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Down Our Way Warts and All:-

What it’s like to live in . . . ‘RISO’ . . . Rising Brook . . .

Rising Brook can be found in the Manor Ward of Stafford. A Labour held area it boasts three councillors who run regular surgeries. It is bounded by Highfield’s Estate, the railway line which flows under Rickerscote Bridge and Moss Pit which is roughly where the Garth Hotel used to stand. Although Rising Brook’s actual street boundaries, as in all places, are a matter of opinion.

An area developed in the post-war building boom Rising Brook has large tranches of terraced social housing. All ‘Clerk of the Works’ built these dwellings are substantial, which led to the vast majority being snapped up when their canny sitting tenants had the opportunity to buy. Sheltered Housing complexes of a high standard - one with a day centre - are also available.

Later development in the 1960s brought in waves of linked detached private developments such as, the highly sought after, Shannon Road Mini Estate which is abounded by the Rising Brook in its first trickles of youth. Prior to this development the land used to be the cricket grounds of Burton Manor Club surrounded by a high copper beech hedge where in the long hot summers of the 1950s the sound of leather on willow and calls of OZATT . . . often could be heard in the ‘pre-M6’ silence.

However, the tranquillity of this idyll was roughly disturbed by the long months of pile driving throughout the night and a sea of red clay which drove mothers to distraction as either mud, or dust, got everywhere, even into sandwiches, when the M6 drove its relentless path along one side of the Manor and sliced the Burton Manor building away from its former extensive grounds.

Still more housing was added when the Burton House Maternity Home was demolished and top quality detached sprung up in the former grounds where rhododendrons once blossomed and new moms woke up to the reality of motherhood during a five day lying in.

On the negative side, Rising Brook is an area with high unemployment especially amongst young men. Disappointingly, drug and alcohol abuse seems rife in some places in Manor Ward leading to spasmodic antisocial and violent behaviour. In August 2007 a have-a-go hero intervening in an altercation in Merrivale Road had her arm broken in several place by an iron bar in a drugs related incident.

However, the vast majority of the area is not so blighted. On the amenity front Rising Brook seems well blessed. The number 8 bus circles around every 12 minutes: this is a lifeline for the area’s burgeoning numbers of elderly residents. The 77 also serves the area and the A449 has stops for several passing through services, although more zebra crossings wouldn’t go amiss especially in the Poplar Way section. Car drivers are also lucky to have a filling station handy on the corner of Rickerscote Road the site of a popular Tesco Express.

The area is primarily leafy tree-lined residential and has no industry but boasts a substantial shopping area, with a Post Office, Ironmongers, Wine Shop, Laundrette, Butchers, two Chemists, a Public Library and a large Co-operative food store. There are also two Hairdressers, a Dentist, two Doctors’ surgeries one with a baby clinic/chiropodist/physiotherapist, a Florist, an Undertaker, two Public Houses and Restaurants, two Churches one with a coffee drop in centre, a Newsagents and a Bookies. Not forgetting the best Fish-and-Chip shop in Stafford, according to the sign in the window.

Youngsters are well placed with four Nurseries, two Primary Schools and one Comprehensive better known as RISO. However, this place of learning is not necessarily the home of the ‘Riso Posse’ whose ‘un-artistic’ skills with the spray-can manage to deface any exposed surface with depressing regularity. There are also two swings and basketball playing areas and a large expanse of green space at the rear of the library and several sites of well kept allotments, one of which had a £50,000 lucky boost in 2007.

Popular Car Boot sales are held once a month throughout the summer on the Methodist Church field. Any number of clubs and societies make us of the public meeting rooms available in the area, everything from Townswomen’s Guild, flower arranging, religious discussion to Creative Writing in the library is on offer. The library also provides computer access (free of charge) and photocopying. The area is well lit and has several neighbourhood watch schemes in place as well as speed control humps and traffic calming measures on many of the larger roads.

2007 SM