Saturday 3 October - Lyme Park

Weather: Wall-to-wall sunshine, with a high of 15

An early start (for a Saturday, on holiday), and a 0750 departure from the campsite to arrive at Lyme Park just a couple of minutes after the gates opened at 0830. Our first activity of the day was a parkrun, which quickly overtook other contenders and put it in my top spot of the most spectacular parkrun I've taken part in to date. The glorious sunshine no doubt helped, but the surroundings were outstanding.

It's up there in the lumpiest three parkrun courses we've done too, with the other two being in Germany. I ran those, but was more than happy to stay with Mick today, and he's still rehabbing his knee with a run-walk programme (it's going well so far - he ran far more of today's course than he has in recent weeks on other, easier courses, so that's promising).

A cup of tea, bun, wash and change in Erica, and it was 1030, so we thought we'd go and look at the gardens before the house opened at 11. That we did, followed by a visit to the ticket office to collect the token that acts as an entrance ticket into the house. We were not just given the token, but asked if we wanted to join the 'behind the scenes' tour that was starting at 1130. We didn't hesitate, happily accepting the last two available tickets. 

It was a good one: as the name suggests, it visits parts of the property not generally open to the public, with the theme of this one being the servants.

That lasted fifty minutes, and was hungry work, so a cup of tea and a pasty in the cafe was next on the agenda, whereafter we found that cake was necessary to further bolster our energy for visiting the house. 

That's where we were headed when I pointed out that the next introductory talk to the property was taking place in the chapel in just over five minutes' time, so we thought we may as well listen to that too. We turned out to be the only takers - a shame as the volunteer who ran through the family's history (the property was in the same family from 1398 to 1946, when it was handed over to the National Trust) was excellent. 

I doubt there were many (or any) other people on the property today who arrived at 0830 and didn't even start looking at the house until 1330! And I'd said on arrival that I thought we'd be back at Bertie early today, as I didn't think Lyme was going to hold our attention for too long.

By 1530 we were flagging and headed back to Erica, but it had been another excellent day out. 

We're off home tomorrow for a bit of a rest before we head up to Scotland later in the week...

(After a few days of permitting photos to go in chronological order, Blogger has decided they're going in reverse today) 

Three months ago, I started an exclusion diet to try to improve the migraine situation. It was very successful, insofar as it almost stopped the migraines (going from up to five per week to one per month), but unsuccessful in not really identifying what was causing them (the answer: some unknown threshold of some combination of things that's going to be impossible to pin down). One of the items that I decided I can live without, and haven't really reintroduced, is cake. This is only the second time I've had cake, and we went sharsies. 

The exterior of Lyme played the part of Pemberley in the 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, and this is the lake in which Mr Darcy famously took a dip (but only in the adaptation, not in the book). I've watched that series more times than I would like to admit. I think I need to watch it again now.

The front of the property. Seems I didn't take a snap of the big courtyard that sits in the middle (as it would, or it wouldn't really be a courtyard). 

 

parkrun snaps:

View over Manchester

The Cage - this building was open to visitors today, but we opted not to walk back up there to see it later. 

I was trying to capture the rolling landscape here, but failed miserably.

Up into the woods

The start is an 800m pull uphill that I was happy to tackle at a fast walk
 

   

Friday 2 October - Little Moreton Hall

Weather: some sunshine, a few showers, high teens. 

I didn't have anything firm on the agenda today and, having no preference myself, I ran through the options with Mick over breakfast, and he chose Little Moreton Hall. We've been there before (twice to look around, once when we walked through on our way from Land's End to John o'Groats and had lunch on the front lawn), but the most recent occasion was 18 years ago.

With a stop for brunch on our way, we arrived just after a scheduled talk had started, and with an hour and a half to wait until the next. So, we had a thorough wander around the property then popped into the little tea room (called The Little Tea Room, because it really is tiny) for tea and scones, then made our way back to the Great Hall for the talk. We'd expected it to be a tour, with information about the property or the family, but it turned out to be a 15-minute static talk entirely about life in Tudor times and some of their traditions. We maybe wouldn't have waited around, had we known, but it's not like we had other pressing engagements or activities that we were missing. 

Fortunately, we paused to browse the book shop before we left, as it was at that point that I realised that neither of us were carrying the backpack, containing our waterproofs and a set of Bertie's keys. It was easily retrieved from exactly where we'd left it some half an hour earlier, in the tea room.

