Mavesyn Ridware
Mavesyn Ridware is a small village and civil parish in Lichfield District, England. The parish includes the villages of Hill Ridware, Rake End, Pipe Ridware and Blithbury, all of which lie between the River Trent and a small tributary, the River Blithe. Adjacent to the east is the parish of Hamstall Ridware. Mavesyn Ridware contains two notable buildings: the parish church dedicated to St Nicholas and the Gatehouse of the former ancient Manor House; the name "Mavesyn" derives from the French Malvoisin, the name of the Norman family which acquired the local estate after the Norman conquest of 1066. The church contains many monuments to members of that family, to their successors as lords of the manor, the Cawardens and the Chadwicks; the Gatehouse is timber framed with a skin of brick and stone. Dendrochronology on the timbers indicates that the building was erected in 1391–92; the village is not served by public transport, other than a minibus service to Handsacre or Rugeley, which must be booked in advance by phone or on the web.
The nearest railway station is at Rugeley. Ridware has a youth club. There is a village hall for hire. Henry Fourdrinier, paper manufacturer and inventor, spent his last years at the Old Rectory. Ashby Haslewood, first-class cricketer and educationalist, was rector of Mavesyn Ridware in 1866–77. Media related to Mavesyn Ridware at Wikimedia Commons GENUKI: Mavesyn Ridware Cannock Chase History: Mavesyn Ridware
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom. The governing party since 2010, it is the largest in the House of Commons, with 313 Members of Parliament, has 249 members of the House of Lords, 18 members of the European Parliament, 31 Members of the Scottish Parliament, 12 members of the Welsh Assembly, eight members of the London Assembly and 8,916 local councillors; the Conservative Party was founded in 1834 from the Tory Party—the Conservatives' colloquial name is "Tories"—and was one of two dominant political parties in the nineteenth century, along with the Liberal Party. Under Benjamin Disraeli it played a preeminent role in politics at the height of the British Empire. In 1912, the Liberal Unionist Party merged with the party to form the Conservative and Unionist Party. In the 1920s, the Labour Party surpassed the Liberals as the Conservatives' main rivals. Conservative Prime Ministers — notably Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher — led governments for 57 years of the twentieth century.
Positioned on the centre-right of British politics, the Conservative Party is ideologically conservative. Different factions have dominated the party at different times, including One Nation Conservatives and liberal conservatives, while its views and policies have changed throughout its history; the party has adopted liberal economic policies—favouring free market economics, limiting state regulation, pursuing privatisation—although in the past has supported protectionism. The party is British unionist, opposing both Irish reunification and Welsh and Scottish independence, supported the maintenance of the British Empire; the party includes those with differing views on the European Union, with Eurosceptic and pro-European wings. In foreign policy, it is for a strong national defence; the Conservatives are a member of the International Democrat Union and the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe and sit with the European Conservatives and Reformists parliamentary group. The Scottish, Northern Irish and Gibraltan branches of the party are semi-autonomous.
Its support base consists of middle-class voters in rural areas of England, its domination of British politics throughout the twentieth century has led to it being referred to as one of the most successful political parties in the Western world. The Conservative Party was founded in the 1830s. However, some writers trace its origins to the reign of Charles II in the 1670s Exclusion Crisis. Other historians point to a faction, rooted in the 18th century Whig Party, that coalesced around William Pitt the Younger in the 1780s, they were known as "Independent Whigs", "Friends of Mr Pitt", or "Pittites" and never used terms such as "Tory" or "Conservative". Pitt died in 1806. From about 1812 on the name "Tory" was used for a new party that, according to historian Robert Blake, "are the ancestors of Conservatism". Blake adds that Pitt's successors after 1812 "were not in any sense standard-bearer's of true Toryism"; the term "Conservative" was suggested as a title for the party by a magazine article by J. Wilson Croker in the Quarterly Review in 1830.
The name caught on and was adopted under the aegis of Sir Robert Peel around 1834. Peel is acknowledged as the founder of the Conservative Party, which he created with the announcement of the Tamworth Manifesto; the term "Conservative Party" rather than Tory was the dominant usage by 1845. The widening of the electoral franchise in the nineteenth century forced the Conservative Party to popularise its approach under Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby and Benjamin Disraeli, who carried through their own expansion of the franchise with the Reform Act of 1867. In 1886, the party formed an alliance with Spencer Compton Cavendish, Lord Hartington and Joseph Chamberlain's new Liberal Unionist Party and, under the statesmen Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, Lord Salisbury and Arthur Balfour, held power for all but three of the following twenty years before suffering a heavy defeat in 1906 when it split over the issue of free trade. Young Winston Churchill denounced Chamberlain's attack on free trade, helped organize the opposition inside the Unionist/Conservative Party.
