Böcker av Neil Collingwood

A pocket-sized, illustrated history tour around some of the notable historic locations of the Staffordshire market town showing its changing face across the decades.

Bagnall, Endon, Stanley and Stockton Brook are situated to the north-east of the Potteries conurbation in North Staffordshire and form a rough triangle pointing towards Leek. The busy A53 passes through Stockton Brook and Endon carrying traffic between Stoke-on-Trent and Leek, and also conveying many of the residents of the area to work. Despite being relatively affluent dormitory settlements, Stockton Brook and Endon do still manage to retain much of their village feel. Stanley, Bagnall and the original Endon village are on quieter backwaters and are therefore more rural still. There is virtually no industry apart from livestock farming in the area and such industry that was developed in the nineteenth century has now disappeared. This area's main interest lies in its ancient churches and farm buildings, its eighteenth-century canal and nineteenth-century railway and reservoir, not forgetting its popular and well-attended Well Dressing event, held every year since 1845. Bagnall, Endon, Stanley and Stockton Brook Through Time guides you on a nostalgic tour of these four North Staffordshire villages.

Leek is the principal town of the Staffordshire Moorlands and the most important centre on the south western edge of the Peak District. It stands on a hill in a large bend in the River Churnet and is locally known as 'The Queen of the Moorlands'. The town was mentioned in the Domesday Book as 'Lec' but there was certainly a settlement here well before that because the churchyard contains two crosses - one is in Mercian style but is damaged and can be dated to the 10th century while the other is a magnificent 11th century Norse style cross. In the late 18th and 19th centuries the town changed from a sleepy market town to a centre of silk weaving and several large mills were constructed, one of which can be seen looming above the road to Macclesfield. Leek boomed and the population multiplied during this time but nothing now remains of the silk industry in Leek. The town still has a lively shopping centre and a market every Wednesday and is a good centre from which to explore the south and west of the Peak.