May 14th – A gorgeous warm run out to Fradley, Barton, Rosliston and Syerscote was just the tonic I needed. I didn’t take many photos – sometimes, you just don’t – but the landscape was beautiful, particularly the river section of the Trent and Mersey Canal at Alrewas, where this most utilitarian of canals kisses the Trent.
I noted also a beautiful red horse chestnut in full bloom in the sheep pasture by Wychnor Church. Those really are lovely flowers.
I really enjoyed the sun on my back today.
April 18th – The Churnet Valley is beautiful – no ifs and no buts – it’s like Staffordshire’s equivalent of the Loire Valley. Featuring a canal, a river, a preserved steam railway, a castle, several beautiful villages and steep, beautiful slopes, the reason it’s generally overlooked is because it contains Alton Towers, the theme park people seem to come to without visiting Dimminsdale or any of the other beautiful places here.
The old Flint Mill at Cheddleton is stunning.
The castle is now a school and religious retreat, an is extraordinary.
The Churnet Valley does, however, eat cyclists. The 16% and 17% hills in and out of the valley between Oakamoor and Froghall nearly finished me.
But I have to come back.
June 4th _ I came back past the Dunstall and Catton Estates. At Dunstall, they’re farming deer, and it’s odd to see these graceful creatures enclosed in such high fences, but they do have a huge amount of space and seem happy.
Near Catton, the coos were fascinating, and a reminder of how dangerous they can be. I first spotted them wading into the Trent to cool off, but on seeing me, the entire heard made for the hedge where I was standing. Gently insistent, they crowded round, presumably to see if I had food. They are gorgeous animals, but I’m glad the hedge was there!
June 4th – I went to the steam fair at Draycott in the Clay, near Sudbury, and photos can be seen on my main blog here, but on the way back I took a route through Rolleston on Dove.
I haven’t been here for ages. The church is lovely (though impossible to get a good photo of at that time on a sunny evening!) and the village, still resolutely separate from Burton although perilously close, still retains a wonderful atmosphere with some great buildings and the river running right through it.
That lych gate was the site of me repairing a puncture at 7pm one Christmas Eve (I think in 2010) on my home from a chilly century in Derbyshire – it has a light in which proved very useful.
February 10th – Still irritating me is the work to resurface a perfectly decent canal towpath between Walsall Town Centre and Bentley Bridge. Kier, the contractors, are pushing ahead – mainly because they seem to have realised they haven’t much to actually do.
I don’t know who was consulted before the Canal & River Trust decided to undertake this project – it certainly doesn’t appear to have been local cyclists.
Such a waste of money when towpaths in Aldridge and Bloxwich are virtually impassible to all in the winter.
November 28th – back in Brownhills later that afternoon, during a respite in the rain I headed to get some shopping in. On my way I noted that the lower meadow on Clayhanger Common was flooding and returning to it’s normal winter boggy state, which it’s designed to do. From the Pier Street bridge, I regarded the hardy, wind-buffeted canoeists with admiration.
For a couple of seasons, I wondered why so many craft had been motored at Silver Street at various times. It looks like there’s my answer – and now the Canal and River Trust have clocked that people are mooring here and are after money.
Let’s hope they use the proceeds to clear their marina up… it’s in a terrible state.
September 15th – Catshill Junction Bridge has had this horrid step for years. There used to be a concrete ramp between the footpath and the bridge deck, but it broke up and washed away in the rain.
The Canal and River Trust have been asked to repair this on multiple occasions, to no avail.
Yesterday, they announced that a crew would be out on Wednesday ‘to make it accessible’.
I’ll believe it when I see it…
September 11th – Today was largely about the River Trent, I crossed i at several places, and I finally go a look around the flood defences at Armitage that I’d been intending to do for years.
It used to be a filthy waterway, but no longer. Today it was clear, wide and beautiful.
July 26th – The latest addition to the local architectural scene is a set of steps built by the Canal & River Trust down off the canal towpath at Clayhanger, to the foot of the embankment.
The steps are well made, have a sturdy handrail, are ballast filled and are well levelled, painted and a really, really nice job.
If only we saw such attention to detail when urgent repairs were required.
The steps have only been built to allow surveyors access to the toe of the embankment, because scrambling down a bank is clearly too much for them.
This is funny in one way, but also opens up an area to kids and the nosey that was previously well hidden and a haven for wildlife wanting peace and quiet.
You couldn’t make it up.
July 10 – Up near Clayhanger on the canal, I noticed a Canal and River Trust workboat, moored and laden with building materials. Wonder what that’s here for? Hopefully repairing some of the brickwork falling away for the banks… we can always hope.
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