B2B Day 72 Canal Walking to Colton

For an OS map of today's walk (9.02 miles; 14.52 km; 183 ft of total ascent), click here.

We had another lovely breakfast and chat with Elaine. We stayed longer at the breakfast table than we might have done, just enjoying the music and her conversation. We didn't want to leave.

We set off at 10:55 a.m. After a bit of road walking, we got onto the canal path. This was a lovely graveled path at first, and we saw lots of yellow irises and wildflowers along the water. Before we had walked an hour the predicted heavy rain set in, and we put on pack covers and raincoats. I still enjoyed seeing the rain create bubbles on the surface of the canal, and the ducks and Canada geese, but it was admittedly not as pleasant as walking in the sunshine of two days ago. We did not take many photos, which was especially disappointing for Ken as he loves canal walks and had hoped to stop a few places for pictures as well as some canal-side snacks in the sun. The best laid plans on walking trips are often disrupted by poor weather!

We had enjoyed walking on the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal, and now it came to an end—literally at a T junction, merging right into the Trent & Mersey canal, the third canal we would walk alongside on this trip and in the age of canals an important England-wide cargo connection between the Mersey River on the west coast and the River Trent, which runs to the east coast. This is known as Haywood Junction, and there were canal boat hire companies, moorings, a marina, and the Canalside Cafe close by. On a sunny day it would have been a lot of fun. So it was disappointing that the rain was pelting down, the pack covers were on, and we didn't get a picture. For the same reason we decided not to go to the nearby Canalside Farm Shop's cafe for tea or cake—a place which Ken had spotted online and which Elaine had highly recommended as well.

As we came near a bridge over the canal, we saw a man and a woman carrying a large basket of colourful flowers over the bridge, having a bit of work to get the flowers down the steps coming off of the bridge. We caught up with them as they were getting onto a beautiful narrow boat that had many lovely flower planters on its roof. The man said to us wryly, "You can see that we had just about run out of flowers, so we had to buy some more!" We complimented them on how beautiful their boat was.

Soon after, we went into Great Haywood to post our package, Elaine having given us a padded envelope to use. The woman who served us at the post office was very kind and answered all of our questions about the forms. She helped us to figure out how we could track our package. We bought some oaten cookies to replenish our "emergency" stock, and Ken was happy to carry them, having lightened his pack of several maps and guidebooks. 

Coming back to the canal, we did take a look at Essex Bridge, a very long, sixteenth century packhorse bridge connecting the village with the Shugborough Estate. It crosses the River Trent in 14 arches, and it originally had 40! (Presumably the bridge was once much longer to cross formerly boggy ground.) Since it was too rainy to take a picture, here's a link to one.

We planned to stop at the Red Lion at Little Haywood for a lunch of pub snacks. When we got there, we realized that Ken must have misread the hours on the website because the pub was closed. It wasn't a long detour, but a bit frustrating not to find shelter and rest from the rain. Fortunately, there was another option not too far away. We got back onto the canal path and walked a mile and a quarter to the Wolseley Arms near Rugeley. 

We got a nice table near a fireplace with no fire in it, which was a pity, since Ken was absolutely soaked through to the skin. We hadn't waterproofed his coat before we left; my new coat repelled the water, but his didn't. Our pack covers were quite wet, and we tried to hang things discretely near our table so that they could dry out. We had a late lunch at last. Ken ordered a chicken/bacon/avocado salad. He joked that in one meal he had doubled the amount of vegetables he had eaten the whole trip. He had two pints of lemonade as well. Afterwards he thought it would have been more strategic to have a hot meal and hot drink since he was quite chilled. We were too shy to ask if the pub staff could light the fire. I had a small macaroni and cheese, onion rings, and tea, which was just right (though it sounds an odd combination now that I've written it down). 

We left at 2:37 p.m. and it had basically stopped raining for the day; it was blustery but there were lots of patches of blue. Though it was cool, the wind and our walking warmed us—particularly Ken—back up. We enjoyed our final stretch of walking along a canal during this trip. Across the canal in a field there were two adult Canada geese with (it looked like) about thirty goslings. Later on the water, we passed two adult geese with fifteen goslings.

