Girls in tablecloths

The venerable Abbots Bromley Girls School was one of the early institutions in this country to educate girls, and it has been independent for over 140 years.

The residents get a treat each year with the Jerusalem Heights aka Commemoration Day Procession, which sees the youngsters process from the school premises through the village along to the church.

The pupils walk not in order of age or year-group, but in order of height, and wear white veils fringed with light blue (unofficially referred to as "the tea-towels") which makes it all rather endearing.
It's not dramatic enough an event to draw tourists, but local residents do stand and smile, as well as parents.

The members of the school choir (see pictures) get to wear an additional ankle-length white veil (unofficially referred to as "tablecloths").  As they go, they wave banners and sing the hymn "Jerusalem my happy home".  

Slightly batty, but then so many English customs are!

UPDATE  Sadly, the school closed its gates for the last time in 2019, so there will be no more such processions

Battle marker

This rather unprepossessing marker shows the spot where the only significant batle of the Civil War took place in Staffordshire - the Battle of Hopton Heath. It's also in a rather undistinguished spot, as much of the site is covered by ugly Ministry Of Defence buildings.
Still, it was down to the effort of a concerted local campaign that this marker was finally erected and unveiled in March 2003, on the exact 360th anniversary of the battle.

As for the battle itself, both sides claimed victory.

Gargoyles' holiday

People are gearing up for the Halloween weekend. Even I have lots of invitations to ghoul-style parties and ghost walks.
Apparently Halloween, after being virtually a non-starter as a festival twenty years ago (on British shores) is now the third biggest holiday-excuse here - after Christmas and Easter.

Gargoyles, like these on St Edwards Church in Leek, will get the shivery recognition they crave over the next few days...

Gi-normous fungus

This fungus is huge – as big as a man’s head. I haven’t seen one as big as this for a while.

But what really impresses me is that it is growing on a tree in a residential road where every child in the district has resisted the temptation to reach up and pick it off!

Last of the summer

Birds strut across these stubble-fields in Hopwas getting the last of the seeds after the crop has been cut & baled. The sight is another symbol of the passing of summer.

I like the way the crop has been baled. The piles looked like mini-battlements, and ran in a line for half-a-mile. Perhaps the farmer had a sense of the dramatic.

Ipstones pomp

James Cope must have been quite a figure in the tiny Moorlands village of Ipstones during his lifetime.

This grand tomb memorial was built for his two wives (who both died before him), and then he was interred at this spot too, when he died in 1910.

I guess his family (or was it on his own posthumous orders?) then had the bust of James himself stuck on top.

It doesn't quite work, does it? Bit too pompous for modern tastes.

Bavaria in Staffordshire

This view could be one taken in Bavaria, or even the Czech Republic - but no, this is good old Staffordshire. I like taking visitors along the now-disused Alton railway line, and when I say "hey - look up at that!", they look up and - as they see this sight - their eyes widen...

Alton Castle - a neo-Gothic romance built in the 19th century - is owned by the Catholic Church, and is now private offices, so you can't go into it, though you can get close to it from the driveway in Alton village.

Quite a view, this one, aint it?

Spiky nature

Gailey Reservoir - the reeds have a spiky appearance.

Fine art borders

For all the talk about migration, not one of us would want to be out there on the migrant road, existing in squalid, horrible conditions.and fleeing from them too.  Behind all the rights & wrongs, and all the arguments, it's no place that any of us want to be.
This installation art-work, part of the Foundation Year exhibits at the Staffordshire University Fine Art Show really brought this home, I thought.  
What a horror to have to be in a world where no-one wants you.  Pity The Poor Immigrant, as Bob Dylan said.

Fine art rabbits

The Staffordshire University Fine Art Show for its final-year students should be a glorious romp of creativity; and fizzing with original ideas.  You're only young once!
But for the past few years, it has been rather dull and uninspired in my opinion. Some stuff looks very professional, yes - but flat - while the rest is just take-it-or-leave-it.
The university has also hidden the exhibtion away, off the main site, as though somehow this work doesn't fit with the smart design courses in the rest of the institution.

The work of Lisa Nash (above) did seem striking though. She is trying to grasp just how and why animals have become so central in our imaginations.
The figure is holding a new-born/foetus rabbit.