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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NEWS: two-car crash / defib award / community survey / floods / community singing

News-in-brief  from Draycott-In-The-Moors & District in mid Jan 2024.
In this post we have news of…: a Xmas Eve death / award for AEDdonate / what do we want? survey / flooding at junction /singing group in Draycott.
There are also many many events coming up in & around our district – including Valentine’s Day dances. 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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Terrible news

The worst news came to one family on this Christmas Eve. In a two-car crash in middle-Draycott, on the turning at the Villa Verde restaurant, Charalambos Nicolaou, a man from Cyprus who was visiting his children in this country, was killed, and two others injured. It’s hard to imagine how the family are coping.

Police are appealing for witnesses. Although the driver of the other car has been arrested and is due in court later this month, officers do want to get as full a picture as possible. If you know anything about the crash (at around 8.45pm on 24 December involving a Vauxhall Vectra and a Hyundai) you’re asked to call 101 or email ciu@staffordshire.police.uk quoting incident 639.

That turning on to the Uttoxeter Road is a very difficult one; and no matter how careful they are, most people we know always cross their fingers before pulling out into it. In the last few years there have been a number of accidents there. 

Following the incident, Mark Plimmer, a 27 year old from Blythe Bridge, was arrested. He is charged with causing death by dangerous driving, failing to stop after a road accident, using a motor vehicle without third party insurance, driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence, failing to provide a specimen for analysis and two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

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Floods

That same area of Draycott has other problems. It’s now the place in the village most likely to experience flooding when the rains come. The last set of floods, early this month (coming hard on the ones in November), saw the junction there under high water again. The photo, below (from the Draycott Friends facebook page), shows the problem.

Why this bit of road is having so many difficulties is not clear. It is low-lying admittedly, but other causes have to be researched.
One speculation is that the stream which runs down from Draycott Cross, along a ditch on the side of Cheadle Road to the Villa Verde junction, is getting ‘jammed up’ as it tries to continue along its course under the main road. (The stream actually later joins the River Blithe near the industrial park). The only way to know for sure is to send cameras down to look.

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Defib award

At least there is one little bit of good news. Congratulations go to AEDdonate, the folks who installed all the defibrillators in this district, who were recently awarded The King’s Award for Voluntary Service. This is the highest award a small voluntary group can receive in the UK and is equivalent to an MBE.

^{Defibrillator cabinet in Cresswell Information Kiosk, installed by AEDdonate and managed by the Cresswell Community Group}

AEDdonate not only provide and install defibrillators to communities around here but also support the local volunteers who maintain these devices.
These defibs are available 24/7 and can be used to quickly help anyone who is suffering cardiac arrest – there are five up in Draycott & Cresswell alone.

Although defibs are relatively easy to use, the charity also provides free online training sessions each month for anyone who just wants to know more about how the process works. Everyone should check out the course really… just in case… you never know…

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What do we want?

There’s yet another online survey for us all that’s been announced, but this time it might just be useful.

The county council wants to know: ‘what matters most to us in our local communities and what would we like to see in them‘? The answers will drive forward new policies. (One hopes).
It should only take 15 minutes to complete the survey (click here to access it) and it can be done online, though there are paper forms at local libraries too if you prefer them. Closing date to fill it in is 31 January.

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Sing it out!

Ever wondered what all the community singing is every Wednesday at Draycott Church Hall? Well, it’s the popular ‘Singing For Fun’ session.

Singing is a great way to get rid of the blues and is actually good exercise too. The Draycott group sing out old pop songs; and at the end of the session, enjoy some tea and biscuits. No voice talents needed! All ages welcome…

^{‘Singing For Fun’ session at Draycott Church Hall. Pic © 2023 CheadleU3A}

The only requirement is to register first as a member of the Cheadle U3A (the U3A is an educational charity based in communities). There is a registration fee, but it’s very small, and entitles you to also join in all the other dozens of sessions, in all different activities, that the U3A puts on around here.
Go on, sing it out!!

