Like the Barcelona posts, this post and its companions are a Covid lockdown project. The walk actually took place in 2005/6.
For an introduction to the Staffordshire
Way, see Day
1.
Day 5 Saturday 18/03/2006
Over Cannock Chase, Down to Penkridge and Across the Flat Farmland of South Staffs
Participants: Francis, Mike, Alison C, Brian & Myself
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| Staffordshire |
After the very flat fourth day, the contours and variety of Cannock Chase were a welcome relief. Section 3: The Eastern Valleys and Cannock Chase, starts at some apparently randomly chosen point on the Chase. After a visit to the Glacial Boulder (hardly worth its capital letters) the path took us to Bednall and then across parkland and along a canal to Penkridge. From Penkridge to Lapley is more flat farmland, rather like Day 4.
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| Section 3: Parkland Staffordshire and the Southern Uplands |
Across Cannock Chase
Having finished Day 4 at a car park on the A513 a couple of hundred metres from the entrance to Shugborough, we
had to continue along the main road to access the Chase at the Punchbowl.
We took the silver birch lined path…
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| Onto the Chase between the silver birches |
… that rounds the western side of Harts Hill and swings left toward the Sherbrook Valley.
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| Into the Sherbrook Valley |
The Sherbrook Valley
This is familiar territory to anyone who has seen any of the Fish and Chip Walk posts (link is to the 2020 version of this venerable institution) – and even more so to those who walked them. Also familiar is a stop to peer upwards into a tree. Francis and Brian raised binoculars that cost as much as a small car (probably an exaggeration), Mike had a less expensive pair and Alison seemed more interested in who was following us – nobody as it turned out. The object of all this interest was a small flock of siskins.
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| Looking for siskins |
Reaching the Sher Brook at the stepping
stones we did not cross, but walked along the south side of the brook for some 1500m…
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| Along the Sher Brook |
…then we turned west straight up the valley side, stopping at the top just long enough for Francis to pose…
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| Francis poses after walking up from the valley |
The Glacial Boulder
..and made our way to the Glacial Boulder. Though hardly huge, it is the largest of several erratic boulders on the Chase and was
carried here by a glacier – probably from the Dumfries area – some 20,000 years ago. In the 1950s it is was placed on a
plinth constructed from the river-rounded Bunter Sandstone cobbles that
underlie most of the Chase, though the concrete base dates from the First World
War. It has featured in several of the Annual Fish and Chip Walk, most notably in 2015.
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| The Glacial Boulder |
The Staffordshire Way shares the approach to the Glacial Boulder with the Heart of England Way, a 100-mile route running
north-south down the middle (or ‘Heart’ if you prefer) of England from Milford
on the northern edge of Cannock Chase to Bourton-on-the-Water in the Cotswolds.
We now continued west while the HoEW went south.
To Bednall and Penkridge
Bednall
Getting off the Chase from here is easy, as long as you don’t mess with the Oldacre Valley where reality and the OS map have
different footpaths. The Staffordshire Way fortunately rounds the head of the shallow
valley and takes you straight down to Camp Road from where a dead straight farm
track leads to the A34. Having survived crossing the main road, a minor road
and then a field path led us into Richfield Lane and thence into Bednall.
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| Down Richfield Lane into Bednall |
There is not a lot to Bednall. The 19th century church is a bit too recent to be interesting, but the churchyard had a couple of
benches where we could perch for coffee.
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| Coffee in a bench in Bednall churchyard |
I cannot remember who borrowed my camera to take the picture above, but I think Brian is trying to turn them to stone. The chap on the other end
of the bench looks a pleasant, smiley cove, if a little bewildered. No ,
he's just a grumpy old man - Lynne (long suffering wife and proof-reader.)
Being Spring there was a nice patch of crocuses in the churchyard.
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| Crocuses, Bednall churchyard |
Teddesley Park
The 3.5km from Bednall to the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal took us across Teddesley Park. Teddesley Hall was built in the early
1750s by Sir Edward Littleton, the 4th Baronet Littleton. He died in 1812 and was succeeded by his great-nephew who
became the first Baron Hatherton in 1835. He drained and developed the land
around the house creating a farm of some 1700 acres with 700 acres under
cultivation and grazing for 200 cattle and 2000 sheep.
