Life
Editor s Letter .............................5 Celebrating The Jubilee .............8 Jubilee Beacon............................9 Supporting Ukraine..................10 Sandon Village Fete...................11 Stafford Borough Council.........12 AED Donate ..............................12 Queen s Baton Relay.................13 What s On..................................14 Photo Exhibition........................15 Climate Change...........................18
Fundraising Skydive .................19 Crown Wharf Theatre...............20 Tree Planting ............................20 Staffordshire County Show ......22 Eccleshall Festival ....................24 Stone Festival............................25 The Women s Institute..............26 Gardening..................................28 Scout Bands...............................29 Quiz Corner...............................30
EDITOR S LETTER
Community jubilation
Belinda Hargreaves Contents Editor life@timesandecho.co.uk Erin Tuckwell & Tracey Refern Design & Production Jane Walters Advertising Manager Tel: 07817 128582 jane@timesandecho.co. uk Times, Echo & Life Publications 18 Tape Street, Cheadle, Stoke-on-Trent ST10 1BD Tel: 01538 752214 www.timesecho andlife.co.uk life@timesandecho.co.uk
T
here surely has been a wonderful mass of red, white and blue colours across the nation recently for HM The Queen s Platinum Jubilee. It s always so wonderful when communities coming together for such celebrations and obviously this one was rather unique in HM Queen Elizabeth being the only British monarch to have reached such a monumental year on the throne. Happy Jubilee Your Majesty! I hope you will all enjoy taking a look at the features we have in this Stone & Eccleshall Life Magazine which showcase just some of the community celebrations which
Cover photo courtesy of Noel Bennett noelbennettphotography.co.uk,
01785 813888
took place in our area. We also feature some fabulous features of other community news in the area from fundraising and humanitarian aid trippers, and from exhibitions to scout bands. We also take a look at what s coming up over the Summer months there s lots for all the family to enjoy. Happy reading! Until next time, take care!
Belinda
ADVERTISING FEATURE
little seeds We started to build a loyal guest base, some people we still see weekly today.
A
RESTAURANT has introduced a new outdoor eating experience to its venue in Stone. The team at Little Seeds, which is situated on Radford Street, has opened a new outdoor terrace for diners to enjoy their culinary delights. The restaurant is run by Jake and Sophie. Here they tell
their story about Little Seeds: It s 2015, we are both working separately within the hospitality industry but both have a passion to create something new and exciting in the area. We set about plans to create our own restaurant, somewhere we ourselves would love to dine. We secured the capital we would need using start up
loans. Then in June 2016 we got the keys to a small restaurant in Stone and started to create Little Seeds. With a two-week time scale from collecting the keys to opening this restaurant we refurbished the whole place, built bespoke furniture and lighting we even had our very own lawn (inside). We started to build a loyal guest base, some people we still see weekly today. Over the next few years we kept reinvesting into the restaurant to bring it to its full potential. Opening with a casual food offering using local suppliers evolving to what it is today, a more refined offering. The menu development is always at the top of the priority list and develops using classical techniques and seasonal ingredients. 2019, the second refurb, we had come so far and set about Little Seeds 2.0. The grass had served its time and we welcomed a new wooden floor, we had a change of colour scheme and some lovely new crockery, much more in keeping with our new menus. And then Covid-19. We pivoted into a dine at home service, providing locals with tasty three course meals they could finish off simply at home. We didn t waste the extra time we had on our hands, we transformed the unloved outside area into a dining and drinks terrace with outside bar and upgraded our private
ADVERTISING FEATURE dining room to a more luxurious space to celebrate those special occasions. Today, over six years since it began, we are continuing to create a restaurant that stands out and improves the hospitality scene for the area. We have an amazing young team that have grown with us along the way and we look forward to what the future of Little Seeds could look like. Little Seeds brand new outdoor terrace opened for the first time last spring (May 2021) and was a product of the first lockdown. Sophie said: The terrace, which is located at the rear of the restaurant, features a soft furnished area for drinks and nibbles and also a dining terrace. The top drinks area offers the restaurant an additional 20 seats of drinks and bottom terrace a further 40 seats for dining. Just recently, we have launched a brand-new terrace menu which people can enjoy outside alongside a few drinks. The menu is very relaxed but tasty British dishes designed for sharing as a couple or group.
