Heart of England Way Day 2

Day 2 - Lichfield Cathedral to Kingsbury- 14.5 Miles

I woke up rather tired on the Sunday morning and my hip joints were a little stiff, something I always suffer from a little if I walk a long way. Determined not to be put off from my plan though, I got up and set off in my car as mum couldn't drop me off today. I arrived in Lichfield at about 10.15am and parked in a long stay car park in the town centre which was free on Sundays luckily. I finally set off to pick up the way where I had left it yesterday at 10.30am, hobbling slightly but not too bad at all really considering. I took photos of two statues in the market square. The first one was of Dr Samuel Johnson who was born in 1709 in a house on the corner of the Market Square and Breadmarket Street. As a journalist, essayist and poet, he compiled the first English dictionary and became a major literary figure treasured for his wit and wisdom. The second statue was a bronze of his friend and biographer, Boswell.
A grumpy looking Dr Johnson in the market place, Lichfield.	The bronze statue of Boswell, Lichfield.
After taking the photos I set off on my way through the streets following nice brass way mark plaques let into the pavements. Eventually after traipsing through housing estates and quiet roads I came out onto the A51 at the edge of Lichfield, turning left and walking along it for about three quarters of a mile. This section of the walk wasn't very pleasant with the busy road even on a Sunday, but I soon crossed over and took a straight path angling away from the A51 and cutting straight over the sandy dome of Packington Moor.	The nice brass Heart of England Way plaques set into the pavements in Lichfield.
Although it is farmed it is wild and quiet and feels high and open, and is obviously a lower geological extension of the high area of Cannock Chase to the north which I had walked over yesterday. While walking along here I came across a microlite just taking off from a grass air strip and a little further along a car boot sale. I had a quick look around some of the stalls, though they really were filled with tat and so carried on cutting across on a farm track to the busy A5. This very noisy and busy stretch of road, originally called Watling Street, was first engineered by the Romans who built a large camp just north of here at Wall. It runs from London in the south to Holyhead in North Wales and was later rebuilt by Thomas Telford in 1815. After turning briefly right and walking along this busy road for about a hundred yards the way turned left along a quiet lane, and the noise of the traffic was soon left behind. This stretch turned out to be the highlight of the day's walk for me. I crossed a bridge over Black Brook and into another totally different landscape of grassy hills topped with trees.
Looking back the way I had come from Packington Moor. The very distant low hill is the southern edge of Cannock Chase!	Approaching the A5 from packington Moor.
The quiet rolling hills of the parish of Hints,beyond the A5.	Black brook.
These seem to form a ridge between the sandy and pebbly Cannock Chase type landscape to the North and the lower wide Tame Valley to the south. I climbed up a grassy valley, which was quite hard work, but when I reached the summit of Gorsey Hill, I was rewarded with great views back the way I had come and also out over the next part of my walk, namely the Tame Valley.
The view from the summit of Gorsey Hill.
Looking at the way ahead, into the Tame valley from the summit of Gorsey Hill.
By this point I was beginning to feel quite weary with the cumulative effect of two days walking, but on the whole not too bad. I descended from the hill via a small lane and then fields until I reached Hints Farm. From this point the guidebook mentioned two routes. The first was the original intended route of the Way to Drayton Bassett, but it makes use of a driveway for its last section, which is not an official right of way despite years of people walking along it and the parish council trying to get it recognised as such. I therefore decided to do the alternative route, which was also the one illustrated on the maps in my other guidebook. It was pleasant enough, but made use of lanes and road walking is never as nice as field paths. It was a long slog for me along the last lane into Drayton Bassett, and I knew from the guidebooks there wasn't even a pub there to make it worthwhile. I was getting hungry too by this time, not having bought any sandwiches with me, so I could have done with a pub at this point. I called into the post office and general stores hoping that they sold sandwiches or something, but it turned out they had little of anything useful, so I had to make do with a bag of crisps and a Cornetto! Hmmm… not exactly what I had hoped for Sunday lunch. I headed out of the village along a lane with no footpaths towards Drayton Manor. This was bought by Robert Peel in 1790. His son became the famous Robert Peel, long serving MP for Tamworth and the Prime Minister who established the police force. The Manor and Estate were sold in the 1920s and the grounds are now a zoo and theme park. I reached and crossed the main road at the end of the lane to join the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal. To reach the far tow path I had to cross a strange little footbridge supported by crenulated towers at either end. The canal was authorised by Parliament in 1784 and runs 15 miles from Fazeley Junction near Tamworth to Birmingham, where it joins the maze of road, rail and waterway links known as Spaghetti Junction.
The crenulated footbridge over the Fazeley and Birmingham Canal at Drayton Bassett.	Along the Fazeley and Birmingham Canal.
This section of the way was a bit of a drag, as I always seem to find long stretches of canal walking for some reason. Of course it wasn't helped by the fact that by now my legs and feet were beginning to ache quite a lot! The Way leaves the canal tow path at Kingsbury Water Park and those of you who read all my walks will know this as the start point of Centenary Way. For 50 years gravel was extracted from the floor of the Tame Valley. When the works were abandoned in 1973, they left 600 acres of pits, large and small, separated by narrow strips of land. Some of these had been filled with fly ash from the nearby Hams Hall power station, but most filled naturally with water. Warwickshire County Council took over the site and developed it as a special country park. There are 30 lakes and pools, the largest being the 66 acre Bodymoor Heath Water. Although far from a natural landscape, with time the harsh edges of these manmade pools are being softened as nature reclaims the area. One of the parks major problems for me is the M42 which bisects it, and the noise from it is constant to a greater or lesser extent anywhere on the park. I crossed under this busy road and made my way over the dead looking polluted River Tame. The river has two sources one near Wolverhampton and one 8 miles south near Blackheath and flows through east Birmingham collecting waste from the gigantic Minworth Sewage Works. In its 47 miles to the Trent it acts as drain and sewer for one of the biggest conurbations in the world.
The first lake of Kingsbury Water Park from the towpath of the Fazeley and Birmingham Canal.	Approaching Kingsbury village, sitting on its low hill above the river Tame.
Kingsbury church from the footbridge over the River Tame.
I wearily climbed the steps up the slight hill on which the village of Kingsbury sits above the river Tame. A 'bury' was a fortified house, and this one was used by King Offa of Mercia whose capital was at Tamworth. Later, Kingsbury, like many villages in North Warwickshire became a coal mining settlement, but they have long since lost their pits. I didn't have to wait long for my mum to come and pick me up, and she drove me all the way back to Lichfield so that I could collect my car. I was really tired, but also really pleased that I had managed to do so much in my first two days. Already Cannock Chase seemed a long way away to me!