NEWS: third candidate / history talks / potholes again

News-in-brief  from Draycott-In-The-Moors & District in late March 2024.
In this post we have news of…: third Election candidate / history society’s programme / yet another stretch of potholes.
There are also many many events coming up in & around our district – including kids’ holiday activities and the opening of a new Draycott plant centre. See our What’s On page for details of these & many other events.

If you want to get an email alert each time a post on this site goes live – go to the button marked ‘Follow This Site via Email‘ (see button, right hand side of this page)

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Election candidates

As we wrote in our recent post, we now know who the Conservative candidate and the Labour candidate will be round here in the upcoming general election.
(In Draycott, we will be in the ‘Stoke South’ constituency).

Well, the Liberal Democrats have now also announced their candidate for the constituency: Alec Sandiford (see pic right), a serving borough councillor who represents Fulford ward.
We still don’t know if the Reform Party will put someone up, but it’s entirely possible.

And when will the election be? No date has been set, but it looks like October say the bookies.
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Talking of elections, a person must be on ‘the electoral register’ in order to be able to vote. If you’re not, click here to find out how.
In fact, if you register by April 16th, you’ll also be entitled to vote in the forthcoming election for the Staffordshire Police-Fire-&-Crime Commissioner. (See our What’s On page for details of this).

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Local history delight!

The ‘Blythe Bridge & Surrounding Villages History Society’ has just announced its programme for this year, and anybody interested in local history will be totally impressed.

Their monthly talks have subjects that range across: JRR Tolkien (the man who wrote ‘Lord Of The Rings’ – see pic right) & his Staffordshire connections; Leek’s role in the silk industry; the Russian grand-duke who lived in north Staffordshire … and more. The one that will be the strangest is the talk on the very real dangers that fashionable dress has had for women down the years!

Well done to Gill Crowther, the society secretary, for putting together such a strong programme, with some top speakers. Email her for details of how to attend.

Incidentally, there will be mentions of Draycott-in-the-Moors’ past in the first talk, which takes place in a few days time. In it, the well-known local figure, Levison Wood Senior, will be telling the story of the area over the last 400 years. He can be forthright in his views, so look out for some controversies in that one….!

For the whole list of the society’s talks, and their dates, see our What’s On page.

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Pothole award?

Finally, there are many roads claiming to have the worst potholes in north Staffordshire, but Draycott-in-the-Moors, once again, has another good candidate for the title.

Until the stretch between the sports centre and the lay-by in Cresswell was finally repaired, that was really terrible for potholes. But now Cheadle Road – the stretch from the Villa Verde past Grange Farm – is also cracking up. Some potholes there are best described as deep ‘gashes’ in the road-surface.

It’s dangerous too. Because the road is so twisty and narrow, there are near-collisions, as a motorist tries to avoid a pothole by swerving into the centre of the road… only to encounter an oncoming car coming round a bend.
We propose that there should be a new road-sign: one that says “Drive slowly – potholes ahead!!”

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Draycott and The Encyclopaedia

It’s now almost twenty-five years since the The Staffordshire Encyclopaedia, a huge tome of nearly 800 large pages, was published.
It’s a strange book really. In essence, it is simply one local man’s collection of brief, historic facts about each village & town in the county (including Draycott-in-the-Moors of course – see below!).
Over the course of fifteen years, that man, Tim Cockin read all the local histories and historical studies that he could, and, from them, chose fifty thousand facts for the book…

And how did Mr Cockin choose those facts from all the possible millions he could have included? Well, he picked the ones that appealed to him… the curious, the fun and the fascinating ones.
Also, it was all done as a kind of ‘serious hobby’ – as there was no way he was could really make a profit on fifteen years of work with such an obscure, niche work.

^{Staffs Encyclopaedia, entries for ‘Lea…’}

But it seems Mr Cockin was determined! He published it himself in 2000, with a price on it then of £100. Since 2006 though, there is a softcover version too, which is a little cheaper.

Even though it is such an idiosyncratic piece of work, anyone who enjoys history will just love flicking through the entries: a fun thing to do.

Draycott stories…
What quirky facts did Mr Cockin find out about Draycott-in-the-Moors? Well, here’s a few of them, and most will surprise you…

First off, there is no such place as Draycott! In 1342, a man lost a court case because the writ (the formal papers) mentioned ‘Draycott’. The judge declared that there was no such place, and so ruled against the man (though he did admit there was a place called Draycott-in-the-Moors!).

Although Draycott village is on the old Roman road, it doesn’t appear in the Domesday Book of 1086… However, two nearby places got into the Domesday Book: Newton (then called Niwetone) which is halfway up Cresswell Old Road; and the ‘missing’ village of Lufamesles (somewhere behind Cresswell), of which no trace is left…

There are two supposed ancient burial mounds locally, each over 1000 years old. One is by Manor Farm, near the village’s central junction, and the other is the huge one at Totmonslow. Neither has been excavated yet.
Dating back 1500 years, the one at Totmonslow also may then have been sacred to the Celtic war god, Toutates.

Totmonslow Mound – an ancient burial site?

