Cannock Chase Revisited

Tuesday 6th April 2021

The day before this walk I visited Cannock Chase for the first time, but I felt that I hadn’t been able to do the place justice so I had no hesitation in returning the next day to explore more of this amazing place. Once again I parked at Coppice Hill and headed south into the wild moorland where heather, bracken and bramble dominated the scene with only a scattering of trees as I attempted to follow the Staffordshire Tolkien Trail that I had failed to follow the day before. However, I immediately missed the turning into the Oldacre Valley, which is a problem that I had encountered a lot the day before as I tried to follow the trail through the maze of footpaths in this complex area. Since I had failed to follow the Tolkien Trail I decided to just follow the path before me simply enjoying the fabulous scenery under blue skies and not worry about where I was going. Eventually the path brought me to the Chase Road Corner car park where I maintained my southerly heading into denser woodland before coming back out into the open moorland where a radio mast was clearly visible ahead of me. Upon reaching a road I pondered whether to continue south into the conifer plantation beyond, which I now see is not open access, but instead I turned left along the road past the German Military Cemetery where there are nearly five thousand burials from both world wars.

I was now miraculously back on the route of the Tolkien Trail, although now going in the opposite direction to that described, following good tracks to the Brennan 25 stone where I turned right to reach a road. Crossing the road brought me into the lovely scenery of the Brindley Valley, which was a fabulous place to walk under bright sunshine, though cold temperatures. Before too long I came across a path that headed steeply to an observation post that looks out over the valley and couldn’t help climbing up to, though the views over the valley were poor as I was looking into the sun. Turning my back on the valley I headed uphill, across a road to the Cannock Chase Visitor Centre, but once again I found myself confused by the maze of paths and roads in the parkland until eventually I found a tarmac road that led me to the visitor centre. From there I set off onto a nearby road, but when I saw the radio mast ahead of me that I had seen earlier in the day, I realised I was not going in the right direction. Turning around I passed the visitor centre again to reach Marquis Drive where I found a sign for the Sherbrook Trail and immediately abandoned all thought of continuing along the Tolkien Trail as I headed down into the Stony Brook Valley.

Beside the first of the Fairoak Pools I stopped to have my lunch as dark clouds gathered overhead and by the time I had eaten it was snowing. Setting off briskly to warm up, I walked beside the pools following the route of the Sherbrook Trail towards the Stonybrook Pools before crossing the valley and heading back past the Fairoak Pools. The snow stopped when I crossed the valley and with the sun out again I had a pleasant walk along the trail as it directed me back out of the valley and before I knew it I was back at Marquis Drive. Going around in circles felt rather frustrating, but not as frustrating as when I tried to continue along the trail only to find myself back at the Fairoak Pools. Refusing to climb out of the valley to Marquis Drive again, I followed the brook upstream until I reached the Sherbrook Trail near a road having cut the corner, so now I settled once more onto the trail until, again, I realised I was going in the wrong direction, along the western branch rather than the intended eastern branch of the Sherbrook Trail.

Retracing my steps I could not find the right route so I just blindly headed north following the route I had taken the day before through Tackeroo Campsite until veering off I eventually found the Sherbrook Trail. I was now really fed up with constantly getting lost in Cannock Chase while failing to the follow the prescribed route, even though at the beginning of the day I had decided not to follow a prescribed route. Wintry showers became increasingly frequent during the afternoon as I followed the trail north to a trig point that overlooks the Sherbrook Valley, so rather than continuing along the trail into Abraham’s Valley I headed north, coincidentally following the Tolkien Trail, steeply into the Sherbrook Valley and steeply out of the valley back to my car. I did enjoy my two days in Cannock Chase as it is an amazing place and I am sure if I kept going I would become more familiar with the landscape and eventually be able to find my way around without repeatedly losing my way. There is such a maze of paths it is very difficult for me to follow a route on a map, so it is probably better to just follow a path and see where it goes. Another return visit, maybe later in the year, would be a good idea and that time I need to forget about following a route and deliberately get lost rather than getting lost trying to follow a route.

