Wild panther on the loose

The most famous story of the Giffard family of Chillington Hall seems a little underwhelming compared to some of the affairs that the Giffards have gotten up to. It is that: one of them shot a wild animal. Hmm. 
Nevertheless, the story (legend?) is so important that it informs the family coat of arms.

There are a number of variations on the 500-year-old story, but basically it seems that Sir John Giffard had a menagerie from which a panther escaped.  From some distance away, Sir John saw the animal as it was about to savage a mother & child. Sir John shot it with an arrow; and prevented a tragedy.

As you can imagine, the story has been knocked about a bit.  Reputable sources say both panther and leopard, crossbow and bow & arrow, that Sir John was in pursuit or in the hall, and that the distance of the shot was up to … one mile!

But, good stories should never be over-examined.  

Thus, at Chillington Hall, you will see many references to this feat – including this detail on some rather lovely plasterwork.

Lights of Autumn

It's one of those autumns again, ie similar to the ones of the last few years: sunny days followed by foggy, turn by turn.
But the most interesting feature of these recurrent autumns is that the colours are so vivid: the russets very red, the greens so verdant.

Two close knots

Another for my Stafford Knot collection!  This knot graces the old railway station at Rushton Spencer, though the building (1844) predated the railway line. 

Only 20 yards away from this building is the (Stafford) Knot Inn - which also bears a knot (see its knot) - so, two for one!

Get a fragrant seat

 

This is a new one on me: on a petrol forecourt, alongside the pumps, there was this dispenser, where you can get, not just air for your tyres but, one minute's of a spray of fragrance for your car - for £1.
However, it doesn't specify what particular scent you'll be getting. I find that concerning.

For some reason, it also stresses: "Spray under seats".  Eh?

Staffordshire in the scales

This set of scales, made by the long-established Staffordshire firm of Salters, is possibly arouund 150 years old. I spotted it in a pub in Leek where it had been retired, and is simply used as decoration.

This close-up reveals the firm's trademark - a Stafford Knot pierced by an arrow.  Why an arrow? Who knows?
As the history of the firm reveals, this design was used on the shirts of a local football team as long ago as the 1880s (- and people think shirt sponsorship is a new thing!!)
 

Chilling corridors

As if there isn't enough to be worried about in these days, some people are phobic to empty corridors, especially in hotels.
It's all the fault of The Shining, the horror film set in an empty hotel: ghosts (and worse) keep appearing at turns in the vacant corridors. 
I suppose the horror is enhanced because what should be busy areas are disturbingly unpopulated.

 

In this deserted cinema, I even felt a frisson of something myself...

Telegrams office... once

There is a strange habit in England of allowing old artefacts from the past simply to stay in place – often for many years.  It doesn’t happen all the time of course – some people love to tidy away the past and make things shiny & modern, but it does happen often enough to be noticeable.

Here in Warslow village, they have left up the old sign for the Telephone & Telegrams Point.  It appears to be around sixty years old, but does look as though someone wipes it off every so often, just to give it a clean.

Towers ruins

Alton Towers, the palatial stately home which nowadays gives its name to the amusement park in its grounds, looks – from a distance – to be still the once grand aristocratic home it once was.
You’d never guess it is largely a ruin.

After the earls left in the early 20th century, it fell into disrepair, then dereliction.

If you walk up close (as any paying visitor to the park can do), you can see the crows flying in and out of the unroofed rooms. And there is no access, even to spaces that still have decoration (the chapel for example) because of how dangerous the state of the fabric is.

 

To be fair to the owners of the park & estate, what is left is kept in some sort of order, and repairs to the building did go on apace for over ten years from 1999 when there were even tours of the safer parts, but it all seems to have slowed a bit.
The restoration project still is alive, but, as I say, it moves slowly.

As in Shakespeare's day

 

A traditional sight in English summers - outdoor Shakespeare. This time we are on the village community green in Dilhorne, with the audience in socially-distanced spots.

It's interesting to think that this situation is also exactly how it was in Shakespeare's own day: a group of touring players have arrived, to perform for one evening, on their way around the country.

Legend fades away

This innocent looking mound on Tittensor Chase in the centre of the county has been known for centuries as Saxon Lowe. The word lowe indicates a burial chamber,  so... could it be the burial place of the most illustrious of Middle England's Saxon kings, Wulfere??? He did have a fort nearby.

Probably not.
Archaeologists can be kill joys sometimes. They think it's just a natural hillock.