Sophie continued: No reservation is required to enjoy this menu, it is available Thursday 6pm-9pm, Friday 6pm-9pm, Saturday midday-9pm and Sunday midday-4pm throughout the whole summer. Guests can also use the terrace for drinks only or choose to dine from the A la carte menu outside. Anybody with a reservation will automatically be offered the chance to dine outside on a nice day if they should wish to. On a weekly basis we offer our A la carte menu alongside a tasting menu, both showcasing the best British produce from that season. To find out more go online to: www.littleseedsstone.co.uk.
CELEBRATING THE JUBILEE
Rain did not dampen celebrations
W
ESTBRIDGE park was the venue for a community extravaganza in Stone as the town joined in on the nation s Platinum Jubilee celebrations to mark HM the Queen s 70 years on the throne. And lots of families turned out for the event despite the wet weather on Sunday, June 5, and enjoyed a host of fun and activities from live music and entertainment, a big picnic, and a host of refreshments were also on offer.
JUBILEE BEACON
Celebrating HM The Queen s 70 years
L
ots of activities and events have been staged in Eccleshall as part of the nation s Platinum Jubilee celebrations. There was the lighting of the beacon at Eccleshall Castle on Thursday, June 2. A spokesman for the Eccleshall celebrations said: A full house of 300 people attended the castle, courtesy of Mr and Mrs M Carter Motley, following the sounding of the siren and the lone piper Mark Shakeshaft and soprano soloist Victoria Stilwell. The beacon was lit by Parish Council events committee chairman Ros Carter accompanied
by the Holy Trinity Church bells ringing. The beacon lighting was followed by a number of events as well as a Party on the Street on Sunday, June 5 in Eccleshall High Street. There was also, throughout the four day Bank Holiday weekend, inflatable fun for the children, Afternoon Tea, an Evening dance, and a Thanksgiving Service.
SUPPORTING UKRAINE
Humanitarian aid trips for duo
A
duo have just embarked on their third humanitarian aid trip to help those affected by war-torn Ukraine. Nathan Rimmer and Becky Freeman, who have been collecting donations for their cause in Uttoxeter, have been taking out much-needed supplies to people left in Ukraine including to children in an orphanage. Nathan, who lives in Slindon, said: I just wanted to say thank you to each person that has donated to our humanitarian aid trips to Poland/Ukraine. We couldn t do this without your amazing donations. Nathan said of their third trip, which they completed last week: We arrived in Poland on the Monday after a long drive across Europe and met up with our Ukrainian friend called Vasyl. Most of our aid was loaded into his van so we could attempt to
cross the border the next day. After an early start, we managed to skip the three to five day queue at the border, complete the lengthy process of customs and paperwork checks and get through into Ukraine. Vasyl took us south of Lviv where we delivered some of our aid to a couple of orphanages. We then took the remaining aid further south to a previously derelict rural school that is now being used as an orphanage for many children, including some from Mariupol. Meeting some of the children was such an emotional experience. Some look okay, some don t speak and others have pain and suffering written all over their faces. We didn t stay in Ukraine over night so instead met up with Danny (Midlands Humanitarian Aid for
Ukraine) on Wednesday who was on his way to Kyiv as a volunteer paramedic. We gave him all our medical aid and remaining generator so they can be put to good use in Ukraine. Nathan added: We will be doing another humanitarian aid run next month. This time we will focus on getting food into Ukraine so it can be distributed to eastern regions that are in desperate need. Please help by sending us a donation to fund our next trip to Ukraine. Anyone interested in helping the duo in their aid work, can contact Nathan through Facebook at www.facebook.com/r1mmer. Anyone wishing to make a financial donation to the cause can do so by going online to: www.justgiving.com/crowdfu nding/medical-aid-toukraine.
