Leek
- Part II
Return
to Part I
The Memorial Clocktower
overlooks the roundabout at the major road junction in Leek. Opposite
is Derby Street, the main shopping thoroughfare.
On one corner of this busy
junction stands stylish Sanders Buildings (1894) which I would
more than hesitate to categorise but which I find pleasing and
like a number of other buildings in Leek a surprising find, I
think, in a small provincial town.
The Roebuck (1626), on Derby
Street, has every appearance of being an original coaching inn
but not as individual in appearance as the Sanders Buildings.
Next door to The Roebuck
another unique individual building, one may almost say idiosyncratic,
built around the end of the 19th Century, but undated on its exterior,
for the "Manchester and Liverpool District Banking Company
Limited", now occupied by NatWest.
Even the street furniture
in Leek bespeaks the town's individuality. The crest on the ends
of the bench utilise the 'Staffordshire Knot' incorporating three
stylised crowns - from the coat-of-arms of Leek? Hand carved individual
wooden pillars resist the incursion of vehicles in the part pedestrianised
area.
The Market Cross and Buttermarket
Building in the Market Square. Butter is still important to Leek,
Adams
Butter manufacturing plant is still in the town.
Looking down Derby Street
we can see how The Memorial Clocktower dominates that end of town.
Thronging pedestrians are
absent from St Edward Street but present are a number of fine
buildings. This one, which would not be out of place in some Continental
Old Town tourist area, was built in 1883.
Here the spare 'modern'
lines of the red brick building (1747) contrast with the 'medieval
gothic' of its neighbour (1873): an interesting and stylish juxtaposition.
Not all the mills in Leek
are derelict and some are far from ordinary. The Brough Nicholson
and Hall (Est'd 1815) Factory has an imposing and confident entrance
with carved stone panels and patterened self-coloured brickwork
on the walls and around the windows. A number of the mills have
found new life as extensive emporiums of antiques and reproduction
furniture. You don't need the fine weather we had to enjoy Leek-
there's plenty to see inside ...
... this mannequin in one
of the establishments is even more revealing from the front! :o)
One of two adjacent mills
off Haywood Street. This one showing an interesting arrangement
of arched windows, corbelling at the roof line and what looks
like a bell housing at the top of the gable.
At the rear the chimneys
of the two mills stand proudly together ...
... as, apparantly, do the
Memorial and the tower of St Luke's Church, itself an unusual
structure with its mini-spire on the corner of the square tower.
And to go out with a roar:
this noble beast guarding the front of the Council Offices, but
I suspect he has come down in the world from a much higher plinth
position. A bit like Leek really.
Return
to Top
Collections
Home
.
.