The Hall ceased to be the Hatherton’s family home after the death of the 3rd Baron in 1930. After World War II, when the house was requisitioned for billeting troops, it remained empty and decaying until the 5th Baron sold the estate in 1954 and the hall was demolished. I have no idea who owns the land now, but it is a big expanse of farmland to walk across.
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| Across Teddesley Park |
The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal
We reached the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal at Parkgate lock.
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| Parkgate lock, Staffs and Worcs canal |
The 46-mile-long Staffs and Worcs canal, like every other canal on the Staffordshire Way (so far) is the work of James Brindley. Completed in 1771, it branches off from the Trent and Mersey canal within sight of where we veered off to the Essex Bridge towards the end of Day 4. After rounding the north of Cannock Chase it heads south
and west to join the River Severn at Stourport.
Following the tow path for a little over 2km, we passed under the M6 then entered Penkridge.
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| Entering Penkridge on the Staffs and Worcs canal |
Penkridge
The Boat Inn, where we left the canal-side seemed the perfect place to pause for a sandwich and a glass of lunch.
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| The Boat, Penridge |
Penkridge is a well-connected little town. The M6 runs down its eastern flank (though there is no local junction), the Staffordshire
and Worcestershire Canal runs through the centre, the main west coast railway
line runs down the western edge (there is a station) and the River Penk runs in
the same general direction though by a somewhat less direct route.
After lunch we walked through the town, over the Penk, under the railway viaduct and westwards into the countryside along Preston Vale Lane.
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| Walking through Penkridge |
Obviously Penkridge derives its name from its situation on a ridge beside the River Penk – only it doesn’t, the river probably derives its name from the town. There is good
evidence for the early settlement having the Celtic name of Penn-crug, meaning the head (or end) of the ridge or chief hill or mound, the name predating the Romans who called their local fort Pennocrucium.
There is not much of a ridge, either, so the name is thought to refer to a once prominent tumulus
near the earliest settlement a little south of the modern town. Several millennia of ploughing have flattened the tumulus and there is now nothing for the casual observer to see.
Penkridge to Lapley
In the fields outside Penkridge my eye was caught by a young goat….
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| Cute kid, Penkridge |
…and in the same field, scrabbling round happily among a mixed flock of sheep and goats was an emu. I had never seen one outside a zoo
before, but they are tolerant of our weather (more than I am!) and a small
group are actively promoting emu farming on a national scale. For all their
efforts emus seem as rare now as in 2006 – but amazingly this was not the last
we would see on the Staffordshire Way.
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| The Penkridge Emu |
Preston Vale Lane ends after two kilometres at the eponymous farm, where a right and a left alongside a stand of willows…
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| Willows, Preston Vale |
…put us in a long straight, rather tedious farm track.
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| It's a long way to Mitton |
This led to a minor road which took us to Mitton. We seemed to have been approaching Mitton for a long time, but when we got there,
this is all there is.
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| Mitton |
Mitton’s Victorian Manor House was a few hundred metres off our route. The garden is open occasionally as part of the National Gardens
Scheme, the rest of the time the house is available for weddings and other functions.
Continuing south on field paths we reached a patch of wooded wetland where we crossed Whiston Brook. The Staffordshire Way Guide (1996 edition) refers to this area as Bickford Nature Reserve, but I can find no other evidence for the existence of such a reserve.
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| Crossing Whiston Brook near Bickford |
From here we followed Whiston Brook westwards for a kilometre, then turned south across more field paths for the final kilometre to
Lapley, the tower of the village’s Norman church providing a
useful landmark. As we had earlier parked a car outside the church this was the
end of Day 5.
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| Approaching Lapley and the end of the day's walk |
Today's distance: 21km
Total distance completed: 109km
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| Staffordshire Way - the first 5 days |
The Staffordshire Way
Day 2: Rudyard to Hawksmoor
Day 3: Hawksmoor to Uttoxeter
Day 4: Uttoxeter to Shugborough
Day 5: Cannock Chase, Penkridge and Lapley
Day 6: Lapley to Seisdon
Day 7: Seisdon to Kinver Edge
THE END