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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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NEWS: police shake-up / Blythe Park latest / youth clubs / more benches

News-in-brief  from Draycott-In-The-Moors & District in early October 2023.
In this post we have news of…: latest on the Cresswell roundabout saga / more public benches / limited youth facilities / more visible PCSOs (?).
There are also many many events coming up in & around our district – including a family-fun charity Race-Night. See our What’s On page for details of this & 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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Roundabout ‘no’ (probably)

The seemingly endless saga of when/if/how/why the proposed housing estate, of over 150 homes, will come to Blythe Park in Cresswell drags on.
One big sticking point has been access to the site off Sandon Road (at the point where the layby is).

The latest is that the developers, Elan Homes, have just reformulated their applications, and are no longer offering the option of a roundabout there. (A roundabout is what the local community action group consider is the safest option).

The red streak marks Sandon Road, the thick grey line marks the proposed new entrance into Blythe Park

Instead, Elan has gone back to the idea they put up some months ago: where the layby is now, what they propose is a three-lane junction including a ‘ghost’ lane (exactly similar to the main one in Draycott where Cresswell Lane and Uttoxeter Lane intersect).
The working group says however that not only is a roundabout safer, but that the original planning application back in 2014 was only agreed because a roundabout was suggested – and Elan can’t simply change their minds now!

What Elan have done is a ‘reformulation’, so there’s no need for folks to submit fresh comments. If you look on the two relevant planning-application pages – 0267 Planning Portal and 0268 Planning Portal you’ll see all the community’s comments are still there. However, if you want to add new thoughts, you’re free to do so: the deadline for new comments is the 23rd of this month.
The working group say they intend to respond.

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Something for the Youth

Talking of housing estates, it’s thought that 300 homes will be fully up and running on Blythe Fields (at the western end of Draycott) by next summer. Among other effects, it means that there’s an awful lot of youngsters coming new to the area… but… there’s nothing for them to do in Draycott except hang out in the streets.

The funding cuts over the last decades have cut youth services to the bone, so youth clubs are few and far between locally, even counting the volunteer efforts trying to make up the deficit.

We had a look at what’s available… Near us is the Tean Friday Youth Club which has funding from their parish council, and a weekly church club in Blythe Bridge, but that’s it.
However, last month, one man said he’ll set up a youth club in Blythe Bridge if he can get community support – and he has had a good response, but it’s early days yet.
One other option for desperate parents is, if you’re happy to take your kids a bit further afield, the professional looking Crossroads Youth Centre which has just been established in Stone – and which has an open evening this Monday (9th October).

The only other youth meeting group that we know of is the Moorlands Music Session (see pic below) in Blythe Bridge – a weekly open get-together for any youngsters (7 to 18) who are interested in making music (instruments provided).

With so many more kids set to enter Draycott’s population because of the new housing estates, the whole question of local youth provision needs some urgent thinking about.

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Have a seat…

But one thing Draycott/Cresswell is definitely good at providing is public benches. A few years ago we wrote an article about them, counting over a dozen in all!

And now you’ll probably have noticed that three more have appeared over the course of this year.
One is at the bus-stop near New Avenue; one near the Draycott Old Road junction; and one near the cricket club in Cresswell (where the existing one had been removed in circumstances that still have not been properly explained…). See photo-slideshow of these new benches below.

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This three-bench project was the brain-child of Bev Reardon (who also was co-opted on to the village council earlier this year in fact). The actual money for them, over £1500, came from the Draycott Solar-Array Community Fund, and special thanks must also go to the parish council clerk, Denise Wheat, who did the hard graft of getting the permissions and arranging for them to be bought and installed.
They look pretty good!

The only question is: why do they have lion-heads on the arms? The animal traditionally associated with Draycott is the dragon, so to see lions is a surprise. Does anyone know?

