9 September 2010 - Abbots Bromley to Penkridge
Distance - 16.9 miles
Weather - Sunny
We stayed at - Marsh Farm, Uttoxeter Road, Abbotts Bromley, Staffordshire, WS15 3EJ Cost - £60.00

Although Penkridge does have the busy A449 on the west side of the town, the rest of it is lovely, with a good few independent shops. After buying some provisions for our journey, we started off the day with a walk along the Staffordshire & Worcestershire canal. As I've mentioned before, I love the reflections of the trees in the water, the earthy smell of the canal and the architecture of the bridges. Canals were the motorways of the 18th century, but they didn't use horrid slabs of concrete to build them. The bridges, lock keeper's cottages and aqueducts were designed to be both functional and beautiful. They always bring a sense of calm and peace to me.
The walk along the tow path ended far too soon though, and we were soon following the Staffordshire Way across huge ploughed fields. It was quite a relief to reach the pretty lanes that led us to Bednall with its attractive All Saints church. A while later, we were crossing the A34 to enter Cannock Chase.

We entered Cannock Chase through pine woods, but this soon petered out and we found ourselves walking through heathland. I was quite pleased at this, due to an irrational fear of big pine forests, probably because when I was young I heard news reports of a child being murdered at Thetford Chase and the association has persisted. The map showed our route passing by an intriguingly named place called "boulder" and when we got there, that's just what we saw!

After descending into Oldacre Valley our path climbed up again and crossed over to the Sherbrook Valley, which we followed north until we reached Stepping Stones, where we left the Staffordshire Way. If we had stayed on the Staffordshire Way we would have passed by the Essex Bridge and Shugborough Hall, but this alternative route saved some miles. We eventually left Cannock Chase by the Seven Springs car park, then crossed the A513 and a railway line, to reach the Trent & Mersey Canal at bridge 72. We left the canal for a bit, just after Colwich, as we had spotted a pub at an ideal time for lunch. Some folk in a couple of narrow boats had the same idea and we shared a bit of banter with them. After lunch, we rejoined the canal and the Staffordshire Way, following the latter to Colton & Stockwell Heath.
As we approached Blithfield Reservoir, it started to get quite difficult to find our route, there were fewer and fewer Staffordshire Way signs and we ended up having to clamber over a few barbed wire hedges. The Staffordshire Way, as marked on the GPS, didn't seem to exist at some points and we had to improvise our passage into Abbots Bromley. One thing I need to mention though, is the numbers of herons we saw at Blithfield Reservoir - there were dozens! The place must be absolutely teeming with fish to attract so many in the one spot.

One of the things Abbots Bromley is famous for is the Horn Dance, which is enacted each September - and which we had missed by a couple of days! It involves six local men wearing ancient antler headdresses, dancing round the village and drinking beer - hellish job, but I suppose someone has to do it. So after partaking of some refreshment ourselves, we wandered over to the church to see the antlers, where they are kept when not in use. The church was locked, but a nice lady, who was weeding the churchyard, opened the church up for us. It was difficult to get pictures of the horns, especially as we did it quite quickly as we weren't sure we should be using a camera in the church. When we emerged and let her know we had finished, she asked whether we would like to look around the Catholic church too - we politely declined.
It had been difficult finding accommodation at Abbots Bromley and so we had rather a long trek ahead of us, out of Abbots Bromley, up to Marsh Farm. The room was lovely though and we enjoyed our visit.
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