The Green Man grins

Yes, Spring has sprung!  There are green buds appearing everywhere; and the birds are making a huge racket, and running around grabbing bits of garden debris for their nests.
There is even the sound of lawn-mowers in the air - a sure sign of Spring.

Under the circumstances, a photo of a grinning Green Man (from the doorway arch at Wolstanton Church) is very apt.

Sarah's poisoned grave

One tombstone at Wolstanton's ancient church of St Margaret's is up there among all the most amazing gravestones to be found in the county.

Quite simply, it points the finger at a murderer – the murderer of the woman in the grave.   

From death, Sarah Smith accuses the perpetrator of the foul deed against her:
“It was C-----s B----w / That brought me to my end. /
Dear parents, mourn not for me / For God will stand my friend. /
With half a Pint of Poyson / He came to visit me. /
Write this on my Grave / That all that read it may see.” 

Whether Sarah dictated this before she died (in 1763), or her angry parents had it inscribed, who knows?  She was just 21 years old.
It’s believed that C…s B…w was never hauled up before the law - despite this indictment.

This post was featured on the Cemetery Sunday website 

Outlaws in Staffs

The biker group The Outlaws had a formidably bad reputation in the USA up to recently, rivalling the Hell's Angels. So I was surprised to discover that there are branches locally - with the Outlaws website mentioning three - ones in South Staffs, Tamworth and All Staffordshire. This doorway was photographed in Wolstanton near Newcastle.
'OFFO' stands for 'Outlaws Forever; Forever Outlaws'.