Nostalgia - What are your memories of Stafford?

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
I remember there being a maypole on The Rec at Coton Fields when I was a kid as well , quite often used to play here ...

https://www.search.staffspasttrack....eID=3057&PageIndex=20&SearchType=2&ThemeID=95

There was a metal pole there and you can still see the base circle on Google Earth (just) almost due south of the Co-op butchers (now a chip shop.) One year we built a bonfire around it for November 5th but this turned a bit dodgy. Unknown to us the pole was hollow, and over the years had filled with water. As the fire really started to get going a blast of steam started squirting out of the top of the pole, making a tremendous racket. Everybody ran like f***. :eek:
 

staffordjas

Well-Known Forumite
There was a metal pole there and you can still see the base circle on Google Earth (just) almost due south of the Co-op butchers (now a chip shop.) One year we built a bonfire around it for November 5th but this turned a bit dodgy. Unknown to us the pole was hollow, and over the years had filled with water. As the fire really started to get going a blast of steam started squirting out of the top of the pole, making a tremendous racket. Everybody ran like f***. :eek:
I always think of that each May Day , dancing around the Maypole.

Anyone remember the Stafford Pageants as well through the town centre. I always wanted to be one of the dancing troupe girls, walking along slapping red raw legs, and waving the tassle things (whatever you call them ) . I walked to town and back pretending to be one each year. Must have driven my parents mad lol.

When we had to move out of MRI for a refurb of the offices, we moved into The Old Hough on the main works site for months. We used to go exploring all the hidden passageways behind the walls whilst working overtime on a Saturday morning. (And nearly gave the blokes working in the offices upstairs a heart attack when we suddenly appeared out of the wall :lol: ) We found lots of the Stafford Pageant float stuff stored behind there.
 
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BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
Not so much of a nostalgia pix as a question. Took this pix outside the Butler's Ball in August 2018. Midweek, quiet night, I think I was staying at the Vine at the time. I was trying to think of what the shop was where this pub is now situated.
When it first opened, it was called a 'Yates Wine Lodge' as I remember. This always amused me as I'd done some time in Yates Wine Lodges back in the day when I was training, and sailing in and out of Liverpool. Along the Dock Road in that city.
I gotta tell you, those Yates Wine Lodges weren't much like this Stafford pub !!! There were heads on spikes outside of customers who had had the gall to ask for 'an amusing little claret.' There were bloody finger marks on the toilet doors (I never ever asked about their origins, I did not want to know.) Sawdust on the floor and bar staff that looked like extras from a 'Genghis Khan' movie.
Anyway, does anybody remember what the shop was prior to the Butler's Ball ?

ButlersBall.jpg
 

Mudgie

Well-Known Forumite
Not so much of a nostalgia pix as a question. Took this pix outside the Butler's Ball in August 2018. Midweek, quiet night, I think I was staying at the Vine at the time. I was trying to think of what the shop was where this pub is now situated.
When it first opened, it was called a 'Yates Wine Lodge' as I remember. This always amused me as I'd done some time in Yates Wine Lodges back in the day when I was training, and sailing in and out of Liverpool. Along the Dock Road in that city.
I gotta tell you, those Yates Wine Lodges weren't much like this Stafford pub !!! There were heads on spikes outside of customers who had had the gall to ask for 'an amusing little claret.' There were bloody finger marks on the toilet doors (I never ever asked about their origins, I did not want to know.) Sawdust on the floor and bar staff that looked like extras from a 'Genghis Khan' movie.
Anyway, does anybody remember what the shop was prior to the Butler's Ball ?

View attachment 10247
Brewbakers ?

The only proper Yates's Wine Lodge I knew was during the early 1970s in Birmingham's Corporation Street.
Has anyone else noticed how quiet Stafford's Corporation Street, New Street and Broad Street are compared to Birmingham's ?
 
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Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
It was Apres for a while.

I used to refer to that end of town as The Apres End, I was never sure what to call it afterwards...


As for bloody finger marks, the Blood Tub was not far away.
 

Thehooperman

Well-Known Forumite
It was Apres for a while.

I used to refer to that end of town as The Apres End, I was never sure what to call it afterwards...

Since Apres it has always been and will forever be the Butler's Bell end, mainly due to the clientele that frequent some of the establishments adjacent to Slater's :)
 

Lucy

Well-Known Forumite
Actually, were Poundstretcher the people who accidentally on purpose knocked down the listed frontage?
 

Mudgie

Well-Known Forumite
As for ghost signs I've noticed on the side of what was Stafford Outdoor Leisure at 38 Mill Street from when it was the Crown and Anchor "Parkers Celebrated Ales" from the mid 1930s but as that's fading away "Buntings" from its earlier ownership by that Uttoxeter brewery can now clearly be seen.
 

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
We had a dual standard TV from Radio Rentals and I used to go there to pay the telly. Dual standard means it had a big switch on the side that threw the TV from 405 lines to 625 as you had channels on both back then. We never used it as most channels were available on 625 lines by then. One day, cleaning the TV, my Mum accidentally threw the switch and we had to call in the TV engineer because channels had disappeared. When he came he was not chuffed, as he'd been called to throw a switch.
My Old Man and myself took the piss out of her something rotten, until we got the Irish Death Glare !!! :eek: ... at which point we buggered off down the pub. :heyhey:
 
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