This was our first walk in Staffordshire and we did something quite clever this time round, which was to arrive in Uttoxeter in the late afternoon on the Friday, so we could explore the local area a little bit and do a 'pre-amble' around Uttoxeter on the evening before our official 'chester' walk.
It was also a double whammy, as our walk took into two -chesters this time, instead of one. Out of the two -chesters, it's actually Rocester which has most of the Roman heritage, however, in the 21st century Uttoxeter is the bigger Staffordshire -chester, with more amenities and a railway station.
Lodgings and Victuals
Uttoxeter and Rocester are a bit unusual in the sense that neither seem to lie on the path of any of Britain's major Roman roads. The closest Roman road, the
Icknield Way, is now the A38, which links Lichfield to Derby and passes (in a typically straight line) a few miles south-east of Uttoxeter. We stayed in a nice BnB called
Lanes Guest House, which is on the Derby Road, in a small residential area called St Catherine's Close.
 |
| Welcome to Uttoxeter sign |
We found a nice pub-eatery called
Dapple Grey, where we ate on both evenings and which does a mean oven-baked pizza. I'd recommend it, if you happen to be in Uttoxeter for any reason!
Horse-racing and the Caravan club
Uttoxeter feels a little bit like it's slowly slipping into the more urban realities of the West Midlands, with nearby cities like Burton, Stoke and Lichfield, only a few miles down the road. Nevertheless, it's managed to maintain a small town feel and the urban sprawl hasn't yet conquered this island of country life.
 |
| Uttoxeter Market Place |
One of things Uttoxeter is most famous for is its
race course, which hosts the Midlands Grand National in March every year. Again, it's not the biggest racecourse in the country and its small-town status adds to Uttoxeter's air of modest occupation.
 |
| Entrance to Uttoxeter Race course |
It's funny that we also walked past a racecourse in Stratford-upon-Avon, on
our last Chester walk and we've realised that racecourses, when they're not in use, often double up as camping/caravanning sites. Uttoxeter Racecourse also has camping facilities and it made us think that we might want to pitch a tent in a racecourse site, sometime in the future!
Pre-amble
For our Uttoxeter pre-amble, we walked past the race course and up Wood Lane to Toothill Road, which runs along a small ridge to the south-east of the town. It was a nice walk, very quiet and atmospheric, as it had just rained. From Toothill Road we got a view back towards Uttoxeter, which looked a bit sullen in the distant damp evening.
 |
| View of Uttoxeter from Toothill Road |
It was in Uttoxeter that we first spotted the Staffordshire county symbol,
the Stafford knot, a bloody reminder of Stafford's proximity to the rebellious Celtic folk of Wales! To be honest, we thought it was a
pretzel, rather than a hangman's noose, so we spent some time trying to conjure up a logical Uttoxeter-German connection.
 |
| The Staffordshire pretzel |
The 32A to Oakamoor
We decided to start our walk in a village called Oakamoor, a respectable distance from Uttoxeter, and to work our way back to the town, so we could pass Rocester and still make it in time for our train back to London. To get there we caught the 32A bus on Bradley Street and it was all very pleasant until 5 minutes later when we pulled in Uttoxeter Railway station and the bus was invaded with crowds of people headed for Alton Towers.
 |
| Detail on St Mary the Virgin Church |
I don't begrudge people their day out of the city and, in fact, myself and BAM (Best Aussie Mate) are great believers in the need to get away from the maelstrom of urban life. But to go to Alton Towers for the day! With screaming kids and grumpy adults? I couldn't think of anything worse. The forty minutes or so that it took to get to Alton Towers on the bus was more time that I ever wish to spend with screaming kids and grumpy adults!
 |
| Countryside around Sedsall |
It got us thinking about leisure, thrill-seeking and the mechanisation of modern life. The fact that people from Birmingham, Stoke and Wolverhampton would get their kids out of bed at the crack of dawn, drag them into the countryside on trains and buses, only to end up in another man-made environment, completely baffles me. Why not just bring them to the country and let them loose? There are way more interesting things for kids to do running around in the forest or in the open-air, than standing in queues and fighting over ice-cream.
 |
| A flower we spotted along the way |
The only explanation can be the thrill of going on the rides and it begs that question as to why do we need that? What is it about modern culture that demands more of everything and faster? Is it because 'thrill' is a commodity and it's being constantly sold to us (and our kids) by clever advertisers?
