Places to see in ( Stafford - UK )
Places to see in ( Stafford - UK )
Stafford is the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands of England. Stafford lies approximately 16 miles north of Wolverhampton, 18 miles south of Stoke-on-Trent and 24 miles north-west of Birmingham.
The Elizabethan Ancient High House in the town centre is the largest timber-framed town house in England. It is now a museum, with changing exhibitions. Stafford Castle was built by the Normans on the nearby hilltop to the west in about 1090, replacing the post-Conquest fort in the town. It was first made of wood, and later rebuilt of stone.
The oldest building now in Stafford is St Chad's Church, dating back into the 12th century. The main part of the church is richly decorated. St Mary's, the collegiate church formerly linked to St Bertelin's chapel, was completely rebuilt in the early 13th century in a cruciform layout with an aisled nave and chancel typical of the period.
The Shire Hall Gallery was built in 1798 as a court house and office of the Mayor and Clerk of Stafford. The Shugborough Hall country estate is 4 miles (6.4 km) outside town. It previously belonged to the Earls of Lichfield, and is now owned by the National Trust and maintained by the leaseholder, Staffordshire County Council. The 19th century Sandon Hall is 5 miles (8.0 km) northeast of Stafford. It is set in 400 acres (1.6 km2) of parkland, and is the seat of the Earl of Harrowby.
Stafford Gatehouse Theatre is the town's main entertainment and cultural venue. The Met Studio within the Gatehouse is a dedicated venue for stand-up comedy and alternative live music. Victoria Park, opened in 1908, is a 13 acre (53,000 m2) Edwardian riverside park with a play park, bowling green, bird cages and greenhouses; Victoria Park has recently undergone a major redevelopment in places.
Stafford railway station was once a major hub on the railway network, but the suspension of passenger services on the Stafford to Uttoxeter line in 1939 and Beeching's closure of the Stafford to Shrewsbury Line in 1964 completely halted east-west traffic through Stafford. The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal runs close to the Baswich and Wildwood areas, and was previously linked to the River Sow by the River Sow Navigation. The majority of bus services in Stafford and area are provided by Arriva Midlands, and the company also operates services to Lichfield, Cannock and Wolverhampton.
( Stafford - UK ) is well know as a tourist destination because of the variety of places you can enjoy while you are visiting the city of Stafford . Through a series of videos we will try to show you recommended places to visit in Stafford - UK
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St Peter's Collegiate Church Wolverhampton Staffordshire
St Peter's Collegiate Church could be closer to your doorstep than you think if you live in Wolverhampton Staffordshire. You may know the area well of you may still be weighing up your options and pros and cons of the various locals. If you need any assistance then please don’t hesitate to ask.
Haunted swan hotel and stafford castle
Haunting History of
The Swan Hotel & Stafford Castle , Stafford,Staffordshire, West Midlands of England
Stafford means 'ford' by a 'staithe' (landing place).
For centuries Stafford Castle has protected the town from invading hordes. Looming high on Stafford’s skyline this heritage site is now the scene of many events from battle re-enactments, music festivals and the open-air Stafford Festival Shakespeare.
There is the oft-told story of the ghostly blacksmith at the Castle. Although he has never been sighted,the sound of his hammer on anvil is said to echo through the woodland
The Swan Hotel
This 400-year-old hotel in the town centre (Greengate Street) has witnessed a lot of history pass through Stafford. Stories are rife about mysterious tunnels linking cellars with St Mary's Church and Stafford castle. Sounds like something out of a Dracula movie!...The church dates from the early 13th century, with 14th century transepts and 15th century clerestories and crossing tower.
Excavations in 1954 revealed the adjacent late Anglo-Saxon church of St Bertelin.Sometime around AD 1000 a stone chapel was built on the site of Bertelin's timber chapel.
The church was collegiate when recorded in the Domesday Book when there were 13 Prebendary Canons
It is said that a drowning pool for women charged with witchcraft once stood on this site. There is also a priest hole built at the time of the Jacobite Rebellion and when it was excavated bottles and bones were found.
Poltergeist activity is rife at the hotel and a number of ghostly goings-on have been reported, including locked doors opening and closing, lights being flicked on and off and personal belongings being moved around the hotel.
In the 1940s and 50s, the manager's family reported regular sightings of a female ghost. This so called White Lady was seen again in the 1970s in the manager's bedroom.
