Distance: 5.8 miles

Difficulty of the terrain: medium

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

This Staffordshire walk from Rocester, home of JCB, to the little village of Oakamoor in the heart of the River Churnet Valley, primarily follows the course of the long lost Uttoxeter branch of the Caldon Canal.

The Story

The Walk

Getting Back

Uttoxeter’s Long Lost Canal Connection

These days the Caldon Canal looping east and southwards out into the Staffordshire Moorlands from Stoke-on-Trent terminates at Froghall. This was the original terminus of the canal when it was first constructed in the 1770s, however, for a brief period from 1811 a southern extension of the canal took it as far south as Uttoxeter.

From there the project’s sponsors had grand visions of extending it right across the central Midlands to Moria in Leicestershire where it would link up with the Ashby Canal. Though this never came to pass, and the furthest the Caldon Canal ever extended was Uttoxeter.

Oakamoor where this walk finishes was home to a copper works and limestone kilns. The copper works, which closed in the 1960s, made some of the cable which formed part of the first transatlantic telegraph in the mid-Victorian era. While the limestone kilns were last fired in 1921. These still stand next to the village’s bus stops. The growth of these now long vanished industrial activities and the village itself, which feels not unlike the early industrial villages of the Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire, was a reaction to and stimulated by the development of the canal. 

This said the Uttoxeter branch of the Caldon Canal enjoyed a pretty short existence. It was open in its entirety for less than forty years. In the 1840s the Caldon Canal Company was bought by the North Staffordshire Railway, who identified the southern Uttoxeter extension as being a potential pathway for a railway line. These plans were put into effect and the canal closed in 1849 with the railway supplanting it along the route it had taken along paralleling the River Churnet.

At the time the North Staffordshire Railway had ambitions to build their southern route, skirting the southern base of the Pennines, into a serious challenger to the West Coast Mainline. This did not come to pass, because while the Churnet Valley, known as “Staffordshire’s Rhineland”, due to both its strikingly Germanic looking scenery of deep gorges, rock formations and thick woodland, and its history of heavy industry, had a lot of demand for a railway to ship goods and raw materials from the area’s quarries, mines and metalworks, it did not have sufficient passenger demand, being sparsely populated and quite remote, both then and now.

What the line did attract, besides goods trains, is tourists. From the 1860s onwards the Churnet Valley was marketed as a “little Switzerland” by hoteliers along the railway route and this brought in tourists. Another increasing draw was the Earl of Shrewsbury’s Alton Towers estate. Alton Castle (part of the estate, but not to be confused with the larger nearby Alton Towers) is another strikingly Germanic feature of the area, with its gothic castle perched on a cliff top. Which due to being strapped for cash he began periodically opening the grounds of, in 1860.

These openings became increasingly frequent, with visitors disembarking at a station in the field of Alton, handily situated for accessing the building’s grounds. In 1924 a consortium of local hospitality businesses took over ownership of the park from the Earl of Shrewsbury, turning the estate into pleasure gardens. After passenger services on the southern section of North Staffordshire Railway were withdrawn in 1964 visitors could no longer arrive by train, but by this time cars and coaches were the predominant form of leisure transport, so the numbers attending the attraction continued to grow. In the 1970s the success of a small number of theme park rides installed in the pleasure gardens led the site’s owners to decide to recast Alton Towers as a theme park. This occurred in 1980, with new rides having been steadily added ever since. These days Alton Towers is part of the Merlin Group alongside Warwick Castle and Madame Tussauds.

The North Staffordshire Railway closed in stages between 1964 and 1988. To this day sections of track remain, and there are reasonably serious plans to reopen the line between Leek and Stoke-on-Trent. This is a northern section of the railway which never comprised part of the Caldon Canal. Elsewhere the line has become part of the Churnet Valley Heritage Railway, running in parallel with the canalised stretch of the River Churnet.

