Every year on 1 May, communities across the county pause to celebrate what makes Staffordshire special. This year is bigger than ever. Staffordshire Day 2026 is its tenth anniversary and to celebrate ‘double digits’ The Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Visitor Economy Partnership has introduced Staffy, a loveable Staffordshire Bull Terrier mascot designed to act as the county’s new tour guide. Loyal, active and unmistakably Staffordshire, he’s the friendly face of a county that has plenty to show the world. Alongside him comes the Staffy Trail, ten large-scale sculptures launching on 1 May, each designed by local artists and inspired by ideas submitted by schoolchildren, with 40 curated stops highlighting local stories and attractions across the county. East Staffordshire is proud to have its own place on the trail, with a large Staffy sculpture making its home in Uttoxeter. Fittingly, Staffy made his very first public appearance at the Big Tourism Conference held at Uttoxeter Racecourse earlier this year. He started his journey here and he’s decided to use his holiday allowance.
But while Staffy might be new, the stories he’s here to celebrate in East Staffordshire are anything but.
Built on Water, Built to Last
Most people know Burton upon Trent for its beer. Fewer know why the beer is so good and the answer is written in the ground beneath the town. Burton’s water contains a high proportion of dissolved salts, mainly from gypsum in the surrounding hills. This allowed brewers to use more hops, a natural preservative, meaning the beer could be shipped further afield. This geography turned science built the beer industry into what it is today.
Organised brewing originated with the monks of Burton Abbey, a Benedictine monastery founded around 1002. By 1801 there were nine brewing firms in the town, and beer, and the creation of the IPA, remains an important part of its identity. Over a thousand years of liquid heritage.
And then there’s the happy accident that brewing gave us: a by-product of the brewing industry is the presence of the iconic Marmite factory in Burton, in turn generating the production of Bovril. You either love it or you hate it, we certainly love it.
Kings, Battles and a Bridge Worth Fighting Over
Long before the modern breweries arrived, Burton was already making history. Rykneld Street, a Roman road, ran north-east through what later became the parish of Burton, linking settlements near Lichfield and Little Chester. The town sat at a crossing point that mattered and lots of people fought over it.
Two battles took place at Burton Bridge, one in 1322 and another in 1643 during the First English Civil War. The abbey at the town’s heart received royal visits from William I, Henry II and Edward I. For a town on a river crossing, Burton had a habit of ending up at the centre of things.
A Town of Penance and Pioneers
Uttoxeter doesn’t shout about its history but it should. The town’s name has been spelt at least 79 different ways since it appeared in the Domesday Book in 1086, which tells you something about how long people have been talking about it.
Perhaps the town’s most famous story involves Samuel Johnson, one of England’s greatest literary figures, and a moment of guilt that stayed with him for fifty years. Johnson’s father ran a bookstall on Uttoxeter market, and young Samuel once refused to help. When Johnson was older, he stood in the rain without a hat in the Market Place as penance for his failure to assist his father. The Johnson Memorial still stands there today, marking the spot where one of the sharpest minds in English literature chose to stand in the rain and feel bad about himself.
Jump forward to 1945, and Uttoxeter produced a rather different kind of legend. Joseph Cyril Bamford founded JCB in Uttoxeter, building his first vehicle, a tipping trailer made from war-surplus materials, in a rented lock-up garage in the town. That single trailer became the third-largest construction equipment manufacturer in the world. Not bad for a lock-up and some war surplus.
A Village That Dances With Antlers
Travel a few miles into East Staffordshire’s picturesque countryside and you reach Abbots Bromley, one of the most quietly extraordinary places in England.
The village is famous for its annual Horn Dance, held every September, believed to be connected to the rights granted to inhabitants of the Forest of Needwood. Six sets of reindeer antlers are carried through the village by dancers in a tradition that stretches back to at least 1226. The antlers themselves, kept in the local church, have been carbon dated to the 11th century. In 1583, Mary Queen of Scots stayed the night in Abbots Bromley while en route from Tutbury to Chartley Castle. She is said to have scratched her name into a windowpane with a diamond ring. The pane is held at the Salt Library in Stafford to this day.
A Royal Forest, Lost and Remembered
Between Burton and Abbots Bromley once stretched Needwood Forest, ancient, vast and fought over by kings. The forest was home to extensive stocks of wild boar and fallow deer, and was given by Henry III to his son Edmund Crouchback, 1st Earl of Lancaster, in 1266. It passed through the Duchy of Lancaster to Henry IV, was hunted by Edward IV and James I, not to mention the creativity it inspired in the poetry of Erasmus Darwin and Anna Seward.
In 1776, Francis Noel Clarke Mundy privately published a collection of poetry called Needwood Forest, with contributions from Erasmus Darwin and Anna Seward, in an attempt to resist calls for the forest’s enclosure. The poems lost the argument and an Act of Parliament in 1801 let it pass. Today, fragments of this ancient woodland remain- Jackson’s Bank near Hoar Cross, now part of the National Forest, and Bagot’s Wood near Abbots Bromley, a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
The Place That Keeps Giving
East Staffordshire has always been a place where things are made, fought for and celebrated. The history runs deep, the landscape is stunning, and the people who call it home keep adding to the story.
This Staffordshire Day, come and discover everything East Staffordshire has to offer. There’s plenty to explore.
Find events and things to do across East Staffordshire this Staffordshire Day at discovereaststaffordshire.com/whatson