Dilapidation proves order

As someone who walks a lot I often silently thank all those farmers and organisations who keep up the county's pathways - particularly in maintaining footbridges and stiles.
The county council's Environment Department is ultimately responsible for securing footpaths, but, under-resourced as they are, they now get official help from local Ramblers' groups.

Footpaths are pretty well looked after locally (in my humble opinion) - so I was quite surprised to see this dilapidated footbridge (over a ditch) near the River Anker.  Paradoxically, this exception to the rule is a reminder about how much in order most of the network of paths is.

Once a railway was here

Walking on the meadows alongside the River Anker near Tamworth, I saw a hillock of vegetation, and wondered what could have caused it to have appeared.  In fact, as you can see, it was actually a growth of weeds & more around a broken railway bridge. 
What happened to the railway line that once passed over it, I've no idea - dismantled and sold off I suppose... leaving just this forlorn bridge, to be slowly suffocated by time and Nature.

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.

Grimacing grave

The weathering on this tombstone has left a rather macabre shape... it looks like a grimace of broken teeth to me.  Maybe that's just me though.

This grave seems to be in a rather odd place - round the back of Tamworth Library!
(However... the library was built on the site of the churchyard - but the graves were left in place, which all explains that).

Back on the tracks

Back to the daily grind - after the three-day respite that is a Bank Holiday weekend.

The long empty lines (to what, exactly?) out of Tamworth Railway Station rather sum up the feeling.

Castle - going down!

Heights are not my strong point, so even taking this photo, looking down into a courtyard in Tamworth Castle, was slightly brave. 
Well I think so.

The old lady of Tamworth

The Globe Inn is one of the oldest names in Tamworth pubs. It's been rebuilt and restored over the years, and the latest refurb was just five years ago (curiously, the official history of the pub does not mention this fact).  But it still has the appearance and character of a Victorian pub.

It's a good ol' boozer.

(Unexpected) working class hero

Sir Robert Peel, the early nineteenth-century politician, was MP for Tamworth - and his statue stands proudly before the Town Hall in the centre of Tamworth to this day.

What is hard to believe is that he was a working-class hero (well - a hero to the working class, in fact). It was he who, when he was Prime Minister, brought crashing down the iniquitous Corn Laws, which protected landowners by ensuring a price for their grain - at the expense of the poor.
Peel split his own party on the issue.  Historians may well dispute about his motives, but I still think it was a brave, principled act.

Co-operative town

Tamworth seems to have a lot of Co-op shops in a small area - from supermarkets to funeral parlours and travel shops. Not to mention a Co-op bank.

It appears that the original Tamworth Co-op project was set up 130 years ago; and its founder, a vicar called McGregor is still commemorated to this day as a major benefactor to the town.   This Victorian building is still home to local Co-op projects - as it was over a century ago.

Thus, it seems that the Co-op movement's place in this part of the world is treasured by the townspeople - who continue to have a pro-active fondness and loyalty to the whole Co-operative ideal.

Charity (except for Tamworthers)

As befits the day of the year when we all should be charitable, it's good to remember Thomas Guy,  one of Staffordshire's greatest philanthropists.   
And here is the plaque over one of Staffordshire's most famous charitable institutions - Thomas Guy's Almshouses, in Tamworth.   Even to this day, 'worthy folk' who have fallen upon hard times are housed in one of the cottages on the site.

However, Thomas Guy was not, erm, totally given over to feelings of Charity.

On learning that his home-town of Tamworth had rejected him as MP, he had a fit of fury; and insisted that the rules of admission to his almshouses (which lie in the centre of the town) were changed.
He insisted that NO resident of Tamworth could ever qualify for a cottage thereafter! 
Only his relations and people from the hamlets & villages around Tamworth ("hamleteers") would ever be allowed to live there ... as you can see from the plaque, which is over the entry gate into the almshouses.  The rules stand to this day.

Hmm.  Oh well.  At least the almshouses still serve their purpose.

Autumn colours

We're having a real russet autumn... it's a real joy just to get out and see the various colours turning. There are oranges, scarlets, golds - and even reds!

This tree sits outside St Editha's Church in Tamworth.

Staffordshire's female general

Ethelfleda ('The Lady of The Mercians') is celebrated by both Stafford and Tamworth as their major founder.  It was she who, in 913, fortified both towns and thus created them as 'burhs', and who ruled the Mercian lands from each town at different periods. She died at Tamworth, though she was buried in another part of her lands, at Gloucester.
Stafford, in particular, has been running its Stafford 1100 Festival, which remembers the great leader (she was quite a military general, and beat the Vikings more than once).

