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Running a Guest House can never be boring, variety is the name of the game you simply never know who is going to turn up at your door...they may be famous.. yes even here in little old Newcastle we have our share of famous guests (but you will have to visit us and we will tell you who!!), they may have an interesting job or hobby, they may have a strange and unusual reason for visiting the area... we really did have one guest who was on a mission to visit every "Alldays" store in Britain, it is true I kid you not. So from cactus collectors to astronomers and genealogists to physiotherapists there is never a dull moment and the variety of guests does lead to an amazing selection of conversations at the breakfast table in the morning. This week we have seen off euthanasia, Chinese New year, the eurozone problem, pros and cons of laser eye surgery and breast implants and that's before we even touch sport and especially football. What other job could bring you such a wealth of interesting and lovely people through your door? ]]> http://www.thegraythwaite.co.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry091112-102435

Enjoyed a night of celebration with staff from Stoke-on-Trent Tourist Information Centre other tourism staff and representatives from the tourism sector in Stoke at the Heart of England Awards for Excellence in Tourism. These are the Industry awards for our sector, (the eqivalent of a Grammy or Oscar) held in Birmingam at the ICC. It is a prestigious event and we went along to support the staff of Stoke TIC who had been shortlisted down to the final three. We enjoyed a lovely meal and a very entertaining evening topped off when Stoke TIC won their category, and were presented with their award by Nick Owen and Suzanne Virdee. This is a fantastic achievement particularly when up against areas with big tourism offices and budgets such as Straford on Avon. Praised for their excellent local knowledge and high levels of customer service, this award is richly deserved. It is about time that there is recognition for some of the good things that happen locally, all too often we hear negative comments about the area but there are many things to be proud of in the Potteries and North Staffordshire and we need to shout out about them more. I wish the staff good luck as they now move on to represent the West Midlands in the national round of the competition.]]> http://www.thegraythwaite.co.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry090910-155942

When is a train not a train, answer when it is a bus. I know that we are familiar with the fact that when there are engineering works on the line buses are deployed to transport everyone to their next destination instead of the trains. However this week we had a guest who wanted to visit the new Wedgwood Museum at Barlaston. Having lived in the area some years ago she was familiar with the railway station at Wedgwood and so I checked on the internet and sure enough there was a train running every hour from Stoke to Wedgwood station. I was as delighted as she was as this may prove the answer for many of our guests who don't have access to a car as it is virtually impossible to visit the Wedgwood Factory and Museum at Barlaston some 8 miles out of the city centre by public transport.
My delight was short lived as on her return she informed me that the station at Wedgwood was in fact closed and even though she had been able to purchase a train ticket it was then she found that not only was there no train but the station at Barlaston has been closed for some time. However there is a bus service whose times of running bore no resemblance to the train timetable. The attendant in the ticket office at Stoke on Trent station agreed that it was misleading but there was nothing that could be done about so he refunded her ticket money. Our intrepid guest then travelled by bus only to find that she had to walk a mile from the closest bus stop to the Wedgwood factory. For her it was not a problem but it certainly limited the amount of spending in the Factory Shop!

I don't want this to put anyone off visiting the new award winning Museum (the Wedgwood Museum recently won the prestigious Art Fund prize) which I visited myself a few weeks ago. It is superb and must be high on the list of things to do when visiting the area. The Museum is a credit to all who have been involved with it, it showcases the history of the company and there is lots of information about Josiah Wedgwood, his life, his peers and his work. My advice if you are visiting is to take a break half way round and enjoy afternoon tea across in the Wedgwood tea rooms. There is so much information to take in this allows time to digest and then go back for more. I felt I I couldn't do justice to the latter half of the Museum as I was in information overload. .

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The title of this blog does not actually refer to the two good looking characters above but instead read on to the end to be enlightened further. Having recently finished refurbishing and redecorating all the double/twin rooms we decided to have new photographs for the web site. Our regular photographer is Beth Peel, who I am sure you will agree has done a super job of capturing a good likeness of the rooms on this web site.
It was a rare sunny morning when Beth was here and at the end of the session we all enjoyed some time in the garden and we were joined by our two dogs, Monty & Reo. Beth managed to get some wonderful photos of the dogs, something we have found really difficult due to their reluctance to pose for long enough for us to capture them on camera; we have lots of photos of their rear ends walking away! Anyway you can see the true handsome pair below.
We are often asked about the dogs and indeed the first question that many of our returning guests ask is "How are the dogs?" Monty & Reo are Hungarian Vizsla's, a mix of pointer and setter. They are the only all brown dog in the world! You can see their wonderful russet brown coats in these photos. Having re-read the Vizsla web site whilst writing this blog I think we must have two imposters, our two don't like water and are afraid of loud noises, hunting dogs they are not. They are however very sociable and love our guests but don't worry as they live in a separate part of the house and you will only get to see them if you ask.

