Rudyard to Basford Green

The next section of the walk was from Rudyard Lake to the Railway Station on the Churnet Valley Railway, at Basford Green. This section was walked on Thursday 16th December, 2004. Conrad again helped out with transport. We dropped my car at the station and Conrad then drove myself, Pete and Coddy to the northerly end of the lake. It was there that I realized that I was still wearing my casual shoes and that I would have to carry them in a plastic shopping bag during the walk because I didn't have room in my rucsack. Coddy kindly pointed out that I looked a bit of an idiot on a walk carrying a shopping bag and made room in his sack for them.

We started off at about 11.30am. The first part of the walk is the length of the lake's westerly side. No problems here. We walked through the grounds of a rather fine house with castelated walls, called Cliffe Park and took photos at the dam at the end of the lake. From there the walk continued alongside a stream which I led eventually to the Caldon Canal. We spotted a heron on this part of the walk. At 1pm we stopped at a bench which someone had kindly provided near to the stream and had lunch. In front of us was a road in the process of being built. It will certainly spoil the tranquility of this particular beauty spot. I recall that this was a very muddy section of walk.

I'm writing this from memory and really could do with the guide book of the walk which Pete has, to help me, but we continued on and crossed the stream over a small bridge and walked passed a council yard and then into a field where we thought we had gone too far and returned a couple of hundred yards to try and find the path only to discover that what had thrown us was that all the Staffs. Way signs we had seen so far were yellow on a white background but at this location there was one that was yellow on a black background. Anyway we retraced our steps and passed through a wood and onto (I think) City Road. I remember we had a discussion about its name, unusual in a country area. We turned left for a while and then right along a lane whose name escapes me and over the Leek Arm canal and onto the Caldon Canal. I had traveled along the Caldon and Leek Branch about twelve years ago and remember that the location where the Leek left the Caldon was a lovely place, but unfortunately is not part of the walk. There is a section of railway near to the Caldon at this point and Pete asked a passing lady whether or not it was still in use and she told him. At length. It is no longer in use.

The remainder of the walk is on the canal towpath, passing the Flint Mill at Cheddleton and on to the Churnet Valley Station where we arrived at about 3.30pm. I had walked the stretch from the Flint Mill, which is on the Stone/Leek road before with my wife, Sheila, and my son James. Sheila doesn't recall it but this does not surprise me.

The next section is from the railway station to Alton of Alton Towers fame which we will walk after Christmas.