Distance: 3.9 miles

Difficulty of the terrain: medium

Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps

This Staffordshire walk from Rocester, home of JCB, to the village of Alton in the heart of the River Churnet Valley. Home to Alton Castle and Alton Towers alike.

The Story

The Walk

Getting Back

Alton’s Other Towers

Perched high above eastern Staffordshire’s River Churnet valley gorge, Alton Castle is a striking landmark, and one which well illustrates why the area has been nicknamed “Staffordshire’s Rhineland”.

There is known to have been a fortification on the site of the current castle building during the Iron Age. The site is also known to have been defended during the Anglo-Saxon era. So, unsurprisingly, after the Norman takeover of England in the 11th Century a castle was constructed on the site. It was this fortification which passed into the hands of the Earls of Shrewsbury in 1442.

Alton Castle was damaged during a siege in 1642, the first year of the 17th Century Civil Wars in England. Afterwards it was allowed to decay into ruins.

During the 19th Century the Earls of Shrewsbury developed the Alton Towers estate on the opposite eastern side of the Churnet gorge from where Alton Castle stands. The two should not be confused. By this time Alton Castle, while still part of their Staffordshire patrimony, was entirely ruined.

For reasons which are now obscure, in the 1840s John Talbot the 16th Duke of Shrewsbury instructed the noted gothic revival architect Augustus Pugin to reconstruct the castle, as a country house, in the style of the kind of fortifications English members of the Knights of the Teutonic Order  constructed in medieval Germany. This was carried out, with the majority of the medieval castle’s remains being swept away in the process.

Following Alton Castle’s reconstruction the Earl of Shrewsbury suggested that it could become a home for Roman Catholic priests. Prohibitions on Roman Catholic worship and religious organisation in Britain having been abolished relatively recently and the denomination openly reestablished. By way of context the Earl of Shrewsbury was amongst the most prominent Roman Catholic members of the aristocracy. 

This did not come to pass and in 1855 a branch of the Sisters of Mercy took up residence in part of the reconstructed castle. An arrangement like this may have been part of the plan from the outset, because adjacent to the reconstructed Alton Castle, the Earl Commissioned the construction of a replica medieval almshouse, hospital and guildhall. A complex which was dedicated to St. John’s the Baptist and served as a Roman Catholic church, school, infirmary and almshouse for local people. 

Later the Sisters of Mercy took over the whole site and ran it as a boarding school from 1919 until falling demand led to it closing in 1989. Since 1996 the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham has run Alton Castle as an outward bound centre for children, mostly from school’s groups, but also from youth clubs. The current management is by the Kenelm Youth Trust who use the Alton Castle site as a base young visitors undertake outward bound type activities on site, in the surrounding Churnet Valley and on lakes slightly further afield.   

The Walk

Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps

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 Alton (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 Alton, home of Alton Castle and Alton Towers alike, is 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”.

Approaching a road bridge you see a small car park off to your left.

Just before the bridge there is a narrow opening on the left out onto the access road for the car. Head up through this gap between a wooden fence and a brick wall onto the access road then turn right.

Then walk straight up the access road until you reach the main road across the Churnet Valley through Alton.

Here you can either turn left to walk past Alton Castle into the village of Alton. Or turn right to head for the Alton Towers theme park.

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 the fairly short distance to Denstone or Rocester after completing the walk, this is very much a summer walk as Alton 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 Alton on a reasonably frequent basis during the Alton Towers summer season. Buses via Alton village ran back towards Denstone and Rocester where buses to Derby via Ashbourne ran hourly throughout the day. The 32A via Alton village 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 via Alton Towers 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.