Staffordshire Moorland District Council’s new chairman 64 years old Councillor Jason Hails, who represents rural Manifold, wants to turn the Churnet Valley into a major tourist attraction despite widespread opposition from local people.
Speaking at the council’s annual meeting on Saturday, May 21st, Councillor Hails said:
“Our beautiful district is a holidaymakers’ paradise, with its stunning countryside and many attractions – including the Caldon Canal, Churnet Valley Railway, and Moorland and City Railways plus the UK’s premier destination in the form of the Alton Towers Resort. We need to pull out all the stops to get visitors here and persuade them to stay longer, to which end I’m hoping to have my civic service in one of our more rural wards on Sunday, July 31.
“As an ambassador for Staffordshire Moorlands, both inside and outside the district, I also intend to encourage inward investment from businesses looking to expand or relocate”, he added.
What do you think? Should the Churnet Valley be made into a major tourist attraction? Visit our Discussion Forum at http://northstaffordshire.co.uk/discuss to have your say.
Keen photographers of all ages and abilities will soon be flocking to the Churnet Valley with their cameras.
“A year in the life of the Churnet Valley” is a photographic competition being organised by the Friends of the Churnet Valley and the Phoenix Trust. Running from September 1st, 2011 to August 31st, 2012, the competition gives photographers the opportunity to submit entries showing all aspects of life in this unique valley during autumn, winter, spring and summer.
Full details of the competition will be announced later on this website.
THRILL seekers with a hunger for white-knuckle fun will soon be beating a path to Leek Tourist Information Centre (TIC).
The popular Market Place facility, run by Staffordshire Moorlands District Council, has just taken delivery of Thrill Hopper Tickets for the county’s most exciting leisure venues.
Valid until November, the tickets offer access to the Alton Towers Resort, Tamworth Snowdome, Drayton Manor Park and Stoke-on-Trent’s Waterworld for just £47.50 for adults or a knockdown £135 for families.
Theme parks aside, the TIC is about to stock advance tickets for Leek Show on Saturday, July 30.
Continuing the agricultural theme, tickets for Staffordshire Show on Wednesday and Thursday (June 1 and 2) cost £29 for families, £3.50 for children and £13 for adults, with £11 concessions; while the Cheshire equivalent on Tuesday and Wednesday, June 21 and 22 costs £30, £6, £14 and £11 respectively.
Tickets for Bakewell Show on Wednesday and Thursday, August 3 and 4 are priced £12 for adults and £10 for concessions while Shrewsbury Flower Show on Friday and Saturday, August 12 and 13 costs £19 for adults, with £17 concessions. Children attend both events for free.
Cllr Ben Emery, portfolio holder for arts, culture and tourism, said: “As these cut-price advance tickets are bound to sell like hot cakes, I would urge pleasure seekers to place their orders as soon as possible.
“Ticket sales for local and regional attractions are among the many services that have made the TIC such a valued asset for residents and visitors alike”, he added.
The TIC is open from 10am to 5pm on Mondays; from 9.30am to 5pm, Tuesday to Friday; and from 10am to 4pm on Saturday.
Actor Tony Robinson got up close and personal with the Staffordshire Hoard on Friday afternoon for a new documentary.
Tony made his first visit to The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent to film with the Anglo-Saxon treasure for Channel Four’s Time Team programme.
And after a full day’s filming at the Stoke-on-Trent City Council-run facility, Tony revealed his passion for the Anglo-Saxon period.
He said: “It is one of the most fascinating periods of English history, yet we know tantalisingly little about it. Clearly it was a time of enormous sophistication, we can tell that by the manuscripts that have survived and the patterns on the Staffordshire Hoard – they give faint glimpses of what the time was like.
“When the Anglo-Saxon period was over, England as we know it today was pretty much in place. These people were the inheritors of the Roman mantle, and they used that time as a springboard for greater things.
