Cotton, Staffordshire

Cotton College was a Roman Catholic boarding school in Cotton, Staffordshire, United Kingdom. It was also known as Saint Wilfrid's College. The school buildings were centred on Cotton Hall, a country house used by religious communities from the 1840s until the school moved there in 1873. The school closed in 1987 and the site is now derelict. The school and its chapel (St Wilfrid's church) are both Grade II listed buildings.

Cotton Dell is a nature reserve of the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust. It is a wooded valley area near the village of Cotton and about 0.5 miles (0.8 km) north of the village of Oakamoor, in Staffordshire, England.

Broomyshaw is a village in Staffordshire, England. Population details for the 2011 census can be found under Waterhouses, Staffordshire

Oakamoor is a small village in north Staffordshire, England. Although it is now a rural area, it has an industrial past which drew on the natural resources of the Churnet valley. Iron was smelted from medieval times. Copper and lumber were also important to the local economy. In the nineteenth century Thomas Bolton's copperworks near the River Churnet supplied copper wire for the first transatlantic telegraph cable. The buildings of the Thomas Bolton factory were demolished in 1966. Lightoaks Hall on Cheadle Road dates from the 1820s and was built for the Bolton family. Holy Trinity parish church, on Church Bank, was erected in 1832, at a cost of £1600, raised by subscription and a grant from the Church Building Society. The Churnet Valley line passed through Oakamoor. Oakamoor railway station was closed down in 1967. The railway track leading to Alton Towers railway station has been converted to a footpath.

Submission was a theme park ride at Alton Towers in Staffordshire, England from 2001 until 2013. It was a Chance Rides double swinging inverter.

Ripsaw was a Top Spin ride at Alton Towers in Staffordshire, England. It opened in 1997 and closed at the end of 2015.

Oakamoor Tunnel is a disused 497-yard (454 m) long tunnel located north of Oakamoor railway station on the former Uttoxeter to North Rode section of the North Staffordshire Railway. The tunnel opened with the line in 1849. The tunnel was closed in 1964 with the withdrawal of passenger and freight service between Uttoxeter and Oakamoor Sand Sidings (just north of the tunnel). The tunnel is complete, in quite good condition.

Oakamoor railway station is a closed railway station in the Churnet Valley, Staffordshire. The station was opened in 1849 as part of the Churnet Valley Line constructed by the North Staffordshire Railway. Serving the village of Oakamoor the station remained open until 1965 when all services were withdrawn, A little north of the station, freight traffic from Oakamoor Sand Sidings continued until 1988. From 1917 until 1963 shunting in these sidings was performed by a battery-electric locomotive, built on a wagon chassis. This has now been preserved at the National Railway Museum.

Beastie was a steel family roller coaster made by Pinfari of Italy. The coaster was located in the Adventure Land area of Alton Towers in Staffordshire, England. The ride featured a tunnel and performed two laps of the circuit each run.Originally opening in the Festival Park (now Dark Forest) area of the park under the name Mini-Dragon, it allowed younger visitors of the park to experience the thrill of a roller coaster. It was renamed in 1987 to just the "Dragon". In 1993 it was then moved to the Thunder Valley section of the park where it assumed the name "Beastie" after a larger roller coaster in the area, called The Beast. It stayed here for several years, up to the 1998 season when it was moved to the Adventure Land section of the park. The ride was very compact and contained several head chopper effects. In 2009, it became the Alton Towers' oldest operating roller-coaster following the closure of the Corkscrew the previous year. In early 2011, it was revealed that Beastie would not be operating again. It was removed from the park just before the 2013 season and was eventually sold to an independent ride operator, who renamed the coaster as Dragon Challenge, which currently operates at Barry Island Pleasure Park. In 2015, Octonauts Rollercoaster Adventure, a Zamperla family coaster, opened on where Beastie once stood. The site of the coaster is now part of CBeebies Land.

Spinball Whizzer is a spinning roller coaster located in the Adventure Land area of Alton Towers in Staffordshire, England. Built by Maurer Söhne, it was previously sponsored by Sega, the company that created the Sonic the Hedgehog video game franchise, and was known as Sonic Spinball from 2010 to 2015.

The Chained Oak is an oak tree, tied in chains, near to the village of Alton, Staffordshire, England. The tree, referred to as "The Old Oak", is the subject of a local legend involving the Earl of Shrewsbury and an old beggar woman. It is located on a public footpath to the left of the Chained Oak B&B. The legend was adapted and fancifully elaborated to form the back-story for the ride Hex – the Legend of the Towers at the nearby Alton Towers theme park. The ride tells the tale of the old oak tree.

The tiny hamlet of Ramsor (Methodist spelling) in North Staffordshire played a significant part in the origins of Primitive Methodism. Listed in the Domesday Book as Ramshorn, this ancient hamlet is a typical example of the depopulation of the countryside. Very little now remains of this village apart from a few farms and cottages. The Primitive Methodist Chapel is the only surviving public building. Ramsor, spelling the name as it was pronounced, is the usual spelling in Primitive Methodist documents while Ramshorn is still the official spelling. The variant spellings will be used here to distinguish these. Because of the importance of Ramsor in Primitive Methodism, this article a) Sets out some background information on Ramshorn, and b) Illustrates the place of Ramsor in Primitive Methodist history.