Stone - town of beer and canals

The town of Stone has a famous story of beer-making and canals - both brought together here... 

Sadly, the Joules Brewery has moved on now to another part of the world, but summer still brings lots of canal-trippers so the pubs are still doing okay, thank you...
Interestingly the narrow-boat in the picture is named after Chad, the local saint of pore.

Penkridge's grand parish home

This very grand building, Haling Dene Centre, is the home of a parish council.  This surprised me, as most parish councils that I know can just about afford to rent out a village hall room for their monthly meetings, let alone run a rather portentous centre like this. 
What's more the parish council concerned - Penkridge - has bought the place outright (it's not on a lease) and the facilities there are used extensively by locals.  It even runs its own transport fleet!

Admittedly, Penkridge can safely be described as a large village, even a small town, but the whole set-up is still rather an impressive feat for a parish council - a body that is (essentially) the most ignored tier of local government...

Here comes Queen Elizabeth

Lesley Smith is a professional historian, but seemed to find another niche for herself when she started to 're-enact' Elizabeth I, England's great Tudor monarch, some years ago.
Nowadays, Lesley (who also does Mary Queen of Scots and others) is one of the main attractions at Tutbury Castle - and quite rightly so, as she is very very good.

Locking up heritage for the future

It is amazing the affection that the small villages of Staffordshire have for their heritage.

This little 'lock-up' (temporary gaol) at Gnosall is a good example.  It's not very old (1820s), and was originally sited elsewhere in the village, but was in the way of a road building programme.  So the village's Women's Institute raised funds to move it - brick by brick - to this new site not far from the church.

Now, I hope I appreciate heritage, but I think I would have just let it go.  Not the villagers of Gnosall though!  I guess they appreciated the sense of the past it gave them.

Getting eco-friendly in Longton

In the back streets of Longton, they've renovated the old America Hotel (in front), and built on to it a brand spanking new structure - now taken over by CORE (Centre of Refurbishment Excellence). 
CORE is a sort of learning centre for people in the construction industry wanting to know about eco-friendly methods.

I suppose the CORE building itself had better be a good example of what they are promoting, or it would fail in its own mission!
Actually, inside and out, it looks okay.

The rotting Burslem Sunday School

The once magnificent Burslem Sunday School (built in the 1830s) is now an ugly mess. After fire destroyed most of it, it was 'made safe' in the late 1980s, and now all that's left is this dilapidated front portico.  If it were an animal, you'd want to put it out of its pain. 
It's listed though, so I guess it can't be touched, and so it just sits ... rotting.

To see a photo of what it was like in its greatness, click on Potteries.org

Thirteenth century bits get new life

The priory of St.Thomas the Martyr, founded about 1174, is no longer with us… and yet it kinda is.

The public footpath goes right by the side of Priory Farm in Baswich, and the farm is on the site of the old priory – hence its name.
Pretty much all that’s left of the old medieval building is the last bits of its stone walls - and some of those old thirteenth century church walls have been incorporated into the new buildings seen in this photo (thus giving the building its variegated look).

Now, don’t tell me that that fact doesn’t give you a bit of a thrill - surely?

Related links: History of St. Thomas the Martyr site / Walk around Tixall and St Thomas

Bring on the spooks and ghosts

Heath House is an old Victorian-Gothic pile at Tean, where the family that live there have had to think up new and interesting ways to preserve the building. Nowadays it's well-known for hosting grand wedding events and the like.

One new wheeze is Ghost Tours. As of next week, there will be regular 'entertainment experiences' featuring whatever may be haunting the house's less brightly-lit locations.
Hmm. 

Related link:  Haunted Secrets Of The Heath House

'Picturesque' village almshouse

Marchington is a village best described as 'picturesque'. There's nothing much to do there, but each corner of it reveals another rather intriguing building to look at.
So the village is best seen as the place to walk round before going on a local country-walk.

The Marchington Almshouses (in the photo) were built by the Chawners of nearby Houndhill (hence the hound in the moulding, I would guess).


By the way, if you're interested in the villages of Staffordshire, the county's Women's Institutes took part in a project some years ago to write a page or two each about their villages for a book (published by Countryside Books). 
It's a little out of date, and a bit twee, but informative...  and, sadly, I think it is also out of print - but second-hand copies do exist.