Talking of Totmonslow, it was the meeting place 1000 years ago for local-government in north-east Staffs (an equivalent to the territory of Staffordshire Moorlands District Council today), though nothing remains today of the wooden structure that was probably used for the gatherings.

Mr Cockin also reports that, according to a book called Olde Leek (1891), an ancient earthwork line called ‘The Mark’ could be seen in Cresswell once. Historians are still trying to work out where that was exactly. It’d be fun to know where it was.

One tradition in Draycott 200 years ago was the baking of fig pies for the Fig Pie Wakes (on Mothering Sunday). Any visitor to the village during this time would expect to be offered a piece.

And there are lots more such details – including the Totmonslow man who lived to be 127, and the dragon-slaying legend of Draycott!

History
Are all the facts in the Staffordshire Encyclopaedia historically correct? Well, possibly not.
But Mr Cockin is a serious historian, and he is pretty clear on this aspect of his work: what he says is that he has simply picked up items that he’s read in reputable local history books written over the last 200 years – but… yes, history often changes, being researched and updated all the time.
If you want to follow up his facts, he does quote his references for every entry – so you know where to go if you want to check.

For fact-fiends, it’s a really fun book to cosy up to on a wet afternoon!

+ Copies are quite scarce nowadays, but, to buy one, you could apply to Mr Cockin at Malthouse Press ; or pick up a second-hand one on E-bay, (though hardbacks will cost you around £130 nowadays); or you can read a copy (reference only) in most libraries, including our local one in Blythe Bridge.

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Remembering the NSR railway

Local history fans will be happy to learn that a new book is in the shops coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the closure of the North Staffs Railway Company (nicknamed ‘The Knotty’). It wasn’t one of the biggest railway companies in Victorian Britain, but it was ours… and Cresswell was at its centre!
Well done to Anthony Dawson for writing this excellent, easy-to-read book. If you recognise his name, it’s not just because he’s a well-known railway historian, but because he is often to be seen up at Foxfield Heritage Railway in Blythe Bridge.

NSR

The 1840s in England was a Wild-West time for the newly invented railways. Companies scrambled and fought to buy up territory; the backers of the NSR got the north Staffs district (see pic right). The NSR’s web of lines stretched to Macclesfield in the north-west, to Crewe in the north-east, and to Burton in the south. At these points they would meet lines of other companies.
Cresswell station was opened in 1848, and its station-house was completed in 1849.

The beginning

Today, when there is control of the railway system from the centre, it’s hard to imagine the free-for-all that happened way back then. Each company had its own trains, pricing systems, rules and so on. The trouble was that the smaller ones, having done all the work, were always in danger of being gobbled up by competitors. For example, the Tean & Dove Railway Company and the Churnet Valley Company hardly lasted any time at all before being bought out.
Dawson explains this very confusing scene very well.

He also reminds us of the famous people associated with the NSR such as the celebrated inventor Robert Stephenson. Stephenson, who built the famous ‘Rocket’ steam locomotive, was the company’s chief engineer, and the wheeler-dealer John Lewis Ricardo MP was its chairman – a wily man who knew just how to keep the young company from being chewed up.
The two of them oversaw the huge job of building the lines – with hundreds of navvies brought in to build the likes of the Harecastle railway tunnel and the huge Congleton Viaduct, not to mention the company’s headquarters (now the North Stafford Hotel, opposite Stoke railway station).

Dawson’s book recounts the amazing speed with which railways were built and established themselves – the Stoke to Uttoxeter line was open in 1848. In fact, the start of the NSR is so crowded with developments that it could get bewildering, but Mr Dawson knows his stuff so well that he doesn’t let it all get out of control.
Nevertheless, the rapid and constant opening and closing of lines and stations across the company (which included virtually all of the Potteries Loopline) can leave you a bit breathless!

Cheadle-Cresswell line

Cresswell railway station and station house, now demolished

The branch line from Cresswell to Cheadle, which was built by the tiny Cheadle Railway company does get a small chapter to itself. With just three stops – Cresswell (which acted as the junction to the main line) and Totmonslow and Cheadle itself – it was a late-comer, only opened in 1892. As a result Cresswell even got a goods yard (you can still see some of the old wall) to handle the minerals traffic being transported on that line.
This line was always in trouble though and the NSR had to take it over in 1907.

Good times

The NSR, having beaten off bids from the giant companies like the LNWR, was on a roll through the nineteenth century. It even easily brushed off the challenge of the new electric trams, which had started to feature on the streets of the Potteries in the 1890s.
Nevertheless working conditions for the men who worked on these railways were extremely hard and they often had to work 72 hours a week. Dawson has a really fascinating chapter all about the industrial unrest in the NSR in the early 1900s – which eventually led to strikes.

Closure

Despite the unrest, things looked rosy – the NSR had one of its best years in 1913.
But it was to close just ten years later, after eighty years in existence.

Curiously, the NSR was brought down, not so much by government action, nor by the effects of the First World War nor by a rival company, but by the very business people and travelling public of North Staffordshire. An inquiry in Stoke-on-Trent in 1919 had heard evidence from them that fees were way too high and the services shabby. In reality, that spelt the end, and in 1923 the NSR was forced to amalgamate with the larger and much more powerful LMS (London, Midland and Scottish Railway) and surrendered its network to them.