He woke up with a jolt one night to see the ghost standing beside his bed. She is still seen wandering the corridors. One live-in chef was so disturbed by her presence he quit his job. Is this the ghost of a jilted bride who supposedly hung herself in one of the rooms. She’s known as the White Lady and has been seen regularly by both staff and guests. One of the chefs at the hotel was said to be so disturbed by the White Lady’s presence that he left his job at the hotel.The Swan hotel is thought to have been built on the site of an old monastic college. The site used to be home to two houses, one of which was called The Swan. The houses were converted in the mid-18th century into an inn to accommodate the travellers who were travelling between the Black Country and Lancashire for the growing industrial trade. The hotel was used as a coaching inn in the 19th century and business was booming, but when the town’s railway was built in 1837 there was a dramatic decline in business for the inn. The hotel was bought by the Lewis Partnership in 2002, who also own the nearby Moat House in Acton Trussell. They restored the hotel to its former glory and it is now a stunning place to be.
Stafford Castle
During the 1960s the press of the day reported tales of a 'headless horseman' thundering across land at the castle. The resident caretakers of the site, apparently witnessed the spectacle.
On investigation this terrifying vision turned out to be nothing more frightening than some escaped cows going walkabout... so the castle's infamous ghost was well and truly busted! But there is a big difference between a thundering horse and a slow cow ? Rumours of a headless horseman thundering across the grounds of Stafford Castle have been reported on a number of occasions .
The early historian of Staffordshire Robert Plot cited the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (104) for evidence that Æthelflæd, the Saxon warrior-princess and ruler of the Mercians, built a castle at Stafford in the year 913, along with an adjacent burg (meaning a fortified town). However, the exact site of this first castle, probably made of wood, is now unknown.
Medieval Time read on video :)
Ralph de Stafford sealed a contract with a master mason in 1347, ordering a castle to be built on the castle mound.
The rectangular stone Keep originally had a tower in each corner, but was later adapted, with a fifth tower being added on in the middle of the North Wall (actually facing west). Some three years later, Ralph, who had been one of the King's leading commanders in the first phases of the Hundred Years' War, was created first Earl of Stafford, a signal honour.
In 1444 Humphrey Stafford was created Duke of Buckingham and the castle entered its heyday. By the early 17th century however the condition of the castle had deteriorated and during the English Civil War the Parliamentary Committee in Stafford ordered it to be demolished.
By the early 17th century, the castle's fortunes waned. During the early part of the Civil War it was defended by the Gallant Lady Isabel but was eventually abandoned and demolished.
St Peter's Church, Chailey
Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin, Kemsing, Kent
Here I take look around another beautiful Kentish medieval church. This time it is the Parish Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Kemsing. The church dates back to Saxon days & was used by pilgrims on their journey to Canterbury.....
Music by Edward Elgar - O Hearken Thou, Op.64
Performed here by the Choir of St John's College, Cambridge under Christopher Robinson. The organ is played by Jonathan Vaughn.
st michaels church penkridge
st michaels church penkridge
Our Lady and the English Martyrs Church in Cambridge England
The Virtual Tourist walks
Church on the hill St Peters Kinver England ????????????????????????????
Filmed from above , at my home in Staffordshire
St Lawrence, Mickleton - Grandsire Triples (8 - 16cwt)
Some Grandsire Triples rung on the BBC Outing to the North Costwold Area.
Not the best bells but worth a visit. Ground floor ring with an unecessary tenor box.
Lilleshall Abbey Ruins
Ruins of Lilleshall Abbey, near Shrewsbury. Reputedly haunted, didn't see any ghosts, but the face of a bloodhound appears in an alcove, and you can see a man's face in the stonework of one of the doorways. September 2009.
Haunted Graveyards : The Ghostly Saxon Nun
A site survey. Located at St. Nicholas Church in the town of Warwick, In Warwickshire, England. The current building of St. Nicholas Church was built in 1785, to replace a crumbling Medieval Church in a state of ruin. Though most of the current gravestones are Georgian and Victorian in origin, the earth beneath has seen bodies being buried for the last 1000 years. But the site has older history than the Medieval building. The Medieval Church itself was built on the site of a Saxon Nunnery, This Saxon Nunnery dates back into The Dark Ages and the first Christian community living in a Pagan Britain.
The graveyard is haunted by the Ghost of a Nun. It is believed that she was a Sister in the Saxon Nunnery - 1300 or 1400 years ago. A spectral spirit whose style of habit is clearly older than a Medieval style. She appears to be a peaceful Ghost and does not try and communicate with the living. She has been seen to drift between the gravestones and amongst the trees. Given the age of this haunting it is not surprising that visual materialisations are rare.
There has not been a reported sighting of this Ghost so far this millennium.
A benign haunting, name unknown, who emits an aura of peace and serenity.
Not to be confused with another more famous Ghostly Nun haunting in the town of Warwick. The Weeping Nun as she is called, haunts Priory Park and also the graveyard of St. Mary Church, both of which are within walking distance of St. Nicholas Church. The Ghostly Saxon Nun of St. Nicholas Church is not the same Ghostly Weeping Nun of Priors Park and St. Mary.
