Staffordshire Way

Abbots Bromley is a village and civil parish in the East Staffordshire district of Staffordshire and lies approximately 9.8 miles (15.8 km) east of Stafford, England. According to the University of Nottingham English Place-names project, the settlement name Abbots Bromley could mean 'clearing/wood frequented by broom'. The prefix 'abbots' was added because the village was held by Burton Abbey. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 1,779.Abbots Bromley was rated the best place to live in the Midlands by the Sunday Times in 2013 and again in 2016. The village is a regular entrant and often winner of the Staffordshire Best Kept Village Competition which takes place across the county each year. Originally organised by the Community Council of Staffordshire there is a best-kept village award for a large and small village in each of the county's Districts and Boroughs. Whilst down the years the East Staffordshire district prize has been awarded to Abbots Bromley on a number of occasions the overall county title continues to elude. In August 2017 the village won the double honour of winning both the best kept village and community council trophy award, a double not achieved for many years. This double was repeated again in 2018. In 2019 the competition was taken on by The Community Foundation for Staffordshire and Abbots Bromley won for the third consecutive year. Through the competition Abbots Bromley maintains a healthy rivalry with nearby Yoxall, also a regular winner in the East Staffordshire section. The village is world-renowned for its annual Horn Dance, an ancient tradition which attracts visitors from far and wide.

Abbots Bromley School (previously the School of S. Mary and S. Anne, Abbots Bromley before becoming Abbots Bromley School for Girls) was a coeducational boarding and day private school in the village of Abbots Bromley, Staffordshire, England. It was one of the original Woodard Schools — and the first such for girls — and so was an Anglican foundation that historically reflected the Anglo-Catholic ethos of the Woodard Foundation. It was affiliated to the Girls' Schools Association, but financial problems over many years closed it in the summer of 2019.

RAF Abbots Bromley is a former Royal Air Force Relief Landing Ground (RLG) located 0.7 miles (1.1 km) north-west of the village of Abbots Bromley, Staffordshire. The airfield opened during 1940 and closed on 31 March 1949 being the satellite of RAF Burnaston.

Blithbury is a small village in Lichfield District, Staffordshire, England. Part of the civil parish of Mavesyn Ridware, it lies near the River Blithe, about 3 miles (5 km) north of Handsacre, 3 miles north-east of Rugeley, and 3 miles south of Abbots Bromley. The public house bears the name The Bull and Spectacles. In the 19th century it had the more common name of Bull's Head.In the first half of the 12th century religious houses for monks and nuns were founded at Blithbury. Within a few decades only the nuns are mentioned. The order was associated with the nuns of Black Ladies Priory, Brewood, and was eventually absorbed by them, so that there is no mention of the nuns of Blithbury after the early 14th century.According to Douglas Adams' 1983 humorous dictionary "The Meaning of Liff", a Blithbury is "A look someone gives you by which you become aware that they're much too drunk to have understood anything you've said to them in the last twenty minutes".

Blithfield Reservoir is a large raw water reservoir in Staffordshire, England, owned by South Staffordshire Water. Some 800 acres (324 hectares) of reservoir was formed on land sold by Baron Bagot to the South Staffordshire Water Works (SSWW) in the 1940s. Blithfield Reservoir was opened by Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother on Tuesday 27 October 1953. The Reservoir is located just north-east of the town of Rugeley and just south of Abbots Bromley The reservoir is a haven for wildlife, particularly birds, a fact that was recognised in 1988 when the reservoir and most of its surrounding woodland was designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest, (SSSI). Parts of the shoreline and surrounding woodland are only available to birdwatchers under a permit scheme, operated by the West Midland Bird Club, but much of the open water is visible from the road causeway which crosses the reservoir (grid reference SK055235), and there is access to the dam end of the reservoir. There is also an education centre to facilitate visits by school parties.Blithfield was once a "members only" fly fishing destination, but, in recent years, it has been opened up to day ticket holders. Day tickets are available from the Estate Office.Blithfield reservoir walks give members of the public the chance to enjoy the area and its wildlife. The reservoir has been visited by many scarce and rare migrant birds, including an inland Arctic warbler (1993), Bonaparte's gull (1994 and 1996), blue-winged teal (1996 and 2000) and squacco heron (2004).

Admaston is a small hamlet in Staffordshire, England just outside the town of Rugeley near to Abbots Bromley and Blithfield Hall.The name Admaston is derived from the Anglo-Saxon personal name Ēadmund and means 'Ēadmund's town'; it was recorded in the 12th century as Edmundestone and Admerdeston, and in the 13th century as Admundestan and Edmundestone.It is a namesake of Admaston/Bromley township in Renfrew County, Eastern Ontario, Canada, which took part of its name from this hamlet in the 19th century.

