Yarnfield

This article is about the village in Staffordshire, England. For the hamlet and deserted village in Wiltshire, England, see Yarnfield, Wiltshire.

Yarnfield is a village in Staffordshire, England. Population details as taken in the 2011 census can be found under Swynnerton It is considered part of historic Stone, and is near to other historic locations such as Eccleshall and Swynnerton.

It is the site of a large training and conference centre, Yarnfield Park, originally established using three of the seven hostels built to serve the vast Second World War Swynnerton munitions factory. Of the other hostel sites, Raleigh Hall is now an industrial estate, previously having housed Ugandan Asian refugees thrown out of Uganda by Idi Amin in 1972; Drake Hall is a women's prison; Nelson Hall and Frobisher Hall have been replaced with housing estates, as has Duncan Hall, one of the three camps which formed the training centre later developed as Yarnfield Park.

The General Post Office (GPO) Engineering Department Central Training School opened in Yarnfield in 1946. It occupied buildings at Howard Hall, Duncan Hall and Beatty Hall, which had all acted as transit camps for United States Air Force personnel during the Second World War. These sites were adjacent to each other in the village of Yarnfield. Many teaching staff and their families were initially housed at Raleigh Hall, some miles away. The GPO became the Post Office Corporation in October 1969, and in October 1981 Post Office telephones became British Telecom. The Training Centre had a further change of name in 2002 when it became part of Accenture. It remained a British Telecom training centre until the summer of 2010, after which it became a commercial conference and training centre with over 40 event spaces and 338 bedrooms, making it one of the UK's largest centres. The centre is now privately owned and is known as Yarnfield Park Training & Conference Centre.

In 2003 Yarnfield was the subject of one of the largest group ASBOs ever granted. However the community has moved on, the village has performed very well in the Staffordshire Best Kept Village competition in recent years illustrating the turnaround. ^[1] Recent reports show that the village's community has worked hard to rebuild its reputation.^[2]

Education

Springfields First School in Yarnfield received an Outstanding rating from Ofsted in November 2009.^[3]

Transport

First Potteries bus 23 runs between Hanley, Yarnfield and Eccleshall.

Further research

Official Yarnfield Park Centre website.
Staffordshire Past Track has old photos and some further info.
Subterranea Britannica has an article on the nearby Cold Meece Royal Ordnance Factory.
Yarnfield Village Website.

References

External links

Media related to Yarnfield at Wikimedia Commons

Ceremonial county of Staffordshire

Unitary authorities	Stoke-on-Trent

Boroughs or districts	Cannock Chase East Staffordshire Lichfield Newcastle-under-Lyme South Staffordshire Stafford Staffordshire Moorlands Tamworth

Major settlements	Biddulph Burntwood Burton upon Trent Cannock Cheadle Eccleshall Fazeley Hednesford Kidsgrove Leek Lichfield Newcastle-under-Lyme Penkridge Rugeley Stafford Stoke-on-Trent Burslem Fenton Hanley Longton Stoke Tunstall Stone Tamworth Uttoxeter See also: List of civil parishes in Staffordshire

Rivers	Anker Blithe Churnet Dane Dove Manifold Mease Penk Sow Swarbourn Tame Trent Wheelock

Canals	Birmingham & Fazeley Caldon Lichfield Shropshire Union Staffs & Worcestershire Trent & Mersey Wyrley & Essington

Topics	Flag Museums Schools Grade I buildings Grade II* buildings Windmills High Sheriffs

Coordinates: 52°53′28″N 2°12′04″W / 52.891°N 2.201°W / 52.891; -2.201

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, December 13, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.