Distance: around 6 miles

Difficulty of the terrain: medium

Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox

Walk across Cannock Chase – the UK’s smallest Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty – between the two historic and distinctive southern Staffordshire coal mining town’s of Hednesford and Rugeley.

The Story

The Walk

Getting Back

Traversing the Heart of the UK’s Smallest Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

Cannock Chase is the smallest of the UK’s Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It was established in 1958 as a green lung for the south Staffordshire coal mining communities of Rugeley, Hednesford and Cannock town, as well as workers from the nearby Black County.

This is an intention which Cannock Chase lives up to, to this day, as a popular location for mountain biking, horse riding, walking and other outdoors pursuits.

The Chase is an unusual and varied landscape consisting of rugged sandstone plateaus criss-crossed by steep dells. Much of it is managed by Forestry England as timber plantations, however, chunks of it (and the plan is to vastly increase the area which is planted in this way in the decades to come) comprise heathland covered in bracken, heather, and birch trees, giving it a primordial appearance very unusual in the English midlands.

Of course, nestling close to numerous towns, and being less than twenty minutes by train from Walsall in the West Midlands conurbation, the Chase is anything but natural. It is a landscape where you can trudge your way up a track through dense forest, to find yourself confronted by a golf course or smattering of suburban looking houses. It’s wealth of minerals formed over the course of hundreds of millions of years has lent itself to mining over centuries. Whilst its remoteness, albeit whilst being close to major population centres and transport links, coupled with its tree cover, made it a popular location for military locations throughout the 20th Century.

Whilst the area’s importance to the military declined after the Second World War, coal mining ramped up. As the Tory government of the late 1950s was declaring the Chase an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, so hundreds of metres below the ground, the National Coal Board was driving shafts deep beneath it so as to extract its coal. The town of Rugeley to the north of the Chase in particular was expanded massively in the 1960s so as to accommodate workers migrating to the area from areas whose collieries were being rundown, enabling the expansion of mining in southern Staffordshire.

This boom proved to be relatively short-lived. The area’s last pit – Littleton Colliery – closed in December 1993, numerous other mines under the Chase having shut in quick succession in the immediately preceding years.

Today towns like Hednesford and Rugeley have the distinctive feel of former coal mining settlements and possess a clear sense of identity. Though, their relative proximity to Birmingham, the rest of the West Midlands conurbation, and the motorway networks means that they are firmly integrated into the region’s commuter belt.

The Walk

Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the gpx. from Dropbox

I create the Walk Midlands routes via Ordnance Survey Maps Explorer enabling me to take them on my phone. Subscribe yourself via the banner above.

This walk across Cannock Chase begins from Hednesford Railway Station. By train it can be reached from Birmingham in around forty five to fifty minutes.

Alighting from the train on the northbound platform, where trains come up from the West Midlands conurbation, turn left and walk up a ramp onto the road.

Once out of the station and onto this road turn right and walk across a bridge over the tracks.

Walk a short way down the road towards a parade of shops straight ahead.

Before you get to them, cross over the road and turn left down a side street.

This road on your left leads past a large retail park anchored by a big TESCO.

Walk down this road for some distance until it intersects with another road, passing a park on your left hand side. At this point the edge of Cannock Chase is visible rising up above you on the far side of a busy main road.

Cross over at a set of traffic lights situated near where the two roads merge.

Then taking a slight left walk up a sloping track with a war memorial situated on its left.

The track is partly blocked by a device put in place to deter cars and motorbikes.

After which it heads steadily up through the trees.

Presently you come to a junction where several paths merge.

Keep on walking straight at this point towards some buildings immediately in front of you.

This leads out onto a short track ending in a car park.

Once in the car park the Museum of Cannock Chase, complete with pit wheel, is located on your immediate right.

To continue the route, however, you should turn left and walk up the car park.

Soon you reach a set of gates leading out onto an unpaved track.

Walk through the gap for pedestrians and continue on up the track.

Heading through another gate, just after the first.

Continuing along the track, after a short distance look out for a narrower footpath sloping downhill on your left.

Turn off onto this path and follow it initially down, and then uphill.

Presently you come out into a clearing part way up the slope.

Having reached this point take a path running off to your left.

Follow this path along the edge of a ridge running through the Chase’s characteristic scrubby heathland for several minutes.

Then just after an undulation in the path on the edge of wilder thicket turn right and take a narrower path leading off into the undergrowth.

This path is far narrower, though always clear to follow, and leads through a wilder section of heath land sloping gently uphill.

After some distance on this path it connects with another far wider path.

Turn left and follow this path for a short distance.

You walk through a small thicket of scrubby trees growing on top of a hillock.

Just after leaving this area look out on your left for a steepish path sloping down hill through the undergrowth.

Turn left and walk down this track as it runs steadily downhill.

At the bottom of the hill you pass another device intended to stop motor vehicles and emerge onto the side of a public road.

Once beside this road turn right and walk a short distance uphill along the side of the road.

There is a pavement on the opposite side from where you have come down from the hilltop.

Just before you reach the edge of the village of Rawnsley turn left.

This leads onto a road which runs down towards a bridge over the Bentley Brook.

On the other side of the stream stands the western end of the village of Hazelslade.

Having crossed over the bridge walk up the sloping road a short way towards a line of 1970s vintage bungalows.

Between two of them lies a track.

Turn onto this track and follow it up through the trees.

At this point it is possible to follow the track up a short way, turn right, then right again and get onto a track that leads alongside the edge of the Beau Desert Golf Course.

What I did instead was take a fairly pointless diversion into the pine woods further down, and then follow a track along the top of the back gardens of the bungalows situated in the valley below.

From here I turned left and followed a barely visible track through the trees to the edge of a bunker on the golf course.