Balfour, as party leader, followed Chamberlain's policy introduced protectionist legislation. The high tariff element called itself "Tariff Reformers" and in a major speech in Manchester on May 13, 1904, Churchill warned their takeover of the Unionist/Conservative party would permanently brand it as: A party of great vested interests, banded together in a formidable confederation. Two weeks Churchill crossed the floor and formally joined the Liberal Party. )He rejoined the Conservatives in 1925.) In December, Balfour lost control of his party, as the defections multiplied. He was replaced by Liberal Prime Minister Henry Campbell-Bannerman who called an election in January 1906, which produced a massive Liberal victory with a gain of 214 seats. Liberal Prime Minister H. H. Asquith enacted a great deal of reform legislation, but the Unionists worked hard at grassroots organizing. Two general elections were held in one in January and one in December; the two main parties were now dead equal in seats.
The Unionists had more popular votes but the Liberals kept control with a coalition with the Irish Parliamentary Party. In 1912, the Liberal Unionis
Liberal Democrats (UK)
The Liberal Democrats are a liberal political party in the United Kingdom. They have 11 Members of Parliament in the House of Commons, 96 members of the House of Lords, one member of the European Parliament, five Members of the Scottish Parliament and one member in the Welsh Assembly and London Assembly. At the height of its influence, the party formed a coalition government with the Conservative Party from 2010 to 2015 with its leader Nick Clegg serving as Deputy Prime Minister, it is led by Sir Vince Cable. In 1981, an electoral alliance was established between the Liberal Party, a group, the direct descendent of the 18th-century Whigs, the Social Democratic Party, a splinter group from the Labour Party. In 1988 this alliance was formalised as the Liberal Democrats. Under the leadership of Paddy Ashdown and Charles Kennedy, the party grew during the 1990s and 2000s, focusing its campaigning on specific seats and becoming the third largest party in the House of Commons. Under its leader Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrats were junior partners in a coalition government headed by Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, with Clegg serving as Deputy Prime Minister.
The coalition damaged the Liberal Democrats' electoral prospects: the party was reduced from 57 to 8 seats at the 2015 election. Positioned in the centre ground of British politics, the Liberal Democrats are ideologically liberal. Emphasising stronger protections for civil liberties, the party promotes liberal approaches to issues like LGBT rights, education policy, criminal justice. Different factions take different approaches to economic issues; the party is pro-Europeanist, supporting continued UK membership of the European Union and greater European integration. It calls for electoral reform with a transition from the first-past-the-post voting system to one of proportional representation. Other policies have included further environmental protections and drug liberalisation laws, while it has opposed certain UK military engagements like the Iraq War; the party is a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe and Liberal International. The Liberal Democrats are strongest in northern Scotland, southwest London, southwest England, mid-Wales.
The Liberal Democrats were formed on 3 March 1988 by a merger between the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party, which had formed a pact nearly seven years earlier as the SDP–Liberal Alliance. The Liberal Party, founded in 1859, were descended from the Whigs and Peelites, while the SDP were a party created in 1981 by former Labour Party members, MPs and cabinet ministers, but gained defections from the Conservative Party. Having declined to third party status after the rise of the Labour Party from 1918 and during the 1920s, the Liberals were challenged for this position in the 1980s when a group of Labour MPs broke away and established the Social Democratic Party; the SDP and the Liberals realised that there was no space for two political parties of the centre and entered into the SDP–Liberal Alliance so that they would not stand against each other in elections. The Alliance was led by Roy Jenkins; the two parties had their own policies and emphases, but produced a joint manifesto for the 1983 and 1987 general elections.
Following disappointing results in the 1987 election, Steel proposed to merge the two parties. Although opposed by Owen, it was supported by a majority of members of both parties, they formally merged in March 1988, with Steel and Robert Maclennan as joint interim leaders; the new party was named Social and Liberal Democrats with the unofficial short form The Democrats being used from September 1988. The name was subsequently changed to Liberal Democrats in October 1989, shortened to Lib Dems; the new party logo, the Bird of Liberty, was adopted in 1989. The minority of the SDP who rejected the merger remained under Owen's leadership in a rump SDP. Michael Meadowcroft joined the Liberal Democrats in 2007 but some of his former followers continue still as the Liberal Party, most notably in a couple of electoral wards of the cities of Liverpool and Peterborough; the then-serving Liberal MP Paddy Ashdown was elected leader in July 1988. At the 1989 European Elections, the party received only 6% of the vote, putting them in fourth place after the Green Party.
