Lobby in Bulgaria

I know this is a little daft obsession of mine but -- I like to look for 'signs' of Staffordshire even when I have to leave the county.
This bar in Veliko Tarnovo in Bulgaria is known as the 'Lobby Bar'... and lobby is the great dish of workign-class Staffordshire.

OK... a bit tenuous, I know - but it pleases me.

Two hundred miles from Tamworth

It always delights me to see reminders of Staffordshire when I am away from the county.

Tamworth Road in the Newcastle-u-Tyne suburb of Arthur's Hill is just off a busy market, so it sees a good deal of life.  The council have given it this rather grand modern-art metal signpost.

It's nor clear though why this road should named after Tamworth (a name that seems to refer only to the southern Staffordshire town), nearly two hundred miles away.

Digging India

This JCB excavator in the streets of Mumbai, in India, is another of my photos of 'Staffordshire abroad'.

The world-famous JCB company was born and fostered in East Staffordshire, and its main factories and World HQ are here to this day.
Whenever in the world I see a JCB - with its bright yellow livery - I always remember home.

'Heroic' Minton tiles

You can see Minton ceramic tiles all over the world to this day.  Their great era was the ninetenth-century, and many great Victorian buildings, especially in the British Empire, used Minton tiles for floors and for wall-decoration.
Minton's factory was based in north Staffordshire of course; and each time I see Minton work, wherever it is, I get a glow of Staffordshire-satisfaction.

Minton work can be seen at the so-called Postman's Park in London in the 'Memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice' loggia.  The memorial remembers some forty 'ordinary people' who died trying to save others. 
It's actually very moving.  Poor Frederick was killed exactly 146 years ago, but the prosaic dedication still has a resonance.

And the Art-Nouveau tiles are very fine indeed.