Bagot's Wood is the largest extant piece of the ancient Needwood Forest, located near to Abbots Bromley, in Staffordshire, England. The forest derives its name from the Bagot family, seated for centuries at Blithfield Hall in Staffordshire. The northeast edge of Bagot's wood, which forms part of what remains of the former Royal Forest of Needwood has been designated as the Forest Banks Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

Colton is a village and civil parish in Lichfield District, Staffordshire, England. It is situated just outside the town of Rugeley off the B5013 road which heads towards Uttoxeter to the north. Colton is the home to Border Collie Trust GB, a registered charity rescuing and rehoming Border Collies and Collie crosses throughout the UK. The oldest building in the town is St Mary's Church, which dates back to the late 12th or early 13th century. The Colton Village Hall includes a playground park for young children and a small field popular with dog walkers. Beyond the field sits the Colton Wild Flower Meadow, which was established in 2018 to preserve meadow flowers, grasses, insect and bird life. The village is entered by way of a hump-back bridge over the Moreton Brook, which has a ford alongside for large vehicles. It is said that in World War II, a US army lorry took the bridge at speed and overturned, seriously injuring two soldiers. St. Mary's Church stands on the right, with St. Mary's School on the left. There used to be a pool on the left a short distance beyond the school, on which people would skate, or slide, during the frequent very cold winters of the 1960s. A hundred yards further on is the Forge, where the Williscroft family worked creating steel hoop for cart wheels, toboggans for use in the snow on The Martlin Hill. Colton House billeted a squad of Royal Engineers during the early years of World War II, and then American soldiers in 1944, with there being no telephone at Colton House, a soldier, with a bicycle, was permanently stationed a few hundred yards up the road outside the telephone box at the bottom of Martlin Lane, to respond as necessary when the telephone rang, in true Dad's Army fashion. The telephone service was part of the post office, and the soldier on duty at night would be comforted by a tray of cocoa and biscuits brought down the lane by the post-mistress's son. At the foot of Martlin Lane is the 'Pinfold'. Entering the Pinfold from the South is a public footpath which crosses the fields to Rugeley and the B5013 road near Trent Valley Railway Station. Red bricks can be seen embedded in the ground at points on this walk, and they are believed to have been laid by prisoners taken during the Napoleonic War. Alongside the Pinfold is the village War Memorial. Almost opposite is The Greyhound Inn. Further into the town there is Malt House Farm, which is the former home of the late prominent Euro-sceptic Tory MP Nick Budgen. Heading east, there is High House (the former village shop). Turning left leads to the main part of the village where the older 20th century houses have made way for more modern dwellings. From here, the northern end of the village sits Ye Olde Dun Cow, which doubles as a restaurant and a bed and breakfast inn. Further out of town is Manor Farm, while Heath Way leads to the hamlet of Stockwell Heath, whose duck pond has for several generations been referred to tongue-in-cheek as 'Stockwell Heath Docks'.

Blithfield is a civil parish in the East Staffordshire district of Staffordshire, England. It includes the settlements of Admaston (a small hamlet in Staffordshire), Newton along with Blithfield Hall, home of the Bagot family since 1360. It is situated 7.5 miles (12.1 km) southwest of Uttoxeter and 5.3 miles (8.5 km) north of Rugeley. Blithfield and Admaston comprise 1,414 acres (572 ha) of land, with Newton occupying 1,744 acres (706 ha). The nearest railway stations are Rugeley Trent Valley 4.5 miles (7.2 km) and Rugeley Town 6.0 miles (9.7 km).

Blithfield Hall (pronounced locally as Bliffield), is a privately owned Grade I listed country house in Staffordshire, England, situated some 9 miles (14 km) east of Stafford, 7 miles (11 km) southwest of Uttoxeter and 5 miles (8.0 km) north of Rugeley. The Hall, with its embattled towers and walls, has been the home of the Bagot family since the late 14th century. The present house is mainly Elizabethan, with a Gothic façade added in the 1820s to a design probably by John Buckler. The decoration of the house was carried out by the Gothic-style plasterer, Francis Bernasconi.In 1945 the Hall, then in a neglected and dilapidated state, was sold by Gerald Bagot, 5th Baron Bagot, together with its 650-acre (260 ha) estate to South Staffordshire Waterworks Company, whose intention was to build a reservoir (completed in 1953). The 5th Baron died in 1946 having sold many of the contents of the house. His successor and cousin Caryl Bagot, 6th Baron Bagot, repurchased the property and 30 acres (12 ha) of land from the water company and began an extensive programme of renovation and restoration. In September 1959 Lord Bagot sold Blithfield Hall at an open auction held in the Shrewsbury Arms, Rugeley. The property was bought for £12,000 (2011: £230,000) by his wife Nancy, Lady Bagot.The 6th Baron died in 1961. In 1986, the Hall was divided into four separate houses. The main part which incorporates the Great Hall is owned by the Bagot Jewitt Trust. The Bagot Jewitt family remain in residence. On a Monday in early September every year, villagers from nearby Abbots Bromley visit the Hall to perform the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance. Blithfield Hall is known as the home of a breed of goat, the Bagot goat. The part of the parish known as Bagot's Bromley took its name from ownership by the family since 1360. Bagot's Wood, the remains of the ancient Needwood Forest, also takes its name from the Bagots.

Hill Ridware is a small village in the civil parish of Mavesyn Ridware in the Lichfield District of Staffordshire, England. It is the largest settlement in the parish with a population of 857 at the 2011 Census. Situated across the River Trent from Rugeley, it is on the B5104 north of Armitage.Facilities in the village include one public house and the Henry Chadwick Primary School. There is also a village hall that hosts a variety of events. There is also a children's play park and field on the village hall grounds. Currently 48 new houses are in development on former farmland, estimated to be completed late 2018.The late 18th-century Ridware Hall is on Wade Lane on the western side of the village. Its attached coach house and stable block survive. It is a Grade II listed building.

Rugeley Trent Valley is a railway station located on the outskirts of Rugeley in Staffordshire, England. It is one of two stations serving Rugeley, the other being Rugeley Town. It is on the eastern side of the town close to the Rugeley Trent Valley Trading Estate and located close to the River Trent. West Midlands Trains operate the station, and all trains serving it. It is a minor station on the Trent Valley section of the West Coast Main Line. It is also the terminus of the Chase Line from Birmingham and Walsall.