- published: 20 Jul 2013
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Coordinates: 52°48′24″N 2°07′02″W / 52.8066°N 2.1171°W / 52.8066; -2.1171
Stafford is the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies approximately 16 miles (26 km) north of Wolverhampton and 18 miles (29 km) south of Stoke-on-Trent, adjacent to the M6 motorway Junction 13 to Junction 14. The population of Stafford was given in the 2001 census as 63,681, with that of the wider borough of Stafford as 122,000, making Stafford the fourth largest settlement in the Ceremonial county, after Stoke on Trent, Tamworth and Newcastle under Lyme.
Stafford means 'ford' by a 'staithe' (landing place). The original settlement was on dry sand and gravel peninsula that provided a strategic crossing point in the marshy valley of the River Sow, a tributary of the River Trent. There is still a large area of marshland northwest of the town, which has always been subject to flooding, such as in 1947, 2000 and 2007.
It's thought Stafford was founded in about 700 AD by Mercian prince called Bertelin who, according to legend, established a hermitage on the peninsular named Betheney or Bethnei. Until recently it was thought that the remains of a wooden preaching cross from this time had been found under the remains of St Bertelin's chapel, next to the later collegiate Church of St Mary in the centre of the town. Recent re-examination of the evidence shows this was a misinterpretation – it was a tree trunk coffin placed centrally in the first, timber, chapel at around the time Æthelflæd founded the burh, in 913 AD. The tree trunk coffin may have been placed there as an object of commemoration or veneration of St Bertelin.
Stafford Alois Repp (April 26, 1918 – November 5, 1974) was an American actor best known for his role as Chief O'Hara on the Batman television series.
Born and raised in California, he was educated at Lowell High School, in San Francisco, California. Soon after the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, Repp served a stint in the United States Army Air Corps. After this service he began his acting career in mid-life. He was first hired to create sound effects during the "Golden Age of Television".
At the beginning of his acting career, Repp appeared in numerous film and TV productions including the films I Want to Live! with Susan Hayward, and The Brothers Karamazov, both made in 1958. Also at this same time he began to appear in a string of early television programs from the middle 1950s to the early 1960s, including NBC's western anthology series Frontier. He appeared on Rod Cameron's State Trooper, Barbara Eden's How to Marry a Millionaire, Peter Lawford's The Thin Man (1957), Tom Tryon's Texas John Slaughter (1958), Howard Duff's Dante, and as Brink, the factory supervisor on Phil Silvers' The New Phil Silvers Show (1963–1964). His New Phil Silvers Show co-stars included Buddy Lester, Herbie Faye, Elena Verdugo, Ronnie Dapo, and Sandy Descher. He also had a brief appearance in the The Twilight Zone episode "Nick of Time" which starred William Shatner.
William West Anderson (born September 19, 1928), better known by the stage name Adam West, is an American actor best known for his lead role in the Batman TV series on the ABC TV network and the 1966 eponymous feature film. He is currently known for portraying eccentric characters, as well as his voice work on animated series such as The Fairly OddParents and as the fictionalized character of the same name on Family Guy.
West was born William West Anderson in Seattle, Washington to Otto West Anderson and Audrey V. Speer. The family moved to Walla Walla after his younger brother John was born. He attended Walla Walla High School during his freshman and sophomore years, and later enrolled in Lakeside School in Seattle. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Literature and a minor in Psychology from Whitman College in Walla Walla where he was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity and participated on the speech and debate team.
Later, while living in Hawaii, West landed a role as the sidekick on a children's show called El Kini Popo Show, which featured a chimp. West later took over as star of the show.