Staffordshire

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/18926872

> > A TikToker has sparked a debate after claiming to have driven up the UK's steepest hill, where he alleges 10 people fail every day. The user, known as DavetheDriver, shared a video of his journey through Oakamoor, a village in Staffordshire, en route to Alton Towers theme park. > > > > The footage shows Dave navigating a steep road after passing the Cricketer's Arms pub. As he continues, it becomes evident that the challenging stretch of road extends for quite a distance. > > > > Throughout his ascent, Dave encounters several tight bends and corners with limited visibility of oncoming traffic. "This is the steepest road in the UK," he claimed in the video's caption, adding, "At least 10 cars every day fail to make it to the top,". > > > > Since being posted on TikTok on Friday, September 27, the clip has garnered over 3.3 million views and approximately 143,800 likes. It's one of many videos Dave has shared on his account, with others accumulating over 1 million views in total. > > > > ... > > > > However, not everyone agreed with Dave's claim about the hill's steepness. Several commenters suggested that either Sutton Bank in North Yorkshire or Porlock Hill in Somerset holds the title for the steepest hill in the UK. > > > > ... > > > > In addition, Matthew chipped in with skepticism commenting, "When does it get steep? That's just a normal Scottish road." > > > >Porlock Hill has been noted as the UK's steepest A-road boasting gradients of 25 per cent in some parts. The hill ascends roughly 725 feet in less than a mile.

> A new £8.7m research and archive facility is due to open next month, council bosses have announced. > >Staffordshire History Centre, on Eastgate Street in Stafford, will open on 6 November. > >The local authority said the centre would be open Tuesday to Saturday, from 10:00 to 16:00. > >It would include modern search rooms, strong rooms for archives and collections as well as a bright space for displays and exhibitions, the council added. > >The new centre was part-funded by a grant of £4.8m from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. > > ... > > Staffordshire History Centre will combine three collections from the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Archive Service, Staffordshire County Museum and the William Salt Library. > >Visitors will be able to access archives and artefacts from the county’s past – while a new education and learning space will host schools, workshops and events. > >A programme of activities and touring exhibitions will also take history into local communities across the county.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/17734829

> > For residents of the Bentilee housing estate in Stoke-on-Trent, once one of the largest in Europe and made up almost entirely of social housing, life had undoubtedly been tough. > > > >But for a brief few moments, during one night more than 50 years ago, local people on the sprawling complex of semi-detached houses and cottage flats were “sprinkled with stardust” when dozens witnessed bright lights in the sky and what they believed to be a UFO landing in a nearby field. > > > >The encounter on 2 September 1967, considered to be one of the UK’s greatest urban mysteries, is now being turned into a stage play by the dramatist and former Coronation Street actor Deborah McAndrew. > > > > “When I first saw the archive news footage about the landing of a spaceship on the far fringe of this vast estate, I thought it was a spoof, but it’s not,” McAndrew said. > > > >The playwright, who runs the company Claybody Theatre in Stoke-on-Trent with her husband, Conrad Nelson, has spoken to several eyewitnesses and former residents. > > > > ... > > > > Those she spoke to included an amateur astronomer called Tony Pace, who, with a colleague, self-published a report at the time entitled “Flying Saucer Report: UFOs, unidentified, undeniable”. > > > >“In it they had details of 70 sightings, with photographs, maps, illustrations, and the reaction of the public, the police and the Ministry of Defence. Tony Pace is now well in his 80s. I’ve created a character that was inspired by him.” > > > > She also spoke to three eyewitnesses, including Dave, a boy at the time of the encounter. “He was sure what he saw wasn’t human or man-made,” McAndrew said. “These are not fanciful or sensational people; he’s not made anything of it. I tracked him down to Peterborough. He just knows what he saw and described it to me.” > > > > So what did he describe? “He said the object was about the size of a car, and that it was red and coloured, like everyone says, and that there was no sound. Then it disappeared. > > > >“By this point there was a lot of excitement. People had run out of their houses because they’d seen this very bright thing from their windows or from the street. Someone fetched the police, and they walked the fields for ages but couldn’t find the object. > > > >“And then all of a sudden, it lifted out of the field, this time white – Dave said it was the brightest thing he’s ever seen. And then it went out like a lightbulb, and everyone was in darkness.” > > > > ... > > > > Bright Lights Over Bentilee runs at the Dipping House, Spode Works, Stoke-on-Trent from 27 September to 12 October > > Period news report

> The Headless Horseman of the Staffordshire Moorlands is one of the best known pieces of folklore in the region, but where did it come from? Tracing the story of the horseman back through 650 years of local history, we uncover the shocking true story of medieval murder that lies at the heart of the spectre’s inspiration. > > ... > > These are stories that may initially present themselves in such a fantastically supernatural light that the idea of them belonging to actual history at first appears incredulous, and yet upon closer inspection, we may well discover that the details contained within them are so remarkably local that they conspire to suggest signs of something else entirely; the remnants of long-lost folk memories. > > I believe that one such tale, and one that has captivated me ever since I first heard it in the Roebuck pub in Leek in late 2006, is that of the Headless Horseman of Butterton; the spectral, if somewhat sinister, jewel in the crown of Staffordshire Moorlands folklore.

> Plans to erect a statue of Motörhead frontman Lemmy in the town where he was born have been approved by Stoke-on-Trent City Council. > > The 2.2 metre statue will be erected in the market place of Burslem, the town where Lemmy – real name Ian Fraser Kilmister – was born before his family moved to Newcastle-under-Lyme. The majority of the singer’s childhood was spent in Wales before founding Motörhead in 1975. > > The statue is estimated to cost about £50,000 and a fundraising campaign has been launched to raise the necessary funds. Once the project has obtained funding, the statue will be made from Staffordshire clay by local sculptor Andy Edwards, the same artist who created the world-famous Beatles statue on Liverpool’s waterfront. > > There had been concern from police that the statue would attract “good-natured but potentially incident generating attention”, but Edwards agreed to increase the height of the plinth from 2.5m to 3m to get around this. > > This won’t be the only statue of Lemmy to exist. In 2016, a year after the singer and bassist passed away from prostate cancer aged 70, a statue of him was erected at the Rainbow Bar and Grill in Los Angeles.