Recommended

The whole book is fascinating, especially if you’re into local history; a rollercoaster ride. It’s easy to read, having only 100 pages, and even then, nearly half the space is made up of historic photographs. The photos are a big attraction in themselves, including rare, and even unpublished, images.
(Fortunately for those who don’t understand engineering too much, those references are relatively comprehensible…).
If you know anyone into local history, this is a fine Christmas present!

Click here to learn more about the book and to buy. Also available in e-book.

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Further reading, specifically about the tiny rail lines surrounding Cresswell (including the small colliery and quarry lines) can be found in Matthew Pointon’s online summary ‘Draycott’s Railway Heritage’ .
As for the Cresswell to Cheadle branch line, it closed for the final time in 1986 and is now a greenway. There is a campaign to get it fully restored, for walkers and horse-riders. Click here for details.

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Local connections of the Vavasours

For many of us interested in local history, the big event of the next months is the talk by Eric Vavasour to the Blythe Bridge & Surrounding Districts History Society in November. The name Vavasour should ring a bell. This is because the Vavasour baronets were the lords of the Manor here in Draycott in the nineteenth century. Eric rarely gives talks, so this will be a special opportunity indeed!

Vavasour shield of arms

The story of how the Yorkshire Vavasours came to be local squires is an odd one.
Nine hundred years ago, the lords of the Manor in this district were of course, the Draycotts. After they died out in the seventeenth century, the succession went through a number of families including the Langdales and the Stourtons, until, eventually, in the 1820s, by an odd and zig-zag arrangement, it reached the Vavasours, another ancient family whose roots go back to the Norman Conquest.

The family’s fortunes took a nose-dive though in 1900, and they had to sell their Draycott estates in 1906, thus giving up rights to be called ‘lords of the Manor’.
However, as we shall see, they stuck by Draycott. Eric himself was born in Sandon Road, Cresswell.
Eric will tell the story of the last 200 years in his talk – but, just as a taster to it, we’ll now take a look at what remaining vestiges of the Vavasours can still be seen in present-day Draycott & environs …

1# The school
On the corner of the cricket club and St Mary’s Catholic Church in Cresswell is the Old School House. This was once the primary school for local Catholic children; it was supported by the Vavasours, who themselves were Catholics.
In fact, in 1846, one of the family rebuilt the school and also constructed a house next door to it for the teachers (now called St Joseph’s House). The school ran until about 1920 when a new one was built in Tean.

Cresswell Primary School annual photo (from The Joe Thorley Photo Collection)

2# The bricks
in the nineteenth century there was a brickworks on the Draycott estate – and in the 1960s, bricks bearing the mark ‘Vavasour’ turned up as older buildings around here were demolished. In fact, one is built into the porch at Blakeley House (opposite the Draycott Arms as was), where Hugh Vavasour (Eric’s father) lived.

Curiously, there is also a stone plaque (see pic above), cemented into one of the old pigsheds at Totmonslow Farm. (It was probably discovered elsewhere and built into the shed at a later date, as a sort of decoration). The inscription on it reads EMV 1871. Local-historian Bill Pearson has worked out that this refers to Ellen Mary Vavasour, who was born in Saverley Green in 1871. Perhaps it celebrated her birth.

3# The gravestones
Being Catholics, those Vavasours that are buried locally are buried at St Mary’s in Cresswell. One of the saddest of the Vavasour gravestones (see pic right) remembers nineteen-year-old Bede, who died during WW2 having enlisted as an airman.

There was a connection with St Margaret’s Church too though. As local aristocracy, the Vavasours were often chosen as the ‘patrons’ of the church, a prestigious honour. The last Vavasour to be a patron of St Margaret’s was the fifth baronet Commander Vavasour in the 1970s (whom Eric, his cousin, succeeded in line).

4# The colliery
The most energetic of the Draycott Vavasours was Edward, who pursued a number of projects from the 1850s onwards; the brickworks was one of his. He even designed an airplane!
Unfortunately a number of his ventures were unsuccessful. It was he who tried to dig the deep-mine at Draycott Cross (which just kept flooding); and was instrumental in the Cresswell to Cheadle Railway, which was originally designed to have a tunnel through the mine’s diggings – but that idea turned out to be impractical, and the line had to be re-routed…
What can still be seen on the of the mine is down a locked track: a pumping station, which Severn Trent now own.

5# The homes
The Vavasours’ main residence was at their Yorkshire estates, with a Staffordshire base at Saverley House (on the western side of Cresswell), but after they had to sell those northern estates too, one branch of the family settled in central Draycott.

As lords of the Manor, the Vavasours were expected to help out their poorest tenants (from the Staffs Advertiser 1873)

They became close to the family of Bernard Moore, the famous potter who lived at Grange Farm (near Draycott Cross), and this expanding network of the two families lived in quite a few still-standing local properties: at Clock Cottage and the adjacent The Cottage in Cheadle Road, Blakeley House, 3 Sandon Road, Draycott Manor (now Lodge) and Saverley House.
However, there are now no more Vavasours in Draycott: Eric himself moved to Leicester some years ago.

