Distance: 7.8 miles
Difficulty of the terrain: medium
Get the route via: Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox
Walk across the Staffordshire countryside from Penkridge to Stafford town centre via the site of the ruined neo-gothic manor on the site of Stafford’s medieval castle.
The Story
The Walk
Getting Back
Stafford’s Twice Ruined Castle
Once a key site for controlling the central part of the English Midlands, Stafford Castle has long been an unusual folly, a role it continues to play into the 21st Century.
Stafford became a substantial early medieval settlement, part of a chain facing the Trent Valley in the north of her realm, including Tamworth, ordered fortified by Queen Æthelflæd of Mercia in 913.
Following the Norman Conquest in 1066 a further castle was built at Stafford. Initially it is thought that this was situated near the centre of the town, possibly more or less where the Saxon fort stood, if not on the same site. However, after the unsuccessful uprising in Staffordshire led by Eadric the Wild in 1069 was defeated by the Normans, a large new castle was built to the west of the town in around 1090, where the current structure stands.
In line with the classic evolution of castles during the later middle ages the initial wooden castle and earthworks at Stafford were steadily replaced with stone.
Stafford Castle was most prominent between the mid 15th and 17th Centuries when the Earls of Stafford were elevated to being the Dukes of Buckingham. This occurred in 1460 as part of the machinations amongst the aristocracy that accompanied the Wars of the Roses.
In the early 17th Century the Duke of Buckingham was complaining that Stafford was “his rotten castle “. However, like so many crumbling fortifications around the country it was pressed into service during the Civil Wars in the 1640s. Stafford Castle was besieged by Parliament in 1643 after the capture of the town of Stafford when a small detachment of Royalist soldiers escaped to the castle. The Buckingham family being sympathetic to King Charles I’s cause.
After the siege Parliament ordered that the castle was pulled down. Most of the stones were removed after the castle came down, the earthworks remaining becoming steadily more and more overgrown. It is thought that the earthworks are amongst the UK’s most complete examples of Norman era earthworks in the UK. By the 1790s only one rickety wall of the castle remained standing.
Then in the early 19th Century members of the Jerningham family who owned the castle decided to revive it. This was during the era when the gothic revival and everything cod-medieval was incredibly fashionable. Alton Castle to the north and east of Stafford, reconstructed by the Earl of Shrewsbury in the early years of the 19th Century is another example of the type in Staffordshire.
Initially the site was cleared of undergrowth exposing the ramparts and what remained of the masonry, the Jerningham’s ordering that buried chunks of the castle’s foundations and broken down walls be exposed. Then between 1813 and 1821 the keep was reconstructed, much of it with original masonry from the site, as a gothic revival manor house.
The intention was that the reconstructed keep would serve as a home for the Jerningham family. However, later generations of the family were less keen to live in a draughty reconstructed keep high up on a mound some way outside Stafford. This lead to the site slowly moving into care and maintenance. Much of the furniture was sold off in the 1880s and after that the series of caretakers who lived in the keep were tasked with opening the building up in the summer months as an attraction for people from Stafford.
Oral histories collected from older Stafford residents in the 1980s and 1990s about visits to the castle in the interwar era, recall that they received tours from the caretaker’s niece, who regalled them with tales of blood thirsty torture and ghosts. One room had manacles in it adding to the impression that it had been a prison, even though the building was in fact little more than a century old at the time. After their tours visitors could buy tea and a slice of cake from the caretaker’s wife for three pence per head.
Shortly after the Second World War in the late 1940s the decision was taken to fell the trees on the mound that the keep sat upon. It is thought that this sudden change to the site’s topography led to the decayed structure which had not been maintained for decades to be damaged by high winds. During 1949 masonry fell from the structure, and in 1950 the site was deemed so dangerous that the last caretakers Mr. and Mrs. Stokes were evacuated from the building.
During the 1950s the site fell further into ruin, something exacerbated by proto-urban explorers and out and out vandals trying to access the site or just coming to cause destruction. In 1960 the year before the now increasingly ruinous building and the 26 acres of earthworks around it were given to the Borough of Stafford, one boy died playing at the site.
