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The Churnet Way: a wonderful walk

The loop from Oakamoor to Froghall and back was one of the most enjoyable walks I've done in a long time. It had a bit of everything: woods, ponds, rivers and railways; steep climbs and sweeping views; an unusual church, an ex-industrial wharf, and, as a final bonus, car parks with toilets. Of course, the sunny weather helped too.

I parked in Oakamoor and set off along a quiet lane called Stoney Dale. This is the route of the Churnet Way, which deviates away from the river for a couple of miles. After a while I turned right and climbed up through the woods on a gravelly path, then dropped down to the B5417.

a spring in Oakamoor

 

Crossing the road, I entered Hawksmoor Nature Reserve. It has some fine gateposts commemorating John Richard Beech Masefield, "a great naturalist". I found a photo of the opening of the gateway in 1933; unsurprisingly, the trees have grown a lot since then!



A track took me down through the woods to East Wall Farm. Lovely view! Nice duck pond as well.



I was now back alongside the River Churnet. Herds of cattle had evidently been using the footpaths, so some parts were very muddy already. The Staffordshire Way and Churnet Way ran concurrently for a while, then the Staffordshire Way headed uphill, and the Churnet Way crossed the river on the sturdy but slippery Ross Bridge.

the routes diverge


Ross Bridge

The cows had been on this side of the river too. I'm not sure what I would have done if I'd met a group head-on! Fortunately the situation did not arise. I arrived safely at a crossing of the old Churnet Valley railway line, which still warned me to "Beware of Trains" even though there was now a tall metal fence on each side of the crossing. Over the right-hand fence was the Churnet Valley Heritage Railway. An old mineral train stood on the tracks.



A little further on, Kingsley and Froghall station stood neatly deserted in the sunshine. No trains running today. This area was once a hive of manufacturing activity, with a copper works churning out wire, and quarries loading stone onto canal boats and train wagons. Round the corner at Froghall Wharf were old lime kilns and signs explaining the area's industrial past. Now the main attraction is a pretty cafe called Hetty's Tea Rooms. I ate my lunch on a nearby picnic bench.



Froghall Wharf

The next part of the route was a steep uphill on something labelled on the information board as "The Plateway". Further investigation has told me that this was the third attempt (of four) to construct a tramway connecting Caldon Low quarry to Froghill Wharf, where the stone was transferred to boats. I also learned that a plateway has flanges on the rails, whereas a railway has flanges on the wheels.

view from the top

The plateway led me to the village of Whiston, where an unusual church caught my eye. Inside, a typed information board (typed! on an actual typewriter!) told a very interesting story. Apparently the local copper mill had closed at the time when the village was trying to raise funds for a church. Someone had the bright idea of reusing the stone arches from the mill to build the church, and all the locals were drafted in to help move 700 tons of stone from one place to the other. I've never heard of a church being built from a copper mill before, but it obviously worked. It was dedicated as St Mildred's in 1910 - one of only thirteen St Mildred's churches in the world.




 Next I crossed a golf course and some fields. The views really opened up here - beautiful. There was a large lump of rock near the edge of the golf course. I grew up in the lowlands of the Thames valley. I still get surprised that in some places, rocks just stick up out of fields. In fact, as I discovered a little further along, they stick up out of the houses as well. Rock Cottage was built on to a rock as tall as its chimney.


 

From here it was mostly downhill on quiet lanes back to Oakamoor. I passed some horses and goats, and a dog which thought I was the most exciting thing it had seen all day. At Oakamoor I crossed back over the Churnet (the bridge dates to 1710) and returned to the car park. This was once the site of Thomas Patten's copper works, later bought by the Bolton family, but is now a playing field. An overgrown stone hinted at its former use.



 Oakamoor to Froghall 7.6 miles, 12.3 km

16 September 2024


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