Staffordshire Way Day 4

I'd mentioned to my friend Andy from Rugeley that I was doing the next stage of Staffordshire Way, and he'd actually decided he'd join me for the first half of the day and walk back into Rugeley from the nearest point on the day’s walk.

I set off for Rugeley and picked him up at about 10.15am and then we drove to Abbots Bromley where I'd finished after my first three days of walking along this footpath. It took us a few minutes to find somewhere sensible to park as there were quite a few church goers parked in the streets.

We set off on the walk after taking a few photos of Abbots Bromley itself. It is a pleasant small town with a Butter Cross in the market place, though this was partly covered by fencing when we were there. The village is famous for its annual Horn Dance, which takes place on the Monday after the first Sunday after the 4th of September??! From early morning, the dancers perambulate an eight mile course around the parish, before returning o the village to dance until dusk under the Butter Cross. The dance probably dates from the 12th century, when the Abbot of Bromley granted hunting rights in the Needwood Forest. Indeed, six of the sets of reindeer horns used in the dance and housed in the Church of St Nicholas, have been carbon dated to within 30 years of the Norman Conquest.

Timber framed building and the Church of St. Nicholas behind in Abbots Bromley.

The Butter Cross and The Goats Head pub behind it
in Abbots Bromley

We left the village through the churchyard. There has been a church on the site since Saxon times, but the earliest parts of the present building are Norman. The last major restoration of the church occurred in 1853 under the guidance of George Street.

Left: The church of St. Nicholas in Abbots Bromley

Above: The River Blithe below the dam wall of Blithfield Reservoir

After crossing several fields, the first point of interest was Blithfield Reservoir. This is Staffordshire’s largest expanse of water, covering 800 acres and impounding 4,000 million gallons of water. It was created in 1953 by the damming of the River Blithe and provides drinking water for a large part of south Staffordshire. To begin with, we couldn't see much of the reservoir, as the footpath descended in front of the dam and followed the course of the river below it for a while. It then joined a track and cut back to the far end of the dam, where we climbed up high enough to get a decent glimpse of the expanse of water.

Looking back at Blithfield Reservoir.

I took photos and we continued to climb uphill slightly away from the reservoir and then across several fields to join a small lane down to the hamlet of Stockwell Heath. This is just a small collection of houses around quite a large village pond, which would have been picuresque were it not clogged and choked with weed.

Turning right down Moor Lane for a hundred yards or so, we turned left over a stile and crossed several fields, with the village of Colton off to our right on higher ground. We eventually emerged on the main B5013 through the village and decided to turn left… a slight detour to visit the pub marked on the map here. We sat outside with a beer in front of the pub though were pestered by wasps. When I bought the drinks (Andy hadn’t bought along his wallet!!!?!), the barman asked if we were on Staffordshire Way and said that the day before he’d walked from Mow Cop to HERE for charity!!! Almost 50 miles!!!! Now that is Serious walking!! It had taken me 3 and a half days to do the same distance and I thought IIIII was doing well!! Apparently 5 had set off but only 2 had done the whole thing. Well done to them!!! Having finished our drinks we set off back down the main road and out towards the edge of the village past some lovely houses and the church of St. Mary on its edge. Just over the small brick bridge, with a ford alongside it we took to the fields again and cut diagonally across them to rejoin and then cross the B5013 again. After a short walk up a track we crossed over the railway line, with the rather imposing structure of Rugeley Power Station off to our left. This is one of several such stations along the Trent that utilise its waters for cooling.

As we descend into the next valley... that of the Trent.. Cannock Chase comes into view ahead!

Lovely house in Colton.

And the bridge and ford as we leave the village.

As we cross the railway, Rugeley Power Station
dominates the landscape.

Soon after crossing the railway we joined the towpath of the Trent and Mersey Canal. This canal was the brainchild of James Brindley and was part of a scheme to link the four main rivers of England. Brindley christened the project The Grand Trunk Canal, because he envisaged it providing the backbone for a whole network of branch canals to various centres of industry for the transport of raw materials and finished products, because in those days the road network was not up to the job. The canal was authorised in 1766 and by June 1770 was opened from Derwent Mouth to Shugborough, though the whole canal wasn’t completed until 1777, due largely to the huge task of excavating the almost 2 mile Harecastle Tunnel in North Staffordshire.

Brindley didn’t live to see the canal completed, but by 1790 a waterway system existed that linked the four main rivers of England and his Grand Trunk Canal was at the heart of that system.

From joining the canal, it was a walk of several miles along it. We sheltered from a downpour just before Colwich Lock. There was a huge queue of boats below and above it waiting to go through in turn. Apparently it was very slow in filling up?? Rather them than me!!!

Andy joins the Trent and Mersey Canal.

From the tow path, and across the Trent the high ground of Cannock Chase is much nearer.

The offendingly slow filling lock at Colwich.

Fancy bridge across the canal on the Shugborough estate as we approach Great Haywood.

We stayed on the canal until Great Haywood and left it here to go for another drink in the Clifford Arms pub. Having finished our pints we set off again back up Trent Lane, under the railway and over the canal and then across the Trent on the impressive 17th century packhorse bridge. It is called Essex Bridge, and takes its name from the Earls of Essex who built it. Originally it is thought to have had over forty arches, but only 14 remain today. This still makes it the longest packhorse bridge in England!!.