It's a shame that people will spend around £160 for a day admission ticket to Alton Towers (2 adults + 2 kids) when the countryside is sitting there completely free of charge. I can't help feeling that the kids would not only enjoy a day in the country
more (fresh air, no queues, interesting plants and insects), but they would also be more likely to grow into adults who respect the countryside, as a result of spending time in a more natural environment.
 |
| Abandoned railway platform near Oakamoor |
As the practically empty bus pulled out of Alton Towers, we breathed a joint sigh of relief and watched on in despair, as a group of kids with sticks bashed the bejaysus out of an inoffensive-looking bush near the ticket office.
Oakamoor to Alton (1.7 miles/2.7 kilometres)
Oakamoor is a very pretty little village and it seems like it would be a nice place to spend a quiet weekend. We hopped off the bus at the Star Bank stop, then crossed the bridge to pick up a cycle path which runs along the route of a disused railway line. The path follows the River Churnet through a very tranquil corner of Staffordshire, far away from the roaring of the Ripsaw and the screaming of the Sonic spinball!
 |
| Old railway building near Oakamoor |
As we walked along we couldn't help but notice the posters proclaiming
The Battle of the Balsam 2014. First introduced to Britain in the 19th century, Himalayan Balsam has become an invasive plant which is now choking up many of Britain's waterways and blocking out light for native plants.
We've seen balsam a few times on our walks, but the prevalence of this plant along the River Churnet was worse than anything I've seen previously. I thought about the kids at Alton Towers who'd been attacking a harmless bush with sticks and how their destructive skills might be put to good use along this stretch of the river!
 |
| The invasive Himalayan Balsam |
We'd meant to cross the Churnet at Lord's bridge and pick up the Staffordshire way into Alton, but we missed our crossing and kept following the seductively linear railway track, until we found ourselves at Alton's former railway station, a building now owned by the
Landmark Trust, who let it out to holiday-makers. The reason we know all of this is because we stopped to chat to the resident holiday-makers, a lovely family who seemed to be enjoying their stay in this historic building.
 |
| Alton Station building, now owned by the Landmark Trust |
Alton to Denstone (2.4 miles/3.9 kilometres)
We got a bit distracted at Alton station by three people walking with Llamas along the railway path. What beautiful animals Llamas are - it's the first time I've seen them up-close (not behind a glass screen or iron bars). It turns out that we'd met a Llama trek organised by
Llama Adventures, a small company based in the West Midlands. What a lovely way to spend the day and both the trekkers and their guide seemed to be having a lot of fun with the Llamas!
 |
| Walking with Llamas |
As a result of this distraction, we completely missed Alton, although it looked like a pretty village when we passed through it on the bus. The cycle path seduced us away from the path we'd originally intended to take and, before we knew it, we were already at the back of the churchyard in Denstone, a couple of miles past the bridge at Alton.
 |
| Denstone churchyard |
Denstone to Rocester (1.5 miles/2.5 kilometres)
At Denstone, we crossed the Churnet again to a small hamlet called Quixhill. From there, we struck out across the fields towards Rocester, our second -chester of the day.
 |
| Path to Rocester |
Richard Arkwright, one of the world's first industrialists, chose Rocester as the location for one of his cotton mills, using water from the River Dove, to power the production of cotton at a mill on the river. Although he was originally from Preston in Lancashire, Arkwright founded some of the world's first industrialised factories in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.