Cannock Chase and the Staffordshire Tolkien Trail

Monday 5th April 2021

Despite lockdown being lifted I couldn’t go anywhere for my Easter holiday and everyone was advised to minimise travel so I was forced to look for somewhere in the Midlands to walk, not far from where I live, and I turned my eyes to Cannock Chase. This is a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty containing natural woodland and heathland, but I had never been there before, so this was a perfect opportunity and despite wintry conditions as I left home I drove to Staffordshire and parked at a small car park on Coppice Hill near the village of Brocton. In reading up beforehand I discovered there is a connection between Cannock Chase and J. R. R. Tolkien, the author of The Lord of the Rings. I have found various places over the years that claim inspiration for the works of Tolkien such as the Forest of Bowland, which I visited in 2012 and was told was the inspiration for the Shire, despite no evidence to support their claim. A place with a better claim to be the Shire is the area just south of Birmingham where Tolkien spent some years as a child and I did a walk there in 2019 through an area that has now been called The Shire Country Park. Staffordshire’s links to Tolkien go back to the First World War when he was stationed in barracks on the Chase.

The county council has produced a leaflet for a Staffordshire Tolkien Trail with three walks in the area including two that start from Coppice Hill, so I set off following the directions for the Great Haywood Walk through Brockton Coppice. It was very cold and overcast as I set off through terrain that looked pretty lifeless with dead bracken on the ground and leafless trees, but it wasn’t long before the sun started breaking through heralding a day of gorgeously sunny weather. On reaching the bottom of the valley I turned left away from the river through woodland that now looked fabulous with the sun creating stunning scenes through the trees and blue skies overhead as I following the Tolkien Trail around Harts Hill to The Punch Bowl car park. Crossing the road I followed a course not far from the road to pass White Barn Farm and enter the open parkland of the National Trust’s Shugborough Estate, which was already filling up with people, but I was just passing through on my way to the village of Great Haywood.

Tolkien spent some months in this village during the winter of 1916-17 recovering from trench fever contracted following the Battle of the Somme. It is thought that it was here that he first started writing his great epic that became the Silmarillion, the legends of the first age of Middle-Earth that underpins the whole of The Lord of the Rings. In this earliest phase of his writings there was a place on the elvish isle of Tol Eressëa called Tavrobel that didn’t survive into later writings, but has been equated with Great Haywood and the council leaflet eagerly suggests the grand Shugborough Hall is the House of a Hundred Chimneys that is described as standing nigh the Bridge of Tavrobel, which in reality is Essex Bridge. The inspiration of this area on Tolkien’s writings may have been fleeting, but I couldn’t help being inspired myself as I passed over the ancient, narrow bridge near the confluence of the River Sow with the River Trent in this sunny weather and it was easy to see such delightful surroundings being populated by the elves of Tol Eressëa. The village of Great Haywood is beyond the canal and railway line and I had a look around, but aside from some buildings that the Tolkien’s would have stayed in there was nothing of interest to see so I returned to the canal.

There, I had a pleasant walk along a towpath that was decorated with lush, green vegetation that I had not been seen in Cannock Chase including carpets of celandines that covered the area between the canal and the River Trent. There were distant views back to Shugborough Hall and the sun was shining making for a fantastic, blissful walk, but eventually I left the canal and after a short walk beside a road re-entered Cannock Chase at Seven Springs. There now seemed to be many people around, brought out by the sunshine on this Bank Holiday Monday, and this made things tricky for me to maintain social distancing as I continued to follow the Tolkien Trail that took me into the Sherbrook Valley where I crossed the stepping stones and headed upstream. There was now, thankfully, less people around and as I was enjoying the tranquil, unspoilt surroundings of the Sherbrook Valley so much, when I reached the point where the Great Haywood Walk heads back up to the Coppice Hill car park I stayed beside the brook. I thought I’d now follow one of the other Tolkien Trails, the Cannock Chase Walk, but didn’t realise that would also mean climbing out of the valley at this point.