Book
Those who get along to Eric’s talk (see our What’s On page for details of that) will hear much more of the Vavasours, but the bonus news for those who can’t get along to it is that Eric hopes to produce a book soon on the strange and fascinating story of his immediate ancestors.
That is definitely something to look forward to…!

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NEWS: solar re-application / Totmonslow planning / church friends group? / election timeline

News-in-brief  from Draycott-In-The-Moors & District in early April 2023.
In this post we have news of…: solar array project return / friends meeting for church / candidates timeline / building site for sale…
There are also many many events coming up in & around our district – including the start of the local cricket club’s season. See our What’s On page for details

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Solar re-application

As we anticipated in a recent post, the application for another solar-panels array in our district is going to be re-submitted to the planning authority. (The original application had been turned down).
The firm behind the plan, REPD, have now made substantive changes to the project, which is planned for land on Totmonslow Farm, just south of the road to Tean (see pic right).

The firm put on a consultation exhibition at Draycott Church Hall at the end of last month, and answered questions. One thing they really wanted to stress is that this site comprises ‘low-grade’ land in terms of arable farming, so it’s not wasted if it goes to solar panels; the firm’s spokesperson said they will even allow the local farmer (whom they are leasing the land off) to graze sheep on there if wanted. The firm will also now re-locate some of the panels so they are not so much in neighbours’ sightlines; and are also now promising to gift thousands of pounds as ‘grateful grants to the community’.
You can check out the details of re-submission on the firm’s website.

If you still want to make your views known to the firm, their consultation continues until next Friday (7th April). Just drop a line to info@totmonslowsolarfarm.co.uk

It’s likely that the revised planning application will be drawn up by June.

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Five bungalows, anyone?

Back in 2019, we reported on some land in Totmonslow which had gotten planning permission for a private little estate of five bungalows. (If you ever go down to Tean, it’s the fenced-off site on your left soon after Breach Lane).
However, building there never really got done, and now the site is up for sale, with the planning permission still on it).
See details of the sale by clicking here. Now all you have to do is find £850,000 to pay for it!

Meanwhile, on the opposite side of Breach Lane, on what is currently the Springhill Caravan Site, the owner is applying for planning permission to build five dwellings. The public consultation period ends on 11th April.
Curiously (or perhaps, predictably!!) Draycott Council has expressed no opinion on the matter.

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Friends needed

These are busy times at St Margaret’s Church.
Not only is there a big push to get more bookings for the church hall, but the church’s spring-fayre last Saturday (April 1st) was extremely well-attended and a lot of fun (the Easter-egg hunt went down a storm!): Jane Meller and her team should be proud of what was achieved on the day.
What’s more, work is proceeding apace on the land behind the church, which will be a parish ‘Wildlife Garden of Remembrance’ when it’s finished.

^{St Margaret’s Church Draycott – 1967 drawing by J. Goodier}

Now, one of the parishioners, Richard Talbot, wants to take community involvement a step further. Richard is calling for a ‘Friends of St Margaret’s’ group to be set up.
(Friends groups are often drawn, not from the church-goers, but the local residents, because such groups are usually about preserving the church as a local heritage asset, not about sustaining the church’s religious mission).

Richard is asking anyone who’s interested, and wants to hear more, to come along to an open meeting, at the church hall on Tuesday May 9th.
If you have questions you’d like to ask before the meeting, just email Richard on stmargarets.pccsecretary@outlook.com

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Candidates

Meanwhile we hear that a number of new people have put themselves forward for election to Draycott Village Council (the council covers the areas of Draycott, Cresswell, Totmonslow, Draycott Cross). It will be good to have new ideas and fresh energy on the council.
The last opportunity for anyone to submit their candidacy is this Tuesday (4th). For details, see our guide to standing for Draycott Council.

Once the final submissions are in, the authorities are quite quick to publish the list, so, next Wednesday (5th), we will know who the candidates are.
Elections to the council take place, a month from now, on Thursday May 4th.

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NEWS: investment zone? / Friday night food / the Bolero camp

News-in-brief  from Draycott-In-The-Moors & District in early January 2023.
In this post we have news of…: local investment zone dropped / Friday nights takeaways / WW2 in Cresswell account …
There are also many many events coming up in & around our district – Scots folk will enjoy the Burns Night! See our What’s On page for details

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Zoned … out

One thing that many of us were steeling ourselves for in 2023 for was the moment that Draycott-Cresswell would be declared an ‘Investment Zone’. These zones were an idea dreamed up by Liz Truss (remember her? she was Prime Minister for 45 days) to be nationally significant large hubs in which development would be heavily concentrated.
Draycott-Cresswell was immediately earmarked to be one, because of all its spare land as well as its being right next to the A50/A500 interchange.

The A50 cuts Cresswell in half

But, things change fast in politics. Along has come a new set of rulers – Rishi Sunak & Jeremy Hunt – and they have scrapped the zones idea.
So can Draycottians breathe easily again?
Well, we won’t get the huge Investment Zone hub, but nevertheless Draycott is still facing the prospect of industrial development.

