Friday 18 September - Staffordshire Way (Pt 3)

I had a vague thought of going out to look at another section of the Staffordshire Way today, but it wasn't until Mick asked me what my plan was, at 0840 this morning, that I finally looked at a map and did some measuring. Mick offered to drive for me, to facilitate a linear route, but I didn't think the benefit I'd get would warrant the number of miles and amount of sitting around that Mick would need to do (mainly because beyond Rugeley the route goes along a canal (and I know what that towpath is like), through the Shugborough Estate (I was there last week) and across Cannock Chase (with which I'm familiar)). So, I drove myself to Abbot's Bromley and set out for an out-and-back. 

Because there are so many long distance routes that criss-cross each other, it can be difficult to follow the exact route of the Staffs Way just from looking at the map, so last week I downloaded someone's recorded gpx file. Whoever recorded it managed to stay true to the Way for almost its entire length, one of the minor exceptions being in crossing the first field S of Abbots Bromley. I decided to see if I could follow the line of the RoW as shown on the map. 

Red = gpx file I'd downloaded. Blue dashes = route as marked on the map. There doesn't seem to be a lack of clarity of the true route of the Way here. Note that it most definitely crosses the stream.

Purple dotted line = outward route; Pink dotted line = return route; solid red = the downloaded gpx file

As you can see, on the outward leg, I crossed the stream. There was no bridge, so having already got a wet foot on a boggy bit, it was no hardship to get them wet again just a few paces later. Finding a stile at the bottom of the field, I thought I was on the right track, until I then saw that I could have just continued along the other side of the stream and crossed a different stile. Both had official Staffs County Council waymarks, and neither is on a RoW as shown on the map. 

Unremarkable fields took me to Blithfield Reservoir, which is a place I recall from numerous previous outings on the Staffordshire Way, albeit many years ago now. However, I almost always used to just walk across the dam (only once being challenged for trespass). There's also a perfectly good track that runs below the dam, but there's not a RoW the whole length of it, so the Way takes an indirect route through yet more unremarkable fields. This is the most frustrating routing that I've yet come across on the Way - the track along the dam is tarmac, and would not be negatively impacted by passing footfall, yet either no-one has tried to obtain a permissive way across it, or it has been refused, denying walkers the view across the huge reservoir. There is no view from the line of the Staffs Way. 

Frustrating routing of the Way at Blithfield
 

The worst field I had to cross today was this one:

The RoW had not been reinstated and the maize is now at full height. Fortunately, enough other people had gone through to give a trod to follow, whilst continuously brushing through the plants. 

I was only about 400m from my turn-around point when I got to this field:

My route went straight across, and as it was relatively freshly ploughed, I decided I didn't need to go across it only to come straight back. 

I opted to take roads from Colton to Stockwell Heath on the way back, thus avoiding the maize field and the next ones with long grass and no trodden line. Rejoining the Way I had some excitement as a whole herd of sizeable bullocks had appeared in a field that had been empty less than an hour earlier, and they were most interested in what I was doing. Some arm waving and stern words (when the gentle explanation of what I was doing didn't placate them) saw me safely through. 

At Blithfield Reservoir, I had every intention of trespassing down the track below the dam (the dam itself being blocked at the NE end by a spikey-topped set of gates), but the farmer was present and using a section of it to corral a herd of cows, so back around the fields I went. 

Back in the final field before I got back to the car - the one where I'd tried so hard to follow the line of the RoW on my outward leg - I stayed on the east side of the stream, but rather than walking straight through the boggy section, I tried to jump from tussock to tussock. Unfortunately, the second tussock wasn't as firm as I'd expected and I lost my left foot deep enough such that the only way I could extract myself involved putting my hands in too. I was most relieved when my shoes came out still attached to my feet, and it was a bonus that there was a stream a few feet away where I could wash the worst of the mud off before I got back to the car (where I had no spare shoes to don). 

I then discovered that there was no exit out of the field on the line of the Staffs Way as marked on the map. 

I've covered 40km on the Way in the last week, of which 20km has had merit. I intend to cover another chunk next week to find out if the merit/no merit split will edge up over 50%. 

 

Other photos: 

The first of three consecutive broken stiles, only just outside of Abbots Bromley (the two women you can see ahead of me in this snap really struggled with the next two). 

The two women in the snap above told me that money has been allocated to upgrade the Staffs Way. I hope this is true, and work may already be underway as I came across quite a few new stiles. 

Not many people use this 'path'. 

They'd not been present on my outward leg and I had to have stern words when they got too close for comfort (that being within 2 metres of me)

A view! Such a shame the route doesn't go over the dam, which would be the saving grace of this 8km section.