Hixon, Staffordshire

Royal Air Force Hixon, or more simply RAF Hixon, was a Royal Air Force station located on the north western edge of the village of Hixon in Staffordshire, England. The airfield was 7.5 miles (12.1 km) east of Stafford and bounded at the west and north by railways. After opening in 1942, it served as a base for No. 30 Operational Training Unit and, after the OTU left up until its closure in 1957, it served as a satellite site for No. 16 Maintenance Unit based at RAF Stafford.

Royal Air Force Seighford or more simply RAF Seighford is a former Royal Air Force satellite station located 3.6 miles (5.8 km) northwest of Stafford, Staffordshire, England. The site was opened as a satellite/relief landing ground for RAF Hixon, 7.5 miles (12.1 km) to the east. From 1956 until 1965, the airfield and associated buildings were used by the Boulton Paul Aircraft Company as a testing area for overhauled aircraft.

Hixon railway station is a disused railway station in Staffordshire, England. The railway line between Stone and Colwich was opened by the North Staffordshire Railway (NSR) in 1849 A station was opened to serve the village of Hixon, the exact opening date of the station is not recorded but it first appeared in Bradshaw's Railway Guide in December 1864. Although the line was a busy route for the NSR for traffic to and from Birmingham and the south; the amount of local traffic carried was low and passenger services were never intensive. The station was renamed as Hixon Halt by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway. Passenger services on the line were, as a wartime measure, reduced in 1941 to a single train per day from Stoke which had no corresponding return journey. In 1947 all stopping passenger services between Stone and Colwich were withdrawn and Hixon along with the neighbouring station, Great Haywood, closed.At the north end of the station was a level crossing and it was this crossing that was the scene of the Hixon rail crash in January 1968.

On 6 January 1968, a low-loader transporter carrying a 120-ton electrical transformer was struck by a British Rail express train on a recently installed automatic level crossing at Hixon, Staffordshire, England. The collision resulted in eleven deaths and 45 people injured, and led to improvements in signage around automatic level crossings.

Stowe-by-Chartley is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Stafford, Staffordshire, England. According to the parish council, the parish includes Amerton, Chartley, Grindley and Drointon. The village and civil parish of Hixon is to the south, and East Staffordshire district borders the parish to the east. At St John the Baptist's church in Stowe-by-Chartley is a plaque by Sir Edwin Lutyens to the memory of Billy Congreve VC, DSO, MC (1891–1916) recipient of the Victoria Cross

Chartley railway station was a former British railway station to serve the village of Stowe-by-Chartley in Staffordshire. It was opened by the Stafford and Uttoxeter Railway in 1867 and renamed Stowe in 1874 and also known as Chartley and Stowe. Passenger services finished in 1939. The Stafford and Uttoxeter Railway was purchased for £100,000 by the Great Northern Railway in July 1881 and the line subsequently passed into LNER ownership with Railway Grouping in 1923. In 1882, it was the scene of a serious accident. A special train had been provided for the Meynell Hunt. It left Derby Friargate with four horseboxes from GNR and the MS&LR plus three passenger carriages. At Sudbury six North Staffordshire horseboxes were added after the first coach, which was behind the engine. Thus only one vehicle was continuously braked. Although the driver was using care in approaching stations, he was being piloted by the fireman who knew the line, but not that the passing loop at Chartley had just been brought into use. The train approached Chartley at 30 to 35 miles an hour and the leading coach became derailed. This caused the horseboxes to strike the timber platform, causing severe damage, and several horses were killed or injured. None of the passengers or crew were hurt. The Inspecting Officer for the Board of Trade recommended that, in future, the facing points for all passing loops should be straight, with the "S" curve at the trailing end.

Amerton is a small village in the Borough of Stafford, Staffordshire, England, situated on the A518 road between Stafford and Uttoxeter. The population details for the 2011 census can be found under Stowe-by-Chartley. You can visit Amerton Farm, Amerton Railway and the British Wildlife Rescue Centre

The Amerton Railway is a 2 ft (610 mm) narrow gauge heritage railway in the English county of Staffordshire. It is owned by Staffordshire Narrow Gauge Railway Limited, a registered charity, and operated by volunteers. Construction of the railway started in 1990 in a field at the side of Amerton Working Farm. The first trains ran in 1992, but it was around 10 years later when the railway was completed as a full circle with two passing Loops. The collection of locomotives is primarily focused around locomotives that were either built or operated in Staffordshire.

