Slitting Mill: A Circular Walk, The 1st FGC Memorial F&C Walk

The Start of a New Era

Staffordshire

This walk, like all real Fish and Chip walks, took place on Cannock Chase, at 68 km² (26 sq miles) one of the smallest of England’s 33 designated Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Once a Royal Forest, it is now managed by Forestry England

It may be small, but it is perfectly formed and, most importantly, it is on our doorstep.

AONBs in England, Cannock Chase ringed
work of DankJae © Natural England copyright 2021. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2021. Reproduced under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0.

The Gathering

On one of the mildest days of a distinctly cool winter, 5 participants gathered on the Car Park of The Horns Inn at Slitting Mill. Alison C, who had nobly the made the journey from Cheltenham, Lee and Sue, Mike and Alison T, and some worried looking bloke with only half his face in the picture.

Left to right, Sue, Alison C, Lee, Mike, Alison T and me, struggling withy the camera

Anne had cried off on the morning. She is a new grandparent and had been called upon for urgent grandparenting duties, so not only did we miss her company, we missed her skills at taking mass-selfies. I have little experience, short arms and arthritic fingers - and that’s my excuse.

The date of the very first Fish and Chip Walk – originally three teachers talking a country walk to celebrate the end of the Christmas Term – is known only to the celestial scorer, if there is one (and if there is, it is Bill Frindall, as every cricket fan of sufficient maturity knows).

The proto-chip walks were not always on Cannock Chase, and did not necessarily involve fish and chips but over time they settled into that pattern and that name. Brian and I were two of the three originals, the other, the actual progenitor of the Chip Walks (and the 11-year South West Odyssey and much more) was Francis, about whom, more later.

Getting Started

Our walk started and finished at Slitting Mill. A ‘slitting mill’ slits iron bars into rods as part of the nail making process. The first such mill was built here in 1611 and was followed by several others. The mills are long gone, but the village has appropriated the name. Slitting Mill today has 250 inhabitants and looks a pleasant place to live.

The mills were powered by water and the source, Horns Pool, is just behind the pub. It is now used by Staffordshire Match Fishing Club who charge other humans to fish the pool…

Horns Pool

…but kingfishers use it for free. ‘Look, there’s a kingfisher,’ said Alison C standing, behind me as I took the photo. By the time I was able to follow her pointing finger, it had, of course gone. I have still never seen a Common Kingfisher, though I have spotted and photographed white-throated and pied kingfishers in more exotic locations.

We followed the mill stream as it flows beside and a little above a field – which always looks slightly odd. We passed a row of houses, the last always has somebody on guard and at this time it is, inevitably, Father Christmas.

Father Christmas on guard duty.

On to the Chase

Here we turned our back only open fields typical of most Staffordshire countryside…

Staffordshire farmland

….and made our way onto Cannock Chase.

Lee, Mike, Alison C On Cannock Chase

Mike had organised the route, and supplied us all with a nice map. The OS map from which it is derived shows the footpaths and the forestry tracks, but not the more recently created cycle tracks which cater for the large mountain biking community. We inadvertently found ourselves on one such track and a passing cyclist stopped to point out our error. He was polite and reasonable and at the next opportunity we found a new path a little to the north which headed in the right direction. There is never a shortage of paths on Cannock Chase, the problem was always knowing which one you are on. GPS has simplified such matter and we easily found our way down too at the visitor centre on Marquis Drive.

Slitting Mill is at the northeasterly corner of the route in red

The Brindley Valley

The Tackeroo

From the visitor centre we found our way into the Brindley Valley.

The Alisons inspect a pool in the Brindley Valley

Cannock Chase was a busy place during World War One with two large army camps, one of which later became a prisoner of war camp. To move in all the necessary equipment and keep the camp supplied a narrow-gauge railway was built. The Tackeroo, as it was called (nobody knows why) branched from the West Coast Main Line at Milford, just north of the Chase, made its entry through a cutting (now known as The Cutting), ran through Brocton Camp on the high ground west of the Sherbrook Valley across Penkridge Bank and through Rugeley Camp and the Brindley Valley, eventually reaching Hednesford where it joined the Rugeley-Walsall line.

Several of these walks have started through The Cutting on to the Chase, but this was the first along the Brindley Valley and the southern part of the Tackeroo. Our path ran close to the old rail line though it is no longer visible to the casual observer.

Through the Brindley Valley - the line of the Tackeroo was somewhere to our right.

Brindley Village

After the war the camps were dismantled and the rail tracks removed, though find chunks of concrete among the trees that can only be explained as a war-time remnant are not uncommon.