They failed to gain a single Member of the European Parliament at this election. Over the next three years, the party recovered under Ashdown's leadership, they performed better at the 1990 local elections and in by-elections—including at Eastbourne in 1990 which saw the first success by a Liberal Democrat standing for parliament. They had further successes in Ribble Valley and Kincardine & Deeside in 1991; the Lib Dems did not reach the share of national votes in the 1990s that the Alliance had achieved in the 1980s. At their first election in 1992, they won 17.8 % of twenty seats. In the 1994 European Elections, the party gained its first two Members of European Parliament. Following the election of Tony Blair as Labour leader in July 1994 after the death of his predecessor John Smith, Ashdown pursued co-operation between the two parties becaus
Burntwood
Burntwood is a town in Staffordshire, England 4 miles west of Lichfield. The town had a population of 26,049 at the time of the 2011 census and forms part of Lichfield district; the town forms one of the largest urbanised parishes in England. Samuel Johnson opened an academy in nearby Edial in 1736; the town is home to the smallest park in the UK, Prince's Park, located next to Christ Church on the junction of Farewell Lane and Church Road. The town expanded in the nineteenth century around the coal mining industry. Areas of Burntwood are Boney Hay, Chase Terrace, Gorstey Lea and Burntwood Green. Nearby places are Brownhills, Cannock Wood, Norton Canes, Gentleshaw and Lichfield. In September 2009 it was announced that a Burntwood man, Terry Herbert, had discovered a hoard of Saxon treasure with a metal detector in a field in the adjoining village of Hammerwich. Known as the Staffordshire Hoard, it is the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold yet found. Burntwood along with Chasetown has good bus connections to places like Walsall and Brownhills, operated by National Express West Midlands bus route no.10A as well as Cannock and Lichfield.
Burntwood has never had a passenger or mainline railway connection that passed by the town apart from the mineral line to Chasewater collieries but it does have the Chasewater Railway nearby with stops at Chasetown and Chasewater Heaths. The local and nearest railway station on the mainline was the station at the small village of Hammerwich on the now mothballed South Staffordshire Line, over 2 miles from the town. Abacus Early Learners Busy Bees at St Matthews Little People Nursery Sunny Days Nursery Boney Hay Community Primary School Chase Terrace Primary School Chasetown Community School Fulfen Primary School Highfields Primary School Holly Grove Primary School Ridgeway Primary School Springhill Primary School St Joseph and St Theresa Catholic Primary School Chase Terrace Technology College. Erasmus Darwin Academy Both high schools fell victim to arson attacks in 2002. Most of Chase Terrace Technology College was destroyed in August 2002. While Chasetown Specialist Sports College lost its gym facility in December 2002.
Both buildings have been refurbished. Maple Hayes Hall School Dalian Atkinson Ex Aston Villa Footballer Francis Barber, 1742-1801 Samuel Johnson's manservant and assistant, who set up a school here. Kim Betts gymnast and body builder known as Lightning in Gladiators Jon Brookes former drummer from The Charlatans Gary Cahill professional footballer with Aston Villa, Bolton Wanderers and England. Computerchemist multi-instrumentalist musician John Cornwall an English soldier and landowner.
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands of England. It borders with Cheshire to the northwest and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, West Midlands and Worcestershire to the south, Shropshire to the west; the largest city in Staffordshire is Stoke-on-Trent, administered separately from the rest of the county as an independent unitary authority. Lichfield has city status, although this is a smaller cathedral city. Major towns include Stafford, Burton upon Trent, Newcastle-under-Lyme and Tamworth. Smaller towns include Stone, Uttoxeter, Burntwood/Chasetown, Eccleshall and the large villages of Wombourne, Tutbury, Barton-under-Needwood and Abbots Bromley. Cannock Chase AONB is within the county as well as parts of the National Forest and the Peak District national park. Wolverhampton, West Bromwich and Smethwick are within the historic county boundaries of Staffordshire, but since 1974 have been part of the West Midlands county. Apart from Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire is divided into the districts of Cannock Chase, East Staffordshire, Newcastle-under-Lyme, South Staffordshire, Staffordshire Moorlands, Tamworth.