After entering municipal ownership in 1961 the site was initially left to decay while the council decided what to do with it. During the 1960s and 1970s sections of the decaying gothic revival keep were demolished as part of efforts to make the site safe.
In 1978 an archaeological excavation was carried out at the site to enhance understanding of what was there. Excavations continued throughout the 1980s allied to a project to convert the ruins and the hillside around it, including the remains of the earthworks, into a civic park. The hillside had been replanted with trees after the felling in the 1940s and these were tidied up and tended so as to return the castle mount to a wooded state. Much of the work on the project during the 1980s was undertaken by unemployed young people taking part in youth training schemes. At times the site was purported to be amongst Stafford’s largest employers.
Works on the castle site finished in 1988 when it opened as a public park. The site’s visitor centre had its first season in 1992. These days the suitably secured ruins of the 19th Century site are the crowning centrepiece of the woodland park with commanding views that covers the former castle site.
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.
This walk from Penkridge to Stafford, via the site of Stafford Castle to the north west of the town, begins from Penkridge Railway Station.
If alighting from the direction of Wiolverhampton and Birmingham exit the station to the left down the ramp, then turn left through an arch beneath the viaduct that the station sits upon.
Once through the arch turn left, heading down a road away from the station towards Penkridge Parish Church.
Just past the church and the churchyard following the road around to the left until you reach Pinfold Lane.
Upon reaching Pinfold Lane turn right heading for a crossroads near Penkridge centre.
On reaching the crossroads, cross the road to the left and then head along the A449 past a cluster of shops, and the entrance to Penkridge Market ground.
You cross a bridge over the River Penk.
Just after the bridge turn left, along a scrap of pavement onto Preston Vale Lane.
Turn left on Preston Vale Lane heading for the viaduct carrying the West Coast Mainline over the Penk Valley.
Past the viaduct lookout on the right for a road running steadily uphill out of the Penk Valley towards the small village of Longridge.
Continue along this road for quite some distance passing a series of large detached houses. Take care as this road was quite busy when I walked the route, though cars were generally proceeding cautiously, and took evident care when they saw a pedestrian in front of them.
Presently you reach a junction where a lane runs off to the right.
Turn right down this road which is long and straight with views to the right towards Cannock Chase, and generally a lot quieter (at least when I walked the route) than the roads nearer Penkridge.
Carry on along this road for quite some distance, passing a series of scattered detached homes and farmhouses.
Presently you pass a sturdy old style, but clearly quite new signpost, and continue straight along the lane.
Soon you reach a small cluster of houses and here to the right you head down a lane.
This lane twists and turns through woodland, passing a scattering of houses, most quite large.
The road presently straightens out and you reach the relatively busy Long Lane.
Once on Long Lane turn left and walk along it past a series of houses on your left.
Look out on your right for a footpath sign pointing through a hedgerow out into a field.
Walk straight across the field heading for a point just above a cluster of trees on the far side.
Here there is a stile which you cross into a horse paddock.
Cross the horse paddock, and to the left in the corner there is a gateway leading into the middle of a small copse.
Once in the copse walk straight ahead and up a bank out into a field.
In the field turn right, walking along the edge of it.
Presently you reach a gateway which you walk through.
Cross the field ahead of you making to the left following the line of an electricity pylon.
At the top of the field there is a series of two gateways which you pass through. Once through the gateways turn right heading for a bungalow on the southern edge of the village of Coppenhall.
Having passed through a gate onto a lane running up into Coppenhall to your right there is a lane running to the right past a series of houses.
Soon to the left there is a stile leading into a paddock.
Once in the paddock walk across it to the right.
On the far side of the field there is a stile leading onto a snicket.
After crossing the stile onto the snicket turn right and follow the snicket along the back of a series of houses until you reach a stile out onto a lane.
Once across the stile and onto the lane turn left.
Walk up the lane until you reach a main road.
On the main road turn right and follow the road.
