Looking for bluebells in the Churnet Valley

Saturday 7th May 2022

After my delight at seeing many wild flowers in April last year in the Churnet Valley, I had to go back the following month to see what I could now see and especially to look for bluebells which can often be seen at this time of the year in England blanketing the floors of ancient woodland. Rather than copying my walk of the month before, this time I took a different route that would take in the best parts of the previous walk and also introduce new areas. To start, this time I parked in Oakamoor and set off south down the road through gorgeous woodland resplendent in their fresh, green foliage on trees that just a month earlier had been bare. At a footpath sign I climbed steeply up a heavily eroded path soon emerging above the trees to stunning views across the valley, basking in the morning sunshine. The path split many times and guessing which way I ought to go, I passed young foxglove flowers before reaching a wall and a path that began to descend again. I had clearly taken the wrong path so I turned around and followed the wall through a carpet of colourful flowers that included red campion, but not the bluebells that I was looking, until eventually I found the correct path and took that across the top of the hill and down to the road through Stoney Dale. I was now on the route of the Staffordshire Way and I followed this for the next couple of hours passing through Sutton’s Wood and Hawksmoor Wood before dropping down to the bottom of the valley beside the River Churnet.

There, beside the river bank, I found beautiful displays of the white flowers of stitchwort and not long after I came across a small collection of bluebells, just off the path. These were a great foretaste of what was to come, but first I needed to climb out of the valley and pass through the villages of Kingsley Holt and Kingsley. I had previously taken this path in January, but it was now a much more enjoyable walk in the warm spring weather and the miles soon passed by and eventually I reached the edge of Consall Nature Park. Soon I was at a great vantage point that looks out across the wood where previously, including the month before, the weather was overcast and the trees brown, bare of leaves, but now the view across a sea of lush, green trees shone in the sunlight. At the bottom of the valley I found swathes of stitchwort and finally, after a bit of hunting, I came across the bluebells that I had been looking for. After admiring the fabulous displays in Consall Wood, I made my out of the park, eager to see what was now in the highly-recommended Crowgutter Wood. Initially the dominant plant was ramsons, wild garlic and forget-me-nots, which were producing a fabulous display, but they were not bluebells. I was quite happy with the sweet smelling ramsons and took many photos of them, though I was mystified by the large leaves growing in amongst them.

The gorgeous, woodland scenery continued, though with only small banks of bluebells visible, I also saw red campion and cow parsley, until finally bluebells began to appear, near the top of the wood. After the early tease, the blue flowers were now in great swathes across the woodland floor and were more than enough to satisfy me as I took many pictures while slowly climbing the path and waiting for the sun to come back out from behind a cloud. When I could finally tear myself away from the bluebells, I came onto a road and turned right to walk along the quiet lane for a while before taking a path on the right that crossed several fields before passing Booth’s Hall and descending into Booth’s Wood. A month before, this small valley had been filled with wildflowers and I was eager to see what it was like now and it didn’t disappoint as it was filled with bluebells, basking the sunshine that had been hiding from me earlier. Stitchwort also added to the wondrous sight in this magical dell so it was again with reluctance that I eventually climbed through fallen branches out onto grassy fields that were in stark contrast to the abundant wilderness in Booth’s Wood. A dull walk took me through these fields, now reversing my steps of a month ago, to re-enter Moseymoor Wood and around the closed path near the mouth of a pond in the valley.

More bluebells accompanied me as I made my way through Whieldon's Wood, but they couldn’t compare with what had come earlier in the walk. On climbing out of the valley and into the village of Foxt, I headed down to cross the Shirley Brook and up to a dismantled tramway. By careful examination of my map I made my way towards Cotton Dell, though frustratingly not at the bottom of the valley, but on a track crossed the western slopes that I had previously walked along on my first visit to the Churnet Valley just six months before. When I could finally descend into the valley I discovered bluebells covering a grass bank, which compensated for not finding any at the bottom of the valley. Instead, the valley floor was decorated by a large, green leaved plant that I couldn’t identify, but this failed to detract from a delightful end to a wonderful walk through gorgeous woodland past many different wildflowers, and especially bluebells. I love to seek out this wonderful woodland flower every spring, wherever I can find it and the Churnet Valley had not failed to satisfy me.