Uttoxeters runners and riders

'Uttoxeter is not just about tic-tac or Wheeled Excavators. So let's make it famous for interesting buildings, lovely shops and their lovely proprietors

Uttoxeter in Staffordshire, famous for its Race Course and for JCB, so runs the headline on www.loveuttoxeter.org.uk

Let's start with the racecourse then and a special event this month. John Smith's Midlands Grand National day - annually the most popular occasion at Uttoxeter Racecourse - is on Saturday 14 March. This year will be the 40th anniversary of the race, now run over four miles and a furlong. Taking place at 3.45pm, the £100,000 prize fund race will attract many visitors - including those moving on from the Cheltenham Festival. You'd be wise to book tickets in advance by going to www.uttoxeter-racecourse.co.uk or telephoning 01889 562561.

The original 'JCB' - Joseph Cyril Bamford - was born in Uttoxeter. He started a business in a small garage in the town which would become the huge JCB empire making over 300 and with its international headquarters in nearby Rocester.

However, Uttoxeter is not just about tic-tac or Wheeled Excavators. So let's make it famous for interesting buildings, lovely shops and their lovely proprietors.

Start at the 14th century St Mary's Church of England church because it's easy to locate. That crooked spire may not be as famous as Chesterfield's but is a feature of the Uttoxeter skyscape. Usually open in the mornings, on Wednesdays from 10am to 1pm, a café is run in the Elkes Room to coincide with a service at 10.30am. They serve a good cup of coffee and when I visited, lobby and a roll was the special of the day at just £1.50. While being refreshed, admire the wonderful 'children's window'.

Exit the church and you're soon in Market Place where Xpressions has great gifts, items for babies and brides, jewellery, handbags and fascinators. It's the ideal place to visit ahead of Ladies' Day at Uttoxeter Racecourse.

Next door is the Indulgence coffee lounge and internet café in the old Chantry buildings.

On Wednesdays and Saturdays, Market Place lives up to its name with stalls around the Johnson Memorial cum newspaper kiosk and the Millennium Monument.

Sue Pickering of London Road Bakehouse from Stoke-on-Trent is a regular stallholder with her wonderful bread baked in a traditional coal-fired brick kiln oven. Anthea Turner says it's the best bread in the world and Sue also does rather nice cakes.

On the last Saturday of each month there is a farmers' market.

At the top of Market Street, a half-timbered building dates from 1600 and houses T G Sargeant and Sons who are butchers now in their fourth generation. The meat is slaughtered in the Sergeants' own abattoir at Bramshall and virtually everything in the shop is homemade. Ray Sargeant, one of three brothers currently running the business, said the recipe for his Old English sausages came from his grandfather and no, he was not about to tell me it.

Returning to the pedestrianised High Street is a dress shop called Dorothy Helen with its entrance in Old Saddler's Yard. Dorothy Helen retired 18 months ago and her former school friend, Annetta Ross, took over the shop. It's in Dorothy Helen that you'll find fashionable outfits, gorgeous hats and lovely wedding garments - plus a most helpful assistant called Pat Blackshaw.

To see the self-proclaimed 'loveliest lips in the land', go next door to Chanterelle - they belong to co-owner, Heather Cripps. Appropriately, Chanterelle is a smorgasbord of perfume and make-up where Dior, Chanel, Guerlain, Clarins, Van Cleef and Arpels abound. You will also find EO organic skin products as well as Linden Leaves and Nuxe for natural skin care. For everything from a body polish to a good waxing (for you, not your car) there's a beauty salon upstairs.

Gentlemen and schoolchildren will want to visit Buxton and Bonnet, an old-fashioned gentlemen's outfitters with its wonderful staircase, long counters and all the latest in suits, jackets, shirts and ties as well as school uniforms. If you know anybody who still wears sock suspenders and armbands, this is where they buy them. As a youth, John Cheatle, worked in the shop. Now he owns it.

On each and every visit to Uttoxeter, you should go to Leaf and Bean next door to the Heritage Centre in Carter Street. There are tables upstairs and down and 70 coffees and more than 50 types of tea to choose from. Coffee beans are ground and brewed properly, unlike in some well-known coffee shop chains, resulting in a delicious cup of coffee to go with a choice of homemade cakes. Owned by Jill Barkas for the past 18 months, the Leaf and Bean is where you also buy coffees and teas to take home - together with local cheeses.

Whether or not you have the desire to urinate, there's one final visit to make before departing Uttoxeter. Near the bus station are the best loos in Staffordshire - with awards for both the decor and attendants to prove it. There are fresh flowers and ornaments everywhere and extra roomy cubicles for people with a child or ambulant disabled person.

Uttoxeters runners and riders

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