h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Renowned around the world for the beautiful chinaware produced in the Stoke on Trent 'potteries', Staffordshire is today blessed with the beauty of the top end of the Peak District, a number of extremely pretty market towns, and the white-knuckle thrills of the Alton Towers theme park. If you're a Staffordshire resident, or if you know a large amount about this part of the world, why not help us to write our article on this county by contributing to this thread with any nuggets of information you might know!

Paully

potteries you missed out potteries

Erm... did I? I'm sure if you look again I mention them in the very first line!



P

just scanned it to quick

The county that gave the world Josiah Wedgwood, Sir Stanley Matthews, Lemmy, Slash, Robbie Williams (hmm), Sir Reginald Mitchell (designer of the Spitfire).

Then of course there's the ceramic industries (bathrooms as well as china) and the breweries in Burton. I'll see what I can do...

Happy to collaborate, of course. I'm not much of a 'finisher' these days.

Well, my home village of Kinver is right at the very tip of South Staffordshire. It's well-known for the rock houses of Kinver Edge http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-kinveredge/ - sandstone caves which people lived in during the 1800s and even up until the 1950s. When I was little you used to be able to clamber around them all, but as the sandstone is so soft they got very eroded. Now you can't go near some of them, and the rest are protected. They restored one some years ago and the warden lives in it. They're supposed to be lovely and warm in the winter and cool in the summer!

One day I'll write an entry about Kinver...

Lbclaire

That's exactly the kind of snippet we're looking for! Marvellous! Keep 'em coming!

Paully

oooh Robbie Williams controversial characters are very interesting but one thing that you forget to mention is Take That (or was it another boyband)??

and of course the tale behind the staffordshire knot, the life of Isaac Walton (wrote a fishing book) and the reasons why the county town is stafford and not stoke.

I'll try and flesh this out when I get a moment (v.busy atm) but thought I'd add them for others if I don;t get round to it.

what about swimming pools I hear one of the best is found in Staffordshire. Although perhaps leisure pursuits aren't exactly what you want. Or may be it is...

We're after everything really. Demographics, geology, history, leisure pursuits - whatever anyone who really knows the local area would like to say about it!

Paully

I think you really need some geography people

Here's some extra pointers of the kind of thing we're looking for:


** General location of the county in the UK (Northwest, Midlands, Highlands), including bordering counties.

** The main towns and cities there, plus any tourist attractions or places of note.

** A very basic history of the county (which, for those counties created in 1974 or after might include a little background about the region before the county was formed). Some counties will be famous for specific key events in history, which we'd also like to know about.

** Any geographical features (lakes in Cumbria, Peak District in Derbyshire, Pennines in Yorkshire/Greater Manchester)

** Links to other related entries for the region.


Paully

well, on geography you have Cannock Chase.
And I shall have to check, but I think somewhere north of Leek is the Green Chapel, which is a natural rock gulley or pass where King Arthur is supposed to have met the green knight.

Just done an h2g2 search and look what I came up with.


A416305 The Peak District, Derbyshire, UK
A593309 Mountain Hares of the Peak District, Derbyshire, UK
A21132 The Peak District
A592661 Mountain Scrambling in Cumbria and Snowdonia
A721180 Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, UK
A644645 Carlisle, Cumbria, UK - the State-managed Liquor Trade
A1350758 Cumbria
A60698 Cumbria
A765155 St Peter's Park, Little Eaton, Derbyshire, UK
A593309 Mountain Hares of the Peak District, Derbyshire, UK
A786477 Derbyshire's Wallabies Edited 51%
A742781 St Paul's Church, Little Eaton, Derbyshire, UK
A787863 Pubs of Little Eaton, Derbyshire, UK
A2773271 Bolsover Castle, Derbyshire, UK
A416305 The Peak District, Derbyshire, UK
A592779 Hadfield, Derbyshire, UK aka Royston Vasey
A577028 Castleton, Derbyshire, UK
A734997 Ghosts of Little Eaton, Derbyshire, UK
A362143 Eyam - the Plague Village - Derbyshire, UK
A2788581 Peveril Castle, Derbyshire, UK
A4006469 Three Peaks of Pennines -
A10918 Mytholmroyd. A Village in the Pennines
A2349984 Yorkshire's Castles
A1150390 1 August - Yorkshire Day
A2350180 Yorkshire's Castles: Spofforth Castle
A2350144 Yorkshire's Castles: Ripley Castle
A2986158 The Yorkshire Terrier Edited 59%
A2350027 Yorkshire's Castles: Helmsley Castle
A2350090 Yorkshire's Castles: Pickering Castle
A2350036 Yorkshire's Castles: Knaresborough Castle
A2350171 Yorkshire's Castles: Skipton Castle
A2350009 Yorkshire's Castles: Bolton Castle
A2350162 Yorkshire's Castles: Scarborough Castle
A2350018 Yorkshire's Castles: Conisbrough Castle
A2350153 Yorkshire's Castles: Sandal Castle
A2350199 Yorkshire's Castles: York Castle
A2350126 Yorkshire's Castles: Richmond Castle
A192683 Yorkshire Pudding
A2350054 Yorkshire's Castles: Middleham Castle
A2350108 Yorkshire's Castles: Pontefract Castle
A3393137 Flamborough, Yorkshire
A1064882 Swinton, Salford (Greater Manchester), UK
A309674 Manchester, England, UK
A3895491 Withington, Manchester, UK
A110359 Manchester United and the ABUs
A314911 Didsbury, South Manchester, UK
A3022859 'The Flowers of Manchester' - the Song
A314966 The Trafford Centre, Greater Manchester, UK
A2309500 An 'Alternative' Student Night Out in Manchester

Yep, we've got lots and lots of individual entries on the UK's counties - but, up until now, nothing giving readers a general idea of what the County itself is like. I'm REALLY looking forward to getting these entries back!

Paully

and what about these?

A40519 A Potteries Lad -
A134731 Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs, UK: The Potteries
A141751 Stoke on Trent, Staffs, UK ( The Potteries )
A426016 The North Staffordshire Oatcake
A134858 The North Staffordshire Symphony Orchestra
A188093 Alton Towers

ah found it so many counties so many alike

I've made a start on an entry, shamelessly using Skankyrich's Devon entry as a template - over at A6012181. Might switch the order around a bit or amalgamate some sections, we'll see. But all contributions welcome, particularly anything about history, which I'm not great at once you get pre-war.

Need to add some links in too.

What d'you think, though?

Ictoan - I have the idea that the Staffordshire Knot was invented so you could hang three men at once. Is that right?

Oh, and I've put it into the Writing Workshop for now - thread is F57153?thread=1152727