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Shake up for police

Finally… a rather obscure press release from the Moorlands Police came out over the summer saying there had been a ‘restructure’ of the way local police community-support officers (PCSOs) would work with local communities. The release didn’t give details sadly, but suggested PCSOs would be ‘more visible’. Hmm.

Anyway, the new PCSOs assigned to us (we fall into the ‘Blythe Bridge&Tean’ police-area) are Jonathan Staples, Ashley Goodwin and James Naylor.
It’ll be interesting to see if they are indeed ‘more visible’ in future. If you see one, let us know!!

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NEWS of: ‘moving’ again? / helicopters delay / curry awards / happiness talk

News-in-brief  from Draycott-In-The-Moors & District in mid-September 2023.
In this post we have news of…: Draycott to join Caverswall? / helicopters decision delay / road renovations in Cresswell / awards for curry restaurant / happiness talk from Bernard Shevlin.
There are also many many events coming up in & around our district – including a new solar-array public consultation event. See our What’s On page for details of this & many other events

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More change?

It is a fast-moving time for the people who draw up political boundaries – and thus, for us!
Two months ago Draycott was reassigned out of the Staffs Moorlands parliamentary constituency into the Stoke South one; and now Draycottians may well be reassigned into a different county-council division.
At the moment, Draycott is within the ‘Cheadle & Checkley’ division, but there is a strong recommendation in play to move part of the district into the Caverswall division.

Reassignments occur, say the authorities, as an area’s population size changes, or if our ‘community identity’ fits better in a different grouping.
In our opinion, the geography of a county-council division perhaps doesn’t matter much – but what does matter is the quality of the councillors who will represent us. So, cross fingers…

However, it’s not all a done deal, yet. Residents have until October 16th to express their views. You can find the public consultation details by clicking here.

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The doctor with puppets

The ‘Wellness Wednesdays’ events at our local library at Blythe Bridge are proving to be really popular. Open to all, each event concentrates on an aspect of well-being, from back-pain to dementia, and an expert is on hand to give advice. For the full list, click here.

One talk coming up that many local people will enjoy is the one being given by Dr Bernard Shevlin (see pic, right).
Bernard was the GP at Tean for thirty-five years, and was well-known among us for his jokey manner and his entertaining ways of relaxing worried children patients – usually with puppets!
Not surprisingly, his talk is on Happiness, and how it interacts with your health.

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Delaying tactic

The long-running saga of the proposed helicopter factory for Cresswell goes on. Many local residents do not want it built, and even the planning authority (Staffs Moorlands Council) seems to have questions as they’ve postponed their decision many times. The Cresswell action group, the BPDWG, are also particularly concerned.

The decision will be delayed even more now, after the BPDWG,, asked for an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). An EIA is a report that must outline the impact a new-build would have on the area around it. And the Planning Authority has agreed with the BPDWG – so the helicopter company must now research & write one.

However the issue will not now just go away. An efficient organisation will not take long to get an EIA written.
Watch this space.

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Shiny new road

Finally, the main road through Cresswell has had a make-over. In the past week, two stretches – from the Hunter Pub to the lay-by and from the cricket club to the village centre junction – have been completely re-laid and freshly tarmacked.

This comes only weeks after a number of badly pot-holed sections on it were patched up.
Exactly why Cresswell should be so fortunate, and why the middle section (around Blythe Business Park and the railway crossing) was excluded from the renovation, is unclear. Does anybody know?

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Best in town

Finally, the Gandhi Indian Restaurant, which is at the back of the Hunter Pub in Cresswell, has done it again – winning yet more awards.
It picked up two accolades at the English Curry Awards 2023, including Best Curry Chef in the West Midlands for its main man Mohammed Kamal, and as Best West Midlands Takeaway
These awards follow similar ones in the last two years, so it seems the Gandhi is really managing to keep its standards high.