Last year (2022), the ‘Midlands Connect Partnership’ outlined its wishlist for our district, which it is targeting because it wants “to enhance the productivity of the western A50 corridor”. Also, Staffs Moorlands Council planners admit that they are already preparing for ‘Blythe Fields Phase 3’ (on the fields overlooking Draycott level).
So, once the economy has recovered (mid-2024?), things are likely to hot up for Draycott.

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Bring on the minted lamb baguette!

The dire state of the economy has hit us all hard, but especially hit small businesses – so it’s good to see one local entrepreneur who refuses to lie down.
Ian Barlow is well known to many of us as the burger-guy, who runs a mobile catering kiosk called ‘The Griddle’. Daytimes, from Monday to Friday, you’ll find him at Blythe Business Park in Cresswell, where he serves some lovely & tasty hot rolls and drinks.

Now Ian has announced, on his Facebook page, that he is going to give Friday evenings (6pm-9pm) a go. The menu will focus on his speciality burgers, and even provide sweets such as cakes. (May we recommend the minted lamb baguette, with its sprinkle of hot peppers/onions overlaid with a drizzle of salsa & nacho cheese? Dee-lish…)

If you want your order ready for you when you turn up, contact Ian with your order before you set out – phone 07765 617071.

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It was eighty years ago…

And now to an item we should have covered on back in November. It was then that local lass Jill Crowther did a talk to the local history society about the World War Two ‘Bolero Camp’ which was sited in Cresswell.
Nigel Rathmell wrote up this report of Jill’s talk:…

“…Between 1943 and 1946, up to 600 American soldiers were stationed at Bolero Camp in Nissen huts around what later became Rookery Crescent in Cresswell. They were there as part of the Chemical Warfare Service, a US group ultimately under the command of General Eisenhower, to develop responses to the threat of a German chemical attack; it was renamed the Chemical Corps in 1945.
Thus, the US 104th Chemical Company arrived in November 1943 and set up the camp, and over the next 3 years they were joined by the 106th and later by the 130th amongst others.
Why Cresswell? They came because of the laboratory facilities at the nearby Blythe Colours factory, especially its workers’ chemical expertise.

American soldiers in Cresswell, 1943. (Thanks to the Barry Phillips Collection)

However, exactly what the visitors did during their stay remains something of a mystery!
One GI who had served at Bolero, Harold Ludwig from the city of St Louis, returned to visit Blythe Colours many years later. He said he had been involved in testing uniforms against chemical attack.

Jill showed many evocative photos of the time with GIs on parade playing baseball and relaxing near The Hunter pub (which is still standing in Cresswell to this day). In fact, the GIs made themselves very popular with local children as they dished out sweets and chewing gum!… NR”

This talk was one of the most popular of the Blythe Bridge & Surrounding Villages History Society’s 2022 season. The society will be back with more talks in May.
For more about Bolero Camp, click here

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NEWS: new housing estate / big Saturday! / well done Gandhi

News-in-brief  from Draycott-In-The-Moors & District in mid September 2022.
In this post we have news of…: Draycott history event gets bigger / poison-pens back / Gandhi Restaurant picks up award / Blythe Fields Phase 2 gets green light…
There are also many events coming up in & around our district. An Elvis tribute show is just one of the highlights: please see our What’s On page

If you want to get an email alert each time a post on this site goes live – go to the button marked ‘Follow This Site via Email‘ (see button, right hand side of this page) 

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Big day Saturday

Those who come along to the heritage open day at St Margaret’s Church on Saturday (17th, 10am-4pm, free entry) are in for a treat. The project started as a simple history-of-the-church day, but the church’s parishioners have really got enthused by the event and all sorts of extras are now in play:
Seasonal decorations for the Harvest on show
Bell-ringing and organ playing demonstrations
An exhibition of ‘photographs from the past’
A chance to see the newly-installed gateway in the churchyard
Refreshments in the church hall
… and more…!

Additionally, a solemn moment will be struck at 10.30, when the church bells will be rung, marking the mourning for the Queen. So, if you wish to pay your respects, please come along.

One of the ancient tomb-statues that make St Margaret’s so important historically

Incidentally, there was great discussion about whether the day should be cancelled (out of respect). In the end, the National Trust, which is the ultimate organiser of these ‘Heritage Open Days’, consulted Buckingham Palace, and it was decided that this event, and others like it across the country, should continue.

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Another housing estate given the green light

Last Thursday, Moorlands Planning Committee councillors approved ‘Phase Two’ of the Blythe Fields project. This means that, in addition to the 100+ homes already there as part of Phase One, another 200 will now be built.
In essence, this means that – with the Cresswell development included – the population of Draycott area will jump by a thousand people (at least) and around 500 cars in the next two years.

Blythe Fields – Phase Two (right) will now be joined on to Phase One (left). Just out of the diagram, in the bottom left-hand corner, is the A50/A500 roundabout

If you’re interested in these matters it’s worth looking at the recording of the committee session (the Blythe Fields debate starts at 19 minutes in), where a number of issues of real interest come up.
It became pretty clear in the debate that Blythe Bridge and Checkley village councils are taking a big interest in the developer’s grant money (aka the ‘106’ money), which will soon become available.