They are separate hauntings. Different entities. Even though they are geographically close. The Weeping Nun dates to the dissolution of Warwick Priory in 1536 - much later in history. The Weeping Nun is a more famous haunting, probably because she haunts two sites and The Weeping Nun still generates reported sightings today. And in 1536 when Warwick Priory was being dissolved, The Ghostly Saxon Nun of St. Nicholas Church had already haunted her graveyard for 800 years.
See also :
Haunted Priory Park : The Ghost of The weeping Nun
Haunted Graveyards : The Weeping Nun
St Nicholas Church, Frolesworth, Leicestershire
Video of St Nicholas Church, Frolesworth, Leicestershire. See also my video of Frolesworth village. For more details about the church including interior photo's see
The Freemen of England and Wales - AGM 19th/21st September.
Sunday 21st September 2014 - The Freemen from towns and boroughs throughout England and Wales, are led by their President - Mr Gordon Varndell - from the Collegiate Church of Saint Mary, to the Civic Centre in Stafford.
2014.12.13 In the Bleak Midwinter - The Choirs of St Peter's Collegiate Church 06
Dave Hurr listens to the performance by the The Choirs of St Peter's Collegiate Church, in St Peter's Collegiate Church, Wolverhampton, England,
St Margaret Wormhill Derbyshire
Wolverhampton's church chiming - closer up
Places to see in ( Bilston - UK )
Places to see in ( Bilston - UK )
Bilston is a town in the English county of West Midlands, situated in the southeastern corner of the City of Wolverhampton. Historically in Staffordshire, three wards of Wolverhampton City Council cover the town: Bilston East and Bilston North, which almost entirely comprise parts of the historic Borough of Bilston, and Ettingshall which comprises a part of Bilston and parts of Wolverhampton.
Bilston was first referred to in AD 985 as Bilsatena when Wolverhampton was granted to Wulfrun then in 996 as Bilsetnatun in the grant charter of St. Mary's Church (now St. Peter's Collegiate Church, Wolverhampton). It is later mentioned in the Domesday Book as a village called Billestune, being a largely rural area until the 19th century. Bilsetnatun can be interpreted as meaning the settlement (ton) of the folk (saetan) of the ridge (bill).
Situated two miles southeast of Wolverhampton, it was extensively developed for factories and coal mining. Many houses were constructed in the Bilston area. Between 1920 and 1966, the council replaced most of the 19th-century terraced houses with rented modern houses and flats on developments like Stowlawn, the Lunt and Bunker's Hill. By 1964 there were more than 6,000 council houses there. Bilston has had a market in the town centre for many years.
Bilston Urban District Council was formed in 1894 under the Local Government Act 1894 covering the ancient parish of Bilston. The urban district was granted a Royal Charter in 1933, becoming a municipal borough and the First Charter Mayor was Alderman Herbert Beach.
From 1850 to 1972 there was a railway station in Bilston town centre, but passenger services were then withdrawn and the line via Bilston (from Wolverhampton Low Level to Birmingham Snow Hill) had been almost completely abandoned within a decade. The final stub of the railway, connecting a town centre scrapyard with the South Staffordshire Line at Wednesbury, closed in 1992, only to be re-opened seven years later as the first phase of the Midland Metro tram line between Wolverhampton and Birmingham. There was also a further railway station within the town: Bilston West on the Oxford-Worcester-Wolverhampton Line.
At the Bilston end of the Black Country Route can be seen the group of wooden statues designed by Robert Koenig and called Steel Columns. This sculpture was made from 15 lengths of sweet chestnut which stretch up to 6 metres in height. The male and female figures depicted are based on those found in old Victorian photographs of Bilston.
Bilston Town Hall, dating from 1872, has now been refurbished and re-opened. It had been derelict for more than a decade after Wolverhampton Council discontinued its use as housing offices, but now operates as a venue for events, conferences, performances and occasions. Bilston lost its passenger railway station in 1972, although goods trains continued to pass through the site of the station for a further decade. The town's new bus station opened in October 1991, interlinking with the town's Midland Metro station, which opened in May 1999.
( Bilston - UK ) is well know as a tourist destination because of the variety of places you can enjoy while you are visiting Bilston . Through a series of videos we will try to show you recommended places to visit in Bilston - UK
Join us for more :
Beautiful chiming from St.Peter's church in Wolverhampton England
Kingswinford Bells
Ringing Plain Bob Triples on the ring of eight bells. These are quite a mixed bag but have received a 'tuning' by Taylors in 1948. I wonder what they sounded like before! They go quite well. I know the ringing isn't fantastic, but I wasn't prepared to stand out in the wind and rain for ages waiting so I've edited it down to what I hope it fairly acceptable.