At Uttoxeter my route along the Dove Valley met some official long-distance trails. First the Staffordshire Way north to Rocester, then the Limestone Way continuing up towards Dovedale. Graham joined me on today's walk, which included the Staffordshire Way section and the first part of the Limestone Way. Unusually, it was a one-way hike; we got the bus back.
Uttoxeter to Ellastone
Graham and I parked at Uttoxeter train station. It's very cheap for the day if you park after 10am, but I was worried about getting back in time for the school run, so we got there at 9:20 and paid the more expensive rate (still only £3).
We started off across flat fields towards the A50 and Dove Bridge. A group of young cattle gave us hard stares as we walked past. I posted a photo of a wonky gate on the Gate Appreciation Society with the caption "Parallelogate" and it quickly accumulated 200 likes - many more than this post will get!
Passing the old Dove Bridge again, we ploughed through long grass, tracking the top edge of Sidford Wood. A weathered Staffordshire Way sign pointed down through the woods, but the green diamonds on the OS map went along the top, so we stuck with that. At length we came out on a small road leading down to a shooting club. "Shooting in progress if red flag is flying," said the sign, but the poor red flag was so bedraggled it didn't look as if it could signify anything any more.
Fortunately all was quiet. We proceeded without threat to our lives; or to the lives of the game birds which ran along the track in front of us. Several of the properties, including this smart farmhouse, belonged to JCB, whose giant factory we would shortly see.
We went straight on past a pond, realised we should have turned left, and came back. The footpath sign had been very well hidden! After a couple more fields we reached the banks of the Dove again, and thought we had made good time getting to Rocester. However, the final stretch was very overgrown and perilously eroded, so our pace slowed down.
Just by the JCB Academy, we spotted a footpath sign with a small hand-written addition saying "Limestone Way". This is the official end of the Limestone Way, which I think would be distinctly underwhelming if you had walked the entire 46 miles from Castleton. It was pretty underwhelming even when we had only come from Uttoxeter.
The church and ancient cross made up for it. We ate our lunch on a bench outside, and two people came past and said, "There's free tea and coffee inside if you'd like some." It was a nice offer, but we were keen to keep moving.
We carried on out of Rocester, along the edge of a new primary school. The JCB factory loomed behind, with a huge jet of water in front of it, and a line of yellow diggers over its shoulder.
The B5030 is not a nice road. We had to cross it twice. The traffic was whizzing past and the lines of sight were extremely short, and we felt lucky not to have been squashed flat. After that things improved; we ambled down a sloping sheep field and followed the bank of the Dove to the pleasingly proportioned Ellastone Bridge.
At this point it was 12:45. I had intended to do one more short segment of the Limestone Way and catch the 2:12 bus, but the timing had worked out well to catch the 1:12 instead. So we turned left into Ellastone village. The Duncombe Arms wasn't hard to spot; the bus stop was next to it, and the Swift bus carried us smoothly and swiftly all the way back to Uttoxeter.
13 km / 8 miles
1 July 2024
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