The energy of these two other village councils in this matter makes our own (Draycott) village council’s lack of response to this huge project (either for or against or neutral) look very very disappointing. You’ll see evidence of this lack of response by gong to the relevant planning-application page (where you need to scroll down and find the Comments section). Almost a dozen residents submitted comments, Forsbrook village council put in comments, statutory organizations all put in comments, even the Ramblers submitted comments, but – even with a time extension granted to them – Draycott council, it seems, just couldn’t be bothered…
The developers meanwhile are not standing still, and are pressing on with plans for Blythe Fields Phase 3 and Phase 4.

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National acclaim for restaurant

May we add our congratulations to those of others in our district to the Gandhi Restaurant (which can be found at the southern end of Cresswell behind the Hunter Pub).
At the English Curry Awards 2022, which took place in Birmingham a couple of weeks ago, it picked up the accolade for The Best Local Indian Restaurant in England.
The award is really well deserved – in our humble opinion, the food is delicious!
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Return of the poison pen

It’s a sad thing to report, but there has been another spate of anonymous ‘poison-pen’ letters locally.
Down the years, these anonymous writer/s have caused some parish councillors such stress that they resigned because they couldn’t take the abuse any more – but we thought the writers had now gone away. Apparently not.

Even on this website we have recently received these types of comments, some of which included threats of violence (the threatening ones have been reported to the police – and if and when others receive similar ones, we suggest they also report them).

Open debate is a mark of democracy, and sensible, robust criticism is a part of that – we have no argument with that point of view (even when we are on the end of it!). But anonymous threatening letters? That’s going too far.

***
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NEWS of: helicopters deadline / restaurant finals / Cresswell quiz / St M’s heritage day

News-in-brief  from Draycott-In-The-Moors & District in late July 2022.
In this post we have news of…: do you want the proposed helicopter factory? Gandhi Restaurant in line for award / combined walk & quiz for Cresswell / Draycott church goes national…
There are also loads of events in & around our district this next few weeks! Sports camps for kids in Draycott is just one of the highlights: please go to our What’s On page

If you want to get an email alert each time a post on this site goes live – go to the button marked ‘Follow This Site via Email‘ (see button, right hand side of this page) 

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Helicopters … wanted? needed?

As we reported in our last post, suddenly a lot of big planning issues are hitting Cresswell.
However, the most urgent one is the question of the proposed helicopter factory (see our last post for the details).
Is it needed? Is it wanted? Those are the questions we are being asked to respond to by the local planners… and the deadline to make any comments is now upon us.

The residents’ group, the BPDWG, is certainly worried, so they have been busy delivering leaflets about the issue (see above) to all local households – which makes that the second set of leaflets they’ve delivered in a month (the first leaflet was about the proposed junction in the middle of Cresswell).

There are so many odd questions about this development: –
# Why is the decision being rushed through? Why is the decision being left to planning officials rather than put before the full planning committee?
(Could it possibly be because the company’s order book is already full to 2025, so somewhere to actually build the aircraft is now urgent?)
# Why has the company, Hill Helicopters, chosen this site in particular?
# Will the 200-approx employees be trained here, or have to be brought in?
# If the factory starts production in a year’s time (as Hill hopes) how soon will they be turning out the 1000 aircraft a year that they are aiming for? (Incidentally, the BPDWG estimates that this rate of production means around sixty test and delivery flights each working day in our skies.)

Artist’s impression of how the Hill Helicopters factory at Cresswell will look

If you want the full set of details, it’s worth checking out the case review-document produced by the residents’ group.

Whatever, time is of the essence. As we said, it’s all being rushed through, so if you want your comments to be registered, you need to put them in very soon. Go to the SMDC Planning Page 0275, find the button which says ‘Comment On This Application’, click on it, and jot down your views. 

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A walking quiz

As it’s summertime, we’ve updated the Cresswell Trail – a two mile walk around the hamlet. It combines the walk with a quiz about local matters – the questions are suitable for children and adults. There are around fifty questions, so plenty to get stuck into!

In the Cresswell Trail-Quiz, there is a question about the decades-old graffiti on the hamlet’s ancient bridge

To find it, just check out our Local Walks Page, where you’ll find details it and of even more walks around Draycott. 

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It’s back…

Slowly but almost inevitably, it’s been creeping back into our lives. Yes, Covid infections are up again, back to late-2021 levels in fact. Even the President of the United States is one of the new victims.
Thanks to the vaccinations programmes (with more to come in the autumn), it’s not the horrific disease it once was for most of us, and most of the folk we know who’ve got it recently have come down with a very nasty but fortunately not terminal attack (though, sadly, yes, there are still fatal cases).
Still, the message is obvious. Especially around the vulnerable, we need to be careful… again… 

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Curry wonders!!

Great news is that the Indian restaurant in Cresswell, the Gandhi, has just been nominated as one of the finalists in this year’s English Curry Awards (West Mids section).
As you can imagine, this is a very tough competition, with the best of the nation’s curry-houses all vying to be recognised.

