And the next prize is …

In the early 1800s, the Staffordshire Agricultural Society, with Sir George Pigot as President and the Lord Talbot as Vice-President, held an annual meeting at which various awards were handed out. The 8th August 1803 edition of Aris’s Birmingham Gazette, at the not inconsiderable price of 6d per copy, reported on the awards. There were… Continue reading And the next prize is …

Handsacre poachers

By 1849 the pottery was shut. The pits were really struggling and there were no jobs down the pits for any miners in either Armitage or Handsacre. But you could always go foraging for wild fruit and roots, like your distant ancestors. Or go hunting for food, like your distant ancestors. Only they had brought in the hated Game Laws so now it was called poaching.