A peaceful Sunday service at St. John the Baptist Church erupted into violence when a dispute over a family pew ended with one worshipper being dragged from her seat in front of the entire congregation. The incident led to a remarkable court case that sheds light on church life, social status and the surprising value once attached to pew ownership.
Category: Miscellaneous
The Silver Fork Society
Armitage Park produced an unlikely literary celebrity. Born there in 1800, Thomas Henry Lister drew on his experience of fashionable Regency society to write novels filled with aristocrats, politicians, glittering balls and sharp social satire, becoming one of the leading voices of the Silver Fork movement.
The Croft School, Armitage
The Croft School opened in 1915 to relieve overcrowding at Armitage’s older schools and served generations of village children. Using the original managers’ minute books and school log, Roy Fallows traces its construction, early staff and the everyday events—from cess pits to Wembley trips—that brought the school to life.
Armitage – birthplace of science fiction?
Could Armitage claim a place in the origins of science fiction? In 1830, Thomas Henry Lister imagined a world of automation, rapid communication, global travel and futuristic technology—decades before Jules Verne or H.G. Wells. This article explores his remarkable vision of the future and asks where it belongs in the history of speculative writing.
My disappearing landmark
For decades the cooling towers of Rugeley Power Station dominated the skyline of Armitage-with-Handsacre. This article explores how the station came to be built, the engineering ambitions behind it, and its lasting impact on the parish through employment, housing, changing boundaries and the disappearance of an older landscape beneath one of Britain’s largest industrial developments.