Farewell to walking on canal paths

The canal behind us, we were briefly on a path in some woods, and then road-walked the couple of miles into Colton. We arrived at the pub where we were staying, Ye Olde Dun Cow, at 4:15 p.m., and there was a note saying to ring the owners between 3:00-6:00 p.m. A kind woman and her adult son who had driven over to get something from the pub's small shop (which was closed) helped ring the owners; Kristian soon arrived having picked up one of his children from school, and we were inside before we knew it.

When we unpacked in our spacious room, I discovered that I had left my written journal at last night's B&B, but Elaine is going to send it on to the Hut in Eyam. I'll have to journal mainly by writing this blog. 

Our lovely room at Ye Olde Dun Cow (the seals loved the bunnies!)

The ensuite bathroom has a wonderful deep tub that helped remove some of our aches and pains. 

The tub!

We went down to dinner at 6:30 p.m. I ordered fish and chips, and Ken ordered Chicken Kiev. Both were huge portions, and both were amazing. It was the best fish and chips I've had, I think, and Ken's Chicken Kiev was also outstanding. We certainly had no room for dessert. It was good to snuggle into bed after a good day's walking in the rain.

B2B Day 71: A Rest Day at Shugborough

Today Ken scheduled a rest day for us so we could see Shugborough Hall, an eighteenth-century Greek revival mansion.

Can you spot the otter-seals relaxing?

It was wonderful to be staying at a traditional, full service B&B.

Our host Elaine served us a marvelous cooked breakfast, and we particularly enjoyed the fruit salad (with many different kinds of finely diced fruit) as a starter. We also enjoyed listening to the music from the 1970s and 80s, and our brief chats with Elaine.

I was feeling a bit under the weather, and I couldn't tell if it was leftover allergies to cat hair, or a mild cold. 

One of the huge trees in Cannock Chase

We had been purchasing guide books to all of the properties we had visited, and Ken was carrying them all plus a book he had brought with him on walking in the Shropshire Hills. We decided to pack everything up that we wanted to post home and carry it with us to Shugborough Hall, afterwards continuing to the post office at Great Haywood to post them. Ken remembered after we had started walking that the post office closed at 2:00 p.m., and given that we had started out at 11:30 a.m., we knew that we were not going to the post office today.

The two mile plus walk to Shugborough was a bit ambiguous when it came to the pathways through the trees of Cannock Chase, but as usual Ken navigated us perfectly to the gateway at the beginning of the long drive (and it was a long drive) to the Hall. We learned from some National Trust volunteers that we needed to check in at the car park first—more walking! 

Exterior of Shugborough Hall

 

Because it was lunchtime, we went immediately to the garden cafe. I had tea and a curried cauliflower pasty, and Ken had a Cornish pasty and Pepsi. Refreshed, we began our tour of the house. Only the ground-floor rooms were open, but they were the ones we were most interested in (the other rooms belonged to Patrick, Lord Lichfield, a fashion photographer from the late twentieth-century).

We learned the story of the Anson brothers, Thomas and George. Thomas developed the estate, and George was a famous naval figure who obtained a huge amount of money from capturing a Spanish galleon—the money went into the estate. 

We enjoyed all of the rooms, especially the library. There was a book door and a mirror door (and another book door that a volunteer pointed out to us). If all the doors were closed, you would be surrounded by walls of books with no apparent doors. For a country house, it was the cosiest library we had ever seen. We could just picture ourselves in chairs, reading in front of the fire.  

The library, with two chairs in front of the fire

I was feeling pretty tired after our tour, so we went to the cafe again to share some carrot cake and to have some tea. Because I didn't feel like going out for dinner, we bought one cheese scone and two fruit scones to take "home" for dinner. 

We walked home the same way along the long drive, and then by a slightly different, more direct path through the woods. We had a nice quiet evening resting and watching TV. Ken watched a bit of an international friendly football match between England and Bosnia. England won 3-0 after a scoreless first half. It was a good rest day for us both.

