Flood blocks path

The constant rain of the past few weeks has not caused the same level of problems in Staffordshire as it has in the south of the country - but this photo shows how water-logged the ground has become even here.

This is my usual path across the Doxey Marshes - but, as you can see, it's flooded.  It's a foot deep at the worst; I'd have needed wading boots to get along it and still have had dry feet...

Cuts cut potters

The Gladstone Pottery Museum in Longton really is an outstanding experience. Sited in an authentic old 'pot-bank' factory, there are lots of different sections, and sights and sounds - including real potters making real pottery - so it's a proper family day-out, but one that historians can savour too.  My favourite section is the one on the history of indoor sanitation - but, maybe that's just me.

Because it is council-funded, the latest round of local government cuts have hit it badly; and it looks like it will be open on fewer days in future, according to the BBC's report.
Oh well. Oh well.

A day for monsters

Doxey Pool, which is this little patch of water on the Roaches ridge on the moorlands near Leek, is a bleak place in winter.  Especially on a winter's day that is grey and totally wetly-muddy after all the rain we've been having.
On such a day you can quite believe the Doxey Pool legend: that the 'river-hag' Jenny Greenteeth, who inhabits it, grabs at passers-by and drags them to their death. (Though she is not be confused with the equally murderous, nearby Blake Mere Mermaid who is apparently quite pretty, by contrast)..

Golden roof

Green and gold tiles line the roof of Alton Castle, a nineteenth-century Gothic-style building (designed by the architect Pugin) in Alton village.
The colours give it a sort of romantic grandeur I think.

Pure-water village

If there's one place that likes water, it's Newborough.  It has three well-dressings, which is rather a lot, even for a town so near to Derbyshire, where they really do love well-dressings.

You'll find this monument, which celebrates the long history of Newborough, right in its centre.  In the old days, an old trough which ran into a spring nearby carried these words on its side: "Aqua Pura Nequa Dura, Omnibus Satis Atque Gratis" (Pure water, not hard, enough for all and free) - and you can see this monument has copied those sentiments.

House in shape of bottle

A post about an octagonal house might as well follow one about a round house (see my Cheadle Round House post), but this dwelling is just as small as the Cheadle Round House.
This building is in Tixall, but, yes, it is another 'lodge' house. It is called 'Bottle Lodge' - for obvious reasons I suppose.

It's 200 years old.

Round house

Why anyone would want to build a round house is a mystery to me.  The 'Round House' in Cheadle is tiny. 
In the nineteenth century, it only served as a lodge to a bigger property up the hill, so maybe it was just a whim to build it.

It was lived in as a residence, amazingly, until just a few years ago (split into four minuscule rooms!) - and then a local benefactor bought it and restored it.

Clay pit - makes pool

Huge 'marl holes' dot much of North Staffordshire - places where clay was dug out and dug out and dug out... and dug out.
Abandoned marl holes flood - and then create pools.  Like this one near Tunstall.

The cavalier remembers

This rather lively Cavalier adorns the facade of Patshull Hall.  He indicates, rather openly, the Royalist views of the former owners, the Astleys. 

Patshull Hall, the home of the Earls of Dartmouth for a hundred years or so, is supposed to be one of the largest listed buildings in the country - but it has hit hard times, and is currently in receivership. The last aristocrat to be associated with the hall - Lady Barbara- died last year.

The place, which is pretty isolated anyway, seems rather gloomy right now.
(It is not to be confused with nearby Patshull Park Hotel).

Attractive decay

Dilapidated buildings seem to suit the countryside - as though they are simply part of the landscape.
The same buildings in the town would be seen as unpleasant examples of 'urban decay'.
Strange, that.