When I realised this I decided to take the path marked as Pepper Slade that took me out of the valley later on and brought me back onto the Tolkien Trail near the site of Rugeley Camp, where Tolkien was first stationed in the area. I now followed the directions through the remains of Rugeley Camp, now a campsite (not open), to a road where I decided I didn’t want to continue on the trail so I turned left and followed signs for the Heart of England Way. This enabled me to cut a corner on the trail and after passing through a conifer plantation took me back down into the Sherbrook Valley where I turned right onto a path that I thought had taken me back onto the trail and was a pleasant walk through heather moorland into the cold, northerly wind. I realised I had gone the wrong way because the path was not taking me out of the valley so eventually I turned left and climbed steeply up the hill. I was now near the site of Brocton Camp where Tolkien was billeted in 1916 before heading off to France in time for the start of the Battle of the Somme. There is, thankfully, little trace of all this now and I wasn’t really looking for any, as I was more interested in the wild scenery, which I prolonged by heading from the Glacial Boulder car park down into the sparsely treed Oldacre Valley.

The Tolkien Trail also visits the Oldacre Valley where there would have been some of the Officer’s Huts that Tolkien used, but the trail immediately comes back out of the valley whereas I kept to the side. I soon realised I was going the wrong way, but I was enjoying the walk too much to mind until eventually I reached the top of Tan Hill overlooking the village of Brocton. Turning around I made my way back across the delightful landscape dragging my now aching legs all the way back to my car. This was an interesting walk, but at times a battle of navigation and my own fatigue. I really enjoyed the first half of the walk to Great Haywood, but once I was back in Cannock Chase I kept getting lost and tired. The problem with walking in a wood is that it is difficult to navigate as you can’t see where you’re going for all the trees so you have to blindly follow the path. On a mountain you usually have clear views of your intended direction making navigation much easier, but Cannock Chase is a maze of paths so I was constantly checking my map, which meant it wasn’t very relaxing. If I lived locally and knew the area well, then I would not have had any problem and would really enjoy walking through the Chase, but I’ve never been to Cannock Chase before so a return visit may be a good idea.

Charnwood Peaks

Saturday 3rd April 2021

With lockdown ending I was desperate to do a long walk that didn’t start from my front door, so I drove up to the Charnwood Forest, an area where I have done many walks in the past as it is the best place to walk in Leicestershire offering ancient woodlands and granite outcrops on low hills. I often do a Charnwood Round Walk that takes a very hilly route though the area and most recently did this walk just before Christmas. This was the last walk I did before lockdown so could have been my first walk after lockdown, but instead I thought I’d do something different. There is a walk on the National Forest website called Charnwood Peaks that could be called the Three Peaks of Leicestershire and there are charity walks that do something similar (however the Long Distance Walkers Association website describes this walk as going over the four peaks that define Charnwood Forest). The walk starts in Newtown Linford, which didn’t appeal to me as it is too busy and expensive to park, so I decided to start from the local nature reserve of Billa Barra that is conveniently located near junction 22 of the M1, and I also decided that a clockwise direction would work better for me than the National Forest’s anticlockwise directions.

From the car park I set off straight up to the top of Billa Barra, which I assume is the fourth of the LDWA’s peaks that others ignore. I enjoy going up this hill and particularly like the view west from the top as it is surprisingly hilly and wild-looking, for Leicestershire, although dull overcast skies spoilt the view. From the top of Billa Barra I immediately had to divert away from the National Forest’s directions as quarrying activities near Bardon Hill has closed the path, which the National Forest does note on their website. This is nothing new so I descended onto Billa Barra Lane and crossed the main road onto diversionary paths via Brook Farm that took me back onto the old path for the climb through Bardon Hill Wood to the top of the hill. Despite the cold, overcast weather it was great to be out climbing a hill again and I was invigorated by the exercise in the unspoilt, wild scenery. At the top of the hill is a radio mast and trig point, though the highest point could be anywhere along the ridge between the two. I wandered about trying to determine where the highest point is, but there is not much in it so I gave up and made my way to the trig point where I looked out across the large quarry that has removed most of the hill to the extensive views west.

