Nigel Dale (@otboae) header
Nigel Dale (@otboae) profile picture

Writer illustrator 20th C architecture art engineering. Interests Modern Movement and British High Tech including Patera Building and Potteries recent heritage.

Joined July 2015
Photo by Nigel Dale (@otboae)Photo by Nigel Dale (@otboae)Photo by Nigel Dale (@otboae)Photo by Nigel Dale (@otboae)Photo by Nigel Dale (@otboae)Photo by Nigel Dale (@otboae)Photo by Nigel Dale (@otboae)Photo by Nigel Dale (@otboae)Photo by Nigel Dale (@otboae)Photo by Nigel Dale (@otboae)
I dug up this brick out of the garden. It’s well over 150 years old and the Ridge Hill clay pit site, visible over the fields from the garden, is still going strong. @AJogee @fslconsult
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Brickwork needn’t be boring @AJogee
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Missed Opportunities: Terence Conran and Habitat: Conran opened the first Habitat shop at 77 Fulham Road, Chelsea, on 11 May 1964. the first retailer to bring such designs to a mass audience”. 1/2
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2/2 Its first stock was “imported French cookware, tableware from Italy, and Scandinavian furniture”. No evidence has been found that Potteries firms supplied Habitat at its opening.
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"Not TV or illegal drugs but the automobile has been the chief destroyer of...communities." ― Jane Jacobs @fslconsult
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Who is being weighed in the balance over North Staffordshire’s industrial decline? @danro_art @KenZeroHarm @fslconsult @JohnAcid
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The fires of North Staff’s industries are mostly burnt out. Fires now are saved for heritage sites - after Wynne’s Spirit of Fire @danro_art
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“FIRE IS AT THE ROOT OF ALL THINGS BOTH VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE” Gemini came up with this as David Wynne’s “Spirit of Fire” before it died - fuelled by the 1960s beating heart of industry. TP Bennet’s Lewis’s façade is timeless. @KenZeroHarm @danro_art @fslconsult
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Here’s a later version of a possible front cover for “Who let the Fire Go Out?” - a forthcoming piece with analysis of reasons for North Staffordshire’s industrial decline. @fslconsult @danro_art @JohnAcid
Who let the fire go out?
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Can you help @AntCoulls ? Was a rope knotted in the form of a Staffordshire Knot used as a token “one train at a time” for single track sections of North Staffordshire Railway?
Can you confirm about the knotted rope used as a token for “one train at a time” On single track sections of NSR?
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Sleuths - One train at a time - re. Neale’s ball token and its Indian origin (his father worked on NSR), and my unresolved knotted-rope memory - Did NSR use a knotted rope in the shape of a Stafford Knot? Or, am I misremembering the Vic play The Knotty? @fslconsult @KenZeroHarm
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The “Clayton’s Patent” refers to the patent of one Clayton who invented a brick press. He was awarded a prize at the Great Exhibition of 1851.
I dug up this brick out of the garden. It’s well over 150 years old and the Ridge Hill clay pit site, visible over the fields from the garden, is still going strong. @AJogee @fslconsult
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Do you have a list of these? @fslconsult
I don't think you'll be here for much longer I'm sad to say....
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Who let the fire go out?
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The Grade II listed Brindley tunnel portal and retaining wall (right of photo) appears to have been painted white, spoiling the composition of the Telford and Brindley tunnels side by side, and damaging the heritage.
Tunnel in 39 mins which is 2 or 3 slower than I usually do. Only boat in and struggled to get into my stride straight away. Luckily I made it 🤭🤓😂 #boatsthattweet
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The Grade II listed Brindley tunnel portal and retaining wall (right of photo) appears to have been painted white, spoiling the composition of the Telford and Brindley tunnels side by side, and damaging the heritage. Photo © Alan Murray-Rust via Geograph.
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1/5 Option D: Enhanced North Staffordshire — A Short Summary @fslconsult Staffordshire Moorlands District Council's own submission, formally known as "Enhanced North Staffordshire" or Option D, was one of five competing proposals submitted to government on 28 November 2025.
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5/5 , unmodified three-borough model, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Moorlands alone, without the southern extension Option D had proposed. The Enhanced North Staffordshire submission was therefore considered and set aside, not taken forward, leaving….
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6/5 the population imbalance it had been designed to address unresolved in the version government actually confirmed, before the whole process was paused that September pending legal review.
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