Saturday 16th October 2021
After rousing myself out of my lack of walking last summer with a walk the previous week in the Cotswolds, I wanted to maintain my renewed burst of enthusiasm, so I headed west to Cannock Chase where I had made my first visit the previous Easter. That had been based around the northern part of the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, so this time I parked in the south beside Castle Ring, which is the site of an Iron Age hill fort. Soon I was up to the edge of the perimeter earthworks that are all that is left of the fort and starting the walk along the raised earthworks around the southern side. The weather was overcast, but warm for the time of year and this made the walk reasonably pleasant. Rather than completing a circuit of the fort, I dropped down the eastern bracken-covered slopes into the woodland following a fence that separates the woodland of Cannock Chase from the Beaudesert Outdoor Activity Centre. A faint path that was often very muddy led me beside the fence until finally I dropped steeply down onto a wide track to descend through the woodland through what used to be the gardens of Beaudesert Park.
At the bottom of the hill near the Horsepasture Pools I turned left and proceeded west, but I had no clear idea where I was going. I had enjoyed good views across the Old Park while descending from the Scout camp, but now that I was enveloped within the trees I had no clear idea of where I was going except to blindly follow the path. I did not even have a map to refer to, besides Google, so I was walking blind, just wandering around hoping that I would able to find my way and in a way this was rather liberating as I wasn’t trying to navigate the complex terrain based on a map and instead I could just enjoy the surroundings. Google Maps indicated a junction ahead and when I reach that I turned right heading north over Red Brook on the route of the Heart of England Way and the Two Saints Way, which I decided to follow. The pleasant woodland walk continued to a road and after a short walk beside the road opposite a campsite, I reached a junction where I turned left, still following the trails, onto a track that is known as Marquis’s Drive and I remembered walking on previously.
This lane took me past Seven Springs lake and down a valley with steep sides that I felt obliged to climb, though only briefly before coming even more steeply back down and resuming my walk along the track. At the bottom I crossed a road and a railway line by way of a footbridge. On the other side I found an information point about the Brindley Heath railway station that used to be at this point to serve RAF Hednesford nearby. New recruits were made to carry their heavy pack from the station up the steep hill to the Air Force base and now I also had to climb Jockey Hill until finally I reached the site of RAF Hednesford, which has now been turned into Cannock Chase Country Park. This was familiar territory for me having reached this point last Easter, so I felt free to explore passing a memorial to those who had served in the old RAF base and through the parkland that now covers the area. After a stopover in the centre of the park I headed south wandering around with no clear idea where I was going except for a desire to enjoy the walk through the woodland.
Eventually I came out of the woods onto an area of low scrub and young trees to a ridge that looked out over disused quarry workings. There I stopped as the sun slowly began to break through the clouds that had previously been covering the skies while I had my lunch. After eating I descended across the grasslands that covers the disused workings and into the grounds of Cannock Chase Enterprise Centre, which I walked around and onto the access road, across the railway line and onto the main road. Despite not knowing how I was going to proceed from here, I walked up the road until I discovered a path on the other side that took me onto the Rawnsley Hills between the Cannock Chase woodland and Beau Desert Golf Club. I was not keen to be so close to a golf club, so when I came to a junction I turned away to plunge into the wood heading downhill to Deercote Slade. However, I soon decided that this would not take me back to Castle Ring, so at the next junction I turned right and climbed back up the hill until eventually I reached the edge of the golf club again and followed this until I reached the Club House.
Turning onto a clear bridleway I gradually descended downhill, but once again I suspected I was going the wrong way so I checked my direction and discovered that I was going north instead of the required east. Turning around I headed back up the hill to the driving range for the golf club and onto a path that initially was going in the right direction, but soon turned north, so I came off the path and tried to keep heading east despite the rough terrain. At one point I was dismayed to find myself coming back towards the driving range, so I turned around and finally came down to the Rugeley Road. Google Maps, which had been completely unhelpful on the Rawnsley Hills, now showed a path beside the road to what it calls “Small Car Park”, which was really just the entrance to a forestry track. In the improving weather, I now had a lovely walk through the mixed woodland past some cleared areas and after climbing a hill to a track I had stunning views across the woodland. A short climb from there brought me to the northern tip of Castle Ring, which is the highest point in Cannock Chase with the resulting views across the area in the sunshine being worth the climb. Considering I had no idea where I was going for much of this walk, it was surprisingly enjoyable. My previous visits to Cannock Chase had been plagued by trying to navigate with a map, but by not having a map I seemed to have a much better walk by simply wandering around aimlessly.
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