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Leigh
Leigh maps
Historic maps of Leigh and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Leigh maps
Leigh photos
We have no photos of Leigh, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Cheadle| Uttoxeter| Alton| Denstone| Alton Towers| Hixon| Rocester| Caverswall| Prestwood| Weston Coyney| Normacot
Leigh area books
Displaying 1 of 4 books about Leigh and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Leigh
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Staffordshire memories
Better Late Than Never.
I met my wife Dorothy in Northampton. She came from Cheadle. Incidentally I was born at Ryton-on-Tyne. One day Dorothy asked me if I would like to move to Cheadle so I got a map out and what caught my eye was a place called Upper Tean which was about 3 mile from Cheadle. Within 4 weeks we were living in Upper Tean and it's a beautiful place to live in. From the kitchen window to the horizon one can see many woods, old-fashioned stone walls and hedges. At this moment in the distance there is a farmer at work in the field. Actually I like a game of chess, but moving to Upper Tean was the best move I ever made.
Family History
While researching my family tree I've come across an Anthony Martin (born 1746 in Mapperley, Derbyshire) who died in Fradswell in May 1821 and was buried there on May 29 1821. I wonder which churchyard he's in or whether there are any Martins still living locally.
Vicar's Daughter Growing up in Gratwich
After living in Jamaica and Barbados for some years, we returned and my father became priest-in-charge of Gratwich and Kingstone in the 1970s and early 1980s. I was the eldest of five. Our crumbling, draughty, white-and-blue Queen Anne vicarage, now done up with deluxe helipad, was as if out of an Albert Camus novel. We swam in the marl pit at the back in summer and skated in winter, and played and rode our little welsh ponies in the fields around us and went swimming with the ponies in the pond in the river Blythe at the back of St Mary's, the Georgian gem of a church where Mrs Caldwell played the pedal organ and her daugher Joy sang with a voice to match her name and the prayer books still referenced King George.
When The Searchlights Came
When the searchlights came... During the Second World War, Uttoxeter hardly knew that the war was on, although our young men and women kept leaving, and rationing was severe. One change to us all, on the park side of the town, was the opening of the bypass in 1939. The war stopped operations, and of the dual carriageway (a source of wonder to me) only one lane was open, the nearside side, facing Stoke, the remaining lane remained in its raw construction state, frequently filled with water, and was not completed for 2 years after the war. We local children noticed the arrival of large army lorries on a field abutting the unused lane of the bypass, about 1940. Nissan huts went up, concrete roads laid, and to our amazement an assault course, with death slide over the River Tean, was constructed. Various rumours circulated. It was to be a anti-aircraft battery, then a barrage balloon site, then a prisoner of war camp, but we finally had the answer, four... Read more
Growing up With All my Relatives Living in Stramshall Parish
I was born in 1928, to John James and Olive Mellor, my grandfather was Percival Jackson Mellor, my grandmother Mary Ellen Mellor. They built with help Park Hill Farm, New Road, Uttoxeter, paying tithes to Stramshall Parish. All the family went to Stramshall Church, all my parents, uncles, and grandparents are buried in Stramshall Church. The first Vicar I remember was the Rev Charlon, an Anglican churchman of the old school. My great uncle, Thomas, lives with his wife Selina at Hill top Farm(Cottages). I spent my youth between the two farms and the surrounding fields. With the River Tean running between, it was an exciting place to grow up.
Park Hill Farm, Stramshall Parish
My grandfather was enlightened in many ways. He permitted the children from the western side of the town, to bathe and swim, at The Pipe, boundary with campbells, The Basin, near to stramshall footpath, subject to no litter, and interference with animals. This was permitted long after his death by my family, until 1972, when the farm was sold, due to the deaths of my aunts.
Bombs During The War
Uttoxeter did not suffer much during the war. The first stick of bombs fell in a field at Loxley, and a further stick followed later. The only 'blitz' was on the Bailey and Mellor families, in New Road (parish of Stramshall) - exact date forgotten, 1941/2. I was at home at 57 Park Avenue. My father was on Home Guard duties (he was too old for military service) at Bamfords Ltd, not JCB.
I usually got up early in the summer, walked along the unfinished by-pass and down to Park Hill Farm, breakfasted with my uncles and cousins. Then to school, or I went off scouring the fields. On this day, I met a neighbour, Tom Simpson, veteran of the First World War. He had a strange stacatto speech. He said, "The Germans hit your grandma's". I told my mother and went to the farm. Some rescue and firemen were about, but no police. I saw a large crater in the front garden, some 30 feet across, and... Read more