The Gandhi’s achievement is even more special when you think it is one of the very few countryside eateries to be selected for the finals: it’s up against some top-notch city restaurants from Birmingham and the Black Country. The black-tie awards ceremony will take place on 22nd August at The Holiday Inn in Birmingham.
We wish them the best of luck! 

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St Margaret’s diary date

One event that should go into your diary now is the Heritage Day at Draycott Saint Margaret’s Church on Sat Sept 17th.
St Margaret’s is one of the very few Staffordshire churches to be selected to be featured in the National Heritage Open Days events.
On the day, there will be guided tours of the church, fun-quiz sheets, and stewards available to answer questions.

Just one of the dragons to be found in Draycott Church

It’s expected that visitors will be coming from all over the region, especially to see the 600 year old tomb-statues inside the Lady Chapel and the dragons (yes, dragons!).
However, local residents are especially welcome – so do please put the date in your diary, and then do come along and look round this fascinating & ancient church of ours.

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The Vicar of Draycott’s daughter – her story

Just over 150 years ago, in Draycott-in-the-Moors, one of the daughters of the most respectable family in the parish slipped out of the doors of her home and eloped with her lover. The couple, shunned by society, emigrated abroad, first to Canada, then to South Africa.
This is the true story of Frances Stocker, the vicar of Draycott’s daughter.

Novelists

^{The family tree}

We know the story of Frances thanks to the researches of her grandson and great-grandson – respectively, the famous South African novelist Jack Cope, and his son Mike Cope, a poet/novelist himself.
The talents of these two men seem to have come down in the family genes from Frances. When she died, she had left papers which included sketches and watercolours (some of which dated back to her life in Draycott), not to mention short stories, all of which show a sure hand.
Later in her life, in the 1880s, Frances even wrote a ‘colonial novel’, one depicting the hard life of English settlers like herself who went out to farm in the lands of the British Empire.

Her story

Before he died Jack Cope sat down to write a brief account of his grandmother’s life:…

“….Briefly, the story on the Cope side goes back to Charles Stocker. The Stockers were university people, parsons, doctors, lawyers etc for a good many generations.
In the early 19th century, Frances’ father, Charles, who was schooled at Eton, took holy orders at Oxford and became a clergyman/don at St. John’s College. However, this college at that time was strictly celibate; and so when Charles got married he had to leave Oxford.
His wife was from a French family settled in England and her father was Vice-Provost of Eton College, Charles’ old school.

Charles was found a living on Guernsey Island but eventually wangled a much more lucrative living as the rector (vicar) at Draycott-on-the-Moors in Staffordshire. (I have a painting of the Rectory, which is an enormous double-storey house with about twelve bedrooms, which were necessary in those days: country parsons, having time on their hands and not much entertainment, usually gave their wives a rough time and produced hordes of children).

• 

  Draycott Rectory, early 20th century (probably)

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  Draycott Rectory, watercolour by Frances Stocker (around 1848)

The parish was wealthy and a lot of the country people were free-holding yeoman farmers owning their own land, not tenants or labourers under the squirearchy as in most of England.

Frances, one of the younger daughters, did the unmentionable thing of falling in love with a yeoman farmer, John Lymer Cope, and the old rector refused her his permission to marry him as he was “beneath her station in life”.
I don’t know how long the romance lasted but Granny was twenty-eight when they eventually decided to elope in 1861 and get married without Papa’s permission.
They did this and sailed off to Canada in 1862.
In retaliation Charles in his will cut Frances off with a paltry one shilling.

The couple settled at Lakeside near Toronto and the three boys were born there, the last being Charles (aka Carol).
About this time the old rector died and Frances was duly paid one shilling out of his estate. Her older sister Emily (I’m not sure about the name, she was usually known to the family as Auntie Turner) had married and emigrated to Natal South Africa, living in the town of Warley Common. She offered to share her inheritance with Frances, but Granny was so hurt by what her father had done that she refused to accept a penny.
So Auntie Turner used the money to buy Rudolfs Hoek, a large farm (now in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa) and she put it in the name of Frances’ latest baby (Charles Carol) as a christening present.

Just at this time, back in Canada, while John Lymer, Frances and the family were in church one Sunday, something frightened their horses which were tethered outside – and they bolted with the trap and went kerplonk into Lake Ontario and were drowned. The family were finding farming in Canada hard and winters freezing and they took the accident as a sign from God. So they accepted Auntie Turner’s plan – and left Canada to settle on the Hoek in 1874. The nominal owner of the farm, Charles Carol, was just three years old….”

Frances lived the rest of her life on the farm, and died aged 80 in 1914.

Traces

It’s clear that Frances was a young Victorian woman educated in various ‘accomplishments’, including writing, drawing and painting (and no doubt needlework and music). These accomplishments were not skills as such, but intended to make her ‘marriageable’ in the eyes of a similar respectable family.
However, the fact that she continued to try to develop her talents, despite turning to a hard farming life, shows she must have been quite a determined person!
Her novel is now archived in the South African National Literary Museum.