Chiefly however, the southern stretch of the former canal route between Oakamoor and Denstone, has been a Staffordshire County Council owned and managed bridleway since the 1970s. In common with other rural former canal and railway routes across the Midlands like the Stratford Greenway, Bampton Valley Route between Market Harborough and Northampton, Cromford Canal, old Nottingham Canal, High Peak Trail and Manifold Way, it is a very popular recreation site with walkers, cyclists and equestrians alike.  

Interest in the route’s waterways history and heritage has fluctuated across the decades. In theory the Caldon and Uttoxeter Canal Trust has been committed to reopening the Uttoxeter branch since at least the 1970s. In the early 2000s funding enabled them to reopen a short stretch and a former basin at Froghall. A complication meaning that reopening the route as far as Uttoxeter is impossible, arises from the fact that after the North Staffordshire Railway closed, the JCB factory and office complex at Rocester was built over the route. For this reason the Caldon Canal Trust have decided that restoration as far as the historic terminus of the route in Uttoxeter is unfeasible.

During a spurt of interest in the canal in the late 2010s a project was undertaken to place mile markers in the classic cast iron waterways style all the way along the route. These stretch from Uttoxeter for the best of thirty miles all the way to the north western end of the Caldon Canal at Etruria in Stoke-on-Trent. Another interesting discovery in recent years is the buried, but well preserved, site of a wharf constructed in the 1800s by the Earl of Shrewsbury for the shipment of materials to Alton for the construction of the famed Alton Towers building. A long derelict lock keeper’s cottage was also recently restored and brought back into use as a home. In this way the Uttoxeter branch of the Caldon Canal continues to be recognised as a notable part of the Churnet Valley’s history.   

The Walk

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

***Please note that while Oakamoor (at the time of writing in July 2024) has a good bus service for a small rural village during Alton Towers’ Summer Season, outside of that time, the village is only served by bus once a day. Do check when outside of the The nearest bus route with a good service all year round (as of July 2024) is the Uttoxeter to Hanley 32X route, which can be caught from Cheadle, two to three miles west of Oakamoor.***

This walk from Rocester to Oakamoor along the line of the former Uttoxeter branch of the Caldon Canal, which after 1849 was the route of the North Staffordshire Railway, begins from the bus stop on the B5030 nearest to the village’s JCB factory and offices.

If approaching on the Swift bus from the direction of Uttoxeter alight at the stop immediately before the bus turns into the village centre. If travelling from the direction of Ashbourne and Derby alight at the stop immediately after the centre of the village. Both stops are more or less opposite one another.

Upon alighting the bus turn and begin walking towards the JCB factory and office complex.

Cross a slip road and a small patch of grass to reach a tarmac footpath running around the edge of the complexes’ extensive water features.

For an area known as “Staffordshire’s Rhineland” there is something distinctly Germanic about the JCB factory complex and its extensively landscaped surroundings. 

Upon reaching the footpath next to the lake turn right.

Continue along the path till you reach a junction next to a bridge leading towards the factory and an underpass into the village’s centre. Here carry on pretty much straight ahead along the path around the lake.

The path follows the line of the lake for some distance till you reach the far side.

Head head left as the path curves around the furthest most shore of the water feature.

Soon to the right there is a path running off past one of the recently installed cast iron Caldon Canal mile markers, towards a hedgerow with a road running behind it. Turn right down this path then upon reaching the hedgerow turn left.

Follow the path to the left for some distance.

Soon you reach another, more enclosed path running between two stands of vegetation which you walk onto and then turn left.

Presently this leads you out onto a roundabout next to a car park and access point for the JCB complex. Cross this roundabout and head down a road, clearly marked with chequered white line marking the central reservation.

Continue along this road a little way making for a bridge, clearly a former railway bridge, indicating that you have reached the line of the former canal, which you cross.

Just over the bridge on the right there is a stile leading to some steps down a bank towards a second stile out into a field. It is waymarked for the Churnet Valley Way. Turn right and cross the stile heading down the steps, crossing the second stile and heading out into the field.

