Staffordshire

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For the discussion of all things Staffordshire.

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The Headless Horseman of the Staffordshire Moorlands is one of the best known pieces of folklore in the region, but where did it come from? Tracing the story of the horseman back through 650 years of local history, we uncover the shocking true story of medieval murder that lies at the heart of the spectre’s inspiration.

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These are stories that may initially present themselves in such a fantastically supernatural light that the idea of them belonging to actual history at first appears incredulous, and yet upon closer inspection, we may well discover that the details contained within them are so remarkably local that they conspire to suggest signs of something else entirely; the remnants of long-lost folk memories.

I believe that one such tale, and one that has captivated me ever since I first heard it in the Roebuck pub in Leek in late 2006, is that of the Headless Horseman of Butterton; the spectral, if somewhat sinister, jewel in the crown of Staffordshire Moorlands folklore.

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Plans to erect a statue of Motörhead frontman Lemmy in the town where he was born have been approved by Stoke-on-Trent City Council.

The 2.2 metre statue will be erected in the market place of Burslem, the town where Lemmy – real name Ian Fraser Kilmister – was born before his family moved to Newcastle-under-Lyme. The majority of the singer’s childhood was spent in Wales before founding Motörhead in 1975.

The statue is estimated to cost about £50,000 and a fundraising campaign has been launched to raise the necessary funds. Once the project has obtained funding, the statue will be made from Staffordshire clay by local sculptor Andy Edwards, the same artist who created the world-famous Beatles statue on Liverpool’s waterfront.

There had been concern from police that the statue would attract “good-natured but potentially incident generating attention”, but Edwards agreed to increase the height of the plinth from 2.5m to 3m to get around this.

This won’t be the only statue of Lemmy to exist. In 2016, a year after the singer and bassist passed away from prostate cancer aged 70, a statue of him was erected at the Rainbow Bar and Grill in Los Angeles.