 

 

B2B Day 70 Penkridge to Milford

For an OS map of today's walk (8.30 miles; 13.36 km; 647 ft total ascent), click here.

[This post will be a bit sketchy since my notes were in the journal I left at a B&B].

Today's walk was absolutely beautiful, on the clearest, sunniest day we've had so far. We encountered many different types of path and landscape, which made it an excellent walk.

After grabbing a lunch from a Co-op and walking across Penkridge, we fairly quickly got onto a canal path that had beautiful homes on either side. This was our second canal of the walk: the Staffordshire and Worcester Canal. We found a bench that seemed to be open for people to sit on, so we did. 

On the Staffordshire & Worcester Canal in Penkridge

One of the canal boats had three spaniels on it, which were very cute! 

Our canal walk took us under a motorway, the British equivalent to an interstate freeway in the U.S. I said that the tunnel definitely looked modern compared to the ones we usually walk through. 

The Staffordshire way left the canal just when we arrived at Georgie's Canal Cruises, a company that hires boats but also does special two hour dining cruises. We asked if they sold drinks or snacks on shore, and they didn't really, but a kind woman asked her boss, and she got Ken a Coke from off the canal boat. I was able to use the onshore bathrooms, for which I was thankful. We sat and watched the canal boat fill with people and then set off down the canal on their lunchtime cruise, which was fun.

With a bit of trepidation, we set off across fieldpaths on the Staffordshire Way again. The first field was ploughed, but walkable. 

The second field was planted with some kind of grass or grain, and we aimed for an old oak. 

An ancient oak

Ken had read that there were some thousand-year-old oaks on the walk, and this looked like it might have been one of them. We got to the oak, sat down in the sun, and just enjoyed being outside. We could hear the skylarks singing, and it was incredibly peaceful. 

We continued on the Staffordshire Way through another field, and then road-walked to Bednall.

Ken's favourite type of field path

The church had a fun cart of things for sale outside. The village itself had won the best-kept village award in the past, and was competing again. We heard three separate lawn mowers going, and the gardens, houses, and public areas were immaculately kept. 

Bednall Church

After Bednall, we ascended higher and higher on a sun-dappled path between an avenue of trees and beyond that, a belt of woods.

Up the avenue toward Cannock Chase

Our walk eventually led us to Cannock Chase, a large Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty which featured both woods and heathland. 

 

 

It was truly beautiful. It was such a bright, sunny day, because of which we saw lots of people and families out for a fun walk or bike ride. I even tested out the stepping stones over the Sher Brook!

We arrived to a warm welcome at The Coach House B&B in Milford. Our kind host Elaine served us tea and cake on arrival and we had a really nice chat. After a short spell in the garden, we settled in to our beautiful room for a restful night.

 

B2B Day 69 Boscobel to Penkridge

For an OS map of today's walk (10.83 miles; 17.43 km; 216 ft total ascent), click here.

Last night I had a hard time getting to sleep because my throat swelled up and felt sore. I could see that there were some cat hairs on my shirt from the bedding, and I am allergic to cats. I took one of Ken's antihistamines that we brought for his hay fever, and I managed to fall asleep. 

Today we would say goodbye to Shropshire on leaving the Boscobel area and hello to Staffordshire as we headed generally northeast to our destination, Penkridge. In some ways it was a fairly "workaday walk" but Ken was looking forward to some canal walking since we had so enjoyed the Kennet & Avon canal in 2019. We left the Airbnb fairly early and walked to the Oakley Arms (where we had dinner last night) for breakfast because it was on our way. We had a good breakfast, and it was a much more positive experience for me because I could actually eat and enjoy it!

From there we walked a couple miles into Brewood, where we went to a Spar and got a sandwich, crisps, and a drink for our lunch. We sat on a bench in the village and Ken drank the Coke. I used the public facilities, which were clean and attractive—not what is typically found.

We then hiked a few miles on our first of three canals of this trip: a stretch of the Shropshire Union canal. We particularly enjoyed the early part near Brewood, where there were lots of boats moored or moving on the canal as well as lots of people out for their daily walk along the towpath.

