Chartley Castle

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.

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

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.

Chartley Moss is a 105.80 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Staffordshire, notified in 1987. The area has been designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, a Ramsar Convention protected wetland site, and a national nature reserve. There is no access without a permit.In 1995 Chartley Moss was twinned with Tsukigaumi Mire, Hokkaido, in a gesture of goodwill between scientists from Hokkaido University and the University of Nottingham.

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 is a village and a civil parish in the English county of Staffordshire.grid reference SK003259

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.

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.

Fradswell is a village in Staffordshire, England, approximately 7 miles (10 km) north-east of the town of Stafford and 7 miles (11 km) north of Colwich. Fradwell was first mentioned as part of the Colwich parish in the Domesday Book, where it is listed as Frodawelle or Frodeswelle, and it is likely to have been an Anglian settlement established during the Dark Ages.The village received a church of its own in the 13th century, when the Chapel of Saint James The Less was established. The chancel survives, but the main part of the church was rebuilt in 1764. Fradswell became a parish in its own right in February 1851 (it has since become the Milwich with Fradswell Parish), and further refurbishment, including the building of a new nave and the installation of stained glass by William Wailes, followed soon after. At this time it had 237 inhabitants and 1,100 acres (4.5 km2) of land. Fradswell in 2021 is a rural village of 175 people. In 2015, it was awarded a Big Lottery grant of £450,000 to demolish the 1924 wooden village hall and build a new fit-for-purpose community hub, opened by local children in 2016. Nearby in the village green is a serenity garden. The hub runs regular monthly community events throughout the year.Fradswell hosts two annual events. Each September, at Frapfest! the Fradswell Apple festival, locals donate apples to be chopped and pressed into apple juice, most of which is turned into Fradswell Cider over the autumn. In January, the Fradswell Wassail is an evening event with flaming torches, percussion and melodies by which the community "wake" the apple trees in expectation of a good summer crop.

Gratwich is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Kingstone, in the East Staffordshire district, in the county of Staffordshire, England. It is miles southwest of Uttoxeter in the valley of the River Blythe. In 1931 the parish had a population of 58.It is believed that the name Gratwich comes from the Old English ‘greot’, meaning gravel and ‘wic’ meaning “lying on”, so Gratwich means 'lying on gravel'. An alternative possibility may be “a dairy farm by the gravelly stream”. In the Domesday Book of 1086 Gratwich is recorded as Crotewiche. At that time the manor was part of the lands of Robert de Stafford. There was sufficient arable land for three ploughs. The recorded population was four villeins, five bordars and one serf. There was a Grist mill which brought in four shillings per year, and the manor was recorded as being worth 24 shillings per year. There was one acre of meadow and a wood half a league in length and breadth.The village church is St. Mary the Virgin's.Notable locals include native Ruth Gledhill (born 1959), journalist for The Times, daughter of the vicar of the time. Alfred Ronalds researched his renowned book The Fly-fisher's Entomology (1836) while living nearby at Lea Fields. On 1 April 1934 the parish was abolished and merged with Kingston.