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NEWS: new cllrs / hello Stoke S/ potholes gone / accounts on show / fayre success

News-in-brief  from Draycott-In-The-Moors & District in mid-July 2023.
In this post we have news of…: final council line-up / potholes fixed / Draycott Council accounts on show / fayre great success…
There are also many many events coming up in & around our district – including some performing-arts workshops for kids. See our What’s On page for details of this & 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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Goodbye Stone, hello Stoke South

So, it’s a done deal… As we suspected, we in Draycott/Cresswell/Totmonslow are to be part of the new ‘Stoke South’ parliamentary constituency; we are leaving the old ‘Stone’ constituency.
The government commissioners reported at the beginning of this month – and that was their conclusion.

The commissioners’ job was to reduce the number of MPs (and thus, the number of constituencies) across the country, and make all constituencies much the same, population-wise (to about 70,000). It has caused quite a shake-up.

The ‘old’ Stoke South constituency is in purple, and the new one is indicated by the boundary lines. Draycott and Tean are in the right side of it, and Trentham in the left side

There was a lot of snobbish reaction to the idea of being part of Stoke South during the consultation period, but, as you can see from the map, Stoke South has been cut in half too: so Fenton and some of Longton has now gone to the ‘Stoke Central’ constituency.
So…. the new Stoke South will include: Draycott-in-the-Moors, Checkley, bits of Longton, Meir, Blythe Bridge, Trentham, Tittensor, Swynnerton, Tean, Barlaston and more (see exact map by clicking here).
In other words, it’s now a semi-rural constituency, which is about right for Draycottians. It’s not really a bad deal.

These new arrangements will not affect district councils – so we still come under Staffordshire Moorlands District Council.
The new constituencies will actually ‘come alive’ as soon as the next General Election is called. 

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Potholes, mended

The dreaded Cresswell obstacle-run of potholes has finally been fixed. The cracks in the road stretched from the road bridge to the business park and were, frankly, a danger and a liability.

The county council, who are responsible for road repairs, have done a good job; and all is now smooth and wonderful (see pic, above). These repairs look to be a lot better than the temporary fill-ins that have been done before.
Cross fingers that the repairs survive…

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New faces

The new Draycott village council is finally in place, following the May elections, with a full seven members. There was a bit of an odd situation – because Mark Hall, one of the people elected in May, never contacted the council and never claimed his seat. Very bizarre. So he had to be removed ‘in absentia’.

Mark was replaced by Bev Reardon (pic right), who’s quite involved in community matters – among other things, she is one of the ‘experts’ on the village Facebook page.

The new council looks good. Over half are new faces, already well known in the community for ‘getting things done’, while the rest are veterans, who can bring some continuity.
They have some big challenges coming up, so good luck to them.

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Accounts
Talking of the village council, we residents are all supposed to keep an eye on what it’s up to. The people who created councils over a hundred years ago knew we shouldn’t blindly trust politicians, and so they consciously put in place the ‘annual exercise of public rights’, which is the opportunity for residents to go see the council’s accounts and judge if it is doing a proper job.
However, there is only a small time-frame in which to do this (about a month) – and the chance to see Draycott Council’s accounts runs out on August 3rd.
To go see the accounts, contact the clerk and set up an appointment. 

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Fayre magic

And finally… congratulations again to John Clarke, Tom Sales and Zara Hutson, the principal organisers of the annual Draycott Fayre. It was a fabulous event – and the sun shone all day!!
There were fears that we wouldn’t have a fayre this year after the main supporter pulled out, but new money was found, new volunteers came forward (some from the new ‘Friends of St Margaret’s Church’ group), and the event was saved.

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  Tractor procession

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  John Clarke referees the tug-o-war

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  Horse-drawn caravan was a big attraction…

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  One of the cars in the Classic Vehicles show

Special mentions must also go to Matthew Pointon, who once again agreed to play the role of ringmaster, and Cllr Lisa Emery who had the difficult job of judging the dog-show.
In the end, it turned out to be yet another outstanding community get-together!
(Thanks to John Richards for the photos).

