Stafford Castle

Stafford in General

Stafford, Staffordshire, England Heart Of Inc Birmingham

Recommendation added: 28/11/2007 12:52
By: katygriff (YSUK rating +322)

katygriff has been thanked 0 times for this contribution

"Stafford is a nice town centre right in the heart of Staffordshire. I have been coming here ever since my university days because it was a nice place to spend the day shopping or at the castle. Now I live by Stafford and although I know it is not the best place in the world, I do like it there and I think it is a decent place to visit if you want to go shopping, or just fancy a day out somewhere different. I will try to get over to you with this review why I do like it here.

Ok so first I better give you some sort of address to follow to get here. The best thing for me to do is give you the address of Stafford train station which is in the centre only a two minute walk from the main centre:

Stafford Train Station
Station Road
Stafford
Staffordshire
ST16 2AA

Ok the train station is very nice with good links and a lot of platforms. There is always staff on hand to help and screens everywhere telling you what is happening. There are bus links and taxis just outside so you should be ok to get to Stafford or out of Stafford. Stafford is in the centre of Staffordshire as you can imagine and it is a town.

Now it is easy to get to with two junctions of the M6 quite near and good public transport links. When you have found Stafford you can find a lot of car parks which are massive so you can always find somewhere to park.

Ok Stafford is a lovely little town with nice buildings and even when you are walking around the centre you will find that most of the buildings have a very old look about them. The centre is always bustling with people and it has a very nice atmosphere around the whole town.

Ok let's now go through what Stafford has to offer;

Shopping:

Stafford has quite a lot of shops including all of the main ones you would expect to find in a town. Many of them are quite small but still have the essentials in. so you can expect to find Dorothy Perkins, Burtons, WHSMiths, New Look, Woolworths, Next, Waterstones, Game, HMV, Topshop and many more.

Each shop is well laid out for you to see and everything is always clean and tidy which is nice as many shops do not have that much space so they have to keep them looking nice at all times. Like I said above some of them are quite small but they all are well stocked which is good and they are all within a few minutes walking distance of each other which is nice.

The shops are on the streets around Stafford and then there is an indoor shopping centre which has quite a few of the main shops. This also links to the market which I have had a quick look at and it is nice and practically sells the same as most indoor markets you will have seen do.

With regards to supermarkets there are quite a few with a Sainsbury's right in the centre and then a massive Tesco's and ASDA just a short walk / drive away.


Food and Drink:

Stafford has many places where you can have a quick bite to eat or a drink. There are places such as Costa coffee and café Nero if you fancy Paninis and cakes. Then there is a McDonalds if you fancy fast food and a nice café within the Stafford Department store. All of these places are useful if you want to stop off quickly.

Then there are several places that you can have a proper meal such as my favourite Pastiche bistro which is lovely and specialises in very good food at great prices. This is yummy and well recommended.

These of course are all in the town centre but what you could do is if you have driven, drive a small distance out and you will find a huge array of country pubs and restaurants.


Things to do:

You may notice when you are there that there are always crowds drawn to a square in the centre of town. Sometimes there are market stalls and sometimes there is just entertainment but I would say 80% of the times I have visited Stafford there has been something going on.

A small distance away is Stafford castle where you can have a very pleasant walk around the ruins and even stop for an ice-cream at the shop. I really like it here as it is lovely especially when the weather is a bit warmer.

Also just outside of the centre as I mentioned above you will find an array of nice country pubs and also Stafford is very close to Cannock Chase which is a gorgeous place and Halls such as Weston and Shugborough which are definitely worth a visit.


Stafford also has a lot of Vets, estate agents, Doctors, Dentist, Opticians, a Hospital, Banks and a post office so everything you need really.

All in all Stafford is a pretty nice place with quite a bit to do and see whatever you fancy. It is well placed within the UK and has great links to other major places. I would recommend a visit and am glad that I do live near here.

Thanks for reading.

xxx"