Odd Staffordshire

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Curious Staffordshire Facts

• Most dangerous place in Staffordshire?
  Chartley Moss (near Stafford) is pretty much as it was 20,000 years ago – a swamp!. On the water is a thick ‘raft’ of peat and moss, so if you dare walk over it, it moves; it is a ‘Quaking Bog’. So, walking in some of its areas is not advised – and there are adders and seriously nasty biting insects too.
  Urgh.

There are more miles of canals in Staffordshire than any other county in England!

• Biddulph Turks?
  There is a long tradition that a number of families on the Moorlands around Biddulph are of Middle Eastern descent. It’s said that slaves acquired in the Crusades were brought to the area by the local lord.
  Curiously, the local scouts’ troop is named ‘The Saracens’...

The co-founder of Marks & Spencer, Thomas Spencer is buried in St. Giles Church, Whittington, a village on the outskirts of Lichfield. The church hall is named in his memory.

An Annual Conker Tournament is held at The Red Lion, in Boundary near Cheadle every October.

• In for a penny? No.
  In March 1982, the comedian Spike Milligan was sacked as the VIP ambassador for Keele University Students. His crime? He failed to write an article for the rag magazine. But he probably wasn't bothered - the job pays just 1 penny a year!

We always think the Saxon place-names in the county are exotic - but the Saxons were quite practical really. Take 'River Churnet' (the watercourse in the Moorlands). Er, it's a tautology, as Churnet means... river!

• Mary, Mary
  Mary Queen of Scots whilst was imprisoned at Chartley Castle near Stafford, but don't get mixed up.
  The place she was held at is NOT the ruins by the main road that we call the Castle today. In fact she stayed at a house in the wood below. People who tell you they see her ghost in the ruins are fibbing!
• Prince's Park in Burntwood is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the smallest park in the UK - though it looks more to us like a patch of ground (just big enough to hold two trees) that serves as a roundabout!