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NEWS: solar (again) / zapping potholes / ancient bells ring / church Friends update

News-in-brief  from Draycott-In-The-Moors & District in late May 2023.
In this post we have news of…: solar array goes again to committee / 400 years of bells / potholes, beware! / second friends meeting for church…
There are also many many events coming up in & around our district – including a plant sale at Draycott Nurseries. See our What’s On page for details

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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Sunny hopes

As we predicted last month, the application for a second solar-panels array on fields in Totmonslow is now back with the SMDC’s planning committee, despite being rejected the first time around.
In their revised application, the developers, REPD, have recognised local residents’ concerns and adapted the way the site is to be laid out.

One interesting fact is the way the developers stress that this installation will be on site for no more than forty years – they are promising that the whole shebang will be dismantled by 2065 and the land then returned to its former state. This aspect is pretty much true of all ‘solar farms’ in fact, but the developers seem to want to make it extra clear in this particular case.

A new public consultation is now in place. You have until 7th June to make your views known (for or against). Just go to the planning application page, scroll down, and click on the big green ‘Comment’ section.

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Booming for 400 years

Whatever your feelings about the coronation, it was surely wonderful for everyone to hear the ancient bells of St Margaret’s ringing across this district on the day.

^{The Coronation ring was performed by Laura Hulse – 1st bell, Gillian Smith – 2nd Bell, David Meller – 3rd Bell, Susan Mason – 4th Bell, Jackie Kent – 5th Bell and John Clarke – 6th Bell.}

The Draycott bell-ringing team do a great job; and John Clarke is also to be congratulated on the way he maintains the bells – making them fit not just for current events, but for decades to come.
It’s amazing to think that the oldest bell in St M’s tower was installed as far back as 1607, meaning it was rung in 1633 to mark the coronation of the first King Charles!

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Friends of St M’s (again)

Talking of St Margaret’s, the future of our medieval church looks more hopeful now with the creation of a ‘Friends’ group. The Friends was set up properly at a meeting earlier this month; and already have volunteers for committee places.
The upcoming second meeting will see the solid work: establishing a ‘mission statement’ and deciding what the Friends will actually do.

Anyone with an interest in preserving our ancient building, which has been the centre of Draycott life for centuries, is welcome to be a supporter. It’s not a church group: it’s more of a community group in fact, and not to do with the religious practice of the church.
Please just email Richard on stmargarets.pccsecretary@outlook.com to register your interest and to receive newsletters.

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Potholes, your end is nigh

For nearly a year now, motorists have been slaloming round the potholes on Cresswell Lane/Sandon Road main thoroughfare through Cresswell. It’s no longer a joke, even if it ever was, as the potholes have grown and grown in size and become more and more dangerous.
Surely it is the worst road for potholes for miles.

^{Just one of MANY potholes on Cresswell Lane/Sandon Road}

At last though, something is to be done. Sandon Road is ‘next on the list’ according to the county’s Highways Department. The works, due to take place at the end of this month, will cause disruption for a good few days, and diversions will be in place, but Cresswellians will just be glad something is being done… finally!

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NEWS: potholes back / Vince’s passing / Jordan’s year / dumping incident

News-in-brief  from Draycott-In-The-Moors & District in late January 2023.
In this post we have news of…: dumping in Cresswell / Vince Lindo’s passing / potholes return / Jordan’s great year …
There are also many many events coming up in & around our district – including a Valentines Ball! See our What’s On page for details

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Dumping concerns

As large piles of rubble started to appear on the Railway Cottages track in Cresswell recently (see pic below), there were fears that some illegal dumping was going on. However, it appears that the rubble was put there on the orders of the new owners.
The land there, which is about 150 yards up Cresswell Old Lane, has been the subject of some uncompleted planning applications, first for a warehouse, then for a pair of houses.

It’s not quite clear why the rubble has been deposited here, so our district councillor has promised to make enquiries.

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Vince the great

As many people in our part of the world as any other mourned the passing of the wonderful cricketer Vince Lindo earlier this month.
After arriving from the West Indies as a young man, he did play for county clubs for a short while, but in the end spent virtually his whole career in north Staffordshire – and it was a long career!