This broke the walk up but is not especially recommended.

Once at the golf course turn right and follow the well made track around its perimeter.

The golf club sits on top of the Rawnsley Hills, which are over 200 meres high.

They offer good views across the Chase, including as far as Pye Green, where a 96.9 metre tall concrete telecommunications tower sits. It was constructed by what is now BT in the mid-1960s as part of a national microwave relay system. Perched on its hill, dishes were exactly the same height as those on the BT Tower in central Birmingham, the immediately preceding tower in the relay network.

As you walk round the edge of the golf course you pass near the highest point on the Rawnsley Hills which stands at 237 metres above sea level.

Shortly after this point the path begins to slope round and down towards the course’s clubhouse.

Follow the path around towards it, crossing over the part of the course nearest where the club house is. Take care of anyone playing a shot as you do this.

Instead of walking towards the clubhouse, shift slightly right and follow the path straight across the course towards pine woodland beyond.

Once inside the woodland follow the path for quite a long distance.

It slopes steadily downhill between two peaks called Rainbow Hill and Parson’s Slade.

Presently you are near the bottom of the path and see a house emerging on your left.

Having passed the boundary of this property take a sharp left and walk down the last bit of the slope into a car park.

This car park forms part of The Marquis’ Drive, a carriage road across the Chase created by one of the Earls of Lichfield to while away hours of aristocratic languor, by being wheeled about the forestry plantations.

Turn left and cross the car park.

Once at the edge of it you are beside the main road across the Chase between Hednesford and Rugeley.

On the opposite side lies the gantries over the railway line between the two towns.

Cross over the road and head up a track beside a house located right next to the line. Apparently this building was once an isolated halt where trains called in, albeit one which became incredibly busy during the Second World War when a large RAF base was situated nearby.

Here turn left again and cross the green metal footbridge put in for foot, pedal and equine travellers wishing to cross the line.

Once on the other side head left along a track way towards a house.

Pass the house on the trackway and then take a right turn walking uphill.

Keep on the track heading steadily up the hill, which is steepish in places, for some distance.

Presently you reach the top of the hill. Here the trees are a bit thinner.

Keep on the track a little further.

Presently on your right you come to a location where there has recently been a lot of tree felling activity.

Here there is a path located on your left leading off into this landscape.

Turn left here and walk along the track.

Again keep on this path – which is very wide in places – for quite a long way.

Initially it runs across the top of the hill.

Then it begins to slope steadily downhill.

After walking downhill for some time it levels out besides a wide track running at the bottom of the hills. This is pretty near the edge of the Chase.

Cross over this track and walk into the small tract of woodland on the other side.

Passing a metal device put in to stop motorised vehicles you end up the furthest reaches of suburbia’s tentacles.

On your left a paddock carved out of the woodland appears on your left, a sturdy wooden fence on your right, and houses are evident in front of you.

Presently you reach a public road. This is the boundary with the Chase and you are now nearly in sight of Rugeley.

Having reached the road, turn left.

Walk along the road a short way. It was fairly quiet when I walked the route but its best to be careful of cars and other vehicles.

Presently near a terrace of a house on the right hand side of the road an opening is visible.

Cross over the road in the direction of this opening, where a footpath sign points right.

Follow the footpath down alongside the garden of the nearest house on the terrace.

The residents of the property had created an interesting tableaux at the bottom.   

At the bottom turn right and head along the winding, but very well used path.

This is actually a rather interesting section of the walk, with the stream running beside you, and there being weirs and even a kind of waterfall.

The view towards the railway line on the other side of the field on your right is also quite interesting.

Presently you near a copse forming a field boundary immediately in front of you.

You cross a wooden bridge over the stream.

Then on the other side turn left slightly and follow the path.

Soon on your left a broken down metal gate is apparent.

Take a hard turn left here and walk uphill towards a short but steep hill covered in trees.

Just before you reach this mound another metal gate leading out into a field is visible on your right.

Turn right and head through this gate.

At this point you are standing in a field.

Walk diagonally across the field heading for the far right corner.

Once you reach the far right corner of the field you encounter another sturdy track.

Turn left at this point and join it.

Follow the track round as it runs next to the stream, occasionally crossing over it by the means of wooden bridges.

Eventually you come to a junction, where a mid-century vintage secondary school, an exurban outrider of Rugeley stands before you.

Turn right here and head up a gently sloping path between hedges marked out by green stream lamps.

When you reach the top of this path you are standing in a housing estate.

Turn left at the top of the path and walk a short way down the road through the housing estate.

Soon a waymark is visible on your right on the other side of the road.

This points through a cluster of houses.

Turn here and head right walking through this group of houses.

This leads onto a path demarcated by black railings and then a snicket way marked by trees, bushes and weathered brickwork.

At the top of the snicket you turn onto a main road lined with post-war era houses, possibly constructed during Rugeley’s coal boom in the 1950s and 1960s.

Turn left here and follow the road for some way.

Presently after walking along this road for some distance on the right hand side a waymark pointing towards the station is visible.

Looking where it points, the top of the Rugeley Town Station buildings are visible.

This marks the end of the walk. If you would like food, drink or any other refreshments or just fancy a wander round, Rugeley town centre is not far from here if you just continue down the road you have been walking along.

Getting Back

Rugeley is well served by trains with roughly half hourly or hourly services to central Birmingham throughout much of the day which pass through Hednesford and Cannock. The trains also serve Walsall and stations in the north of Sandwell and Birmingham. Other destinations accessible from the station include Wolverhampton, Birmingham International, and several times a day, trains down to Euston and other stations on the West Coast Mainline. Rugeley also has bus services back towards Hednesford and Cannock, and to other nearby settlements including Lichfield and Stafford.