Fenton Industrial Estate

Its surroundings are pleasant without being spectacular: 90% of Staffordshire is rural, and nowhere in the town, not even in the very centre, is one ever far from the countryside. One thing to be said for Stafford (as far as anywhere can make such a claim in these unsettled times) is that it is a town without a darker side. It is not big enough to contain ‘inner city areas’, and there are many places of similar size or smaller, including some much more picturesque, with far worse social problems. Certainly people as different as George Borrow and Lee Chapman have looked back on their days in the town with affection. The general verdict on Stafford seems reasonably favourable. It is never in the forefront of modern developments, nor is it quaintly old-fashioned. In one respect at least it has changed little. Like the Staethford of Anglo-Saxon times, it remains a very English town.
An extract from from"Stafford - A History & Celebration".

The town also has an association with Skarzysko/Kamienna in Poland. Like everywhere else, Stafford is changing. Until perhaps halfway through the last century the majority of people living in the town
An extract from from"Stafford - A History & Celebration".

School pupils, reached No 3 in the USA charts in 1973 (No 10 in the UK) with its single ‘Couldn’t Get it Right.’ Fran Henley, the lead singer of Travis, is also a Staffordian. In the 1980s and 1990s Bingley Hall, part of the County Showground on Weston Road, hosted several groups such as Black Sabbath and the Electric Light Orchestra. The showground still stages national events in areas as diverse as dogs, flowers, antiques, motorcycles and caravans. Stafford has links with overseas towns in twinning arrangements with Dreieich in Germany; Tarragona in Spain; Stafford, Virginia in the USA; and Belfort in France.
An extract from from"Stafford - A History & Celebration".

Slightly further west, and just one minute away from the town centre, the 300 acres of wet grassland that are Doxey marshes remain largely unspoiled. Although they are unspectacular they are of considerable environmental value. They are home not only to rare birds such as redshank, snipe, lapwing, reed bunting, little ringed plover, goosander, shoveler, tufted duck and widgeon, but also to endangered mammals like the otter and the watershrew. Tourism in the area has, rightly, not been encouraged; the balance of nature is too fragile. To the east of the town are similar marshes at the King’s Pool, off North Walls. And of course Stafford Castle - or the shell of it - still remains on top of the hill to the west of the town. Some of the surrounding fields have been sacrificed to housing development, but there no longer seems any danger of the castle suffering the same fate. A constant grumble by young people in Stafford used to be that there was nothing for them to do, especially in terms of night- life. They now have less cause for complaint because there are half-a-dozen night-spots. The best-known is the Zanzibar in Newport Road, opposite the Chetwynd Centre. It is on the site of the Top of the World, which was established immediately after the Second World War. During the 1960s the proprietor was the formidable local character Eddie Fenton, who effectively acted as his own bouncer. Many well-known entertainers have been associated with Stafford. Neil Morrissey, of the television comedy ‘Men Behaving Badly’, and the late Patrick Fyffe, better known as Dr Evadne Hinge, of the musical comedy act Hinge and Brackett, were both born in the town. Freya Copeland, of ‘Emmerdale’
An extract from from"Stafford - A History & Celebration".

Slightly further west, and just one minute away from the town centre, the 300 acres of wet grassland that are Doxey marshes remain largely unspoiled. Although they are unspectacular they are of considerable environmental value. They are home not only to rare birds such as redshank, snipe, lapwing, reed bunting, little ringed plover, goosander, shoveler, tufted duck and widgeon, but also to endangered mammals like the otter and the watershrew. Tourism in the area has, rightly, not been encouraged; the balance of nature is too fragile. To the east of the town are similar marshes at the King’s Pool, off North Walls. And of course Stafford Castle - or the shell of it - still remains on top of the hill to the west of the town. Some of the surrounding fields have been sacrificed to housing development, but there no longer seems any danger of the castle suffering the same fate. A constant grumble by young people in Stafford used to be that there was nothing for them to do, especially in terms of night- life. They now have less cause for complaint because there are half-a-dozen night-spots. The best-known is the Zanzibar in Newport Road, opposite the Chetwynd Centre. It is on the site of the Top of the World, which was established immediately after the Second World War. During the 1960s the proprietor was the formidable local character Eddie Fenton, who effectively acted as his own bouncer. Many well-known entertainers have been associated with Stafford. Neil Morrissey, of the television comedy ‘Men Behaving Badly’, and the late Patrick Fyffe, better known as Dr Evadne Hinge, of the musical comedy act Hinge and Brackett, were both born in the town. Freya Copeland, of ‘Emmerdale’
An extract from from"Stafford - A History & Celebration".