He is particularly fondly remembered at Blythe Cricket Club (in Cresswell) where he played quite a few years, and in fact is where he recorded his best bowling figures, 10-for-40 in 1977. For a long time, his was one of the photos in the hall-of-fame gallery in the club’s pavilion.

Vince was one of a tranche of outstanding West Indies players on the local cricket scene in those early years. (It’s hard to believe but one of the greatest cricketers of all time, Gary Sobers, was actually playing in this period just down the road at Norton Club!)
He played on for various local clubs until the amazing age of 71, but even then refused to give up his beloved game, turning to umpiring. Naturally, he was an incredibly popular figure…

Vince will be greatly missed.

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Potholes return

A few years ago, we wrote a little article dubbing Cresswell the King of Potholes Villages. A combination of water-logged, low-lying land and heavy lorries going to and from Blythe Business Park meant the tarmac was continually breaking up.

By last summer, the pothole situation seemed to have improved with some patching up – but now the problem is back. In three separate spots on Cresswell Lane, large potholes, some three inches deep, have appeared (see pic above). Local folk know where they are and swerve around them, but, even so, that can be a dangerous manoeuvre in itself.
Presumably the potholes will only get worse when huge construction wagons are called into action, as & when building starts on the business park. Sigh.

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Jordan’s break-through

Down the years we’ve mentioned Jordan Brown (see pic right), the young footballer from Cresswell who turned professional with Derby County Football Club a few years ago.

Well, playing in the reserves at Derby was not for him, so he signed for the London club Leyton Orient instead, almost exactly a year ago.
The good news is that Jordan has been a first-team regular ever since, clocking up nearly forty games! What’s more the Orient are currently the runaway leaders of League Two, so it’s a really wonderful ‘purple patch’ for him.

Incidentally, if Leyton Orient do gain promotion, as they seem likely to, next year the team will face Port Vale – and an easy trip for his friends & supporters to Vale’s ground, in Stoke on Trent, will be on the cards!

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NEWS: speed signs problem / new MP? / grant to sports centre / World Cup meal

News-in-brief  from Draycott-In-The-Moors & District in late November 2022.
In this post we have news of…: “speed signs don’t work” / all change for MPs? / ‘S106’ grant for Draycott Sports Centre / World Cup free meal (maybe!)…

There are also many many events coming up in & around our district for the Christmas season. Lots and lots of craft-fairs and a Turkey & Tinsel Dance. See our What’s On page

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Speed signs – a “disappointment”

Draycott speed sign

So… as a lot of us said all along, the two new speed signs on Draycott level are simply not up to scratch; village councillors finally admitted this at their last meeting (in November).
Two years ago, Draycott councillors spent some £6000 on the project – but now acknowledge that the process was a mistake.

The type of the signs may have been one of the cheapest options to buy, but, as residents tried to warn councillors at the time, they just don’t do the job. They don’t change to flashing-red when the speed limit is exceeded and they don’t have ‘messages’ – in other words, drivers are able to ignore them.
Mysteriously, they also seem not to work at certain times – though it’s not clear why. The manufacturing company did provide a bit of a rebate, but that’s hardly satisfactory.

In fact, councillors may also just have put good money after bad when they voted further money to the project earlier this year, in order to have monitoring units installed in the signs – these monitors compile information about volume of traffic and its speeds. However, if the signs are in fact not working properly, even that information may be compromised.
The whole thing certainly seems a bit of a crock!

Councillors have spent a good deal of money on this venture, yet it seems that the village is hardly much further forward in the matter of curbing speeding motorists.

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Hello Jack, goodbye Bill

As we’ve been reporting over the last four years, there is a big drive on to reorganise parliamentary-constituency boundaries , and a lot of consultations have been going on.
The latest news is that Draycott voters are now likely to be re-allocated to the ‘refreshed’ Stoke-South constituency . There are still a few days left for public comments, but that’s the way the mood is heading.
(If you want to know more about how it all works, click here.)

