Digital Hearing Rugeley – Digital Hearing Staffordshire

Digital Hearing Rugeley – Digital Hearing Staffordshire

How do you define a town or city?  Is it by its geographical location, its history or its people?  Rugeley in Staffordshire might say all three.

William Palmer
One of Rugeley’s most famous or should that be notorious people was William Palmer, a local doctor also known as the Rugeley Poisoner!  He was accused of murdering his friend John Parsons Cook, found guilty and hanged in 1855.

It would seem Cook was not the first person of Palmer’s acquaintance to die in mysterious circumstances.  His wife and brother and even four of his own children had died all before they reached a year old.  Friends from whom he borrowed money and his mother-in-law from whom he and his wife expected to inherit a fortune, all died quite suddenly.  The money was to feed Palmer’s horse gambling addiction.

Strychnine was the poison of choice used to murder Cook after a day at the races when Palmer lost and Cook won.

George Edalji
On the other side of the legal coin, George Edalji was wrongly convicted of the 8th Great Wyrley Outrage.  His case has been immortalised in Julian Barnes Book ‘Arthur and George’ for it was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who investigated the case and cleared his name.  What was Edalji accused of?  Slashing a pony with a knife – malicious injury.  Edalji was a lawyer and Conan Doyle fought successfully to clear his name.  It was still thought though that he had sent threatening letters until a labourer confessed to sending these letters over a period of 31 years many years later.

Conan Doyle’s clearing of his name became the foundation of the Criminal Appeal Courts.

Christina Collins
Christina Collins’ body was found in the Trent and Mersey Canal at Rugeley in 1839.  Three bargemen were charged with her rape and murder – they had agreed to take her from Liverpool to London to meet up with her husband.  Two of the three were hung and the third sent to Australia.
When her body was discovered, she was carried up a steep flight of sandstone steps leading from the banks of the canal.  These steps although replaced with concrete ones are still referred to as the ‘bloody steps’.  They were said to ooze blood and her ghost has been seen there.  Christina’s grave still stands in St Augustine’s church graveyard in Rugeley.

Author Colin Dexter used the story for the basis of one of his Inspector Morse stories which was broadcast in the TV series in 1998 called ‘The Wench is Dead’.

Have you ‘heard’ of them?
It’s a common term isn’t it?  Have you heard of them asks if you’ve heard the stories, hearsay or know of these people.  It doesn’t literally reflect on your hearing however if this is a concern then you should get it checked out.

At Castle Hearing Aids we can offer all manner of advice including free professional hearing tests to assess the level of your hearing.  Remember there are many conditions that can cause our hearing to diminish.  These range from being subjected to a continuously noisy environment, to earwax to age-affected impairment.  Whatever the cause or your concern we can help you.  If hearing aids are the best option, they will help you feel less isolated and enable you to feel included in conversations.  Give us a call today on 01782 698090 or contact us here.

Where to find Rugeley
Rugeley can be found close to Cannock Chase and next to the River Trent in Staffordshire.  It sits between the towns of Stafford, Cannock, Lichfield and Uttoxeter.

Historically this market town was once a mining town though its last colliery closed back in 1990.  Whilst this caused considerable unemployment, Rugeley is now on the ‘up’.  Regeneration of the area has resulted in the Towers Business Park where business is building.  One of the big players to occupy space on Tower Park is an Amazon.co.uk fulfilment unit which has generated a fair number of jobs.

Rugeley’s history
The name Rugeley is thought to be derived from the words Ridge Lee which means ‘the hill over the field’.  The term dates from the mediaeval period.  Over the years the town has been known as Rudgeley and Ridgeley and was listed in the Domesday Book.

It was once an area of ironworks and glass production.  During the Industrial Revolution, Rugeley thrived because of the transport links that came into play namely the Trent and Mersey Canal and the railway.

Although there had been small coal mining pits in the Rugeley area for some time, they really came into their own in the 1950’s with deep shaft mining as was general in this area of the Black Country.  Rugeley also became a major electricity generation centre a decade later with two big power stations, inspiringly known as Rugeley A and Rugeley B.  These were coal-powered stations.  Power Station B is still there with a method of desulphurisation in place so that it complies with environmental legislation.

St Augustine’s Church was built on the site of a much older one in 1822.  The previous church had been named the Old Chancel.  The graveyard at St Augustine’s has links with the notorious of Rugeley.  John Parsons Cook murdered by William Palmer has a grave there; the Palmer family vault is there where William’s wife, his brother and four of his children are buried.  Palmer himself was buried in the precincts of Stafford Jail after his hanging.  Another of Palmer’s probable victims Leonard Bladen is also buried there.

The body of the murdered Christina Collins was also buried at St Augustine’s and her gravestone still stands.

Opposite the graveyard is the house Palmer was raised in!

Other celebrities with connections to Rugeley

·         Marti Pellow lead singer with 1980s band Wet Wet Wet lives in the area

·         Noddy Holder of 1970’s band Slade also used to live here

·         Footballer and manager Steve Bull used to live in the area

·         Horse trainer Tom Coulthwaite had stables just up the road from Rugeley in Hednesford.  He trained three Grand National winners – 1907 Eremon, 1910 Jenkinstown and 1931 Grakle.  Tom died in 1948.  There is a steeplechase named after him at Haydock Park


Hearing Aids
Do you always have to ask people to repeat things or do you miss the punch line of a joke?   Not being able to hear clearly is definitely very frustrating and makes you feel excluded and isolated.  If you are suffering like this, you can call us on 01782 698090 for advice.

A simple ‘at home’ hearing test could be all you need to get you sorted.  Read all about us here and get in touch.  If you don’t want to call us in case you can’t hear what we’re saying, you can contact us via this online form.