Cannock factfile

How to get to Cannock
Cannock is a town in the county of Staffordshire, situated to the north of the West Midlands conurbation, an area that includes the cities of Birmingham and Coventry, as well as large towns such as Dudley, Walsall, Solihull and West Bromwich.

You can reach Cannock via the M6 motorway, or by using the local railway service on the Chase line between Birmingham and Walsall.

How Cannock got its name
It's thought that the name Cannock comes from the Celtic word cnoc, meaning hill.

Cannock through the ages
The town of Cannock became a prominent local market town in the 13th century, and developed into an important mining centre in Tudor times, when the area's rich mineral resources were first discovered.

The mining industry grew rapidly in the 19th century, and by the 1920s the area's mines employed 23,000 people mining over four million tonnes of coal a year. The mining industry declined in the latter half of the 20th century, with the last deep-mined colliery on the Cannock Chase closing in 1993.

Shopping in Cannock
Cannock Shopping Centre is a fully enclosed shopping mall at the heart of the town, containing many top high-street stores. Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays are market days in the town of Cannock, with nearly 100 stalls offering everything from fresh produce to locally-made crafts and gifts and speciality foods.

Arts and culture in Cannock
Love Arts is an annual celebration of the arts which takes place in the Cannock area in June. Typically there will be events from the worlds of music, dance, drama, visual arts, photography, film, and literature.

Cannock also has its own theatre, the Prince of Wales, which stages a varied programme of entertainment throughout the year.

Natural beauty spots around Cannock
Cannock Chase, located between the towns of Cannock, Lichfield, Rugeley and Stafford, has been designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The area includes natural woodland, open heathland and coniferous woods, and is home to a wide range of animal species, including a spectacular herd of around 800 fallow deer, and several endangered bird species, notably the migrant nightjar.