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  Country Labourers, sketch by Frances Stocker

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  Landscape by Frances Stocker (dated 1856)

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  ‘Root House, Rectory’, sketch by Frances Stocker

As for her father, the Rev Charles Stocker, you can still see his name up in St Margaret’s Church, on the list of rectors of the parish, which is at the back of the church. The list goes back to 1268, and written there you’ll find that Charles was the Draycott rector in the years 1841-1870.
And, of course, the old rectory (opposite the Draycott Arms), now in private ownership, still stands, though now much altered… a real link with the past!

+
Thanks to Mike Cope whose kindness and careful archiving made this article possible.
The researches into the Stockers, and Frances in particular, continue; if you have leads or information, please contact us.

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NEWS: planning protests / solar farms / Colour Works pic / help for Ukraine

News-in-brief  from Draycott-In-The-Moors & District in early March 2022
In this post we have news of…: help for Ukraine / protests at road changes / solar farms to come? / Colour Works exhibition…
For news of a barn dance and other happenings in our area, please go to our What’s On page

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Ukraine

First, we just have to mention the Russian invasion of Ukraine. For anybody who believes in democracy and justice, it’s a horrific act.
But, already people in our part of the world are responding – with charity drives, donations of goods, and plain old-fashioned money.

The ‘Little DrayTots Baby and Toddler Group’, which meets at Draycott Church Hall, is a contact point for goods collections for Ukraine, while the actual local drop-off point for the local Help Ukraine project is the Country Interiors shop on High Street in Cheadle.
At Hilderstone, the next village south of Cresswell, they are having a one-day Donate for Ukraine event on Thurs March 10 from 10am-7pm.  Items required are: medical supplies, bandages, basic paracetamol etc., plasters, batteries, nappies, sanitary protection, toiletries.
You may feel that you just want to give money; and the safest and most efficient way to do that is through the UK’s International Disasters Emergency Fund.
Let’s hope to God that this all can be solved quickly and peacefully, and that Putin is forced never to do this again.

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Those road structure proposals

As was reported a month ago, the developers of Cresswell’s Blythe Business Park – who want to put in a large industrial estate and a large housing estate there – are also responsible for building road-junction measures (on Draycott level and in central Cresswell) to control all the new traffic that will arise.
The developers were originally committed to ‘de-luxe’ improvements, but have now said they only want to put in cheaper ones. (See full details).

^{New road system (and housing estate) to come for Cresswell?}

There was a passionate open meeting last week, under the auspices of Draycott Council, with some twenty residents in attendance, and much opposition to the new plans.
As a result, around thirty letters of protest from local residents (which is a very large number for these sorts of matters) have now been formally registered on the portal of this planning application. One of those letters was recently re-published on the Cresswell website (click here to see it).

If you too want your voice heard, you only have till Monday 7th March, which is when the consultation closes. To see other comments, simply go to the application webpage. To register your own comment, just hit the ‘Comment’ button on that page, and write in your thoughts.

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Solar energy

Talking of consultations, two other ones, both for proposed solar-energy projects, are currently under way for this district. Solar ‘farms’, as they are known, are of course a way of producing electricity without using fossil fuels, so they are crucial in this age of climate change.

^{Photo of a typical solar energy farm}

You may remember that, back in 2015, our first solar farm was constructed at Lower Newton (between Cresswell and Totmonslow). Well now the owners of that want to expand their site into an adjacent, new set-up – to be called Blythe House Solar Farm, (aka Blythe Solar Farm) – while a quite different firm have plans for another site, to be called Totmonslow Solar Farm.

This district is apparently a good place for these projects because it has rolling hills (i.e. no obtrusive sight-lines) and because there is a lot of under-used land. The farmers whose land is rented for these projects are also very happy!

The Draycott environmental group is, as you’d guess, very in favour of these projects being passed.
One of their members also reminded us that these firms will also make hefty annual contributions to worthwhile projects in Draycott & area, if and when they get their plans accepted. As the sites could remain viable for 40 years, that’s a lot of money going into local good causes!
(In fact, grant-money from the first solar project is already available to the community – if you have a good idea for a neighbourhood project, please take a look and maybe apply for a grant).

^{Totmonslow Solar Farm logo}

To see more details on the Totmonslow Solar Farm proposal, please click here.
To comment on the Totmonslow Solar Farm proposal, please click here. This consultation is open for comments until the 13th March.
To see more details on the Blythe House Solar Farm proposal, please click here. To comment on the Blythe House Solar Farm proposal, please click here.

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Blast from the Works past

Finally, it was good to see a post from Ben Knight on the Blythe Colours Memories facebook page. Ben is the great-great-grandson of Blythe Colour Works founder, Frederick Wildblood, and tells us that he recently inherited some items relating to the old Colour Works in Cresswell (which was a huge employer locally, and was in operation here for well over seventy years).

Among his heirlooms, he discovered this 1937 sketch (above) for the Proposed Offices for the factory – and you can still see this building on the business park today. A lovely reminder of days gone by.

Incidentally, if you’re interested in the history of the Colour Works, there is to be an exhibition soon of photos and documents relating to the works at Blythe Bridge Library. It will take place all across April. Remember to put that on your calendars!

***
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