May 2023 brought with it an additional bank Holiday. The occasion being Charlie getting Coronated. Having no interest in royalty and its related festivity I decided that I was going to be away the entire weekend. The trip I alighted on, being a self devised long distance walk from Rugeley Trent Valley Railway Station just north of Cannock Chase to Wirksworth High Street in mid-Derbyshire just below the Peak District National Park.
Along the way I would explore the sparsely populated, famously rather mystical land between the Trent and the Derbyshire Peak District. This eastern and northern part of Staffordshire has given rise to many myths and legends, ranging from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (purportedly written by someone from either north Staffordshire or eastern Cheshire), more recent tales like the legend of the Earl of Shrewsbury, Alton Towers and the Chained Oak and unique folk customs like the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance.
Day 1 Rugeley – Uttoxeter
Check out the route via Ordnance Survey Explorer
Just before pulling into Rugeley Trent Valley Station trains on the line from Birmingham New Street via Walsall chug across the River Trent, placing this walk firmly in the northern segment of the Midlands.
Alighting from the train, a little horde of coronation wellwishers bound from London were visible on the southbound West Coast Mainline platform heading off to see the House of Windsor perpetuating itself.
Leaving the train station I set out across the flat fields of the Trent plain bound for the village of Colton, enroute for Abbots Bromley and eventually Uttoxeter around 14 miles to the north.
Beyond Colton the terrain gets slightly hillier once more, affording impressive views back towards the wooded top of Cannock Chase.
Approaching Abbots Bromley following the Staffordshire Way the path winds around the major Blithfield Reservoir. Constructed by the unusual South Staffordshire Water Company in the 1950s to supply parts of the Black Country, south eastern Staffordshire and south west Derbyshire with water.
Abbots Bromley is famous for its horn dance performed annually in early September. It is pretty unique amongst English folk dances and has been widely commented upon and regarded.
The country beyond Abbots Bromley is hilly and quite heavily wooded. As the ascent towards Uttoxeter begins there are great views looking north to the edge of the southern fringe of the White Peak and the start of the Peak District National Park.
Uttoxeter is the quintessential small town in a sparsely populated area. It has a compact, but evidently historically affluent centre, which retains an affluent feel to this day. The town is fringed by retail parks and the mighty A50 motorway connecting the industrial and warehousing hubs of Derby and the Potteries. It was nearly reconstructed as a motorway in the 1970s. It was adjacent to the A50, right on the edge of the town, a stones throw from the River Dove and a morass of gravel pits that I spent the night in a Premier Inn, ready to continue north, primarily following the River Churnet the next day.
Day 2 Uttoxeter – Leek
Check out the route via Ordnance Survey Explorer
With a total distance of more than 20 miles to cover day two my walk in eastern Staffordshire was set to be both the longest and the most varied section.
Heading north from Uttoxeter the first three or so miles hug close to the River Dove which for centuries has marked the boundary between Staffordshire and Derbyshire, the east and the western halves of the Midlands, where Mercian mud gives way to Pennine limestone.
The River Churnet joins the Dove at Rocester, a small town which can trace its history back to the Romans which is now most famous for being the global headquarters of JCB the construction plant company. It is also where the Limestone Way running north through the Peak District to Castleton begins.
JCB has an enormous factory and office complex on the edge of the town which the walk cuts through. With its neatly tended cricket green, golf course, parkland and other facilities the JCB works feel like something from another era, or another country – Germany perhaps?
Indeed the Churnet Valley where the majority of the day’s walking takes places is often referred to as Staffordshire’s Rhineland. Prior to visiting I wondered why, this seemed quite unlikely, the Churnet being a fairly medium sized river flowing through sparsely populated countryside.
However, as with the Severn at Ironbridge Gorge and the Derwent between Matlock and Derby, current appearances are deceptive. Like those two more famous rivers the deep gorge that the River Churnet flows through was an early crucible of industrialisation.
The route I had plotted follows the Churnet Valley Way, which primarily in its phases south of Leek uses the trackbed, or otherwise parallels a former railway line. A route which at one time was seriously considered a viable West Coast Mainline, but which for most of its life did little more than carry milk churns, mineral trains and day trippers to Alton Towers.
Interestingly in the 1840s when the line was built, because the company behind the Caldon Canal which then ran from Stoke-on-Trent to Uttoxeter had got their first and the Churnet Valley is narrow, the railway company opted to buy up the canal. They then closed it and built their railway on top. However, in many places they did not need the full width of the former waterway meaning that a remarkable amount of the old canal ditch and some associated features like bridges survive on either side of the former railway trackbed. Often in remarkable condition considering they have been derelict for nearly 180 years. In a somewhat surreal twist somebody in the recent past paid to install canal style markers at each mile point along the route showing the distance between Uttoxeter and Etruria in Stoke-on-Trent where the Caldon Canal terminates as if it was still an inland waterway.
Highlights of the first half of the walk include views out towards the Weaver Hills, an outrider for the Peak District, nearly 400 metres tall at their highest point but outside the National Park. Alton Towers, the Earl of Shrewsbury’s former gigantic mansion perched right on the edge of the gorge and now home to the eponymous theme park. As well as the Churnet Valley itself. Alongside the industrial heritage and the fairytale style Alton Towers, the thick dark woodland that surrounds the gorge adds to the feeling that you really are somewhere in Germany.
North of Alton Towers, the path takes a slight, very beautiful, rural diversion before rejoining the former railway line to run into Froghall. Today Froghall is a sleepy north east Staffordshire village, however, for several centuries it was at the heart of Staffordshire’s copper industry and limestone quarrying. The whole area, including nearby Cheadle, now a sleepy market town, but up until the 1930s a major coal mining centre, was devoted to extractive industry and refining mined and quarried materials.
