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Day 37: 10 February 2007 |
Great Haywood to Wandon |
Map Next Top |
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Leaving the car at High Meadows, I squelched through wet snow back down the hill through the village to Essex Bridge. Although it had stopped snowing overnight and the temperature had risen a bit, there was no shortage of the slippery and damp stuff underfoot.
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Being a Saturday morning there were plenty of people around: Shugborough Park is understandably a favourite place for joggers (even in snowy conditions) and dog walkers.
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Although the house itself (the residence of photographer Lord Lichfield) requires a diversion from the E2, the estate is set up as a working Historic Estate and looks well worth a visit. But today I had the route ahead on my mind, particularly the difficult conditions.
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I really needed to get some miles under my belt quickly so that I'd reach Lichfield before dark. The park was a good start, but I was slowed when reaching the A51: there was no pavement and I couldn't use the very busy road, so was obliged to hop from snowdrift to slush heap at the side. Not nice. This short road section was soon over, and I headed into the woods at the northern end of Cannock Chase.
Straight away I was slowed by a steep bank: covered in snow it was a trying climb and route-finding was tricky with endless possibilities in the deepening snow.
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By ten o'clock I reached the end of the Staffordshire Way (or at least, the E2 section of it), and after a little confusion I was established on the Heart Of England Way. Perhaps in more amenable conditions I would have taken the small diversion to Milford in order to take in the official starting point, but today I was happy enough just to be heading south on a new Long Distance Path. I'm not sure how many LDP's I've encountered along the E2: I'll have to count them!
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Cannock Chase is quite hilly, with lots of woodland and looked very attractive under the white blanket.
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But it was difficult to enjoy the scenery, as I had to watch my feet all the time in the soft, wet snow. Each step involved a slide backwards, even on the flat sections, and I couldn't get much of a pace going at all.
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If the air had been a few degrees lower it would have been fine, but this was very heavy going.
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The Chase is 26 square miles of woodland and heathland on gravel and sand, which has never been farmed. Until 1550 it was dense oak forest, but this was cleared for charcoal. The first section of the Way follows the trackbed of the old "Tackeroo Railway", built in 1915 to supply Army training camps on the heath.
The air was foggy up here and the snow thicker. I missed the ice age granite boulder even though I must have walked within a hundred yards of it. But after reaching the road near Anson's Bank, I did manage to get a look at the Katyn Memorial, which commemorates 14,000 Poles murdered by the Russians in the Katyn Forest in 1940.
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I can't say I was enjoying the walking very much at this point: the going was tiresome and the miles dragged. As I closed in on the road to Rugeley, I realised that I could cut it short and escape down to civilisation without causing much inconvenience.
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At the entrance to Marquis's drive I was tempted to turn east and opt out for the day. On consulting the map, I reluctantly turned back to the HoEW as it was just too early to chicken out, being only 12.15. I decided to keep going until Wandon, which would leave me with only a short road section to Rugeley centre and a short distance to Lichfield on my next visit.
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Marquis's drive was easy and pleasant enough, being downhill and with tyre tracks to follow. After crossing the A460 the going became difficult again and even though the scenery was good, I was not tempted to continue once I reached Wandon at 1.15.
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I took the road into Brereton on the south side of Rugeley after completing 10 miles of the walk to Lichfield. On reaching the main A51, I was pleased to find that I was lucky and a bus was due in a couple of minutes. This took me to Colwich (pronounced Col-witch) and left only a walk of a mile (on good surfaces!) back to Great Haywood.
The day was not quite a roaring success, but I'd managed another 10 miles and I hoped for better conditions next time. Possibly, the short walk into Lichfield could fit in with a morning drive to the area followed by a stay in the historic city.
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Day 38: 5 May 2007 |
Wandon to Weeford |
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Day 39: 6 May 2007 |
Weeford to Shustoke |
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Day 40: 7 May 2007/ 7 September 2007 |
Shustoke to Preston Bagot |
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Day 41: 8 May 2007 |
Preston Bagot to Alcester |
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Day 42: 9 May 2007 |
Alcester to Chipping Campden |
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Day 43: 7 September 2007 |
Chipping Campden to Bourton-on-the-Hill |
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Day 44: 8 September 2007 |
Bourton-on-the-Hill to Bourton-on-the-Water |
Map Next Top |
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