Churnet Valley – The Coombes and the Devil’s Staircase

Saturday 1st January 2022

After all the rain over Christmas, mild weather over the New Year gave me an opportunity to go for another walk and once again the Churnet Valley drew me back. In seeking for a different place in the valley to walk, I parked just outside the village of Cheddleton and passing through the streets I headed down to the bottom of the valley and the railway station for the preserved Churnet Valley Railway. After crossing the canal, river and railway I climbed the grassy hill opposite and was disappointed that the early morning sunshine had not lasted very long as hazy clouds came over and would stay for much of the day. I was tedious slowly walking through muddy, grassy fields over Ferny Hill but eventually I turned right and entered Coombes Valley Nature Reserve. This is a gloriously wooded, deeply cut valley and rather than sticking to the right-of-way, I decided to take the waymarked Woodcock trail that keeps high above the valley and afforded me with stunning views. Unfortunately this walk was plagued by the sound of gunshot from a nearby New Year’s Day shoot, but the pictures taken on the terrace path are thankfully ignorant of the noise echoing off the valley sides.

I had a fabulous walk through this reserve on a good, relatively dry path that eventually led me to a public footpath where I turned left down to the bottom of the valley. The gunshots were thankfully muffled this deep inside the valley and the scenery around the bridge was delightfully wild and immensely invigorating. Tearing myself away I climbed up out of the valley, but turned left at a junction to stay on the Woodcock trail heading back up the valley. A narrow, muddy path climbed steeply up the side of the valley until I reached a track reminiscent of the one on the other side of the reserve and this slowly descended while providing me with fabulous views until I was back down at the bottom of the valley and on the right-of-way that I had used to enter the reserve. Rather than completing my circle around the valley, I turned right on the muddy footpath to climb up to Sharpcliffe Hall. The footpath continues along the drive to a road junction where I turned right onto a farmer’s track which I followed all the way to Collyhole.

This quaint sounding name comes from the nearby Collyhole Brook where densely packed trees gave the valley a dark and oppressive feeling, but I found a path there through the valley, despite not being indicated on O.S. maps, that I happily took through the overgrown woodland. This narrow path weaved satisfyingly through the woodland and was a joy to walk upon and although it was slightly muddy, it was not as bad as others I had encountered on the walk. On reaching a road I turned left and then right onto a public footpath past Belmont Hall, back into woodland and eventually reached the start of the Devil’s Staircase. Despite being a grand and ominous title, and marked on O.S. maps, this was just an extended series of concrete steps that led me all the way down to the bottom of the Churnet Valley not far from Consall Station. Beside the railway there was a popular pub with an enormous inflatable Santa outside almost as high as the Inn. After crossing the railway line and the canal I headed north even though I had originally planned on entering Consall Nature Park, but I had decided to leave that for another walk.

Instead I walked beside the river on a path that, although it was muddy at times, was always a delight and after a while, the sun finally broke through the hazy clouds so for the last mile of the walk I was able to enjoy some sunshine and blue skies with the gloriously wild scenery either side of the river. I had been considered an extension of the walk into Deep Hayes Country Park, but I didn’t want to do that, so when I reached Cheddleton I decided to head straight back to my car. I felt like I had done enough walking and at that time of the year it wasn’t going to be long before the sun set. I had ignored the New Year’s celebrations so I could get up early and thoroughly enjoyed driving through empty streets and walking before anyone else was awake. This was a delightful and tranquil walk in unusually warm weather and was a great way to welcome in the New Year that I hoped would herald a good year to come.