Staffordshire was divided into five hundreds: Cuttlestone, Pirehill and Totmonslow. The historic boundaries of Staffordshire cover much of what is now the metropolitan county of West Midlands. An administrative county of Staffordshire was set up in 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888 covering the county except the county boroughs of Wolverhampton and West Bromwich in the south, Hanley in the north; the Act saw the towns of Tamworth and Burton upon Trent united in Staffordshire. In 1553 Queen Mary made Lichfield a county corporate, meaning it was administered separately from the rest of Staffordshire, it remained so until 1888. Handsworth and Perry Barr became part of the county borough of Birmingham in the early 20th century, thus associated with Warwickshire. Burton, in the east of the county, became a county borough in 1901, was followed by Smethwick, another town in the Black Country in 1907. In 1910 the six towns of the Staffordshire Potteries, including Hanley, became the single county borough of Stoke-on-Trent.
A significant boundary change occurred in 1926 when the east of Sedgley was transferred to Worcestershire to allow the construction of the new Priory Estate on land purchased by Dudley County Borough council. A major reorganisation in the Black Country in 1966, under the recommendation of the Local Government Commission for England led to the creation of an area of contiguous county boroughs; the County Borough of Warley was formed by the merger of the county borough of Smethwick and municipal borough of Rowley Regis with the Worcestershire borough of Oldbury: the resulting county borough was associated with Worcestershire. Meanwhile, the county borough of Dudley a detached part of Worcestershire and became associated with Staffordshire instead; this reorganisation led to the administrative county of Staffordshire having a thin protrusion passing between the county boroughs and Shropshire, to the west, to form a short border with Worcestershire. Under the Local Government Act 1972, on 1 April 1974 the county boroughs of the Black Country and the Aldridge-Brownhills Urban District of Staffordshire became, along with Birmingham and Coventry and other districts, a new metropolitan county of West Midlands.
County boroughs were abolished, with Stoke becoming a non-metropolitan district in Staffordshire, Burton forming an unparished area in the district of East Staffordshire. On 1 April 1997, under a recommendation of the Banham Commission, Stoke-on-Trent became a unitary authority independent of Staffordshire once more. In July 2009 the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold found in Britain was discovered in a field near Lichfield; the artefacts, known as The Staffordshire Hoard have tentatively been dated to the 7th or 8th centuries, placing the origin of the items in the time of the Kingdom of Mercia. This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of the non-metropolitan county of Staffordshire at current basic prices published by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British pounds sterling; some nationally and internationally known companies have their base in Staffordshire. They include the Britannia Building Society, based in Leek. JCB is based in Rocester near Uttoxeter and Bet365, based in Stoke-on-Trent.
The theme park Alton Towers is in the Staffordshire Moorlands and several of the world's largest pottery manufacturers are based in Stoke-on-Trent. Staffordshire has a comprehensive system with eight independent schools. Most secondary schools are from 11–16 or 18, but two in Staffordshire Moorlands and South Staffordshire are from 13–18. Resources are shared. There are two universities in the county, Keele University in Newcastle-under-Lyme and Staffordshire University, which has campuses in Stoke-on-Trent, Stafford and Shrewsbury; the modern county of Staffordshire has three professional football clubs – Stoke City and Port Vale, both from Stoke-on-Trent, Burton Albion, who play in Burton upon Trent. Stoke City, one of the oldest professional football clubs in existence, were founded in 1863 and played at the Victoria Ground for 119 years from 1878 until their relocation to the Britannia Stadium in 1997, they were among the 12 founder members of the Football League in 1888. By the late 1930s, they were establi
Hints, Staffordshire
Hints is a small village and civil parish between Lichfield and Tamworth in Staffordshire, within Lichfield local government district. The village is on the line of Watling Street, the A5, but the A5 now runs in a cutting north of the village; the name of the parish council is Hints with Canwell. The parish church is dedicated to St Bartholomew; the name Hints appears to derive from the Welsh word hynt, meaning'a road'. This suggests that the area was occupied by Welsh speakers until at least the late 6th century, when most of the Midlands had been occupied by the English. Physician and author Sir John Floyer was born in Hints. Official church web site Village web site GENUKI: Hints
Stonnall
Stonnall is a village which, for the most part, is in Staffordshire, close to Shenstone, Walsall Wood and Aldridge. It is divided into Lower Stonnall; the two divisions are so-called due to the difference in elevation. The village is associated with the hamlets of Hilton and Thornes. There are two possibilities or there may have been two dialectal forms; the name Stonnall may be derived from the Anglo-Saxon words stan and halh, meaning stony nook of land. However, in the medieval pipe rolls, the alternative Stonwal is given alongside the more familiar form. In this case, the second element may be Anglo-Saxon waelle, giving a meaning of a stony and watery place, it is true that the area has been prone to flooding. Bronze Age activity in the area is attested by the discovery of the Stonnall Hoard at Gainsborough Farm in 1824; the items recovered included 22 bronze and lead artefacts. Iron Age activity in the area is attested by the hill fort at Castle Old Fort, otherwise known locally as the Castles or Stonnall Hill Fort.
