The county has an area of 1,713 square kilometres (661 sq mi) and a population of 1,131,052. After Stoke-on-Trent (258,366), the largest settlements are Tamworth (78,646), Newcastle-under-Lyme (75,082) and Burton upon Trent (72,299); the city of Lichfield has a population of 33,816. For local government purposes Staffordshire comprises a non-metropolitan county, with nine districts, and the unitary authority area of Stoke-on-Trent. The county historically included the north-west of the West Midlands county, including Walsall, West Bromwich, and Wolverhampton.
Staffordshire is hilly to the north and south. The southern end of the Pennines is in the north, containing part of the Peak DistrictNational Park, while the Cannock ChaseAONB and part of the National Forest are in the south. The River Trent and its tributaries drain most of the county. From its source, near Biddulph, the river flows through Staffordshire in a southwesterly direction, meeting the Sow just east of Stafford; it then meets the River Tame and turns north-east, exiting into Derbyshire immediately downstream of Burton upon Trent. (Full article...)
Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge, FRS (12 June 1851 – 22 August 1940) was a British physicist and writer involved in the development of, and holder of key patents for, radio. He identified electromagnetic radiation independent of Hertz's proof and at his 1894 Royal Institution lectures ("The Work of Hertz and Some of His Successors"), Lodge demonstrated an early radio wave detector he named the "coherer". In 1898 he was awarded the "syntonic" (or tuning) patent by the United States Patent Office. Lodge was Principal of the University of Birmingham from 1900 to 1920.
Lodge was also pioneer of spiritualism. His pseudoscientific research into life after death was a topic on which he wrote many books, including the best-selling Raymond; or, Life and Death (1916), which detailed messages he received from a medium, which he believed came from his son who was killed in the First World War. (Full article...)
Lichfield Cathedral is a late 12th century medieval cathedral situated in Lichfield, Staffordshire. The cathedral is dedicated to saints Chad and Mary and is the only medieval church in England with three spires.
Image 21A Man Can't Fly sculpture, Stoke-on-Trent, England. (from Stoke-on-Trent)
Image 22Stafford CC versus the MCC in their Centenary Year 1964 (from Stafford)
Image 23Vale Park, home of Port Vale. Completed in 1950, at the time of its construction it was nicknamed 'The Wembley of the North'. (from Stoke-on-Trent)