Proposed Stoke South constituency

There seems to be a lot of concern about this locally, but one wonders if it really matters that much. The new version of Stoke-South is semi-rural and includes places like Barlaston, Checkley and Trentham, so its profile is similar to Draycott’s; the only highly urban bit of it is the southern end of Longton. Thus the ‘new’ constituency is fairly well integrated.
What’s anyway really important in these matters is who your MP is, and ours would change from Tory Bill Cash, who has been virtually invisible to local voters over his time, to Tory Jack Brereton, who seems a reasonable if ineffective chap. So – no change really.
In all important matters Draycott will remain part of the Staffs Moorlands.

One wonders if all the outrage about this change simply comes from a certain snobbishness about the name. If the new constituency were called ‘North-Central Staffordshire’, and not ‘Stoke South’, would anyone really be worried?

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Sports a go-go

Congratulations to Draycott Sports Centre, which is in line for a grant of nearly £80,000. The money comes from the Blythe Fields Estate ‘S106’ contract. (An S106 is an agreement by a developer to pay a certain sum to the planning authority, who then allocate it to projects in the affected community. It’s a sort of compensation for the inconvenience the community might suffer).

One issue about the whole S106 process is that the local community is not consulted on how this S106 money is spent in its district (there are often complaints about this). However, in this particular instance, the money seems to be going to a good place.

The sports centre, on Cresswell Lane, has changed in the last decade from members-only to all-inclusive. Nearly all facilities can be hired out on a pay-as-you-go basis and membership is not necessary. It’s run by volunteers, who deeply care for its future. So, yes, in this instance, the money is going to a good place (in our humble opinion).
Meanwhile, Blythe Bridge also does very well out of this particular S106 arrangement – getting more than £130,000 for its recreation ground.
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C’mon England…! (we want a free meal!)

English lions

At the time of writing, England are still in the World Cup and have become one of the favourites to win it. If the team succeed, joy will be unconfined…

But the joy will be double in Cresswell – because The Gandhi, the award-winning Indian restaurant at the bottom end of the hamlet, has promised a free meal to everyone & anyone on the day after England win.
Fingers crossed for the Three Lions!

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Our journey with Solar Panels

Thanks to local resident Robert Birds for this article. Robert is a big fan of domestic solar panels (ie on roofs) and wanted to let us all know his experience.

UPDATE: Since writing this in October 2022, Robert has been elected to the Draycott Village Council. If ever you want to talk to him about his experiences of solar panels, you can contact him via the council’s Contact Us page or chat to him at one of the council’s meetings.
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Back in 2009 when we lived in Ashbourne, a close colleague I worked with asked if I had seen the adverts for Free Solar Panels. This was the time when the government were offering the Feed-in-Tariff to encourage Solar Panel installations.

I set about investigating and soon found an advert for them. But the catch to the free panels is that a company rents your roof space for a long period of time – and the only real benefit we could get was about £20 saving/month on our electricity use.
However I still called the company – only to be told that our property was not suitable!
Now, I knew our house faced due south as we already had a solar hot water heating array on the roof, so I looked into funding the panels ourselves. Which we did.
We installed a no-batteries 3kw system of 18 panels (aka Solar PV or, more correctly, Solar Photo Voltaic Panels) at a cost of circa £14,000 .
My calculations pointed to paying that sum back in 10 years, with the ‘Feed-in-Tariff’ guaranteed for 25 years. The Tariff in 2009 was 30p per kWh but increased year on year. In fact, at the end of the full year before we moved to Cresswell the panels had paid for themselves; they also added value to the house because I could demonstrate a further 15 years of guaranteed income.
Below are the figures I religiously plotted from 2011 to 2019. They demonstrate the typical summer dominated profile of solar panel performance.