Once in the field, walking across it approaching the edge of the village of Denstone, passing a new housing estate built on the line of the old canal.

Upon reaching the far side of the field there is a stile in the left hand corner which leads onto a football pitch.

Once over the stile and on the football pitch walk straight ahead towards the top of the pitch. Here on the left, right in the very corner there is a gap in the hedgerow leading out onto a narrow path running around the edge of a tennis court and a playground.

Walk straight ahead following the path as it runs around the tennis court and playground.

Soon the path comes out onto one of the main roads through Denstone.

Here turn right walking along the road past a farm, a row of residential houses and a primary school.

Soon you reach the main road just down from the village pub. At this junction turn right.

A little further along the road on the left there is a turning onto the bridleway which has been converted from the course of the former Uttoxeter Canal and North Staffordshire Railway.

Walk straight ahead passing through what was once Denstone’s railway station.

You continue walking along the mostly wooded path following the course of the former canal and railway.

Off to the right through the trees across meadows you can see the prominent line of the Weaver Hills. A short ridge, 371 metres at its highest point, which is considered to be the southernmost part of the Pennine ridge which runs up the middle of the northern half of England.

Continue along the path passing another of the Caldon Canal milepost markers.

Presently you reach a metal former railway bridge across the River Churnet which you cross. This is the point where you enter the Churnet Valley gorge.

Carry on along the path entering the valley.

Off on your left you see Alton Castle perched high above the gorge on the edge of a cliff. Upon seeing it you can further see why this area is referred to as “Staffordshire’s Rhineland”.

You continue along the track passing beneath a road bridge in the village of Alton and walking through the preserved remains of Alton Station. The station buildings are now a Landmark Trust holiday home.

Past the station the path runs through woodland.

You continue walking through the woods passing sandstone rock formations, which are also quite Germanic in appearance.

In places there is a wide cut on either side of the track. It is hard not to imagine that this is the remains of the old canal. Still visible in the landscape well over a century and a half after it shut.

Presently you near Oakamoor.

Off to the left you see fishing pools and a cricket club.

Approaching the car parks on the edge of Oakamoor village you see the platforms of the former station.

Turn slightly to the right and walk up and along the former station platform, handily bypassing the bulk of the car park.

Beyond the platform you reach a heritage information broad. Turn right here, soon reaching a track.

Once on the track turn left and walk straight ahead approaching the mouth of a long disused tunnel beneath a sandstone outcrop next to the village. An old signal box stands in front of the tunnel’s portal.

Just before reaching the tunnel there is a road. Upon reaching the road turn right.

Follow the road as it runs uphill past a derelict pub.

Past the pub you reach the main road. Turn right here heading downhill towards a bridge across the River Churnet.

Cross the bridge over the River Churnet and head into the main part of Oakamoor.

The bus stops, one side towards Uttoxeter, the other towards Cheadle where buses towards Hanley in Stoke-on-Trent go from, are situated next to the Cricketers pub. The remains of the village’s limestone kilns are behind the westbound bus stop.

This is where the walk ends.

Getting Back

As noted at the start of this piece, unless you intend to continue to Cheadle or head back to Denstone or Rocester after completing the walk, this is very much a summer walk as Oakamoor has a very limited bus service outside of Alton Towers’ summer season. The Alton Towers bus service the 32A (as of July 2024) ran through Oakamoor on a reasonably frequent basis during the Alton Towers summer season. Buses via Alton Towers ran back towards Denstone and Rocester where buses to Derby via Ashbourne ran hourly throughout the day. The 32A via Alton Towers terminated at Uttoxeter which has a railway station on the Derby – Crewe line which also serves Stoke-on-Trent. The other arm of the 32A bus runs west to Cheadle which is served by buses to destinations across Staffordshire, including a frequent service to Hanley in Stoke-on-Trent which is situated fairly close to Stoke-on-Trent Railway Station.