“This is the first time I have seen so much of the hoard altogether, and is my first visit to The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery. It is a spectacular museum and I would recommend anyone to explore it. I lived in Stoke-on-Trent for a year in the 1960s, but this is my first visit back since filming a Time Team programme at the site of the Ceramica building in Burslem in 1998.”
Time Team is Britain’s longest running archaeology TV series, and the filming in Stoke-on-Trent is for a forthcoming programme. A transition date hasn’t been set for the programme yet, but it is could be broadcast before the end of the year.
Show producer Jenni Butterworth said: “We wanted to film at The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery because it is the collecting museum for the entire region. We will be examining the Staffordshire Hoard in the context of other finds that the museum has, such as the Hammerwich Pendant. Seeing the hoard in this context will help us to understand the artefacts more, and will help to re-interpret the other finds.”
Council leader Mohammed Pervez said: “We are delighted to have invited Tony Robinson and the Time Team cameras to Stoke-on-Trent, and to show the breadth of cultural and historical treasures at our museums service.
“The Staffordshire Hoard is a global tourist attraction, and the coverage the programme will generate will once again put Stoke-on-Trent in the national limelight.
“It is fabulous for the city, and the local economy to have such a unique treasure here, and I’d urge people who aren’t familiar with our museum to visit our attractions and see them for themselves.”
Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s museums service is the repository for archaeological remains recovered from across Staffordshire, including the area where the hoard was discovered. The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery has the finest collection of Staffordshire ceramics in the world. It holds a designated collection of archaeological material that is widely acknowledged as being of both national and international importance and the best in the region. It has several significant Saxon metal finds as well as a tonne-and-a-half of Saxon-Norman pottery made in Staffordshire. The museum holds the national post-medieval pottery reference collection.
Stoke-on-Trent City Council and Birmingham City Council jointly own the Staffordshire Hoard and have permanent displays of the treasure. The Staffordshire Hoard comprises more than 3,700 gold and silver artefacts dating back to the seventh century. They were found by a metal detector enthusiast on a farmer’s field, and are thought to be the high-status booty of an Anglo-Saxon battle, with exquisitely designed sword pommels, helmet fragments and several bejewelled crosses.
The hoard is the largest and most valuable collection of Anglo-Saxon treasure ever found and has a value of £3.3million.
Despite widespread opposition, Moorland & City Railways, supported by Staffordshire Moorlands District Council, is going ahead with its secretive and controversial plans to reopen a commercial railway from Stoke to Leekbrook.
All pretence that it will be a heritage railway has been abandoned. The line will be used to carry cement, limestone and sand from Cauldon Low to Stoke. Working closely with the Churnet Valley Railway and other partners, Moorland & City Railways hopes to extend its octopus like tentacles into the Churnet Valley and run passenger trains from Stoke to Leek and Alton.
The line from Stoke to Leekbrook passes through Milton, Endon and Denford before linking with the recently reopened line to Cauldon Low and the dismantled railway that runs through Leek to join the mainline at North Rode.
Constructed by the North Staffordshire Railway Company, the Stoke to Leekbrook line had stations at Fenton Manor, Bucknall, Milton, Stockton Brook, Endon and Wall Grange.
David Kemp, a director of Moorland & City Railways and the Churnet Valley Railway, is reported as saying the reopening of the Stoke to Leekbrook line creates an opportunity to link with the mainline at Stoke and run freight trains and commuter services. However, he does not say how many trains will run along the line or how many stations his company intends to reopen. People whose quality of life may be affected by these services have a right to know how many trains a day the company proposes to run and whether freight trains will be allowed to run at night.
By failing to answer these questions and hiding its activities behind a veil of secrecy, Moorland & City Railways is alienating people who may benefit from its schemes. The time has come to lift this veil of secrecy, enabling an informed discussion to take place between the railway company and those who object to its plans. Moorland & City Railways can help facilitate this debate by establishing information cafes at Cheddleton, Leek and Stoke which people can visit to see the plans and discuss them with its representatives.
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