Nello

One of the most profiled living people in the Potteries is Neil Baldwin ('Nello') - yet most have never heard of him.

His was an unpredicted life.  Best described as 'neuro-diverse' he has no particular skill, except the marvellous one of making people like him, and somehow that has been enough.  Many, many people have liked him enough to want to have him around - from circus owners to students at Keele (the local university) to the manager at Stoke City Football Club. 
And then, somehow, this local unassuming figure got 'found' by writers and TV dramatists... and this month there is to be a play perfomed all about him and his life. It's on at the local professional theatre, the New Vic.  The phenomenon is all quite astonishing, not the least to Neil himself.

In Longton Market (see pic above), they've even named one of the aisles after him.  Amazing.

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Citizen of Staffordshire

  

I don't know why particularly it should amuse me but I could only smile that the symbol for maternity at the North Staffordshire Hospital is a Stafford/Staffordshire Knot.  (The knot is the ancient symbol of the county itself).   By contrast, the other departments have rather arbitrary symbols.
It's as though each incoming baby is automatically granted Citizen of Staffordshire status simply by being born here - which, maybe, I suppose, actually is the case...!

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Not romantic ruin

 

A photo for gloomy January.  The abandoned Victorian factories of the Potteries are perfect examples of 'ruin porn', which we've covered already once or twice.  In the Middleport district, abandonment is more evident than usual.
These old buildings have a great resonance of the area's deeply industrial past (for which there is a strange, but understandable, local nostalgic pride) - but what does one do with them?

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Calm before the Xmas storm

 
This month Lichfield Cathedral will go all-out with the Christmas spirit: light-shows, displays, mass carol concerts, even fairs on the green.
So, slightly before all the madness, let's enjoy a pre-Christmas moment of quiet.

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Overgrown truck

All returns to Nature, they say.
This truck has.

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Churchyard but no church

 

Here's an odd thing: a churchyard without a church. This particular patch of 'God's Acre' in Longton is now, essentially, a kind of 'sacred park' for dog-walkers and strollers.
The story is that old St Paul's was pulled down in 1940, despite being quite a handsome building and less than 100 years old (one suspects that mining subsidence may have been the problem, as it is for a lot of Longton).
The churchyard stayed though.
Ironically, the modern Longton Cemetery is only a few yards away.

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Dried up

You might associate lakes that dry up with more tropical countries, but Britain has been having its share over the last few years; it's been around 30 degrees today locally.
Of course, we only get 'heat-waves', ie a stretch of four or five days at a time before we get back to the usual grey skies, but the hot days are getting hotter.

Doors open again

 
Tourist attractions have been opening up gradually, following the Covid restrictions during the Spring, and all seems almost normal again (apart from the masks).  
Moseley Old Hall, where the future King Charles II hid while he was on the run from Cromwell, is one of the best of Staffordshire's great mansions - and is one of those now fully open again to visitors.

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Elvis in the sticks

 

On a fairly deserted country lane lading up to Oulton village, I glanced up to see ... Elvis Presley.  Which was quite a shock.
He seems quite animated about something, but then, he always did.

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Great vase, crazy story

 

Exactly two hundred and thirty-one years ago, a reproduction of the 'Portland Vase' (an object made in Rome in the first century) went on show in London.  It was such a popular event that tickets had to be sold to restrict the flow of visitors.

The original vase (see pic above) is made of glass. However, strangely, a glass copy of it would have been impossible in the eighteenth century, so the reproduction, made by Josiah Wedgwood at his factory in North Staffordshire, is a pottery version - 'jasperware'. 

In Staffordshire we know Josiah's copy very well, because it was his crowning achievement, which took him four years to perfect.    It is vibrantly yet delicately beautiful; there is no doubt of that.  You can still see one of Josiah's versions at the V&A Museum.

By the way, the story of the original vase would make a great film - full of crazy people, obsessed people and shocking moments.  It must be made!

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