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.