Passing the radio mast again, I descended the hill and took the another diversionary route around quarry workings that took me onto a busy road opposite the drive for Charley Mill that took me into the lovely Charley Woods Nature Reserve. Small bluebell plants covered the floor waiting for warmer weather when they will put up their delightful flowers. Coming down the hill onto a lane I had a pleasant stroll beside daffodils that brought me onto a road just before it passes under the M1 motorway. When I have done this route in the past I have stayed on the road, but the National Forest route turns right immediately after the bridge into a young wood where there is a permissive path. I have attempted to take this route before and have found it overgrown, including when I came from the other direction last year. This time I was determined to forge a way through even though the National Forest does note this section as being impassable and recommends using the road, but if this route is ever going to be passable it is at this time of the year, so I brought some secateurs with me to cut any bramble that may be blocking my way.

For a while I made good progress and while there were some low branches that couldn’t be cut with the secateurs sometimes blocking my way, I could always duck underneath. Eventually the difficulty increased mostly due to a heavily churned up ground as if passed by much cattle and the low branches became thicker and more frequent. I also had a problem that wouldn’t be encountered in the other direction and that is when to turn. The motorway that I was walking beside provides a solid barrier when taking the prescribed direction, but I did not know when to turn left, so eventually I turned when things got too difficult ahead of me. This was obviously not the right moment as I soon came upon a fence and stream that could not be crossed, so I followed them uphill tackling the undergrowth and bramble until I was astonished to find a signpost for the permissive path. A stile was buried amongst the nearby undergrowth, though the bridge had collapsed, but at least I knew I was now going in the right direction as I headed up through the young woodland, cutting my way through the bramble until I thankfully reached the road. This is a tricky and exhausting path so I hope the National Forest follows their promise to open the route back up or I’m going to need a saw next time.

The onward route was relatively straight forward and brought me to Beacon Hill where I soon found I would have to take another diversionary route, but this time one I was not expecting. The field below Beacon Hill has been temporarily closed for ecological reasons, so I turned to the northern slopes of the hill blindly following a path, not knowing where it would lead me, but hoping that I would eventually be able to get to the top. It was an interesting, undulating path and eventually I found a gate that was not padlocked and led me onto a steep climb up to the top of Beacon Hill by a route that I have never taken before. From the viewfinder I could see the next Charnwood Peak ahead of me, Old John, so I headed down the hill, and branching off the main track, headed into Broombriggs Farm Country Park, which is a working farm owned by the county council. Soon, I crossed the farm and on the outskirts of Woodhouse Eaves turned away from the village onto a path that brought me to the edge of Lingdale Golf Course. Although I have taken this path before, I don’t like it as it is dangerous and you disturb the golfers, so I have not taken it in many years and I was relieved when I safely crossed the final fairway and entered a wood where I could relax and have my lunch.

Soon after setting off again I entered Bradgate Park, which is a place I have visited hundreds of times throughout my life and when I was young it was always the Hunt’s Hill car park that we used and that I now passed through before climbing up to the top of Old John. Nowadays, I would approach the hill from a different direction, so it was very nostalgic for me to be climbing Old John from Hunt’s Hill again. After a brief gaze at the view over the city of Leicester I crossed over to the war memorial before descending the wide, southern slopes to the Tyburn copse where the directions from the National Forest would direct you to the main car park for Bradgate Park, but since I had not started from there I cut the corner by taking a footpath near Tyburn that takes you out of Bradgate Park into Newtown Linford. I was now on the course of my very familiar Charnwood Round route that passes John’s Lee Wood to the A50 dual carriageway where I was disgusted by vast amounts of litter cast out by the passing idiots on the road. This is sickened me as I am dumbfounded that anyone would be so stupid as to do such a reprehensible thing.

My mood didn’t improve as I made my way into Markfield as my body started to feel the five hours of walking that I had already done, which is far more than I had done since before Christmas. I was all aches and pains as I hobbled through the village, but still followed the directions dragging myself up to the highest point in Hill Hole Quarry Nature Reserve. Descending back down to the meadow below I passed the large flooded quarry pit onto the road and from there took a footpath across the motorway, up the hill to a road and around the old Cliffe Hill Quarry back to my car below Billa Barra. It was great to be out on a long walk again after the extended lockdown, but my body let me know that it wasn’t used to walking for this long. With lockdown lifted I will now be able to do longer walks and hopefully, soon, be able to go further afield and finally be able to go up a mountain again.