Presently you move from Copphenhill in South Staffordshire District into Hyde Lea in Stafford Borough. The two villages are contiguous.
Once in Hyde Lea look out on the left for a road running off to the left.
Having turned left onto the road continue downhill past a series of houses from different eras until the road turns into a bridleway.
Soon you reach a junction on the bridleway where you turn right.
Follow the bridleway downhill from quite some distance. As you head downhill a tall towerblock and the distant ruins of Stafford Castle herald the fact that you are now approaching the town.
Continue walking straight ahead along the bridleway.
Presently after quite some distance you reach a metal gate leading out onto a field. There is a pedestrian walking route across the fence, quite muddy when I walked the route, to the left.
Once in the field turn left and walk straight ahead approaching a gateway.
Having walked through the gate, carry straight ahead across the field on the other side.
On the other side of the field there is a gate leading out onto a lane.
Once on the lane turn right and follow the road uphill past a set of farm buildings.
At the top of the hill you cross the M6.
On the far side you follow the lane downhill into the outer suburbs of Stafford.
Soon you reach a road running along the edge of some 1990s vintage estates on the edge of the town.
Cross this road and then head to the left, before heading up a road running up a short steep hill to the right.
Look out on the left for a footpath next to a couple of mature trees leading from the road you are walking along onto a road of detached and semi detached 1930s vintage houses.
Follow this road downhill.
Turn right here and cross over the road.
Here there is a driveway running up to the park around the Stafford Castle folly.
Upon reaching the visitor centre on the left, carry on straight ahead through a gateway into the woods. To reach the remnants of the gothic manor house constructed from the remains of the medieval castle carry on straight ahead up the path. There are impressive views across the southern and central Staffordshire landscape from the top.
Having visited the remains of the castle head back down the driveway. Look out on the left for a footgate out onto a meadow.
Turn left through this gate into the meadow and then walk straight across the field.
Cross the stile on the other side and continue along a path straight across some heathland type grassland, much churned up by other walkers when I walked the route, approaching a cluster of trees immediately ahead of you.
Upon reaching the trees walk straight ahead entering a green lane type path running between some wasteground and Stafford Golf Club.
Continue straight along this greenlane style path for quite some distance.
Presently you pass the golf club’s clubhouse through the trees on your right and emerge onto a scrap of grass, like a small linear park on the edge of a modern housing estate.
Walk straight ahead approaching a main road which runs through Stafford’s inner-suburbs.
Once on the pavement running alongside the road turn right.
Then approaching a roundabout, taking care, cross the road, and follow a rough bridleway style track to the left along a grass verge adjacent to a new housing estate.
Soon you reach some traffic lights which you cross. Carry on straight ahead along a cycle track on the far side.
Presently the cycle track turns into a road running past a new housing estate which leads to a bridge across the West Coast Mainline just north of Stafford Railway Station.
On the far side walk down a road of late 19th Century terraces approaching the ring road around Stafford town centre.
Upon reaching the ring road turn right approaching the remains of an old windmill.
Before reaching the windmill there are some traffic lights for pedestrians which you use to cross the road.
On the far side of the road doubleback on yourself to the left, then turn right heading up a path and over a bridge across a river.
Once over the bridge cross the corner of a car park to come out on a road right on the edge of the town centre.
Cross the main road in front of you and head to the right down a side road beside a pub.
Once back onto a main road turn left heading towards the Guildhall Shopping Centre.
Level with the Guildhall Shopping Centre turn right, then left walking straight ahead until you reach the main road through the town.
Once on the main road turn right and follow the road down until you reach the Market Square, just up from the impressive late Tudor Ancient High House, where Staffordshire Shire Hall stands.
This is where the walk ends.
Getting Back
Stafford has a key main line railway station with trains north towards Stoke-on-Trent, Crewe, Manchester, Liverpool, stations further afield and smaller stations in-between. It also has trains south down the Trent Valley Line and through the West Midlands conurbation to Wolverahmpton, Birmingham and stations in between, as well as down to London. Numerous buses across Staffordshire as well as the places like Telford run from the town centre.