Portal:Staffordshire
IntroductionStaffordshire (/ˈstæfərdʃɪər, -ʃər/; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, West Midlands and Worcestershire to the south, and Shropshire to the west. The largest settlement in Staffordshire is Stoke-on-Trent, which is administered as an independent unitary authority, separately from the rest of the county. Lichfield, a smaller settlement, is a cathedral city. Other major settlements include Stafford, Burton upon Trent, Cannock, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Leek, and Tamworth. Selected articleShugborough Hall is a country house and estate, situated in Great Haywood, Staffordshire. Previously the home of the Earls of Lichfield, it is now owned by the National Trust and maintained by the leaseholder, Staffordshire County Council. The Shugborough estate was owned by the Bishops of Lichfield until the Dissolution of the Monasteries around 1540 and thereafter passed through several hands until it was purchased in 1624 by William Anson, a lawyer, of Dunston, Staffordshire, and ancestor the Earls of Lichfield. In about 1693 his grandson William Anson (1656–1720) demolished the old house and created a new mansion. The entrance front then to the west, comprised a balustraded three-storey, seven-bayed central block . In about 1748 his great grandson Thomas Anson commissioned architect Thomas Wright to remodel the house, which was extended with flanking two-storey, three-bayed pavilions linked to the central block by pedimented passages. At the turn of the 18th century the house was further altered and extended by architect Samuel Wyatt, when the pavilions and passages were incorporated into the main building and a new porticoed entrance front with ten Doric order pillars was created at the east for Thomas Anson, the 1st Viscount Anson. Around 1750 the architect James Stuart, created a number of follies and monuments in the grounds. These include the Chinese House, the Triumphal Arch based on Hadrian's and the Doric Temple as well as the Temple of the Winds and Shepherd's Monument and the Cat's Monument. Selected biographyGrand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia was a son of Grand Duke Michael Nicolaievich of Russia and a grandson of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia. In 1891 he contracted a morganatic marriage with Countess Sophie von Merenberg, a morganatic daughter of Prince Nicholas William of Nassau and a granddaughter of the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. For contracting this marriage without permission, Emperor Alexander III of Russia, stripped him of his military titles and banished the couple from Russia. For some years he lived in Wiesbaden, Nassau and in Cannes. He settled permanently in England in 1900, leasing Keele Hall in Staffordshire and later Kenwood House on the outskirts of London. During the ten years he lived in Staffordshire, he entered country society, and was very pleased when the town council of Newcastle-under-Lyme conferred him the distinction of Lord High Steward of the borough. Selected imageMow Cop Castle is a folly at Mow Cop, near Harriseahead, Staffordshire.Traces of a prehistoric camp have been found here, but in 1754, Randle Wilbraham of nearby Rode Hall built an elaborate summerhouse looking like a medieval fortress and round tower. Did you know?27 August 2014
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