Wednesday, 10 March 2021

The Staffordshire Way : Day 2 Rudyard to Hawksmoor Wood

Like Barcelona, this is and its companion posts are a Covid lockdown project. The walk actually took place in 2005/6.

For an introduction to the Staffordshire Way, see Day 1.

Day 2 Saturday 03/12/2005

The Churnet Valley and the Caldon Canal

Participants: Francis, Mike, Alison C, Brian, Matthew (guest) & Myself

Staffordshire

The route for our second day on the Gritstone Country and The Churnet Valley section would take is from Rudyard, just north of Leek to the Hawksmoor Nature Reserve near Alton (of Alton Towers fame). The walk is almost entirely in the Churnet Valley. The builders of the Caldon Canal and later the Churnet Valley Railway took full advantage of the river valley, for 10 km river, railway and canal run side by side

The Staffordshire Way Section 1: Gritstone Country & The Churnet Valley

Rudyard Lake Station to the Caldon Canal

We gathered at Rudyard Station on the long-closed Churnet Valley line. It was a damp December day when wise people would have remained indoors, or taken a train instead of walking. The car park also serves Rudyard Lake Station and Alison stood outside as though she was contemplating the train option.

Alison contemplates the Rudyard Lake Railway.

Alas, the Rudyard Lake Railway, though functioning, prefers sunny weekends, and even then only runs a couple of kilometres up the lakeside.

Ready to go. Rudyard Lake Railway (August 2008)

Rudyard Lake was constructed in 1831 to keep the Caldon Canal topped up and we set off south along the canal feeder.

We set off down the canal feeder

On a dank and dismal day the feeder dribbled on, doggedly working its way across 5km of damp Staffordshire.

A couple of miles of damp Staffordshire later, we are still on the feeder

It was not the most inspiring start to a walk but after 50 minutes of our lives which we will never get back it eventually decanted us onto to A53 just outside Leek.

At last the end of the feeder

Along the Caldon Canal to Consall Forge

Here we turned back on ourselves through a council depot and after some complicated navigation around Ladderedge and Deep Hayes country parks found our way north, west and then south again onto the tow path of the Caldon Canal.

The long-threatened rain arrived and we donned waterproofs…

Francis puts on his waterproof beside the Caldon Canal

…and then as it was eleven o’clock we sat under the nearest bridge and drank our coffee.

Coffee while sheltering from the rain, Caldon Canal (Photo: Francis)

The 29 km long Caldon Branch of the Trent & Mersey Canal opened in 1779. Splitting off at Etruria it wriggles northward out of Stoke on Trent then runs east to the Churnet Valley. We joined it at its highest point where it turns south down the valley to finish at Froghall. We would follow it for 9 of its remaining 10 km.

By the time we had finished our coffee the rain had stopped and as we set off again the sky brightened a little. We were remarkably fortunate that this twenty-minute shower was the only rain we encountered on the seven days of the walk.

The tow path was, of course, built for the horses that once towed the barges. The bridges look a little cramped for large shire horses – and for Mike and Brian.

This bridge ain't big enough for the two of us

After 20 minutes we reached the Cheddleton Flint Mill. A document of 1694 refers to corn milling on this site, though the earliest milling reference dates from 1253. In the late 18th century the South Mill was converted to grinding flint and a new North Mill was built for the same purpose. The brand-new Caldon Canal had made the transport of heavy goods possible and the pottery industry needed vast quantities of ground flint.

Cheddleton flint mill

Owned and preserved since 1972 by Cheddleton Flint Mill Industrial Heritage Trust there is also a museum and a period cottage.

The canal passes under the A520 by the flint mill and descends via a series of locks as it skirts the small town of Cheddleton.

Locks around Cheddleton

Our surroundings steadily became more rural and Francis and Brian became briefly distracted by tree creepers.

Observing tree creepers, apparently

Since joining the towpath we had walked between the Caldon Canal and the River Churnet. A mile above Consall the two merge.

