Astonfields Balancing Lakes.

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
Also, someone (I suspect I know who) has placed a memorial bench to commemorate a well-known local character.

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littleme

250,000th poster!
Batwoman is a local - just down by the Henry Street junction.
I thought it was a bat-man, posted on the forum about the walks....


We still have 2 bat's, sadly no longer big bat & little bat, but 2 small bat's.

I miss Big bat. We still have hedgehogs, but haven't seen them in an age.... Just their poops!
 

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
Oops !!! ... I dropped a bollock on this one. I got my trails mixed up. I don't remember any trains on the old Clog and Knocker Uttoxeter line ... I was thinking of the old Newport line.

(Puts on Dunce cap. Stands in corner.)
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
I thought it was a bat-man, posted on the forum about the walks....


We still have 2 bat's, sadly no longer big bat & little bat, but 2 small bat's.

I miss Big bat. We still have hedgehogs, but haven't seen them in an age.... Just their poops!
Mmm, this?


I'll tell her what you said...
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
Oops !!! ... I dropped a bollock on this one. I got my trails mixed up. I don't remember any trains on the old Clog and Knocker Uttoxeter line ... I was thinking of the old Newport line.

(Puts on Dunce cap. Stands in corner.)
It was easy to get on the wrong train during the blackout...
 

littleme

250,000th poster!
Oops !!! ... I dropped a bollock on this one. I got my trails mixed up. I don't remember any trains on the old Clog and Knocker Uttoxeter line ... I was thinking of the old Newport line.

(Puts on Dunce cap. Stands in corner.)
I got the bollocks wrong too, it seems......
 

littleme

250,000th poster!
Mmm, this?


I'll tell her what you said...
Fir some reason I always thought Birdies best friend was a bloke..... The power of anonymity.....
 

gon2seed

(and me! - Ed)
Train Line, that now forms the Isabel Line, was open till 1964, when it was closed, along with many other mostly rural, branch lines in the Beeching Cuts. These came after a report conducted in 1963, year of my birth, investigating the plethora of railway lines in England at the time, and looking at potential cuts was published. It was conducted by Dr Richard Beeching, a physicist and engineer, engaged by the Tory Government to compile the report. I was born on the year of the report, and I have clear memories of the rails and sleepers being still in place. There was a line going out through Haughton, Gnosall, Newport, Telford and on to Shrewsbury.

I have clear memories of walking on the lines when there were still steel tracks and sleepers, in place. I think they were not removed till the 70's I could be wrong, they were certainly still in place many years after closure. Do that today and they would be at the scrap yard or used in peoples gardens, having been 'liberated' by 'concerned' citizens! It's a wonderful leisure recourse. I regularly run along with my Dog, and of course hosts the local Park Run on a Saturday. It is good to see Dr Beeching's Cuts lines, are still being used effectively, as in the Isabel Line, some have even been reopened.

Know I've mentioned this before on here, when someone was wondering about the potential for fishing in the pools, but they are saline, though I suspect the content of salt is diminished over the years. There used to be a nearby commercial salt works, up by the tip and at Baswich, Stafford has a lot underground saline water, I learned to swim in the old Stafford Brine Baths, 'you didn't swallow any'! I believe there are plants growing at the Astonfield local reserve, that normally grow near the sea! If you haven't been there, take a look, it won't take you long its not massive, and even though you shouldn't expect too much, I think it will prove worthwhile, and if you are very lucky you may see one or to of the wildlife rarities that are down there!
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
Train Line, that now forms the Isabel Line, was open till 1964, when it was closed, along with many other mostly rural, branch lines in the Beeching Cuts. These came after a report conducted in 1963, year of my birth, investigating the plethora of railway lines in England at the time, and looking at potential cuts was published. It was conducted by Dr Richard Beeching, a physicist and engineer, engaged by the Tory Government to compile the report. I was born on the year of the report, and I have clear memories of the rails and sleepers being still in place. There was a line going out through Haughton, Gnosall, Newport, Telford and on to Shrewsbury.

I have clear memories of walking on the lines when there were still steel tracks and sleepers, in place. I think they were not removed till the 70's I could be wrong, they were certainly still in place many years after closure. Do that today and they would be at the scrap yard or used in peoples gardens, having been 'liberated' by 'concerned' citizens! It's a wonderful leisure recourse. I regularly run along with my Dog, and of course hosts the local Park Run on a Saturday. It is good to see Dr Beeching's Cuts lines, are still being used effectively, as in the Isabel Line, some have even been reopened.

Know I've mentioned this before on here, when someone was wondering about the potential for fishing in the pools, but they are saline, though I suspect the content of salt is diminished over the years. There used to be a nearby commercial salt works, up by the tip and at Baswich, Stafford has a lot underground saline water, I learned to swim in the old Stafford Brine Baths, 'you didn't swallow any'! I believe there are plants growing at the Astonfield local reserve, that normally grow near the sea! If you haven't been there, take a look, it won't take you long its not massive, and even though you shouldn't expect too much, I think it will prove worthwhile, and if you are very lucky you may see one or to of the wildlife rarities that are down there!
That bit of the line, into the RAF, was still in (limited) use into the 70s.
 

The Hawk

Well-Known Forumite
That bit of the line, into the RAF, was still in (limited) use into the 70s.
According to a book I have, the last official train over the line departed from the RAF base on 28 November 1975, with official closure being recorded as 1 December 1975. However, it seems there may have been one or more unofficial movements into early 1976. The junction was finally severed in 1981 and the line was lifted in 1982.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
According to a book I have, the last official train over the line departed from the RAF base on 28 November 1975, with official closure being recorded as 1 December 1975. However, it seems there may have been one or more unofficial movements into early 1976. The junction was finally severed in 1981 and the line was lifted in 1982.
The internal rail system inside the base ran on for a bit.

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staffordjas

Well-Known Forumite
Know I've mentioned this before on here, when someone was wondering about the potential for fishing in the pools, but they are saline, though I suspect the content of salt is diminished over the years. There used to be a nearby commercial salt works, up by the tip and at Baswich, Stafford has a lot underground saline water, I learned to swim in the old Stafford Brine Baths, 'you didn't swallow any'! I believe there are plants growing at the Astonfield local reserve, that normally grow near the sea! If you haven't been there, take a look, it won't take you long its not massive, and even though you shouldn't expect too much, I think it will prove worthwhile, and if you are very lucky you may see one or to of the wildlife rarities that are down there!
I'm another one who learnt to swim in the old Stafford Brine Baths.

The younger members on here probably won't remember the old Salt works on Baswich lane , which The Saltings mobile home estate was built on .....hence 'The Saltings'. The Salt works were still there when we first moved to Baswich in 1963.

Hubby was saying that their old Astonfields fields warehouse , right next to the balancing lakes , is said to be haunted . Several of his old work colleagues working there swear blind they've seen things , and one could smell bacon cooking when he opened up on his own in the morning and no-one there. When the burglar alarms went off late one night a police dog was too scared to go down a passage way inside. In later years our own dog refused to go down the same a passage way to the kitchens when I went inside to wait for him to finish . ( found out afterwards that was supposedly the haunted passage, so she didn't pick up vibes from me) It'd always felt eerie down there, but I was scared to go down there on my own after that. Hubby had to come and wait outside the loos for me 😂
 
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