On the Shropshire Union canal

We talked with a man named Graham who lived in Brewood (which he pronounced "Brood") in a 1740 timbered house. He walked that part of the canal every day, and told us about this section being built by Thomas Telford along a straight line, which was his innovative method of canal building. Rather than curve around the contours of the landscape like his canal engineering predecessor James Brindley, Telford ran his canals on a straight line—both in terms of direction and elevation—sending the canal along causeways or through cuttings along the most direct route possible.

We came off the canal path and walked to Lapley, hoping to visit the church. The church was locked, but we sat on a nice bench outside and ate our lunch and the last of the wine gums and a few of the "fruit pips" we bought from Blists Hill Victorian Town. Lapley was a nice village with a good community feel, with people chatting on the village green as we passed by.

Because of the recent rain, low-use of some of the paths, and a slightly more direct route, we decided to walk quiet country lanes to Penkridge for the rest of the day. It was peaceful and pretty, though the road walking did wear on the feet. Just when we were getting tired after our long tramp on tarmac, we were pleasantly surprised to find the Swan at Whiston, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, not only operating but open. We had thought it might have been one of the pubs that was on our old OS map, but had closed as so many have over the last fifteen years. But here it was at 2:30 in the afternoon doing a booming trade. 

The Swan Inn: solace for sore feet

We went to the "bar" side because we just wanted to order some lemonade. The man ahead of me in the queue took forever to order. He must have been ordering for a whole table of people: five different drinks all needing to be individually concocted, a bottle of wine, food from the kitchen . . . but finally I was able to order a pint and a half-pint of lemonade for Ken and I to relax. 

After that rest, our destination was only about two miles away at the Littleton Arms in Penkridge, a large, bustling village. We entered Penkridge, turned right and saw the hotel. But as tired as we were, when Ken saw lawn bowling at a club almost "next door" to our hotel, he had to stop and watch a bit. It was fun and brought back Ken's good memories of trying out lawn bowling once in Vancouver in the mid-1990s.

Our room at the Littleton Arms

We had dinner at the Littleton Arms, and it was very good. Ken had an outstanding chicken burger with excellent chips. After some initial confusion as to what room we were to receive, the one we got was good, though we needed to wait for the live music to end (it was a Saturday night) before we could fall asleep.

 

B2B Day 68 Albrighton to Boscobel: Of Roses and Royal Oaks

For an OS map of today's walk (4.88 miles; 7.85 km; 322 ft total ascent), click here. (Note that we had an additional 2.5 mile walk back to our Airbnb from the Oakley Arms pub.)

[Because I left my journal with all my notes at a B&B, this will be a rather sketchy blog post that will be filled in later.]

A beautiful breakfast...

This morning began with breakfast at David Austin Roses, which was just across the street. Ken ordered a breakfast sandwich, and I ordered French toast with fruit compote and clotted cream. It was the best French toast I have ever had. Ever. It was light, not too sweet, and the fruit was fresh and juicy. Everything was served on a china pattern of (what else?) David Austin roses. The overall experience was just lovely.

...in a beautiful place

We enjoyed wandering around the rose gardens before heading out on the walk, a fairly simple five mile journey, mainly on quiet roads, to Boscobel House, a site famous in the English Civil War.

We did decide to take in the ruins of White Ladies Priory, an Augustinian nunnery, on the way to Boscobel House.

We met some walkers who kindly directed us to a path to Boscobel House. They and we admired some tall poppies in a field that looked like something from a garden rather than something growing wild in a field.

Boscobel House is where King Charles II stayed in hiding when he was fleeing after defeat at the Battle of Worcester. 

Boscobel House from the west

 

He famously hid in an oak tree (the Royal Oak) to avoid capture. The original oak in which he hid was long gone, but the oak that one takes pictures of was apparently a sapling when Charles was there.

The (decendent of the) Royal Oak

 

It was a cold day. Our photos make it ambiguous as to which one of us is having the luxury hot chocolate in the cafe.

