yards away (near the church). 
I wonder if the man, an apothecary by the name of William Rock, just wanted to impress his immediate neighbours, and used his sudden rise in fortune to publicise his rise in fortune - in an unmissable spot?  In other words, a self-aggrandising vanity project?  I wonder.

It’s now converted into flats.

Grecian urns in unlikely places

I've never understood the Victorians' passion for putting Greek urns everywhere.  I appreciate they developed a love for classical antiquity; but they couldn't stop themselves reproducing urns as garden features, vases and even architectural features - as here at the Old Waterworks at Hatton.

Seen with a 21st Century eye (ie mine), it looks kinda obsessive.

Medieval practices - coming back

It's amazing to think that there are over thirty almshouses still going in Burton.  Dating back to medieval times, these charitable institutions still provide small homes for the elderly & bereft. 
And, believe it or not, almshouses are still being built by these charities even today; clearly there is a need for this medieval practice...
The Consolidated Almshouses Charity manages this particular, rather lovely one (built in the nineteenth century) in Wellington Street.

Crystal no longer shines bright

How the mighty are fallen.  This sad-looking, decaying pile is the once honey-pot of North Staffordshire, the Crystal Ballroom (aka Tiffany's aka Zanzibar etc etc).  It was the big dance and disco venue between the 1970s and 2000s for this region.
It was never 'cool' - one went to the small clubs for any real atmosphere -, but it was incredibly popular.  Saturday night queues were so long they are the stuff of legend - sometimes stretching down into Newcastle town itself.
Now it's just an empty hulk.

Ecton's Folly

This extraordinary house is known locally as 'The Folly' - being built in the 1930s by the rather eccentric Arthur Ratcliffe, who was MP for Leek at the time.  It has elements of a fantasy castle.
Its copper spire has become green with verdigris after being exposed to the air for so long.

You'll find it up an isolated track in Ecton where the few other homes were used by the old mining company for its officials.

Bizarre building

This very dramatic-looking building seems to be in the local paper constantly (for the wrong reasons).  Smithfield-One was started last year as the planned base for Stoke-on-Trent City Council, which is spending £55 million on this and the surrounding 'business district' in Hanley. However, plans have now changed and the new Central Library will be installed there, as will 'other stuff'.

So... the library's gain, I suppose.

The multi-coloured design on the cladding is said to be inspired by the work of the famous 1930s 'Bizarre'-style pottery-designer, Clarice Cliff, who was a local girl. I'm not sure she'd recognise the attribution, but I guess we all are entitled to our own interpretations.

Sheltering garden

The weather has suddenly switched.  No longer is it an  unexpectedly glorious summer; instead it has gone all rainy-squally and autumnal.
One wants to go out no further than to a hidden garden... an ornamental one, like this at Sandon Hall, with its picturesque 'temples' to act as shelters, is a good bet.

Porch for decoration

This rather unusual trellis-style porch caught my eye as I strolled around Pattingham village.  It's purely decorative of course, as keeping the sunlight from blazing into the windows is not a major issue in south Staffordshire...
It's an attractive sight.

Holme Farm & its crosses

This cross decoration on the roof of Holme Farm at Mayfield is one of two crosses, one at each end of the roof.
But it is not just there for ornament - the crosses signify that this house (parts of which are very old) was part of the possessions of Tutbury Priory some five hundred years ago.
The Mayfield Heritage Group has produced a wonderful leaflet of a walk around the village outlining all these wonderful facts.

Isn't it strange how the past keeps a presence (albeit not always understood) in our ordinary lives?

Chillington's dome of light

The main saloon room at Chillington Hall is a very grand affair. Its domed glass roof adds to the grand effect - not only does it light the expanse below it, but adds a sense of awe. 
Sitting in the room , looking up through the dome to the sky above, one is almost dizzy.  At creeping twilight time, the space seems almost to revolve.

This post was featured on the City Daily Photo Website

Astrological quirks!

It's a very odd thing: but there are some howlers of mistakes on the facade of the Wedgwood Institute in Burslem.  The frieze along the top shows the twelve signs of the zodiac - but the signs for Cancer and Aries are in the wrong places. 
As you can see here, Aries (15 April to 15 May) is hovering over March, which is all wrong.  (The man is gathering clams/crabs by the way, which is not entirely obvious...). 
Also, further along the facade, the June figure seems to be shearing a ram - whcih should surely be Aries ?

This buidling was a wonder of its time.    I wonder if they realised the mistake when it was unveiled; or did those who realise just stay shtum?

This quirk is featured in the locally-set novel, The Spyders of Burslem.

Brutal bus shelter

Sometimes, it's hard to believe what you see.  This bus shelter in the centre of the otherwise pretty village of Pattingham has absolutely nothing to recommend it.
It lacks any sense of creativity, it is brutal, it is boring.  Quite simply: it was built with no love at all.

We laugh at the Victorians, who probably would have put Gothic curlicues on it, or even the pre-war authorities who would have had it resemble a pastoral cowshed - but at least they wanted public spaces to sustain our need for self-respect in places where we live.
C'mon Pattingham!  At least paint it.