The Eastern Edges

Saturday 17th October 2009

I am predominantly a spring and summer walker as I take advantage of the warmer, more settled weather of those seasons in Britain to go for most of my walking holidays. Once I have returned from a holiday I start describing it in this blog tackling one day every week until I have done the whole holiday when, if I have worked out my schedule correctly, I then go for another holiday and start the process again, however, by late autumn I have run out of holidays to write about. When I first came across this problem I went back to my earliest walks and started writing about the walks that had shaped me as a walker. In 2009, while actually doing the walk I am going to describe now, I realised that going through my early walks was going to give me plenty of material for many winters to come, so I came to the decision that I wouldn’t bother describing day walks, such as this one, in the Peak District. That had the benefit of releasing me from the pressure of having to take pictures and make notes that would later be used for when the walk was eventually written up, but it now creates a problem when I actually do want to write them up.

Eventually, I did run out of early walks and then I had to start describing my Saturday walks that had previously been ignored in this blog, but I didn’t go back to write about those missed walks. Due to lockdown I have recently been unable to go anywhere for a walk, so I have been going through my old pictures and I discovered some from a walk that I did in 2009, but none from any of those later missing walks. I have no record of the subsequent walks I did because I didn’t bother taking my camera as I knew I wouldn’t need it, but when I started this walk I had planned to include it in this blog, so I have some pictures to help me reconstruct my route despite having no other record. So, let’s start with the first picture which shows the large rocks of Curbar Edge, on the eastern side of the Peak District, under grey autumnal skies. I assume I had parked at the Curbar Gap car park that I have used many times since my first walking holiday in 1998 and most recently, just last year. This car park is not far from Curbar Edge where I was able to enjoy satisfying walking on rock and with extensive views across the Derwent Valley.

I took plenty of pictures along the length of Curbar Edge and the adjacent Froggatt Edge, but the next picture was taken three hours later and it is a mystery what I did in that time. At some point I came to my decision to not describe this walk in my blog and I seem to recall at that point being on the edge of a wood above a steep, short valley (called a clough in the Peak District). The most likely place for this, consulting a map, is above Oak’s Wood, though it is unclear why I would climb above the clough when there is clearly a path that goes straight across, though this is less clear on older maps such as the one I would have used at the time. From this point I would have passed through the National Trust’s Longshaw Estate and onto the moors north of the Hathersage Road passing over the site of Carl Wark Fort to the top of Higger Tor where I finally started taking some more pictures. Most are looking south towards the rocky promontory of Carl Wark with the cultivated Longshaw Estate in the background.

Almost two hours later I took one final picture prompted by the surprise appearance of the sun and appears to have been taken from White Edge. This lies on Big Moor to the west of Curbar Edge, so it would seem I had headed back through the Longshaw Estate and taken a route parallel to my earlier one along Curbar Edge that would eventually take me back to my car. What is remarkable to me now is that this is almost identical to the walk that I did last year. I hadn’t realised that this was a walk that I have done many times before, so I must really enjoy it. I first walked along Curbar Edge in 1998, although on that occasion I had started by heading south from Curbar Gap to the Robin Hood Inn before heading back along Birchen Edge, but since then I appear to have been inspired by a walk that I did in 2004. I have no record of that walk, though I remember starting from Upper Burbage Bridge at the northern end of the walk.

This walk from 2009 must have been a repeat of that, except for starting from the southern end, and I appear to done the walk again (with some differences between Froggatt Edge and the Longshaw Estate) in 2016. When I did the walk again last year I thought I was repeating my route of 2004 little realising that it was not the first time I had retraced my steps and even just now, when I started writing this blog entry, I hadn’t realised it was for a walk that I had done many times. There are some walks and places that are so good you are drawn to do them repeatedly and never tire of the experience and the eastern edges of the Peak District is just such a walk.