 

Here are some photos of the interior of Boscobel, to give an idea.

 

Our Airbnb was very well located just a half mile north of Boscobel House. We arrived in good time, and our host Nick kindly drove us to the pub, the Oakley Arms. When I arrived, my stomach felt quite "off" and I couldn't even eat the salad I ordered. I wondered if the chocolate/caramel "tiffin" I had eaten in the late afternoon was too rich and wasn't sitting well. It was too bad, because it was a lovely restaurant. The walk back to our Airbnb did help me feel a little better, and we quickly went to bed as it was late.

 

B2B Day 67 Ironbridge to Albrighton: Heading East

 For an OS map of today's walk (8.87 miles; 14.27 km; 493 feet total ascent), click here.

[I left my journal with all my notes at a B&B so I'm writing this with Ken's help without the benefit of my notes to keep the blog rolling after being stuck for several days.]

Breakfast at the Woodbridge

For today's walk we left Ironbridge Gorge and headed broadly eastwards, ending just outside the village of Albrighton in east Shropshire—across from the garden shop of the world famous rose breeder David Austin (more on that tomorrow).

We loved our dinner at the Woodbridge Inn the night before and, since our Airbnb did not offer breakfast, we had breakfast there, which was right on our route out of the gorge. We got there just a few minutes after they opened, arriving at 9:15 a.m. Ken had Eggs Benedict and I had toast and jam.

We love getting local information, and a prime example of how helpful it can be came when we had walked the road up and out of the gorge and came to a gate just beyond which was a stile for the Monarch's Way, a path we have followed from time to time and were intending to follow to Sutton Maddock. We were going to follow it again, but just then a woman walking her dog came through the gate and told us that the Monarch's Way was a muddy mess because the farmer had just plowed his field, which the path was supposed to cross: we'd be shin-deep in mud. Instead, she gave us good instructions to follow the path she had emerged from through the forest edge to the next field, which offered a nice way into the village. We were so grateful, especially when later in the day we saw some walkers who had taken the Monarch's Way with very muddy lower pant legs.

"Road work": note the pack cover on a rainy morning

It was rainy at times but mostly in the morning. Given the wet and muddy fields, we were actually happy that much of our walk today was on quiet minor roads and tracks, even though road walking is much harder on the feet. However, sometimes even flat roads can become the scene of mishaps.

At least there were no nettles!

Walking on the minor road to Beckbury, Ken suddenly turned an ankle, fell, and abraded his knee pretty badly, with multiple cuts that took a while to stop bleeding. Fortunately, his ankle felt fine and he was able to continue walking after a few minutes spent staunching the wound...with napkins! [I loved the phrase "staunching the wound" and insisted it be inserted—Ken]

Later we reached Beckbury, a delightful small village. We had a fun lunch at the Smokey Cow, which specialized in BBQ and other North American-ish delights (we had nachos with pulled pork).

 

After we came out of Beckbury village shop, alongside the road I spotted some baby quail (?). I'm not certain of the type of bird, but there was a mother and ten chicks.

The mother (extreme top right) and a few of her chicks

Now on the home stretch for Albrighton, we left Beckbury through a tunnel of hedgerow plants, and then suddenly broke out from the cosy village into another world—of wide-open fields and big skies. This was a field of carrots.

After an hour or so of walking we arrived at our Airbnb, greeted by our host who showed us their lovely loft suite above a garage. We ate the dinner we had purchased at Beckbury shop earlier that day (truth be told, it was a pot of noodles!) because we didn't want to make half hour walk into Albrighton to get a full dinner after all the road walking we had already done. 

The lovely loft

Our hosts Ian and Lesley were wonderful. They offered to do our laundry—always a huge deal when you have only 3-4 sets of clothing in a pack! And they even welcomed us into their home after dinner for drinks and chat. (Ian is into "challenge walking" and is training for the "National Three Peaks" challenge: to climb the highest mountains in England, Scotland, and Wales—all within 24 hours!). We had a delightful time visiting with them, and it was a great finish to a fun (well, except for Ken's knee) day.