Stafford shops opening - Turning into a boom town?

Mudgie

Well-Known Forumite
That's cos he was 58 back in the 80s.

Now Rocky can tell you what a "proper" pub is and it isn't the coach :)
Yes, and I've never thought to ask his opinion of the pubs in Crewe. The Hop Pole was the highlight of our day out there 3½ years ago.
Do you remember Kevin 'Rocky' Sylvester who worked for Ron and Sharon Wilson in the Bird in Hand ?
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
Stafford Arms was a great pub and I also knew the bloke from crewe that used to travel to Stafford to go to the pub and get the last train back. He did that every week, odd but true.
He also used to frequent the Railway and the Castle.

I don't know how true it is, but I was told that, possibly on more than one occasion, he missed the last train and walked back along the railway.
 

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
Used to climb on the Roaches back in the day. There was a pub near the campsite at the base of the rocks, I'm not sure but I think it was called the Rock. If you went a bit further up the Leek Buxton road, past the Winking Man rock formation, there was the Travellers Rest on a left hand bend in the road, also a good pub. Don't know if any of these are still there.
Another was the Black Horse in Hanley, probably not a good idea to go in there unless you were a biker, As I remember you passed by the ABC Cinema and turned left, up there somewhere.
Then there was the Sheridan !!! A Roman Legion marched into there one night in the 60's .... and was never seen again. :P The Coton Fields club ... long gone. The old Labour Club, up that little shopping alleyway, then the new Labour Club, I think it's Kenny's bar or summat now, at the back of the old club. The North End Club and the Southend Club ('by the sea' was the joke, due to constant flooding.)
I was a user of the Prince of Wales and The Gate in the 60's, 70's and 80's because I was a Rec kid who went far above his station by becoming a rich Liitleworth kid, (without the 'rich' bit.) The Gate was about a two minute walk away.
If you were even younger and camping on the Rec there was Kidman's Off Licence at the bottom of Cambridge Street. My Old Man often sent me down there as a kid to get him a couple of pints of draught pulled into two of those Corona flip top sealed bottles.
Ahhh nostalgia. About as useful as a mangle in the back yard, (I've still got a bent finger thanks to one of those f***ing things.) :roll::roll::heyhey:
 
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joshua

Well-Known Forumite
Now can we please get back to discussing Stafford shops ?
At the risk of digressing from the subject of Stafford shops, when did "Duck" as a term of endearment spread from the East Midlands to the Potteries ?

It is said to find its origin in the Saxon word ‘ducas’ which was meant as a term of respect; similar to the Middle English ‘duc’, ‘duk’ which denotes a leader, commander; from which comes the title ‘Duke’ and the Old French word ‘ducheé’ - the territory ruled by a Duke.
From these origins it became a greeting and then a term of endearment.

Mercia

This use of ‘duck’ as a greeting is not restricted to the Potteries; although the use here is very common. It is still used an many parts of what was Mercia.
Even though they have very different dialects from the Potteries the greeting is used in the Black Country, in Derbyshire, as far east as Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire. In Yorkshire the main term of greeting is ‘luv’ but in Sheffield, which is close to the Yorkshire – Derbyshire boarder the greeting ‘Ey up mi duck’ can be heard.

In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare uses the phrase ‘O dainty Ducke: O Deere!” as a term of endearment.
 

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
I dream every night, mostly about Stafford turning into a 'boom' town. Maybe they'll discover oil or something !! I remember some decades back they discovered a coal field laying under the town and were proposing a mine somewhere around the Hopton area. This caused much protest from the residents of that area and the plan was abandoned. Also apparently the coal had a high sulphur content or something which reduced it's quality. I then heard a plan to get to the Stafford coal from the mine in Cannock, but nothing came of that. Cannock's mine is now long gone so I'm told. All of this was before Climate Change and pollution was the issue it is today, although 'acid rain' was a very topical problem, especially for the Scandinavians.
So nothing came of the mine, the once booming factories have thinned out to a shadow of what they were ... yet the town is twice the size it was when I was a kid. Having that mainline railway must have something to do with that.
 
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Trumpet

Well-Known Forumite
The Travellers Rest on the A53 near Flash with about forty keg beers ?
Now The Knight's Table (at The Travellers Rest).
Pretty certain that about 45 years ago the beer pumps were so close together they were almost touching and went around the end corner of the bar.
 

Mudgie

Well-Known Forumite
I dream every night, mostly about Stafford turning into a 'boom' town. Maybe they'll discover oil or something !! I remember some decades back they discovered a coal field laying under the town and were proposing a mine somewhere around the Hopton area. This caused much protest from the residents of that area and the plan was abandoned. Also apparently the coal had a high sulphur content or something which reduced it's quality. I then heard a plan to get to the Stafford coal from the mine in Cannock, but nothing came of that. Cannock' mine is now long gone so I'm told. All of this was before Climate Change and pollution was the issue it is today, although 'acid rain' was a very topical problem, especially for the Scandinavians.
So nothing came of the mine, the once booming factories have thinned out to a shadow of what they were ... yet the town is twice the size it was when I was a kid. Having that mainline railway must have something to do with that.
Bob,
Yes, I think the proposed mine would have been between Hopton and the Seven Stars at Sandon Bank.
As well as the coal having a high sulphur content I think the coalfield would have been too limited with it not 'undermining' the railway line through Sandon to the east.
 

Mudgie

Well-Known Forumite
It is said to find its origin in the Saxon word ‘ducas’ which was meant as a term of respect; similar to the Middle English ‘duc’, ‘duk’ which denotes a leader, commander; from which comes the title ‘Duke’ and the Old French word ‘ducheé’ - the territory ruled by a Duke.
From these origins it became a greeting and then a term of endearment.

Mercia

This use of ‘duck’ as a greeting is not restricted to the Potteries; although the use here is very common. It is still used an many parts of what was Mercia.
Even though they have very different dialects from the Potteries the greeting is used in the Black Country, in Derbyshire, as far east as Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire. In Yorkshire the main term of greeting is ‘luv’ but in Sheffield, which is close to the Yorkshire – Derbyshire boarder the greeting ‘Ey up mi duck’ can be heard.

In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare uses the phrase ‘O dainty Ducke: O Deere!” as a term of endearment.
Thanks for that explanation.
 

Trumpet

Well-Known Forumite
Must've been really high. High sulphur content coal can be mixed with other coal to reduce overall emissions as was the case at the old Rugeley power station.
 
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