The lock where the Caldon Canal joins the River Churnet (photo from a walk in Dec 2014)

The Modern Churnet Valley Railway

Since before lunch on Day 1 we had been on or near the defunct Churnet Valley Railway, but from Cheddleton to Froghall the line has been assiduously refunct. A newly formed company bought a section of track in the early 1990s and have steadily expanded their services as a heritage/tourist line. Since 2018 they have been working to extend the line to Leek. Francis was a little disappointed that the train we saw as we approached Consall was pulled by an American built locomotive, but at least it was a steam train.

Churnet Valley Railway (photo: Francis)

Many, though not all of their services are steam hauled. I would have thought there were enough pensioned-off British steam engines, but I was surprised to read that Churnet Valley locos come from all over the world, some spent their working lives shunting in steal works or coal mines in China, Hungary and Poland. I was also surprised at the way locomotives move round the ever-expanding number of heritage lines, doing a season here and a guest spot there. Covid made 2020 a bad year for all these big boys’ toys.

Lunch at the Black Lion, Consallforge

The hamlet of Consallforge now consists of little more than a river/canalside pub. A footbridge took us over the re-diverging waterways. The railway crossing was more basic but beyond was the warming and welcoming embrace of The Black Lion.

Approaching The Black Lion, Consallforge

I am unsure why everybody looks so miserable; the weather was not the finest but it had not been a bad morning. As young Matthew, Francis and Alison’s son, appears in no morning photos, I think he joined us here for the afternoon walk. I say ‘young’ Matthew, he was the same school year as my daughter and both will be forty this year. I find that thought depressing.

Lunch at The Black Lion. Cheer up you miserable bunch!

Consallforge and Cheddington Flint Mill give a clue to how the valley was during the industrial revolution. Consallforge was home to water-powered iron works, in Consall Woods the remains of limekilns can be found, and at Froghall there were more limekilns and Thomas Bolton’s Historic copperworks (a chimney was preserved when the works were finally demolished and cleared in 2011).

The Caldon canal was essential for moving the products of local industry and was so busy that in the early years it often ran short of water. Rudyard Lake was constructed to solve the problem. The Churnet was the source of power but also the means of waste removal and became England’s most polluted river. Industry has gone, nature has reclaimed the valley and the water quality has improved so much that salmon were successfully reintroduced in 2006.

Consallforge to Hawksmoor Wood

Just above Consallforge the Churnet Valley becomes deeper and darker; below Consallforge it becomes deeper and darker still. River and canal part company, the canal staying level on a shelf in the hillside, the railway beside it, sometimes on an embankment or bridge.

Back on the Caldon Canal below Consallforge

We soon passed the old Cherry Eye Bridge – it sounds nice, but the name, allegedly, derives from the inflamed eyes of workmen caused by dust from nearby industrial processes – and at the next, more modern footbridge, crossed the canal took a path under the railway and descended to the river.

Descending to the Churnet before the big climb up the other side. (photo Dec 2014)

Once down at river level our way led straight up the valley side, a muddy climb of some 90m in less than 300m. There are, I read, the remains of lime kilns festering in these woods, but we had neither the time nor energy to hunt for them.

It was hard work under unpleasant conditions and I was glad to reach the top. There, a relatively dry and level field path took us to the linear village of Kingsley strung out along the A52. Now a quiet rural village it was, a hundred years ago, the centre of the Churnet Valley iron mining industry.

Crossing the road took us to another field path and 800m further on the very similar village of Kingsley Holt strung out along the A521. Or was it just déjà vu?

Reaching Kingsley Holt

From Kingsley Holt, a long, gently sloping path descended back to the river a couple of kilometres south of Froghall. From here we followed the Churnet...

Along the Churnet towards Hawksmoor

...until it swung east to the village of Oakamoor, and we headed south into Hawksmoor Wood, to the National Trust car park and the end of the day’s walk

Today's distance: 22km
Total distance completed 42km,