place

Colton, Staffordshire

Civil parishes in StaffordshireLichfield DistrictVillages in Staffordshire

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'.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Colton, Staffordshire (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Colton, Staffordshire
Martlin Lane, Lichfield

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: Colton, StaffordshireContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 52.78 ° E -1.925 °
placeShow on map

Address

Martlin Lane

Martlin Lane
WS15 3LH Lichfield
England, United Kingdom
mapOpen on Google Maps

Share experience

Nearby Places

Blithfield Reservoir
Blithfield Reservoir

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).