Today's County in the spotlight

[NewcastleFalcon]

Yesterday in one of those familiarity phenomenon moments, we passed by the Edinburgh HQ of "The Scottish Field".

For the Scottish side of the County in the Spotlight, they have a section "10 fascinating facts about....." covering most of the Scottish Counties.

Here's the one for Invernessshire.

https://www.scottishfield.co.uk/travel/ ... inverness/

...and from the 10 here's the one I picked out.

An unrepealed 1750s bye-law entitles residents of Inverness to a free set of bagpipes on their 10th birthday.

Regards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

______________Invernessshire Done!_____29 done 63 to go_

and the next one please. There are 92 historic counties in England Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland, each will have a mere day-ish in the spotlight selected at random.

Here's the tool
https://www.random.org/

Here's the pool

Spoiler: show

best to keep the thread flowing!

Our 29 numbers selected so far have been

3,5,7,8,11,12,13,15,22,24,28,34,44,48,51,52,59,61,65,66,68,69,70,72,78,81,84,86,89.

Next Random Number Selection is 79

New County is Staffordshire

Today's generator has popped up 79 Staffordshire


If you know nothing about it....well that's what "Today's County in the Spotlight" is about...be curious find out.

[mickthemaverick]

Here's the Staffordshire flag to get us going:

BFTW

Information here

[mickthemaverick]

Apart from passing through Staffordshire on hundreds of journeys the county itself has only ever played a part in my life for one reason. As a GPO, PO and BT Engineer you were almost certain to become aquainted with the National Training School, as it was known, situated in Yarnfield but usually called "Stone" which is the town nearby that provided a rail transport connection point for engineers from all over the country.

I had the dubious pleasure of attending 5 courses at Stone amounting to 11 weeks training in all. Plenty of stories to tell but none of any general interest so I won't bore you with them here. I still have all the course notebooks from those days covering the Strowger Telephone System and its various associated equipment, training which gave me my foundation in electronics.

Hence I'm afraid to say my personal experience of Staffordshire is somewhat blinkered so I look forward to reading the tales of a more diverse nature from other members!!

[mickthemaverick]

For the benefit of readers around the world here is a map showing Staffordshire's place in England and a second map showing the larger places within the county:

Screenshot

Screenshot

[mickthemaverick]

Possibly one of the most famous products to come from Staffordshire was produced in Burton upon Trent in the mid 20th Century. It certainly played a significant part in my initialisation to manhood :

BFTW

Ind Coope Ltd, Station Street, Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire

The Ind Coope brewery was founded in Romford, Essex: Ind Coope Ltd. The company opened its Burton-on-Trent brewery in 1856. Registered in November 1886 as Ind Coope & Co. Ltd. In receivership January 1909 and was re-registered 1912 as Ind Coope & Co.(1912) Ltd. Name reverted to Ind Coope & Co. Ltd. 1923.

Merged with Allsopp & Sons Ltd 1934 and became Ind Coope & Allsopp Ltd. Name changed to Ind Coope Ltd in 1959. Merged with Tetley Walker Ltd and Ansells Brewery Ltd in 1961 to form Ind Coope Tetley Ansell Ltd.

Renamed Allied Breweries in 1963. Allied sold a 50% stake in its breweries to Carlsberg in 1993 to form Carlsberg-Tetley Brewing Ltd, and the remainder in 1997.

The Burton Brewery was sold to Bass in 1998 and is still brewing under the Molson-Coors banner.

The full story can be found here

[mickthemaverick]

I believe one of the most striking cathedrals in England is to be found in Lichfield. It has three amazing spires which are in the 'once seen never forgotten' bracket:

BFTW

All you might want to know is here

[Hell Razor5543]

I believe one of the most striking cathedrals in England is to be found in Lichfield. It has three amazing spires which are in the 'once seen never forgotten' bracket:



All you might want to know is here

That is a large mains plug on its' back!

[mickthemaverick]

Hot off the press, a story which I have just watched on the TV news and happens to be on the day we have Staffordshire in the limelight!!

https://www.itv.com/news/central/2022-0 ... next-month

The question is will Newcastle under Lyme soon be renamed Newcastle under Slyme

[mickthemaverick]

Can you name this man and his connection with Staffordshire?

BFTW

[NewcastleFalcon]

Thought it looked like Geoff and it is.

JULY 29 1975:
England World Cup hero Geoff Hurst, born in Ashton-under-Lyne, pulls a pint at his new pub The Sheet Anchor Hotel in Whitmore, Staffordshire.

https://inostalgia.co.uk/this-week/geof ... ls-a-pint/

Regards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

It is indeed, well found. Not just a hatrick hero but a true gentleman who has now offered his brain after his death for research into dimentia. A proper gent!!

[NewcastleFalcon]

This will be it...The Sheet Anchor

The Sheet Anchor - Baldwin's Gate

© Copyright Anthony Parkes and
licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.


Not far away this milestone if you are ever having a pint in Geoff's old pub be sure to look out for it.

Old Milepost by the A53, Baldwin's Gate

© Copyright J Higgins and
licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

At least one of our periodic contributors particularly on the On your Bike thread is from Staffordshire, with quite a few entries for the Cannock Chase area This was a contribution to another thread

i really should do my own County..



the one seen from the M6 nr Stafford
Staffordshire

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

So what was going on in 1966 when Geoff and the rest of the squad were kicking an orange leather casey around a field. (The balls of the 1966 World Cup were provided in three different colours: white, yellow, and orange. Although the most widely used model was the white one, in the memory of football fans the orange ball of the historic final of Wembley remains the strongest.)

At Alton Towers...this...an easy 2 minutes 20 seconds of nostalgia.

Well Alton Towers in 1966, seemed to be a nice place for a visit.....no white knukcle rides just the gentle pleasures of of the helter skelter and merry-go-rounds, boating and nice gardens.



Regards Neil