Dating from 1504. The incredible wonkiness was caused by the Long Gallery being shoved on the top, without worrying about supporting it on the load-bearing walls below. Significant steel work was installed in the early 1990s to stabilise the structure.

The levels of wonkiness just don't come across in a photo. 
   

 

Thursday 1 October - Quarry Bank, Styal

Weather: mainly sunny, with just one shower whilst we were out, and a temperature in the mid to high teens.

I don't recall another year when the weather has been so reliably warm that I've worn shorts for months at a time. This year I managed four months (almost) straight, with just one cool day in August when I donned longs. Had we been in England in May, I would have managed nearly 5 months, but May in Scotland was still cold. Today the temperature was marginal, and I decided that, with it now being October, it wouldn't be inappropriate to don something warmer. Mick is still persisting in shorts. 

Aside from our chosen attire, our day didn't get off to the best of starts. The journey to Styal was supposed to be 24 miles with a journey time of 50 minutes, but we twice got thwarted by road closures with no signed diversions (and no advance warning signs at the start of the road), where the only option was to turn around and retrace several miles to the main road, to find another route. The journey ended up taking us nearer an hour and a half with an unknown number of miles covered. We hoped getting back would be easier and that our destination would be worth the trouble. 

It was absolutely worth the trouble! What an excellent and interesting day out at Quarry Bank Mill. It's a National Trust Property, but something of an outlier, as it's not a grand mansion but a 'working' cotton mill. It's no longer in commercial operation, but it still has machinery inside, which is run every now and then throughout the day by way of giving demonstrations to visitors. Aside from the mill building itself, there's the owner's house, the apprentice house and, in the old village of Styal, a worker's cottage (only open on Thursdays and weekends, hence our decision to visit today), plus formal gardens and lots of grounds.  

The Apprentice House and the Worker's Cottage are only accessible via a guided tour and we opted to do the former first (a 45-minute tour), followed by a lunch break of just over an hour, then the latter (half hour tour). We possibly just got lucky with the host for the Apprentice House tour, but he was absolutely excellent - entertaining and thoroughly polished with his delivery. The Worker's Cottage tour was fine, but the first one had set a high bar.  

It was knocking on for 2.45pm by the time we got to the owner's house, so we only had a few minutes to wait before the next entrance window (they give an introductory talk every 15 minutes, following which you're free to walk around the ground floor), and finally we were off to see the headline act: the four occupied floors of the mill. 

Even though the site is open until 5.30pm, it was almost deserted by the time we emerged from the mill at knocking on for 4.30pm. We still hadn't seen the gardens, nor walked around any of the grounds that weren't incidental to getting between the buildings, but knowing that we had a potentially long journey to get back to Bertie, and that we were running into rush hour, we didn't try to cram them into the day.  

I'm happy to say that the return journey went much more smoothly (groans were heard when we came upon yet another 'road closed' sign, but with Erica too big to turn around in the road, I had to continue, leading me to discover that there was no obstruction and we were able to pop out the other side of the closure unimpeded). I then took the risk of taking one of the roads that had been closed this morning, and that paid off too, with it now being open again.    

I excelled myself today, taking one photo and one video. It's going to be too difficult to upload the video (of this machine in operation) just now, so here's the photo, of the 'mule', which spins 560 spool of thread at a time, creating 250 miles of thread in (if I remember correctly) an hour and a half. 
 

Wednesday 30 September - Staffs Way (Part 7)

Weather: after early rain, sunny and warm (22 degrees max)

On 13 September, I covered the far north end of the Staffordshire Way, from Mow Cop to Rudyard. With the Leek C&CC campsite lying just a few miles from Rudyard, I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to go and do another section, and what may well be the final really warm day of the year seemed like a good choice to me. 

The heavy rain that fell as we breakfasted didn't worry us, as all forecasts were in agreement that come 10am it would be sunny, and so it was. That, of course, meant that I wasn't in a rush to get an early start, and it was gone 10.30 by the time I stepped out of the car at Hotel Rudyard, where I'd finished my jaunt a few weeks ago. 

I'm pleased to say that it was another good section. The first 5k were along the engineered canal feeder channel, sheltered by mature trees. The only inconvenient bit along there was where a whole herd of cows were standing on the embankment-top path, causing me to have to detour around them. Some thought about giving chase but after some stern words from me, they thought better of it. Alas, when back on the embankment, the unfortunate effects of many hooves on ground that had so recently received heavy rain were evident and I slip slid my way along. 