The Black Country Ring is a UK canal ring composed of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal, Birmingham Main Line, Birmingham and Fazeley Canal, Coventry Canal and Trent and Mersey Canal.

Haywood Junction (grid reference SJ994229), or Great Haywood Junction, is the name of the canal junction where the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal terminates and meets the Trent and Mersey Canal near to the village of Great Haywood, Staffordshire, England.

Great Haywood is a village in central Staffordshire, England, just off the A51 and about 4.5 miles (7.2 km) northwest of Rugeley and 7.1 miles (11.4 km) southeast of the county town of Stafford. Population details taken at the 2011 census can be found under Colwich. Haywood lies on the River Trent, where the Trent is met by its tributary, the River Sow. The village is also the site of a significant junction of the English inland canal network, Haywood Junction, where the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal meets the Trent and Mersey Canal. The waters around the village are widely regarded by guidebooks as some of the most attractive on the network.There are two churches, each of which has an attached school. St. John's RC School was classed as 'Good' in their most recent Ofsted inspection, and Anson CE School was deemed to be 'Outstanding' in December 2011.St. Stephen's Church was designed by Thomas Trubshaw, and became the centre of a parish in 1854. The 2nd, 3rd and 4th Earl of Lichfield and other members of the Anson family of Shugborough Hall are buried in the churchyard of St Stephen's.St. John the Baptist's Catholic church was originally built in Tixall, about three miles (5 km) away, as a private chapel to Tixall Hall, which was owned by the Aston family. When the estate was sold to Earl Talbot, the church was dismantled and rebuilt with a few alterations in Great Haywood. The marks made on the blocks to allow reassembly can still be seen inside the church. There was originally a mill and a brewery in the village, but both have been closed down and demolished, commemorated by the names of the roads where they once stood (Mill Lane and Brewery Lane). Following a fatal automobile accident in 1905, the mill pond was drained and the road straightened. Samuel Peploe Wood (1827–1873) was an English sculptor and painter who was born in the village. He undertook work on many Staffordshire buildings, including the reredos at All Angels' Church, Colwich; corbels and bosses at St. Stephen's Church, Great Haywood and an oak lectern for Stowe by Lichfield. The Stone to Colwich railway line passes through Great Haywood, and the village was served by a railway station which was opened by the North Staffordshire Railway on 6 June 1887 and closed in 1957. The Great Haywood bypass opened 24 April 1964.In August 2002 advertisements were placed in the national press for a "hermit" to take up residence on the Great Haywood Cliffs above the nearby Shugborough estate, ancestral home of Lord Lichfield. Fifty-five people applied, and Ansuman Biswas was chosen as hermit. Shugborough also serves as the headquarters of Staffordshire's arts management team. The village was home to the newly married Edith Tolkien, wife of famous author J. R. R. Tolkien, from March 1916 to February 1917. She moved to the village to be close to his camp on Cannock Chase. J. R. R. Tolkien himself lived in Great Haywood in the winter of 1916–17.Great Haywood is the site of Essex Bridge, one of the largest surviving packhorse bridges in the country which stands over the River Trent near Shugborough Hall. It borders Cannock Chase, designated an area of outstanding natural beauty since 1958. Chaserider bus service 828 links Great Haywood with Stafford and Lichfield on an hourly basis 6 days a week. The former service 825 operated by Arriva ran 7 days a week up to half hourly.

Great Haywood railway station is a disused railway station in Staffordshire, England. The railway line between Stone and Colwich, England, was opened by the North Staffordshire Railway (NSR) in 1849 but a station to serve the village of Great Haywood was not opened until 1887. Although the line was a busy route for the NSR for traffic to and from Birmingham and the south; the amount of local traffic carried was low and passenger services were never intensive. Passenger services on the line were, as a wartime measure, reduced in 1941 to a single train per day from Stoke which had no corresponding return journey. In 1947 all stopping passenger services between Stone and Colwich were withdrawn and Great Haywood along with the neighbouring station, Hixon, closed.