Andy had decided that he was going to do the whole planned 17 miles with me, which I was really rather dubious about him managing, because he hasn't done much walking for a long time! So after crossing the bridge we set off through the grounds of Shugborough Hall where there was a show of some sort on, which somewhat spoiled the views.

Trent Lane after visiting the pub in Great Haywood.

Essex Bridge.. the longest packhorse bridge in England.

Shugborough Hall.

The hall, which is of various dates, has been the seat of the Anson family since 1624. The Ansons received the title ‘Earls of Lichfield', and the fifth Earl, photographer Patrick Lichfield, still lives in part of the house today. The house is, however, now owned by the National Trust and managed by the county council and both house and grounds are open to the public. The house was remodelled in the 1760s by the architect ‘Athenian’ Stuart who earned this nickname through his reproductions of Greek antiquities.

A number of these works can be seen in the grounds of Shugborough Park and as we walked down the drive we spied one of these off to our right in a field. The Triumphal Arch was modelled on Hadrian’s Arch in Athens and commemorates Admiral Anson (and his wife) who famously circumnavigated the world in his ship ‘The Centurion’.

Between 1790 and 1806 the house was altered in the Regency Style by Samuel Wyatt. It is he who is responsible for the portico on the front of the house today, each column being a single oak tree clad in slate.

The Triumphal Arch as we approach the edge of Shugborough Park.

When we reached the end of the drive we joined the main road.. the busy A513, which was a bit of a shock to the system. We turned right along it, climbing all the way as we made our way onto the flanks of the high ground of Cannock Chase. This is a unique area of about 26 square miles that was designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1958. It owes its survival as an open space mainly to the fact that much of its soil is poor quality for agriculture. Today it is a gravelly plateau ranging from 250 to 800 feet above sea level. After many centuries as a hunting preserve, its natural forest cover was almost entirely removed for industrial purposes. Now the dominant landscape feature is the man made forests of the Forestry Commision plantations. The Commission manage 6,700 acres for commercial timber production, whilst the County Council owns and manages over 2,500 acres which was designated as a Country Park in 1973.

We left the main road and entered the Sherbrook Valley on a stone track from a car park. This area is one of the few areas of natural vegetation left on the Chase. After a while we turned right and passing by the Stepping stones across the brook, we eventually emerged onto cleared moorland areas with purple heather in bloom everywhere with occasional silver birches. We continued to climb to the summit of the Chase, where we crossed over Heart of England Way, which I have walked before. So I was on familiar territory for a while at this point! We visited the Glacial Boulder, which arrived on the Chase in the last Ice Age having been transported by ice sheets from South West Scotland. I was no more impressed by it this time, set on its horrid concrete and pebble plinth, than I had been the last time I’d seen it on my first day’s walking of Heart of England Way!

Above:The path climbs up onto the Chase
from the main road.

Right: We emerge onto the higher and
open ground above the Sherbrook Valley

Sherbrook just before the Stepping Stones.

Looking back from near the Glacial Boulder.

And across the Sherbrook Valley.

The horribly set glacial boulder.

And the lovely pretty heather.

From the glacial boulder we started our up and down descent from Cannock Chase. By this point Andy was beginning to feel the distance and having to rest every half a mile or less. I was actually not struggling at all, which I found bewildering and amazing! My tolerance for longer distances seems to have gone up considerably of late! We did a final descent across fields to the A34 and crossing this, made our way to the small village of Bednall. We left the village on Cock Lane and then turned right off this after about ¾ of a mile, cutting across fields to a belt of marshy woodland on the edge of Teddesley Park.

Above: The final descent from the high ground of
Cannock Chase as we approach the A34

Right: A dead tree as Andy rests on a stile
just before Bednall

Sir Edward Littleton, the first Lord Hatherton, built Teddesley Hall in the mid 18th century and laid out its park in preference to the family home of Pillaton Hall, nearer to Cannock. The cost of building is said to have been largely funded by hoards of coins found behind panelling at Pillaton Hall. The Hall is now demolished but the Home Farm survives. We crossed fields across the estate with numerous stops for Andy to collapse in a heap on the ground!! By now the distant roar of the M6 was audible.

Crossing Teddesley Park on our approach to the noisy M6.

And again.

At the far side of Teddesley Park we reached the second canal for the day – The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal. This canal was again the work of Brindley and was one of the components in his ‘Grand Cross’ design for canals linking the Mersey with the Thames and the Trent with the Severn. This is the only one that he lived to see completed. We joined the canal at a wharf crossing Parkgate Bridge (No. 90) to join the towpath on the far side. This bridge was originally the entrance to the Teddesley Estate, but when the coal wharves here flourished, the main entrance was removed to a more secluded position… ie bridge No.89, better known as ‘Fancy’ or Teddesley Bridge, which we passed beneath on our walk along the towpath towards the increasing noise of the M6.

We passed under this roaring monster, having yet another rest for andy at the far end of the bridge, and after a further walk of about half a mile through the modern outskirts of Penkridge, and several stops we reached the Boat Inn pub, which was playing loud music in the beer garden. We left the canal and joined the road into town, making a detour at the end to visit the chippy as Andy hadn’t had anything to eat all day!! Nothing like being prepared!! We made it to Penkridge with little time left before the light started waning and once we’d eaten our chips on a bench we went for a drink in The Railway Inn while we waited for mum and dad to come and pick us up and take us back to the car at Abbots Bromley. They got there at about 9pm and when they dropped us off I took Andy back and drove home myself.