Rugeley

From Free net encyclopedia

Rugeley is a market town in the county of Staffordshire, England. It lies on the northern edge of Cannock Chase, and is situated roughly midway between the towns of Stafford, Cannock, Lichfield, and Uttoxeter. The population as at the 2001 census was 22,950. [1]

The town was a centre of coal mining until 1991, when the Lea Hall colliery was demolished. The Rugeley B coal-fired power station dominates the skyline, and originally took its fuel directly from the neighbouring mine by conveyor belt, the first such arrangement in Britain.

Rugeley is twinned with the town of Western Springs, Illinois.

1 Transport
2 History
- 2.1 William Palmer
3 Nearby places
4 External links

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Transport

Rugeley has two railway stations, Rugeley Town and Rugeley Trent Valley, which lie on the Chase Line connecting Stafford, Walsall, and Birmingham. Rugeley Trent Valley also lies on the West Coast Main Line, although very few trains stop there.

The major roads into Rugeley are the A34 from Cannock, and the A51 Lichfield to Stone. A new bypass is currently being built to take the A51 through traffic out of the congested town centre.

The River Trent and the Trent and Mersey Canal both pass through the town.

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History

The town, historically known as Rudgeley, is listed in the Domesday Book. In the mediaeval period, it thrived on iron workings and was also a site of glass manufacturing.

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William Palmer

In 1855, the town gained notoriety when a local doctor, William Palmer, was accused of murdering an acquaintance, John Parsons Cook. It was claimed that Cook had been poisoned, and in the months that followed, Palmer was implicated in the deaths of several other persons, including his own wife and brother. He was put on trial for the murder of Cook in 1856, and an Act of Parliament was passed to allow the trial to be held at The Old Bailey, London, as it was felt that a fair jury could not be found in Staffordshire. Palmer was found guilty of murder, and hanged publicly outside Stafford gaol on June 14, 1856.

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