North of Froghall all the way to Cheddleton, the former railway trackbed has been taken over by the Churnet Valley heritage railway. However, the surviving southern end of the Caldon Canal has been restored and is open to navigation making it possible to follow the towpath heading north. This makes for scenic walking through the Churnet Valley and here and there the canal and the river are one and the same, making it a challenge for bargees to navigate.
There are a few scattered villages between Froghall and Cheddleton, but mostly the area is sparsely populated, wooded and defined by steep craggy hills.
Cheddleton is not far from Leek. It is a varied place, like so much of north and eastern Staffordshire it feels sleepy, but it is clearly still pretty industrial. The industrial past is also celebrated in the form of an old flint mill located right by the canal towpath.
The final few miles of the day’s walk into Leek take you down a short spur of the Caldon Canal to the town’s outer suburbs. Climbing a hill to avoid a short, narrow canal tunnel you get your first glimpse of the town known as “the Queen of the Moorlands”. Situated on the edge of the historical Peak District Leek like similar places such as Glossop, Macclesfield, Marple, Holmfirth and Penistone to the north, Ashbourne, Uttoxeter, Belper, Wirksworth and Matlock to the south, grew up as a hub for trading, hosteling and manufacturing on the edge of the southern most reaches of the Pennines. In Leek the industry was primarily silk making, aligning it with Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire towns on the far side of the Peak. Its town centre has taken a hit from out of town retailers and the internet – like so many places have – but it is still vibrant, with a decent number of pubs, a small arts centre and crazily grand central library.
Day 3 Leek – Hartington
Check out the route via Ordnance Survey Explorer
After a gentle uphill walk from Leek town centre day three, across the Staffordshire Peak District to Hartington (historic home of stilton cheese and the birthplace of the sport of angling) just inside Derbyshire on the eastern bank of the River Dove, encounters the shear face of the white peak plateau.
A steady climb ensures leading into the National Park and the craggy limestone country, grassland and thick woodland it is known for. Upon eventually reaching the top there are superb views looking back west across the flatter lands of Staffordshire, Cheshire and northern Shropshire towards the distant Welsh hills.
Descending into the Peak District National Park down a long incline into the village of Onecote the countryside changes from that of the north west Midlands plain to that of the White Peak. England’s bony limestone coccyx, sat at the base of its Pennine spine.
Onecote lies a fair way south of Hartington where I was due to stay overnight, so from there I headed north, walking uphill to a ridge on Grindon Moor above the verdant Manifold Valley. An area of steep, dramatic, pointed peaks, which the Georgians and Victorians as was there want, christened a “little Switzerland”.
Descending from just under 400 metres above sea level through the village of Grindon with an imposingly sited church overlooking the drop down into the Manifold Valley, I reflected on how far removed the landscape I was now walking through was from the flat Trent Valley where I had left the train only two days previously.
After a long twisting descent to the Manifold Valley’s floor, there begins another long climb back up out of the gorge, to the village of Wetton. Wetton is popular both for the spectacular Manifold Valley itself, and for Thor’s Cave, a large, prominent cave high up in the rocks, were the limestone has been worn akin to something like burnished marble by generation’s of tourist’s footsteps.
In Wetton there is a pleasant White Peak village pub called The Royal Oak. Perhaps fittingly for a regal bank holiday it was absolutely packed out with Sunday lunch eaters when I passed by. Though, I was able to get a packet of salt and vinegar crisps and a pint of orange and lemon for a quick, late lunch, and sit outside the front on a hefty, 1970s flat roofed pub style poured concrete bench.
Hartington lies just over four miles northeast of Wetton so I was nearing the end of the day’s walking.
About halfway there I got my first glimpse in the distance, both of Hartington and of Derbyshire, and I turned down a farm track to skirt a limestone ridge and make for the River Dove.
Crossing the River Dove a short while later, I left Staffordshire for Derbyshire, the key part of the walking trip completed. Climbing out of Beresford Dale, my way now marked by Derbyshire County Council rather than Staffordshire signposts, I entered Hartington crouching at the bottom of its narrow valley via a series of quiet back roads. Then killed time drinking a non-alcoholic German wheat beer in the back garden of the village pub enjoying the spring sunshine prior to the Youth Hostel opening for check-in.
Day 4 Hartington – Wirksworth
Check out the route via Ordnance Survey Explorer
The fourth day of my walk, the only day not in Staffordshire, was intended to be a relatively short (well 12 miles…), quick walk along bridleways from outside YHA Hartington all the way to Wirksworth town centre where I could get a bus back to Derby.
Unfortunately the weather had turned and was now quite wet. The usual, pretty good, bus service from Hartington to Ashbourne was not running because of the Coronation Bank Holiday. So, having weighed up whether to get a taxi from Hartington to Ashbourne or Bakewell, I resolved to brave the weather and strike out for Wirksworth using the route I had planned.
The bridleway from practically outside YHA Hartington heading east proved to be very good, albeit desolate in the very wet weather, and I quite quickly covered the ground to the High Peak Trail just below Minninglow Hill.
On the High Peak Trail itself walking to Middleton just above Wirksworth a surprisingly large number of people were braving the inclement weather. Again I made good time, leaving the trail just after Middleton Top to take the road down into Wirksworth.
Approaching the main road through the town centre, the rain had largely eased off and I could see at least one other person waiting for the bus opposite the Co-op. A good sign I thought. Carrying on to the main square and the stop outside the Red Lion pub I saw that there was a bus due in about five minutes which was felicitous. Very wet, the bottom half of me splattered with white, slightly creamy, White Peak mud, I boarded the little yellow Sixes bus for Derby, the train home and work again the next day.
