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Church Close, STONE, ST15 8BP

Looking toward Rugeley and Lichfield.

Looking south-east towards Rugeley, this is the line from Stoke-on-Trent, seen from the Church Street level crossing. The railway authorities insist on naming this Church Lane Crossing.

Looking south-east towards Rugeley in warm evening sunlight, this is the line from Stoke-on-Trent, seen from the Church Lane level crossing. Railway bureaucracy causes confusion here because Church Street changes to Redhill Road. There is no Church Lane! The houses are in The Sidings, so one is tempted to surmise what preceded the housing there. However, Victorian maps reveal that there were no railway sidings here, just small fields.

The identification plate reads SOT27M137. The mileage on this route is measured from the junction at Cheadle Hulme (just south of Stockport) where the North Staffordshire line via Stoke on Trent diverges from the original London & North Western line via Crewe. The official distance to the crossing is documented as 27 miles 63 chains (27 miles 1386 yards). The other signs forbid the use of "portable" telephones and smoking, and offer advice to anyone wishing to enter. Update 2021: A further curiosity is that despite the name of the crossing there is no Church Lane in the village. Church Road runs parallel to the railway, just south and west of the level crossing, but the road that actually crosses the line is called Redhill Road. The parish church of St Michael, from which the crossing is presumably named, stands some way further to the west.

This house with the adjoining factory at the rear was once the home of the Stone ironfounders Rangeley & Dixon (later Rangeley & Diggles). In the late 1820s the firm closed and the premises were taken over by the shoe firm of C Bromley & Son Ltd. The factory is now flats and called "Silk Mill Mews".

Looking north-east, the railway line between Rugeley and Stoke-on-Trent crosses here. Railway bureaucracy causes confusion because Church Street changes to Redhill Road here. There is no Church Lane! Image]

Admiral John Jervis Mausoleum in the graveyard of St Michael's church, Stone.

Admiral of the Fleet John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent (9 January 1735 – 14 March 1823) was an admiral in the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom. Jervis served throughout the latter half of the 18th century and into the 19th, and was an active commander during the Seven Years' War, American War of Independence, French Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic Wars. He is best known for his victory at the 1797 Battle of Cape Saint Vincent, from which he earned his titles, and as a patron of Horatio Nelson. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jervis,_1st_Earl_of_St_Vincent

An "inside" look on a dark November afternoon