RUSHTON, CHURNET VALLEY RAILWAY LINE (DISUSED), RAVENSCLOUGH
FARM, DRAKE’S WELL, BOSLEY CLOUD, TIMBERSBROOK OLD CHAPEL, COACH AND HORSES AT
TIMBERSBROOK, OVERTON HALL, FLOWERY FIELDS FARM, GREEN MEADOWS FARM, BLACKWOOD
HALL FARM, RUSHTON PARISH CHURCH, THE KNOT INN AT RUSHTON
Distance: 10 miles.
Difficulty: Moderate.
Weather: Cloudy but dry until last 15minutes.
A walkers: Peter Beal, Tom Cunliffe, Colin Davison, Lawrie
Fairman, Alan Hart and George Whaites.
B Walkers: George Fraser, Tony Job, Ken Sparrow and Geoff
Spurrell.
Apologies: Mickey Barrett (hols), Steve Courtney
(professional sailing), George Dearsley (w*^king), Jock Rooney (diving in
Columbia), Julian Ross (refurbishing house to let), Phil Welsh (wife poorly)
Leader: Fairman. Diarist: Hart.
Starting point: Public car park behind car park of The Knot
Inn at Rushton, Staffs.
Starting time: 9.52am. Finishing time: 2.46pm.
Despite heavy rain on the Monday and Tuesday with forecasts
of further showers, we escaped unscathed once again as the weather gods smiled
down on The Wednesday Wanderers. Indeed if we had finished on time at 2.30pm we
would have avoided the rain entirely.
Unfortunately the walk was longer than
anticipated and a light shower started when we were just half a mile from
journey’s end.
Happily your diarist’s simple device of donning a waterproof
jacket was enough to reduce what threatened to be an untimely downpour into the
lightest of drizzle. We were all safely back home by the time the heavens
opened with a vengeance later in the afternoon.
Our starting point near the Knot Inn on the disused North
Staffordshire Railway Line at Rushton was the source of two interesting pieces
of history.
The Stafford knot is a three-looped knot which is the
traditional symbol of the county of Staffordshire and its county town,
Stafford. It is described as a “particular representation of the simple
overhand knot, the most basic knot of all” (which
your diarist was brought up to call “a granny knot” because even infirm old
ladies could tie it)
It was the badge of the de Stafford family. Legend has it
that three felons who committed a crime together were due to be executed at
Stafford Gaol. They argued about who should be hanged first so the executioner
solved the problem by using this knot to hang all three simultaneously.
The Stafford knot was the badge of the 38th (1st
Staffordshire) Regiment of Foot in which Sir Thomas Brisbane served. When the
city in Queensland, Australia, was named after him, the Stafford knot was
incorporated six times in the city’s flag.
When the North Staffordshire Railway opened the Churnet
Valley Line in 1849 it was known locally as “The Knotty.” The railway ran for
27 miles passing 14 stations from North Rode in Cheshire to Uttoxeter in east
Staffordshire. The area was important within the mineral industry for iron,
copper, limestone and sandstone which were quarried extensively.
With its lake at Rudyard and its steep-sides, Churnet
Valley was marketed as a tourist attraction and became known as “Little
Switzerland.” The silver-tongued spin doctors were unable, however, to save the
line from The Beeching Axe in 1964 and it closed completely in 1988 before a
preservation society managed to rescue a small central section near Rudyard
Lake.
From the free car park we walked past the Knot Inn car park
on our right and passed the former Rushton Station, built in 1844 and now a
private house, on our left before crossing the road and following a yellow
arrow to walk towards Cheshire along the disused line.
As the route ahead became overgrown, a yellow arrow pointed
left (13mins) and we crossed a wooden stile to proceed straight ahead across a
field to another wooden stile marked with a yellow arrow. As we walked on
through a large field the River Dane appeared on our right. We crossed a
footbridge (24mins) which crossed a stream feeding the river and headed left up
a flight of steps.
We emerged at Ravensclough Farm and turned left (33mins),
going left at a wooden public footpath sign (43mins) over a wooden stile. The
path led us to a road (54mins) where we turned left uphill. After passing an
imposing house called Drake’s Well on our right we turned right at a wooden
public footpath sign (59mins) Upon reaching a flight of steep steps on our
right (61mins) we paused for pies, port and to gird our collective loins for
the final ascent up Bosley Cloud.