The statue in this photo, outside Tamworth Castle, was put up at the 1000-year anniversary in 1913.


An interesting story is that she was succeeded as ruler of Mercia, the kingdom of central England, by her daughter AElfwynn, one of only two times in English history that a queen has succeeded a queen.
The sad end to that is that AElfwynn was immediately deposed by Edward The Elder, so this female succession never had a chance to flourish.

Incidentally, the spelling that historians prefer today (instead of Ethefleda) is AEthelflaed.

Inflatable church

This is the most unusual church building I've ever seen...    This particular one has to be erected with the aid of a bicycle pump - and doesn't look totally steady in even a slight breeze.

Of course, it's not entirely serious. It's more of a publicity gimmick (though it does have a prayer space), and you'll see it at festivals and fetes. (I saw this at The Fuse Festival in Lichfield where it was being used by one of the town's most active Christian communities).

The idea is: if the people won't come to the church, you take the church to the people... 

Tamworth's attractiveness

Tamworth really does try harder. The park, which is slap bang in the centre of the town, and on the river, has flowers in it virtually all year round (see Tamworth January post), and really looks terrific - a place where people are happy and proud to gather.

Other Staffordshire towns try too; but, in terms of its central parkland attraction, Tamworth wins hands down.

The library with its own cemetery

Tamworth must be unique surely in having a library which opens out on to an old churchyard.
This photo is of the main entrance, believe it or not, and the graves you see are part of the churchyard of the parish church of St Editha.

What I am still wondering is whether the library (or its 1905 predecessor) was built over the top of some graves...

There must be some great jokes waiting to be told too!


This post was featured on the Cemetery Sunday collection

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.

Staffordshire name slips away

The Staffordshire Building Society folded sometime ago - and I was only reminded of its existence when I came across this old photo of one of its Tamworth branches, which I had in one of the (very) deep folders on my computer.
Accordign to Wikipedia, The Staffordshire merged with The Portman in 2003, and The Portman in turn merged with nationwide in 2006.

I thought I'd mention this as it looks like the final form of the Staffordshire Regiment is now to be merged completely out of existence too under new government proposals.

Nationally-represented organisations with the name Staffordshire in them seem to be slipping away.

Sir Thomas Guy's leopards

Sir Thomas Guy's coat of arms stare down at you in the entry way to the group of buildings in Tanmworth known as Guy's Almshouses.
Nothing odd there, as Sir Thomas piad for and endowed the site for the poor of the town in 1678.

What is odd is that when the caretaker kindly showed it to me, I recognised the design straightaway - as being the same on the shield that surmounts the gates into the famous Guy's Hospital in London.
(Who could forget these crowned leopards with their very very handsome sets of whiskers?!!)

I don't know why, but I hadn't made the connection before. That is: the Sir Thomas Guy who is such a big name in the history of Tamworth is the same Guy who founded one of London's old hospitals.
Ah.


Link: Guy's coat of arms at Guy's Hospital

Steller's naked alphabet

I have no idea what Margaret Thatcher thought of this artwork when she unveiled it back in the 1970s. I should think the Iron Lady might well have been slightly shocked, especially as she’d have been told that this pair of naked lovelies is supposed (somehow) to “…outline the art of writing and the development of the phonetic alphabet”. At least that’s what the artist, Fritz Steller, said at the time.

The sculpture now adorns the rear entrance to Tamworth library, though was hidden behind a couple of screens when I visited last.

Of course, Mrs T was at one time the Minister of Education, so maybe I malign her. Maybe she did like it.

Tribute to a brave man

The Colin Grazier Hotel is a puzzle to most visitors to Tamworth. Who was he, they ask, and they assume he was a local businessman or politician.
In fact he was an ordinary sailor who died in action in World War Two, when he showed amazing courage in entering a sinking German U-Boat, to find and retrieve some codebooks that were known to be in it. Sadly he died returning yet again into the U-Boat. Those codebooks helped the Allies later to intercept and interpret German signals.

For some odd reason – probably the British obsession with secrecy – the story didn’t emerge for many years, when Grazier was finally, posthumously, awarded The George Cross.

To me, it’s admirable that this pub company decided to name their pub after him – even though it must have known that few visitors (and probably very few young people) would even know who he was.