The gpx file I've been following contains quite a few little out-and-back spurs, where the person who recorded it went a little awry in their navigation. I've been trying not to blindly follow, but just before Ladderedge Country Park, I kicked myself when I got to a road only for my watch to tell me to make a u-turn. Having not long passed a bridge, I turned to go back to it, only then to look again and realise that the bridge in question is on a number of informal routes within the country park, but it's not a Right of Way. Thus the Staffs Way's official route doesn't use it, but does exactly what the gpx file said: it goes up to the road, across the road culvert and then goes back on itself, along a roadway on the other side of the water. I also learnt as I reached the road that the section I'd just walked along was closed due to a hole having opened up in the path. I saw no hole, nor any closure sign when coming from the other direction.

Within the Country Park, the gpx track took a couple of wanders off the line of the Staffs Way as marked on the map, and the reason became apparent when I got there: the mapped route heads straight through brambly undergrowth. I opted to follow one of the paths, then out of curiosity I circled around to double check I hadn't missed something. I concluded that there are two feasible routes, both of approximately equal length, but the one that goes up the outside edge of the woods not only takes you to an excellent viewpoint, it also avoids a descent to reascend.

The 'joining bit' of path, between the Country Park and the canal was on higher ground, giving good views, then, after dropping down, it was fast going along the tow-path. 

Mick, meanwhile, had driven from Rudyard to Kingsley and Froghall Station, on a heritage steam train line, where he'd enjoyed a cup of coffee and had an 'overly soft, overly sweet' brownie in the station cafe, before he abandoned Erica in neighbouring Kingsley and headed out to meet me. We found each other just S of Consall Station, along the canal. 

It wasn't all swift tow-path walking from there, as the route planners had decided that rather than continuing along the waterway to Froghall, it should climb steeply up out of the valley on some steps that could do with some minor upkeep before they get to the point that they need full-blown maintenance. 

The final field before Kingsley Church had caused Mick a minor navigational issue on his outbound leg, and it did exactly the same to both of us on the way back. There are various RoW that cross it, and after a little wandering we found the right one. It didn't help that there was an erroneous Staffs Way marker on a gate where the Staffs Way doesn't go. 

Reaching Erica, a late lunch was had, before we tootled the 10 miles back to the campsite. 

Leaving Rudyard dam along the waterway that is labelled on the map initially as 'aqueduct' then as 'canal feeder'. Either way, it was a peaceful and pleasant route.

It came out of the trees at times to go through fields. The cows forming a blockade on the path were in the  next field from this one. 

It's lumpy enough in these parts to make the views much more interesting than in the middle section of the Way. 

Urgh! Heavy morning rain + cows = churned up mud.

View from the the Country Park. 
 

My best view of the steam train (or at least it's trail). I had been alongside the track, but not when a train passed.

Mick's best view of the steam train. He was luckier with his position/timing.

Mick's coffee & cake location, whilst I was making my way towards him. 

  

Tuesday 29 - Leek & Biddulph

Where are Bertie & Erica? They are sitting on adjacent pitches at Leek Camping & Caravanning Club site where our five-night stay has come in at £132 and some pence, for hardstanding with electricity. 

Weather: not as good as forecast with a persistently overcast sky keeping the temperature down until late afternoon when it finally got into the 20s. 

We are on holiday! Some might consider that our entire lives are one long holiday, but I make the distinction that usually we just travel around and use Bertie as our mobile house, living pretty normal lives and not trying to pack everything in as one might on holiday. This week we have come away with both Bertie and Erica, with Bertie providing fixed accommodation whilst Erica facilitates day trips. 

The day tripping started yesterday, even though we didn't leave home until late morning and didn't arrive at the campsite until gone 1pm (that being the earliest permitted arrival time). We didn't tarry; as soon as Bertie had been settled onto a pitch and plugged into the mains, we jumped into Erica and headed the 11 miles over to Biddulph Grange Gardens. That is the very National Trust property that Mick visited without me the week before last, whilst I was out on the Staffs Way, but he'd mainly been in their cafe with just a quick look around the nearest section of the gardens. 

This time, we did the place more justice, and discovered that there was more there than just a simple garden, with the hall's original drawing room being accessible, an information display in an underbuilding (an open cellar, is how I'd describe it, if that's a thing?), a geological gallery with a fossil display (which used to be the public entrance to the gardens, back in 1850 when it first opened) and a Chinese pagoda, together with a couple of other small follies. 

