The latest Country Life magazine is a special ‘Green’ issue ahead of the General Election. Not that they’re trying to push readers to vote for the Green Party, just get real grassroots environment and countryside issues on the agenda for discussion. The magazine’s lead editorial is a strong one about litter. This doesn’t, however, look at what the party manifestos have to say on litter. I thought I’d take a look. Here are the results for a basic keyword search for “litter” in the relevant PDFs…

Conservative Party: zero mentions.

Labour Party: zero mentions.

Reform (they have a ‘Contract’ rather than a manifesto): zero mentions.

Green Party (two versions, I searched the long version): zero mentions.

Lib Dems: zero mentions.

I also search for “tipping”, as in fly-tipping. Only the Conservatives mention it: “We will make fly-tipping an offence that carries penalty points” on a driving licence.

So there we have it. Even the Greens can’t bring themselves to mention a dire problem that’s staring the British people in the face every day. Maybe we need a manifesto from the Clean & Tidy Party. 🙂

A curious postcard, currently on eBay (not from me). The city of Stoke-on-Trent’s Museum and Art Gallery in an early view. It is a back view of the current one? It seems too small, and there would not be the distant views at either side. Perhaps there was something temporary in the city before the one that Prince Charles opened in Hanley, maybe as an annexe of a modernist secondary school in somewhere like Fenton?

Also, in the news today…. “Stoke-on-Trent City Archives has been officially opened at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, its new home.” It was up in the now-defunct City Central Library tower-block.

Proper weedkiller is not sold at B&Q any more, it seems. All they had on the shelves was just variations on ‘acetic acid’ at 6% solution, which is basically vinegar. Expensive politically-correct vinegar.

So I popped onto Amazon. Yup, there’s no nonsense here. Glyphosate galore. They even have branded Roundup with glyphosate. I ordered enough Roundup for this summer and next, and as a longer-term backup also got Hygeia’s “Weedfree Glyphosate 1 Litre” — which it’s claimed can dilute to 10 litres in 1 litre sprayers and still be effective. Amazon is happy to send both brands to a locker.

Why the need for a “longer term” backup in storage? Well apparently glyphosate (aka ‘glycophosphate’) weedkiller is currently legal to buy “until December 2025”, when its status will be reviewed yet again (how many times do they need to be told it’s safe?). But I’d say there’s a strong possibility a UK Labour government would quickly cave to the eco-worriers and ban it. Stock up on it now, is my suggestion.

The Two Saints Way long-distance footpath now has an unofficial free booklet showing an alternative traffic-free variant to get from Festival Park (retail area) – Hanley. A summer-only route, due to bogginess on small parts of one path used.

Maybe the ‘Silicon Stoke’ prospectus is starting to pay off. I was pleased to read “Pinball manufacturer signs deal at Stoke-on-Trent industrial estate” at the top end of Tunstall. Not quite a videogame developer, but in a way better. A high-value hardware/software fusion, in the form of a traditional pinball table able to load and play virtual/digital tables.

I’ve always been keen on pinball, but Pinballia’s website shows that their current range of tables goes from £1,279 to £5,920. Yeowch. Although, if they could get the late-great Pro Pinball: The Web running on a table emulation, even I might be tempted.

Also good to hear that the three tall bottle-kilns on Bournes Bank, Burslem, have been saved and restored. Apparently someone’s now going to try to put 40+ houses on that slope, though the last I heard it was unstable and sliding down the hill. Good luck to them.

New and local on Archive.org…

* Up the Garden Path (1986) (Rare D&D light-hearted fantasy-adventure module, produced for the 1986 Stoke Garden Festival and modelled on the site)

* Silverdale: the five road ends – a memoir of a 1940s childhood in a North Staffs mining village (2011)

* Oil paintings in public ownership in Staffordshire (2007) (Completist catalogue)

* History of the 8th North Staffords (1921) (British Army)

* Staffordshire Vol. 1: Natural History, Early Man, Romano-British Staffordshire, Anglo-Saxon Remains, Political History, Social and Economic History, Ancient Earthworks (1968) (Victoria Country Histories).

* Artists in industry : West Midlands (1984) (Artist placements in West Midlands industrial companies)

A new Potteries / Stoke-on-Trent artist, or at least ‘new to me’, discovered via an eBay listing (currently live) for this watercolour…

I see there’s more, and a link, at his page.

Spring at last. In the UK Spring starts on the night of 19th/20th March, the Vernal Equinox — when daylight and dark hours become equal in length.

The annual regional Archaeology Day 2024, Saturday 23rd March at the Potteries Museum in Stoke-on-Trent.

* Excavations at Nesscliffe, an unusual Iron Age hillfort in Shropshire.

* Archaeological sites found along the HS2 line in Staffordshire.

* A massive Iron Age post alignment, amidst a landscape of prehistoric features in the Derbyshire Trent Valley near Repton.

* Pottery found at the Hilderstone dig, with comparison to examples in the Potteries Museum collection.

* Three Anglo-Saxon sites investigated in Barton, Uttoxeter and Stafford.

Free and booking now.

At last, a reason to visit the Potteries Museum, after a seemingly endless run of unappealing shows. I missed the news of a William Blake exhibition at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery. It opened before Christmas, is still on and closes on 5th May 2024. So there’s plenty of time yet to see it, perhaps alongside the new Spitfire extension and/or a look to see how political the Natural History galleries have become these days.

Probably on the River Dove in the lower reaches of the Staffordshire Moorlands.

The artist is the Potteries photographer William Blake, not the earlier visionary poet of the same name. On show at the Museum are 50 of the 1,500 Blake images held by the Museum. Perhaps 800 of these appear to be on Staffordshire Past Track. The Warrillow Collection at Keele obviously has more of his, judging by the description of the show, since some pictures have been borrowed from there.

The Museum is closed Mondays and Tuesdays. But is open Wednesday to Saturday from 10am to 5pm, also Sunday from 11am to 4pm.

Update: Visited. A small show, greatly marred by reflective glass and badly positioned lights. Meaning it’s almost impossible to get a clear all-in-view view of most of the pictures as they should be seen. The glass should have been removed, as they’re only prints and not originals. The commentary in the small postcard selection might have mentioned that many homes would have had a postcard magnifier-viewer in the parlour. Lots of political choices of picture, as you might expect. No colorised images to enliven the dour b&w feel of the room. I would have paired it with another room in full colour, of his natural ‘sacred places’ pictures shown as 3ft wide matt prints on blocks without glass. Or backlit.

The Museum’s Natural History galleries continue to be excellent and focused as before on wildlife. The only axe-grinding I saw being the entirely justifiable display about litter.

And perhaps an otherwise lost one? Font ID services can’t seem to identify it.

Good news from Stoke. Popular radio DJ Den Siegertsz ‘over the moon’ at bagging new radio show…

“a weekly Sunday show with 6 Towns and will also do a monthly stint championing the area’s theatre and arts scene.”

The theatre and arts show will be titled ‘In The Spotlight’, but the scheduled time for this is not mentioned. Though the weekly Sunday shows starts next week.