MONTY & REO
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We are having a very interesting week hearing about the progress of a series of amazing sculptures being created here in the Potteries in a local quarry by a group of international artists using only red clay. This is part of the British Ceramics Biennial much more than a festival to celebrate all that is good about the ceramic industry that is still very much alive in Stoke on Trent. Because we hear all too often about the sad demise of the famous household names such as Wedgwood, Spode and Doulton it would be easy to think that Stoke has lost its place as as centre of excellence in the world of ceramics but this is not the case. There are more ceramic companies in Stoke than ever, its just that they are smaller businesses but the quality and originalty are all still here. Many of our guests from both home and abroad come to the area to visit the famous names and to buy pottery but they are much less interested when they discover that most of it is not made here in Stoke on Trent, but in the Far East.

However there is still much fine pottery and ceramics made locally, if you ask you will find them; Moorland pottery, Burleigh, Portmerion to name but a few. The British Ceramics Biennial is therefore a great idea to celebrate all that is still great, just a pity that the title is such a mouthful and also a bigger shame that it would appear very few local people even know about the event. I strongly urge you to look at their web site to find out more, whether you live here or are visiting the area.

Meanwhile back to our ceramic artists here at Graythwaite, Tbjorn Kvasbo, Alexandra Engelfriet and Pekka Paikkari. Each morning they leave very early, fuelled by a good English breakfast to do battle with not only 25 tons of red clay each, but also the delights of an English summer which is doing its very best to wash their hard work away, we await their return each day with interest to hear how it is all going. Because of the transient nature of their endeavours it is all being recorded on film. Will keep you posted.]]> http://www.thegraythwaite.co.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry090816-145820

It has been beautiful weather this weekend, lovely weather for walking, it seems everyone I talk to this weekend has been out walking, how lucky they are. We will be able to get out later this evening with the dogs but we have been too busy to take advantage of this beautiful weather during the day. People tend to think of the Potteries as an industrial area and it is but within minutes walk or drive there is beautiful countryside and many interesting walks for all ages and abilities.

Recently Christopher Somerville, a travel journalist from The Times stayed with us whilst walking the canal towpath between Barlaston (Wedgwood) and Stoke on Trent. His purpose was to show that there are many good walks in the city areas and these can be accessed by public transport too. On the doorstep are Apedale Country Park, Hanchurch Woods or the Barlaston Downs and slightly further afield the magnificent Staffordshire Moorlands. The canal network is quite extensive around this area and provides some wonderful opportunities for walking.


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Anyway back to our Monday evening there we are sat down, feeling smug whilst watching the catalogue of disasters played out in front of us when all the time unbeknown to us we had our very own Hotel Inspector sleeping under our roof that night! So you see it really does happen. Although we are visited and inspected by Visit Britain every year we only have an anonymous inspector every 3 years and without fail every time we have never spotted them until they revealed their identity after breakfast. Apparently she had been trying to stay for some time but we had been too busy and it has taken her several months to get a vacant room, we should have guessed when she booked and said she would take any room we had free!

By the time you find out who they are it is too late you have already been judged on everything from your standard of cleanliness to customer service, from the breakfast to the quality of your rooms. Fortunately we performed very well and retained our 4 Star rating, she commented that her breakfast had been cooked to perfection which pleased John no end.

Although I can't believe anybody likes the experience of being inspected for us it is important that we are assessed externally by an independent body, so we can be judged and to some extent bench marked against other accommodation providers. Personally we feel the rating system provides a clearer indication to potential customers as to what they can expect to find.

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We still had some guests to arrive and after settling them in it was time for bed ourselves that was until 3.30am when the phone rang, somebody wanting to book a room! I know that everyone hates the telephone ringing in the night and even after 11 years you still always think the worst and never that it will just be someone wanting a room. We do get calls in the night but thankfully only occasionally. So Monday morning we were not as bright and cheerful as usual but our guests that morning made us feel a lot better particularly after hearing about Paul's successful kidney transplant, a truly inspiring story, as far as we know you are our first guest with 3 kidneys! (told you I would give you a mention). Seizing the opportunity of a quieter morning we had booked the Carpet cleaners who arrived promptly at 9am and proceeded to make quick but excellent work of cleaning the carpets in all the rooms. In between we waved our final guests off wishing then happy holidays off to board their canal boat at the local marina at Etruria. As the carpets dried it took usthe rest of the day for us to put all the rooms back together, I had just time to admire how nice everywhere was looking when our first guests of the day arrived. ]]> http://www.thegraythwaite.co.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry090802-215911


Every oatcake shop has their own secret recipe which they don't want to reveal so I took to researching on the internet for a suitable recipe. Making oatcakes is very similar to making pancakes but it is especially important for the mix to stand to allow the yeast to work. I was very pleased with the results and so were the rest of my family who acted as tasters. Now the real test to try them on our guests. I also experimented with a ready made oatcake mix from the Staffordshire Oatcake Shop in Dresden, this was also very successful and a great way for anyone who has moved away from the area to ensure they have access to a plentiful supply of oatcakes. It is amazing the number of Oatcake shops that now offer to mail order your oatcakes to anywhere in the UK!
Whilst reseraching for recipes I discoverd that The Hairy Bikers have recently visited Newcastle under Lyme and Stoke sampling some of Staffordshires finest foods including oatcakes for a programme in their next series. For a preview of what they thought listen to their interview on BBC Radio Stoke
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