I wouldn't have classed myself as an appreciator of gardens, but I was taken with this one and it was well worth the visit.  

Look at those hedges! Mick talked to one of the hedge-tending gardeners, who said that they get them that straight by eye and by long experience, not by using level-sticks or lasers. 

The quantity of trees masks what is hidden between them. Unfortunately, I failed to take any photos of those things (or maybe that's a good thing, that I was so taken with looking at the surroundings that I didn't even think to take a snap)

A very poor shot of the dahlia walk. 

The Pinetum. We later walked the Lime Avenue. 

The hall itself is privately owned. Mick tells me that there are currently two apartments therein for sale, one at £700k, the other at £1.1m. 
 

Friday 25 September - Kinver

Weather: One short, light shower. Decidedly cool compared to recent norms (but still pretty decent for the time of year). 

The reason for staying in Wolverley for two nights was that I wanted to visit the cave houses at Kinver, and they're only open Friday to Sunday. I've been told that I've been there before, but as a child, when they were still openly accessible (they're now a National Trust Property, with a couple having been restored) but I have no memory of it. 

Arriving at the same parking area where Mick picked me up on Wednesday, we didn't immediately rush to the National Trust entrance, but first walked up onto Kinver Edge, then along to where the Staffordshire/Worcestershire boundary runs across it, which I believe is the start/end point of the Staffordshire Way. 

The only indication that this is true is subtle: there's a waymarker post that only has a Staffs Way marker on one side of it, not needing one the other side as the Way doesn't continue in that direction. As start/end of routes go, it's not a reliable way of marking it, given how many other places along the route have equally haphazard waymarking, for entirely different reasons.  

I'd intended for us to do a circuit, but didn't remember that until we'd already walked half way back along the ridge. So, we continued as we were, then on past where we'd gained the edge, over the hill fort and down to the cave houses, where we walked three sides of its boundary to find the entrance. 

There's not an awful lot at the property, but I'd not expected much, so I wasn't disappointed. As is our norm, we started out in the cafe (arriving at the tail end of an organised group, giving us quite a wait to be served), before visiting the three cave houses, two of which are restored and the other is just a large open room. All interesting enough. 

And then we went home, getting ahead of Friday afternoon traffic, but it has to be said that it's a rather slow, fiddly route from Kinver, having to negotiate whole chunks of built-up areas. 

 

A good view from the edge when we first got up there, but as the rain came in, it got severely curtailed 

Start of the Staffordshire Way (because there's a waymarker)

End of the Staffs Way (because there's no waymarker). There's no county boundary markers either.
 

 

Cave houses. The last inhabitants moved out in the 1960s. 

Thursday 24 September - Wolverley

Where was Bertie? He was still at Wolverley C&CC Site 

Weather: After a cool night (5 degrees said the forecast and we wished we'd put a blanket on the bed), a fine day with a high of 19 degrees. 

Our intention to walk the 3.5k along the canal into Kidderminster for a look around and a cafe visit got modified when I picked three locations at random in the town on Google StreetView. My random picks may have been bad, but it didn't look an inviting destination, so instead we headed the other way to the village of Cookley. 

The walk was pleasant enough, with a few narrow boats on the move and with the route being pleasantly tree lined, with one section of the waterway having been hewn through the sandstone. As for the cafe: if I was to be charitable I would say that it was an interesting and memorable experience ... but the words 'Acorn Antiques' also sprang to mind - quite appropriately too as it was located in an antiques/tat shop. 

The real low-light was that my cup and saucer were filthy, and it wasn't tea-staining, but some sort of dregs of food all over them. In fact, I wondered if the saucer had been used to feed the owner's dog (which sat quietly on a chair most of the time we were there) and not washed. Did I complain and ask for a clean set? No, because apparently I'm going soft in my older age, and the two ladies running the place were trying so hard to be friendly that I worked on the basis that the hot water makes a cup of tea self-sterilising (which is the basis on which I have never washed my own mug during a multi-week backpack), and here I am a week later, still alive. 

Back at Bertie, most of the rest of the day was spent watching the cricket (ODI against Sri Lanka, with a disappointing result), with an interlude when we nipped to the pub next door for tea. The pub was far less entertaining than the cafe, which was a good thing!