The fort was constructed by the Celtic tribe, the Cornovii. In the 12th century, Stonnall together with the rest of the Parish of Shenstone was given to Osney Abbey by Baron Robert D'Oyly, the high constable of Oxford. Stonnall remained in the hands of the abbey until the Reformation. After the Reformation, much of the land was in the ownership of the Manor of Shenstone based at Little Aston Hall. In the late Middle Ages, Stonnall was a staging point on the coach route between Chester; the Welsh Harp and the Swan Inn provided service to travellers on Old Chester Road. In the early 19th century, under the direction of the Church of England and with the assistance of the manor, a highly detailed tithe map of the Parish of Shenstone was produced, along with a book of awards, signed off by John Mellor, the estate manager at Little Aston Hall; these documents are kept in a county records office. St Peter's Chapel of Ease was built in 1822 and consecrated on 23 January 1823; some years Stonnall became an ecclesiastic parish in its own right and the chapel was designated as a fully-fledged parish church.
Its first minister was Rev James Downes BA, the incumbent until his death in 1893. William Tennant, Lord of the Manor of Shenstone, gave the land on which the church is situated along with £100 towards the construction of the building. Robert Peel of Tamhorn gave a further £60. A total of £623/19s/0d was raised from public subscriptions. John Mellor took on the role. William Tennant provided land for the construction of the National School, Stonnall's first educational establishment; this surrounding area until 1874 when St Peter's School was opened. Stonnall was part of Lichfield Rural District until 1 April 1974, when local government was reorganised following the Local Government Act 1972; as a constituent part of the civil parish of Shenstone, the village elects members to Shenstone Parish Council. As far as higher local government is concerned, the village is divided between two local authorities; the division of the village, to the west of Chester Road is part of the Metropolitan borough of Walsall.
To the east of the road, Stonnall is part of the District of Lichfield. Liz Hassall and Joseph Powell are the elected to Lichfield District Council. Stonnall is part of Lichfield Rural South ward of Staffordshire County Council. David Smith is the current county councillor for that ward. Stonnall is within the parliamentary constituency of Tamworth; the current member of parliament is Christopher Pincher. Wordsley House, located in upper Main Street, is the former public house and inn known as the Welsh Harp; this was for many years one of the staging posts on the coach route between Chester. The Manor House at Lazy Hill was built by Rowland Fryth of Thornes Hall in the early 18th century and was the former public house and inn known as the Swan Inn, it was built to compete with the Welsh Harp for coaching route business. Stonnall has a small collection of shops, two public houses, a village hall and St Peter's C of E Primary School. There are many residential buildings and some farm buildings, with the Sandhills water pumping station, owned by South Staffordshire Water, located just outside the village.
There is a park and the Youth and Community Centre. Stonnall features an isolated beech tree on top of Grove Hill. Known as the Stonnall Tree, it has been the cause of endless fascination and speculation for over a hundred years and has become a village icon. Pen Brook rises at the Fox Covey on Castle Hill and flows through Stonnall Gorse and alongside Lazy Hill Road where it enters a series of culverts at Chester Road; the brook is visible on the eastern side of the playing fields and again where it emerges from the last culvert at the Wall Heath fields. Upper Stonnall has a bus service operated by Central Buses; the route is numbered 35B and runs between Walsall and Lichfield via Aldridge and Shentone. The route operates every 2 hours Monday to Saturday. Sidney John Genders, who in 1970 was the first person to row single-handedly across the Atlantic, was born in Lynn in 1919. GENUKI: Stonnall St. Peter's Stonnall Stonnall History Group
