Pig Heaven

Pig heaven is what a, er, pig might call this place I suppose.
In fact, as I was walking toward, I thought – from a mile away – that it was a sort of holiday camp. In the distance, there seemed to be small Nissen huts scattered over a large amount of fields, and I wondered if they may be there for campers.

Close-up, I could see that the huts are for pigs. Packington Pork farms – at Hopwas - pride themselves on making the environment free range, and, from what I could see, that’s the way it was.
You can see for yourself, by walking the path on the edge of Hopwas Hays Wood.

Of course, the creatures still end up on the dinner table – but that’s farming.

Link: Packington Pork

Buddha temple

A Buddha temple in deepest Staffordshire? Yes indeed. As you walk a public path near Croxden, you can just see the back of it through the undergrowth. It may be in a field, or very large private park.

I wonder who put it there? Someone who wanted a memory of a time in South Asia? A devotee who meditates there now and again?  A lover of mystery?

Canal missionaries

The Days Of Elijah narrowboat can be seen touring the canals in this part of the world over the summer months. Its purpose is to bring the Gospel to boaters, and – well anyone else I guess…

It seems odd to think that Christian missionaries are sailing along the canals of the region some thirteen hundred years after St Chad converted Staffordshire, but there you go.

I guess it’s heading for its winter quarters now.

Link: Days Of Elijah ministry

Offensive (?) poster

This is another photo from my archives, this time from 2009. 

The poster on this bus-shelter originally showed a naked woman, sunbathing, lying on her front, wearing only ... boots. It was for a shoe company.
I passed this spot a lot, and the poster must have been up for a year or so, I’d think.

It had always puzzled me as to why the advertising company put it there. The site is in Shelton, a well-known multi-ethnic area, and I was pretty sure it would offend Muslims who passed it on the way to the mosque.

Eventually, as you can see, the naked body was carefully (but anonymously) blacked out with paint. By the careful way in which it was done, I’d think it was an organised protest.

A fortnight later, it was replaced with another poster altogether.

Smallest church

St Saviour’s is (was) a tiny church, hidden down a back-lane in the district of Rookery, in Kidsgrove. It’s one of those ‘tin churches’ that were hastily thrown up to care for the needs of expanding working-class populations in the late nineteenth century.

I’m willing to bet it’s the smallest in Staffordshire. The rows are only four chairs long! I guess it would hold forty people.

However, it had its last service last month, so its history is finished.
A preservation group may be set up to save it, but – unless it’s seen as part of working-class history – I can’t see why. It was only ever meant to be temporary, like all 'tin churches'.

Smashing conkers

The annual conker tournament, fifteen years old this year, took place again at The Red Lion pub in Boundary (near Dilhorne) today.
If you think it looks a little low-key, then you don’t know that the winner’s name is inscribed on the shield that hangs in the pub. Yes, the winner gets a guaranteed posterity!

Oddly, the winning conker also hangs there...

See: The Red Lion

Spider vs moth

Spiders seem to be thriving in the continuing mild weather. 
The sunshine means that even bees are still about - but the spiders seem to be mopping up the remaining moth population - if this web is much to go by.

Beware the horns

Highland cattle have a charmingly uncoiffured look about them. But the long curved horns are not so reassuring...
These two were grazing right in the middle of a public footpath near Abbots Bromley.
They may have looked friendly, but I decided discretion was the better part of valour: and I circled round them, keeping very near to the fence.

Wedgwood ... is back

In early 2009, Waterford-Wedgwood went into administration with debts of £4million. The iconic Staffordshire pottery brand, founded in 1759 by Josiah Wedgwood, was in danger of disappearing.
It was touch & go, before American firm KPS bought it two months later.  

Yet, it is amazing to report that WWRD (Waterford Crystal, Wedgwood & Royal Doulton) - the name of the company these days - is one of the companies now chosen to produce official souvenir merchandise for the Olympics. Quite a revival.

From beyond the grave, Josiah (standing guard here at the Barlaston factory site) must be relieved.

However....  the future of the Wedgwood Museum (which is also on the factory site, and which Josiah is facing) has been placed in doubt because of the 2009 problems. Its exhibits may be sold off to pay the debts. Naturally, people aren't happy about that. See: Save Wedgwood Museum

Car as ghost

This car may be a Morris Minor. Not sure. I took the photo in Fenton, the most 'unimproved' of Stoke-on-Trent's six towns. Strolling through Fenton is like walking through the city's industrial past, as nothing much seems to have changed since the 1950s.
The car surely must date from that era, which is why seeing it there was a bit ghostly.

Incidentally, the composition of this photograph appeals to me greatly.
A quick bit of instant word-association made me come up with the word 'revelation' as a title, but I don't really know why.