The county is also home to stunning countryside, though, from the Staffordshire Moorlands part of the Peak District in the north-east, to the valleys and rolling hills of central Staffordshire, to the rocky outcrops of the south-west; a beautifully diverse county.

However, lurking not far beneath the surface, there is also a host of oddities and peculiarities that turn the apparently staid and conventional into something much more intriguing.

Therefore even the Conventional Staffordshire section sees its County History interspersed with the book’s idiosyncratic “Quirk Alerts”; like an anecdote about Hobbits popping up in prehistoric times and how a certain Roaring Meg interceded between a divided family during the English Civil War!

Naturally, though, it is the Quirky Staffordshire section where things turn very strange, and where a seemingly random almanac of 94 Staffordshire places have their quirkiest facts laid bare: like which town has a noisy peace memorial, which village is home to Britain’s unluckiest church, which one was home to the vicious Sleep Rouser and which one had a man who danced for a dozen days. Then there’s the Staffordshire constituency that returned the oldest-ever MP (aged 93), the village that suffered the largest non-nuclear explosion on British soil, and the town which saw its brand-spanking new canal lock destroyed by the very cannon that was supposed to be heralding its grand opening!

Alternatively, find out which ancient customs involve one thousand year-old reindeer horns, teapots, brass statues and a goose! If you think you know Staffordshire, read this fascinating and profusely illustrated book and think again…