Continuing our journey we reached the Trig Point at the peak
(69mins) and admired the view eastwards over the Dane Valley and beyond towards
Buxton. We took a path to the left of the summit (72mins) which led us through
a wood. We followed a yellow arrow to our right (84mins) and right again at
another (87mins) before going left at a wooden public footpath sign marked
similarly (92mins).
We reached a road and turned left downhill (94mins) At
Timberbrook junction we turned right into Weathercock Lane (98mins), passing
the Old Chapel, now converted into a home, on our right. Also on our right we
spotted a barn containing two white peahens and a little further along was a
pond containing a duck-house. One wag suggested it might be the home of an MP
who would be claiming it on his expenses.
At a wooden public footpath sign we turned left (104mins)
along the Gritstone Trail. We crossed a wooden stile and turned left uphill
(118mins). When we reached the end of Brookhouse Lane we turned right (123mins)
and reached The Coach and Horses at Timbersbrook (128mins).
The Robbies’ cask bitter at £3-10 was enjoyed by most of
those present, although Tom’s discerning palate could only give it 6 out of 10.
He is fast becoming the Craig Revel Horwood of beer judges.
Resuming our odyssey, we crossed the road opposite the front
door of the pub and turned left uphill, then right into Cherry Lane (134mins).
Two llamas bounded across a lawn on our left, and Colin was happy to share with
them some apples he had scrumped earlier. But signs not only warned against
feeding the pleading animals but also that CCTV cameras would capture anyone
ignoring the instruction.
Colin was thus obliged to withdraw his fruit along with his
claim that they were alpacas when he saw yet another sign saying “Llamaland.”
After passing Overton Hall on our left we turned left at a wooden stile just
before reaching Common Road on our left (140mins) This led us through a field
and over a wooden stile with a path between an overgrown holly hedge on our
left and a broken drystone wall on our right. Here we stopped for lunch
(147mins)
Resuming we passed Flowery Fields Farm on our left (154mins)
At a junction (157mins) we turned right along Pines Lane. At the end of the
lane we turned left (162mins) with the distinctive shape of Shutlingsloe ahead
in the distance. So there we were in “Little Switzerland” gazing at a peak
known ironically as “Cheshire’s Matterhorn.”
We passed Long Edge Farm on our right (164mins) and turned
right down some overgrown steps to cross a wooden stile marked with a yellow
arrow (173mins) after a five-minute delay in finding it. This took us through
fields to the right of Green Meadows Farm which we exited by another wooden
stile (177mins)
On reaching a lane we turned left and then right (185mins)
along a road. This took us past Deepdale House on our right (194mins),
Blackwood Hall Farm on our left (196mins) and The Old Smithy on our right
(203mins) When we reached Dingle Lane on our right (206mins) we turned left.
This brought us to Rushton Parish Church on our right (212mins)
The church is now dedicated to St Lawrence The Martyr,
but in 1386, when the people of Rushton Spencer applied to the bishop in Leek
for permission to hold services in the village, it was called “The Chapel in
the Wilderness.” The chapel has a date of 1690 above its east window and 1713
above the south doorway, but a much older timber-framed church, possibly from
the 14th Century, exists within the stone walls.
St Lawrence was martyred in 258 when the Emperor Valerian
issued an edict that all Christian bishops, priests and deacons should be put
to death immediately. Lawrence was roasted alive on a gridiron – a hideous form
of death by barbecue.
We walked through the churchyard, passing the church on our
left and dropped downhill to a bridge over the disused Churnet Valley Line.
After crossing the bridge we turned right and looped right back under it
(222mins), to reach our cars (225mins).
Inside the Knot Inn we joined the B-teamers who had walked
from Rushton to the Wincle Brewery, sampling pints of Sir Philip at £2-90
before returning along the Gritstone Trail, a journey of between six and seven
miles.
The Robbies’ cask bitter in the Knot was £3-40, served by
new licensees Mark and Vicky Eastwood, who took over the pub two days earlier.
Next week’s walk will start from the car park of The Old
Hall at Whitehough, near Chinley, at 9.35am, featuring a climb over Chinley
Churn to Peep-a-Day, and stopping for a livener in The Lamb on the outskirts of
Chinley around 12.30pm before returning to The Old Hall about 2.15pm.
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