Link: Countryside Books

Massive - and abandoned

These massive walls at Froghall stand almost alone in the midst of a forested valley.  One wonders at first if they are the remains of a castle.

However, it's clear that they are built on to the side of a hillside - so castle they are not.

They actually are kilns - the doorways being where the raw material was loaded ready for firing. The raw material in this instance was limestone, quarried nearby, to make lime (for agriculture mostly).

It turns out this abandoned area - now a beauty spot - was a thriving industrial centre in the nineteenth century.   Ozymandias would have appreciated the irony.

Tamworth mermaids brave the chill

What do mermaids have to do with banking?  That's the question at Bank House in Tamworth where this pair support a fleur-de-lys and shell motifs.
The former bank (built 1845) was founded by Sir Robert Peel, the nineteenth century politician and town's MP - maybe he had to do with the choice of the mermaids.

Dragon-worm at Sinai Park?

This could be a dragon-worm or wyrm (a strange medieval mythical creature), depicted on this beam at the 15th century Sinai Park House near Burton.  Or could it be just a smiling bird?
These restored timbers remind one that the richer medieval houses could be marvellously and colorfully painted indoors. What we see in historic buildings now is only a faint shadown of what things were really like.

The house is open to the public occasionally, even though two thirds of it is still (sadly) derelict.
Another photo I included on this blog about Sinai Park House was one of its swimming pool, which is not quite as salubrious as it sounds.

Link:  Sinai Park House

Stafford's Sandonia theatre

The Sandonia - `which was a theatre then a cinema then a bingo hall then a snooker club - is down a back street (Sandon Rd - hence the Sandonia's name) in Stafford, where its grandiose facade stands out among the terraced houses.  When it opened in the 1920s, it must have been a red letter day in those poor streets.

For the last twelve years, it has stood empty, and of its glory only this facade remains. The inside was stripped some time ago, so I guess the Art Deco features inside are barely surviving.

Saxon Warrior

This 'Saxon Warrior' statue was created by artist Andy Edwards to commemorate the finding of the Staffordshire Hoard, a treasure trove of one-thousand year old gold objects found – believe it or not – buried in a field (!) in south Staffordshire a few years ago.
The objects are mostly from military items - possibly from a local king's arsenal.

The Warrior is not strictly authentic, as the sculptor has added modern markings to his shield and other garments. It’s a good guessing game to figure out which they are.

The Warrior is now sited permanently in the City Museum at Hanley.

Fool has a beer

Having a beer in church, dressed in red and gold. Only a fool could get away with that, you think?

Well, strangely enough, you are half-right. Stafford recently had its Green Man Festival, where the town’s morris-men troupe is always the star of the show.

At a talk in St Chad’s Church, the organisers respected the spirit of the festival and allowed beer sales in the church – and Jack Brown, whom you can see in the photo, took advantage of the offer.
Jack takes the character of The Fool in Stafford Morris Dancers group - as you can tell from his outfit.

Jack is pretty legendary himself actually!


Link: Stafford Morris Men

Stones of Stockton Brook

Why do people like large standing stones? This house in Stockton Brook has a garden full of them.

Somebody once said to me that they are special because they are usually so old - large boulders can be the remains of debris swept over long distances by glaciers in the Ice Age. I suppose that makes them quite glamorous.

But a lot of stones - which can be placed in gardens, on roundabouts, in village squares, at supermarket entrances even (!) - are just, erm, big, ugly and heavy. However, they seem to mean something.
It must be something atavistic in our natures.

But a female friend of mine says (rather dismissively) that's it's a phallic thing.  Well, it's a thought.

Where Handel walked (?)

The famous composer George Handel stayed as a guest at Calwich Abbey Hall near Ellastone in the eighteenth century.
However, all that's left of the hall now is this ruined building - the old stable block.
A public footpath runs right by this building, and it's nice to think that one is walking on the same track that the great man might once have used himself.

There is a story that he composed his famous Messiah while here in Staffordshire, but the story seems to be less and less true as researches dig deeper.

Really miserable, grey, rainy day today.