A rare reason for a Midlands chap to totter down to London. “Wright of Derby: From the Shadows” is a major exhibition of the paintings and other works of Joseph Wright of Derby. At the National Gallery, until 10th May 2026. A hefty £12 entry, which means it should not be too crowded.

Picture: A family iron-forge, with a water-mill powered trip-hammer, 1772. WikiMedia via Google Art Project.

A major new image archive of the British Isles, now publicly accessible, the Country Life Magazine Image Archive. Access to the entire picture library from the inception of the venerable weekly magazine onwards, including unpublished items. Nearly complete and due to be 100% complete just before Christmas 2025, according to the magazine three weeks ago.

Sadly the pictures have no ‘date of making’, which is unfortunate for historians and restorationists. Though one can at least assume b&w pictures are older and are pre colour-film. Personal use appears to cost £75 per picture. Biddulph Grange (above) is the most interesting local b&w set from Staffordshire, possibly made in the 1950s at a guess? Surprisingly there are no pictures from places which might have been expected, such as Alderley Edge or Cannock Chase.

When searching for Stoke, note that searching for Stoke-on-Trent does not call pictures of Gladstone Pottery which was a rare venturing of the magazine into the city. Thus there may be Stoke items that need to be called by their exact name, since they haven’t been tagged with Stoke-on-Trent.

Useful for cycling Stokies to know. The large independent bicycle and bicycle repairs/accessories shop Rourke Cycles has moved out of Cobridge (was at the top of Grange Park, by the Community Centre, for many years). They’re now based down at Pennant House on Salem Street, Etruria, said to be near to the Bet365 mega-offices.

I know Etruria, but even I had to look up Salem Street. The map on their site is not helpful either. Turns out I know it well, but not the street name. The new shop is actually at the start of that industrial cul-de-sac on the other side of the Etruria Road from Bet365, a cul-de-sac into which no-one ventures except van-drivers. Next to the gas-bottle depot, which one can see across while cycling past on the canal, and to the builders-supply yard. Which means it’s easily accessible from the canal towpath, which is rather handy. Hopefully they’ll persuade the gas-bottle place to put a sign on their towpath-facing fence/gate, telling cyclists that there’s a big bike-shop just out of sight over the hedge.

Anyway, above is my orienting picture to show my readers where it is now. Not sure where you’d do cycle-locking there, though. I assume the new shop will have installed some secure locking-bars outside. I’ll check on Sunday. Update: No locking bars outside, as yet. One would lock the bike to the canal towpath off-ramp metal fence, or perhaps the industrial fence opposite the shop, if not taking one’s bike inside the shop.

The best pub in Stoke, the Holy Inadequate, is a few hundred yards away. Should you want to mull over a big bike purchase, or to celebrate one. Bike stuff stores Go Outdoors and Halfords are also nearby over on Festival Park, which means (provided you know the best routes) it’s an easy bike-trip over to Rourke Cycles for a third opinion — they may be able to provide what you want at a lower cost, have in-stock something the others have run out of, or to do bike maintenance to a higher standard.

Update: Shortly after this post, I learned of another shop, quite a bit further up the towpath and up by Westport Lake. Called the Cyclist Discount Centre (CDC) and apparently specialists in electric bikes? Sadly their website doesn’t like VPN users… so I didn’t find out any more.