The hospital on Brindley Heath remained in use until 1924 and was then purchased by the West Cannock Colliery Company to house miners working at the West Cannock No. 5 pit near Hednesford. A community known as Brindley Village grew around it and a school was built. In 1953 the residents were relocated to council housing more conveniently situated in Hednesford. The village was demolished leaving only the occasional foundation and the odd fencepost.

Towards Fairoak Lodge

Before Penkridge Bank Road we turned right across Tackeroo Camp, a modern campsite, deserted in January, and towards more wooded country.

Across the Tackeroo Camp

Some way beyond Marquis Drive we encountered a metal barrier across our path, bearing a line-drawing of a man in a hard hat holding up his hand and saying ‘stop’ and the phrase “Forestry Work, Danger of Death.” These are not uncommon on the Chase, and the ‘danger of death’ is a little overstated. The hazards presented by large vehicles manoeuvring on rough ground, falling trees and men with chain saws are real enough, but they usually work only in a small area of the ground cordoned off. Even so we were reluctant to climb over such a barrier. A short distance away, however, another barrier had been moved aside, whether by forestry workers or an anarchist walker we did not know, but it gave access to path going in the right direction.

We found ourselves on another well-made cycle path, but this time cyclist-free.

Along the cycle path

In places it was steep and the mud was slippery. In theory, I think, Lee was helping Alison T down a slippery section, but a minute or so earlier it was Lee had had found his footing sliding swiftly downhill followed by an unintentional, though relatively decorous, descent into the mud.

Mutual assistance on a perilous descent, Lee and Alison T

Eventually we sighted the forestry work a couple of hundred metres ahead. Turning left up the side of the valley, we found the next path up which took us away from any danger and delivered us to the access road to Fairoak Lodge.

Back to The Horns

From Fairoak Lodge we decided not to follow the planned route which dropped down to the pools, but keep instead to the higher ground which took us to Birches Valley visitor centre.

On the High Ground approaching Birches Valley

We walked through the visitor centre and Lady Hill Coppice beyond, emerging onto the minor road just outside Slitting Mill. The Horns, where Lynne would join us for the traditional fish and chip lunch was only a short step away.

The Horns, Slitting Mill

We had booked a late lunch, and as the light fades early in late December there was no afternoon walk. The route had been shorter than the traditional walk. Although Lee and Sue are still in (or at least not unadjacent to) their prime and could walk much further, some us (well me) are beginning to feel their age and find 11km quite long enough. Thanks to all for your patience, thanks to Mike for the route planning and to Alison C for making the effort to come so far to be part of it.

I mentioned Francis, the originator of these walks at the start. Last year he joined us for lunch and in the spring moved into sheltered accommodation in Oxfordshire nearer to his daughter. He died suddenly of a heart attack in June. For more see updates to Dr Francis Gibbs Crane MBE.

Francis lunching at the Ship Inn, Danebridge many years ago

I first blogged about these walks in 2010, and that walk was indisputably the Nth of the series. Last year’s was the (N + 12)th and I feel it is time for new, and more definitively numbering. So, without consulting anybody, and solely for the purpose of this blog, I have named this the First Francis Crane Memorial Fish and Chip Walk. Blog titles are best kept short so, as you can see at the top, abbreviations have been necessary.

The Annual Fish and Chip Walks

The Nth: Cannock Chase in Snow and Ice (Dec 2010)
The (N + 1)th: Cannock Chase a Little Warmer (Dec 2011)
The (N + 2)th: Cannock Chase in Torrential Rain (Dec 2012)
The (N + 3)th: Cannock Chase in Winter Sunshine (Jan 2014)
The (N + 4)th: Cannock Chase Through Fresh Eyes (Dec 2014)
The (N + 5)th: Cannock Case, Dismal, Dismal, Dismal (Dec 2015)
The (N + 6)th: Cannock Chase Mild and Dry - So Much Better (Dec 2016)
The (N + 7)th: Cannock Chase, Venturing Further East (Jan 2018)
The (N + 8)th: Cannock Chase, Wind and Rain (Dec 2018)
The (N + 9)th: Cannock Chase, Freda's Grave at Last (Dec 2019)
The (N + 10)th: Cannock Chase in the Time of Covid (Dec 2020)
The (N + 11)th: Cannock Chase, Tussocks(Dec 2021)
Dec 2020 - no walk
The (N + 12)th: Cannock Chase, Shifting Tectonic Plates (Dec 2023)
The 1st FGC Memorial Walk: Cannock Chase. Slitting Mill, a Circular Walk (Dec 2024)