Sitting on money

It's plain amazing to think that the Sneyd family had to do very very little to 'earn' this huge hall.  The land they owned just had acres and acres of coal underneath it - and they made a handsome living from the rights.  They even built a racecourse (no longer there) at the end of one of their drives!

The last Sneyd died in the fifties I think, and by then this hall had already become part of what was to be Keele University.

Stables fit for a vice-chancellor

The University of Keele took over the old Sneyd Hall and its estate in the 1950s - and the institution has never looked back since.

This courtyard complex in the picture is a little distance off from the main hall, built as the estate stables in the nineteenth century.  It is named The Clock House.
For some odd reason, it was made the Vice-Chancellor's official residence.

Frozen at the cemetery

This pool at Keele Cemetery was still frozen (at least, apart from the edges) as I passed it today. Curious: as most of the snow is now gone, apart from some dirty clumps lying by roadsides. I really must brush up on my physics and discover why it remains frozen even now.

Keele Cemetery is very new; and the building in the background, which looks like a library … well... is, really!  Being all modern, it contains Newcastle Borough’s main burials-history research study-area, a community meeting room for the village (!), and offices of course – as well as the usual.
Seems a far cry from the Victorian cemeteries - where a Gothic-looking chapel/gatehouse might be the only structure apart from the graves.

New arms for Keele University

Keele University (founded in 1949 as the University College of North of North Staffordshire) became a university in 1962 - and so is celebrating its fiftieth birthday this year.

The latest reworking of its coat of arms is seen on the banner in the photo above. The Stafford Knot is pre-eminent, while the open book represents learning, and the scythe is the symbol of the Sneyd family (the family which once owned the estate Keele is now built upon).
Apparently, the green slash marks the university's committment to sustainability, which is very modern of them.

See: Keele's heraldry