Riverside development April start

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alphagamma

Well-Known Forumite
Withnail said:
This is actually quite an interesting question.

And by interesting i mean, of course, crushingly boring - unless you find this sort of thing interesting. Which if you don't, i will just go right ahead and assume i have lost you already.

So, if you're still here...

Evidence of occupation in Stafford extends at least as far back as the Iron Age - so we're realistically looking at c. 800 BC (probably later as it would have (nb not 'of') taken some amount of time to have got this far inland) to the arrival of the Romans in the 1st C AD.

Prior to the dig underneath Scaffoldshire Place, Iron Age settlement was securely established underneath what is now the Guildhall Shopping Centre. So that is certainly 'a' centre of Stafford.

Excavations in Clark Street unearthed Roman pottery, so there is evidence of early occupation in the Riverside area that precedes the establishment of the Burh, so that is also possibly 'a'nother centre of Stafford. But it would appear that this was pretty much at the very edge of the 'town', and it very much looks like it was where people went to dump their shit into the swamp.

One of the most interesting things about the dig underneath Scaffoldshire Place is a tentative interpretation of a curvilinear feature consistent with the outline of an Iron Age roundhouse. Not hugely easy to be definite about - they are formed, if you can imagine it, by rain dripping off the roof and sort of 'scarring' the ground underneath the roof-line - but quite probably evidence of habitation pre-Roman era, and probably by quite some margin.

So what are we to make of this evidence in determining what is the 'Centre' of Stafford?

After that - 9th/10th C - it gets even more interesting. Or possibly more crushingly boring, like, whatevar...
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The Doxey action group also reckon that part of the area about to be wiped out by Lord Stafford in the interest of rugga was an early settlement.
 
Jonah

Jonah

Spouting nonsense since the day I learned to talk
kyoto49 said:
Not for me it isn't. Town extends along Greengate and Gaolgate Street with the Market Square the actual town 'centre'. South Walls backing on to Queensway is not and has never been the town centre.
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You are wrong.
 
Gramaisc

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
When I came to Stafford, "Town" ran from Newport Road to Gaol Road and from Earl Street to the far end of Eastgate Street. Over the years it seems to have contracted to Mill Bank to Costa and Mill Street to Salter Street/Gatehouse.

There used to lots of real shops south of the river, Tom Reekie, Guitar and Son, Bedson's, Adderley's, Red Cross, Paperhouse, Wardstaffs, etc., even Burgess's where TK Maxx is. It is possible that I haven't spent money south of the river this century, certainly not for the last decade, anyway.
 
basil

basil

don't mention the blinds
Gramaisc said:
When I came to Stafford, "Town" ran from Newport Road to Gaol Road and from Earl Street to the far end of Eastgate Street. Over the years it seems to have contracted to Mill Bank to Costa and Mill Street to Salter Street/Gatehouse.

There used to lots of real shops south of the river, Tom Reekie, Guitar and Son, Bedson's, Adderley's, Red Cross, Paperhouse, Wardstaffs, etc., even Burgess's where TK Maxx is. It is possible that I haven't spent money south of the river this century, certainly not for the last decade, anyway.
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Walter Danks !

Does he?......
 
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Jade-clothing

Jade-clothing

Well-Known Forumite
Just walked past Primark on the way to work and they are putting up the sign that sticks out the side of the shop. They had put the 'Ark' bit at the top so guess unless someone points it out, Stafford will be getting the first branch of Arkprim :(
 
1JKz

1JKz

Well-Known Forumite
Jade-clothing said:
Just walked past Primark on the way to work and they are putting up the sign that sticks out the side of the shop. They had put the 'Ark' bit at the top so guess unless someone points it out, Stafford will be getting the first branch of Arkprim :(
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Is it a big and beautiful sign?
 
Lucy

Lucy

Well-Known Forumite
I heard that the Primark store is going to be a little different to a normal one, more of a concept store.
 
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