Cresswell times

In early 2019 we moved to Cresswell.
We all endured Covid and then the invasion of Ukraine – which caused energy prices to soar – so I started to look at what we could do to mitigate the April 2022 costs-cap hike, especially with the cost of electricity likely to go up again in October.

I was hesitant because the only roof we had on our house that was south-facing was the garage roof; and even then it was partly shaded in the afternoon: the only usable area of the house roof faces west.
I put the idea aside thinking it impractical – but I revisited it when the April cost cap numbers were announced.

I found a potential supplier, and a surveyor came to advise and validate that solar panels would fit and be worthwhile. He advised us to fit the panels on the west-facing roof and that 4kwp (10 panels) would fit on the roof and generate a reasonable amount of power.

I did ask for more panels if possible but he advised that they would have to obtain permission from Western Power (Distribution Network Operator – DNO) first and that process would cost more and delay the project.
(I have since determined that anything less than 3.68kw (our inverter is 3.68kw) can be installed without prior permission and the DNO notified later; and that anything greater has to be approved first before installation).

We were also quoted batteries (7.8kWh) to store excess power generated during the day, which would power the house at night. In-fact we are now going to buy two more batteries, to take the capacity to 13kWh.

One thing to note is that you cannot use 100% of your battery capacity: the manufacturer of our batteries specifies that the minimum charge should be 10% and no lower, or the batteries will be damaged.

Also, having batteries has potential to have emergency backup power (called EPS or islanding) in the event of power cuts. However… this functionality does require approval from the DNO and has additional setup equipment and costs, so I’m still investigating this.

Calculations

The surveyor used a website to generate projected payback period. It is a standard non-affiliated calculator that you can configure to your property & requirements, so I ran the numbers myself to check his work and found them to be reasonable.
Various factors affect solar panels, from how far north you are, the angle and orientation of your roof, the efficiency of the panels and the amount of shading the panels may get. In the calculation you can also build energy price inflation.
You will howver realise that you can make the calculator say whatever you want (!), so be realistic and don’t mislead yourself.

The below graphs are for our implementation from this site, but note that there is no Feed-In-Tariff available nowadays. Compare the generation chart to the earlier chart I included for validation.

Using MS Excel, I also went to the trouble of logging 12 months electricity bills, the number of days billed, the standing charge and the kWh used. I then overlaid that with the estimated generation figures from the graph. I was only concerned where the month’s usage exceeded generation as that was giving me an approximate monthly and annual shortfall, being the kWh that we would have to pay for and therefore giving an estimated saving when compared to the actual figures.
Any surplus from the summer months can be used to calculate any export payments we could expect.

So… OK, we won’t break even for probably 9 years but I won’t have to pay out the extortionate price hike, and where else will your money earn 9% per annum???

Any power not used or stored in batteries is exported to the grid and the value is paid to you by your energy supplier. In two and a bit months, we have earned £41 (based on 7.5p per kWH).

Octopus Energy have just announced that, from October 2022, for their supply customers using the export tariff, they are doubling the export tariff from 7.5p to 15p/kWh. You sign up separately for export and you can export to a different supplier than you buy from.

I hope this article has outlined our experience of solar panels. Personally, I think it has been very worthwhile. We will make considerable savings (in the long-run), and also have the satisfaction of knowing we are helping deal with climate change problems.
Robert Birds

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Octopus Energy usage charts…
Prior to installation of the panels 26th July 2022, our average usage was 10kWh/day

Usage 1st week August about 5kWh/day (batteries installed 18th August), though we were away on holiday 20th–26th incl.

Usage 2nd week August was just under 6kWh/day – but after the batteries were installed our usage dropped to half that about 3kWh/day.
In the week ending Saturday 17th Sept we would have expected to use 70kWh – but we actually used 24kWh, a saving of 65%!

However… please remember that during the winter months savings will diminish in line with the generation graph above – and could be as low as 10%.

For another individual’s endorsemnt of solar panels in Staffordshire, please see Welcome-for-Lower-Heating-Bills

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