Staffordshire Day By Day Archives>>

An Archive of Staffordshire's Main Stories Week by week and Day by day For helpful hints on searching this site, click here FULL ARCHIVE OF 2002, 2003 & 2004 STORIES - CLICK HERE E-mail this page to a friend - click here

From Saturday 6th - Friday 12th November 2004
(days in reverse order)

Friday 12th November
Ex-teacher guilty of sex assaults A former primary school teacher is convicted of seven charges of indecent assault against pupils. See full story from BBC News

Appeal over stab and rape attack Police investigating an attack on a woman at Rudyard in Staffordshire appeal for a caller to contact them again.See full story from BBC News

Fire cover cuts planned for towns Staffordshire's fire authority considers plans to reduce the number of engines in Cheadle, Stone and Uttoxeter. See full story from BBC News

Thursday 11th November
Protest over plans for river pump Plans for a pumping station which will stop pollution of the River Churnet near Leek has raised protests from businesses. See full story from BBC News

Colliery site to be redeveloped Over £13m is to be spent regenerating the Silverdale colliery site near Newcastle-under-Lyme which closed over four years ago. See full story from BBC News

Wednesday 10th November
Police unit helps crime witnesses A unit at Staffordshire Police which aids witnesses to crime has seen more than 1,700 people this year. See full story from BBC News

Terrorism death An inquest's been held in to the death of a man from Stoke-on-Trent who was killed by terrorists in Saudi Arabia. Michael McGillan died in May this year. He was shot four times when gunmen burst into the petrochemical plant where he worked. Anti-terrorist police told the court in Hartshill the attackers then went on a two-hour killing spree before being shot dead by the authorities. Mr McGillan's partner Linda Shepherd and brother John were among members of his family in court to hear the coroner record a verdict of unlawful killing.

New leads in grave robbery case Police investigating the theft of a Gladys Hammond's remains from her grave say they are pursuing positive lines of inquiry. See full story from BBC News

World War One battlefield turned into rubbish dump The site of the Hohenzollen Redoubt, an attack in the Battle of Loos, is being used as landfill. Over 500 Staffordshire soldiers died on the fields in Northern France in 1915. Families are complaining that the site should be sacred as some soldiers remains are still there. Read more about the Hohenzollen Redoubt

Tuesday 9th November
Victim of burglary A man, believed to be 57-year-old William Ratcliffe, whose body was found by a caller to his Newcastle home was the victim of a burglary, police say. See full story from BBC News

Teacher accused of sex assaults A primary school teacher from newcastle kissed a boy on the lips and smacked another with a ruler, a court hears. See full story from BBC News

Decrease in M6 Toll road traffic About 50,000 fewer vehicles used the M6 Toll in October compared to September, the road's operators reveal. See full story from BBC News

Fauld - for the last time? Surviving witnesses to a huge explosion in East Staffordshire nearly 60 years ago, say they're dismayed that this year's commemoration at the crater could be the last. Seventy people died in November 1944, when four thousand tons of explosives being stored at RAF Fauld near Hanbury blew up. Trevor Iball, the chairman of Hanbury Parish Council says the trek to the site is no longer practical. See story of the Fauld Explosion.

Monday 8th November
Steep house price rises continue House prices in Stoke-on-Trent are continuing to rise steeply, according to the latest figures released by the Land Registry. They were 36% higher on average in July, August and September compared with the same period last year. The prices of some properties have gone up by more than 60%. The largest increases have been in terraced properties, as the average price rose from almost £39,000 to more than £60,000

Tycoon's charity total revealed Billionaire John Caudwell raises almost £400,000 for charity after completing a 2,300-mile cycle ride. See full story from BBC News

Sunday 7th November
Fire at mining museum building Firefighters tackle a blaze in a three-storey building at Chatterley Whitfield Mining Museum. See full story from BBC News

Cormack unconvinced on gay issue The Tory MP for South Staffordshire, Sir Patrick Cormack, has said the public weren't convinced about gay rights. Gay partners are on course to get the same legal rights as married couples in new legislation. A bill giving homosexuals equal property and pension rights as hetrosexuals has cleared its final hurdle in the Commons by a margin of more than eight-to-one.