Churnet Valley – Consall Nature Park

Saturday 22nd January 2022

With sunshine forecast I was eager to get out for a walk, but I couldn’t decide where to go. I looked at various options until eventually I decided to just return to the Churnet Valley, despite the fact that this was the one place that was not forecast to be sunny. After driving over, I was back at Froghall Wharf, where I had previously parked in November on my second visit to the Churnet Valley. Walking through the village I turned onto a path that follows the Churnet Way and was soon crossing the river and the southern terminus of the preserved Churnet Valley Railway. Although it looked like I could have walked along the old track bed, the footpath took me through lovely woodland just above the valley floor, which was better even though it was quite muddy. The woodland walk brought me to Ross Lane where I had descended from the village of Whiston on my first visit to the Churnet Valley. On that occasion I had turned south on the route of the Staffordshire Way and Churnet Way, but this time I turned north on the Staffordshire Way climbing out of the valley and was soon getting quite warm, which prompted me to strip off some layers. The terrain on this section of the walk was not great as I passed through grassy fields that may not have been as muddy as the woodland, but was dreary especially under the grey, overcast skies and with a cold wind that soon had me regretting taking my fleece off.

The Staffordshire Way took me through Kingsley Holt and past the village of Kingsley until I reached the edge of Consall Nature Park where a waymarked path with purple ringed posts took me off the Staffordshire Way and down into the valley on muddy paths through glorious woodland. I loved seeing the dramatically steep terrain of Far Kingsley Banks and enjoyed the wonderfully graded path that eased my descent. Almost at the bottom I turned back uphill continuing to follow the purple ringed posts further into Consall Nature Park up a long flight of steps, which was good exercise for me with the reward of fabulous views across the park. Trees dominated the view in all directions, but the grey skies and lack of sunshine robbed it of the magnificence that it justly deserves. It is a shame that I was not seeing the Churnet Valley at its best, which must surely be in the spring when woodland flowers abound and instead I was seeing bare trees under overcast skies. It was very frustrating, but is something that can be corrected later in the year.

Despite very muddy paths I enjoyed walking through the woodland and after the tremendous view white ringed posts took me steadily down to the bottom of the valley. I like the steep ascents and descents of the Churnet Valley and this walk was providing me with plenty of them. When I reached a path junction at the bottom of the valley I turned left now following a trail marked by red ringed posts that took me even deeper into the park, but on much wider and flatter paths than earlier. On reaching the far end the path started to climb up the side of the valley through Upper Ladypark Wood to the northern edge before turning back down to the earlier track. To prevent this I kept high on a narrow, muddy path that didn’t bring down to the bottom until I had reached the junction where I had earlier joined the red trail. Turning towards the visitor centre I climbed up to the car park and followed the white trail past Heron Pool and Lawn Pool all the way back to the bottom of the Churnet Valley. After crossing the river, railway and canal I realised that I was at the point where I had left the canal on my walk back in November that had started from Froghall Wharf.

The rest of the walk was simply to retrace my steps of previously beside the canal all the way back to Froghall Wharf and was a pleasure with a generally good path underfoot, though there was one bit that had deep mud. This walk was generally very muddy, but it was never really wet as the mud was just very soft, which made it difficult to keep a grip especially on steep ground. It is a pity that I didn’t have any sunshine on this walk, especially as that is specifically what had sent me out for a walk and most areas did have sunshine. Nevertheless it was great to be out for a walk in the woods and to stretch my legs climbing the steep valley sides, which is what keeps bringing me back to the Churnet Valley. I wish I hadn’t ignored it for so long.