M&G's Blog: October 2026

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.