 |
| JCB Academy and former cotton mill, Rocester |
The Rocester mill building has now been converted into the JCB academy and Rocester is, in fact, the headquarters for
JCB, one of the world's biggest manufacturers of agricultural machinery and construction equipment. We could see the HQ buildings as we walked into Rocester but, unfortunately, we didn't have time to pay a visit, although I'm sure the JCB plant has a fascinating history behind it.
 |
| JCB mural at Uttoxeter railway station |
Rocester to Doveridge (3.2 miles/5.2 kilometres)
From Rocester to Doveridge we followed the Staffordshire Way, a long-distance path which runs for 92 miles from Mow Cop castle in Cheshire to Kinver Edge on the Staffs/Worcestershire border. It's quite a challenging path and not that well sign-posted, so we ended up diverting to a smaller footpath near Sedsall which was overgrown with nettles and certainly exercised our rambling and orientation skills!
 |
| Staffordshire Way signpost |
Having regained the correct path at Eaton Dovedale, our next challenge was to walk through the Doveridge Clay Pigeon shooting facilities at Eaton Hall farm
. It's quite frightening when you're approaching a shooting facility on foot and you don't know that that's what it is! It wouldn't be the first time we've had to deal with gunfire on our -chester walks and I particularly remember the diversion we had to make in
Chesteron in Shropshire, during the fowl-shooting season.
 |
| Red flag at Doveridge |
Once we got to the farm and realised that the shooting was all controlled and not necessarily directed towards us, the walk became a lot more normal again, although we didn't hang around, as we followed a lane uphill, out of the farm and in the direction of Doveridge village.
Doveridge to Uttoxeter (1.7 miles/2.7 kilometres)
In our haste to escape the sound of shooting, we missed a turn-off, which would have taken us to Uttoxeter via Sidford Wood - instead we continued along the lane towards Doveridge, until we realised our mistake.
Trying to make up for lost ground, we decided to follow another public footpath through a field with cows in it. I hate walking through fields of cows at the best of times, but at the end of the day, when you're in a hurry to get to the station and you've just been subject to gunfire, dealing with a field full of cows isn't really my idea of fun!
 |
| Doveridge Clay Pigeon shooting facility |
Regular readers of this blog will remember the 'fun' experience we had with cows in
Portchester in 2010 - both my sheer terror at being stuck in a pen with the 'beasts' and BAM's cool resolve to get us through the farm unscathed! I've been a bit traumatised by cows ever since then so, as we got to the bottom of the field near Doveridge, with the cows running downhill after us and no exit in sight, I was beginning to think Alton Towers might have been a more sensible option for an unintentional thrill-seeker like myself!
 |
| Statue of a cow in Uttoxeter |
Despite BAM's assurances that cows are harmless, docile beasts - I remain convinced that they are dangerous aggressors and being
trampled to death by cows is a much more common fate for walkers than people realise. Having got much closer to a herd of charging cows than I ever want to be again, I've realised several things:
1. If you run, cows will run after you
2. Cows are big and aggressive, especially when there's a whole herd of them
3. If you turn and chase them, cows will generally run away
4. I don't want to be chased by cows again . . . ever!
Our only option was to beat a hasty retreat, so we scaled a gate into another part of the field, where the cows couldn't see us and made our way dejectedly back to the safety of the lane.
It wasn't a massive detour via Doveridge to Uttoxeter and the rest of the walk was relatively uneventful. We celebrated our cow-chasing experience with a couple of nice steaks at the Dapple Grey, before jumping on the train and heading back to the cow-free environs of London.
 |
| Rain clouds over Uttoxeter |
Access for Wheelchair users
 |
| Disused railway line at Lord's Bridge |
The first part of this walk from Oakamoor to Denstone along the former railway line was completely accessible and I would recommend this part of the walk to users. The rest of the walk was relatively inaccessible, apart from the country lanes around Rocester and Doveridge.
We wouldn't recommend that wheelchair users engage in any cow chasing, but walking with the Llamas could be a lot of fun!
Image credits:
All photos were taken by me - please feel free to reuse them under the following Creative Commons license:
Attribution (especially to this blog post)
Share-alike
Non-commercial
