Thursday's Walk

Thursday's walk was a leisurely stroll around Westport Lake and later down the canal path we went to Middleport Pottery for lunch, it was a sunny but chilly day with a cool breeze so a thick pea and mint soup was consumed and enjoyed before we headed home.

The grass was white with daisies.

There were lots of lovely reflections in the small pools at the side of the lake.

Greylag goose

 

Swan and cygnets

Female Mallard with ducklings.

 

A brave Greylag hoping we had food

Canalside at the pottery.

Bottle Oven, Bottle Kiln or Pot Bank as they are called locally.

Pottery Entrance

Spotted - does this need a funny caption? My brain has been devoid of words the last few days.

 Sorry, that's three posts in one day but it seemed better to split up each walk to keep the posts  short or shorter.

Rudyard

 A short walk from the car park at the Leek and Rudyard Railway, following the railway line, gets you to Rudyard Lake.

From the first train stop, called The Dam, you can walk onwards at the side of the lake or turn left onto the bridge and down by the lake on the opposite side where there are visitor facilities.

We walked along by the railway.  Just us and a few dog walkers.  Well I say a few but each of the walkers seemed to have several dogs.

 It was quiet, sunny and for once quite warm.  There were several birds calling. 

We heard Chiff Chaff, Robins, Wrens, GreatTits and also a Nuthatch.

We spotted a Heron and also a swallow, swooping over the water.

We stopped for a while on the other side of the lake and sat outside with a coffee and shared a piece of banana bread.

 

 The lake was built by the Trent and Mersey Canal Company. under the guidance ofJohn Rennie, to supply water to the Caldon branch of the Trent and Mersey Canal.  It was begun in 1797 and completed in 1800.  It still supplies water to the canal system it was designed for. It is now owned by the Canal and River Trust.

 It was here that Rudyard Kipling's parents, John Lockwood Kipling and Alice MacDonald met.  Here is more about the Kipling connection.

Writer George Orwell visited Rudyard Lake between the two world wars when he was researching for his book The Road to Wigan Pier.  He didn't think much of it. 

'Not a soul anywhere and bitter wind blowing. All the broken ice had been blowing up to the South end and the waves were rocking it up and down making a clank-clank, clank-clank.  The most melancholic noise I ever heard.'

Thank goodness we had bright, Spring sunshine for our walk.  Next time, if the train is running, we may take it to the other end of the lake.

All for now.

The Old House

I've always been fascinated by this house. It is called Doveleys Manor and stands just off the main road from Rocester to Ashbourne. We have visited Doveleys Garden Centre quite a few times and peered at the house and wondered about it.

Yesterday we dropped in after our walk around the lake at the JCB Factory and saw a notice that I'm sure I hadn't seen before inviting people to walk around the grounds. Well, we didn't have to be invited twice so off we went through the grounds to the woodland walk.

The house is empty at the moment but it isn't by any means derelict. It looks as if some work has been going on on one side, the other side is still in need of attention and there were plenty of house martins dipping and swooping and popping to their nests under the eaves.

The house was built in 1831 and added to in later years hence the date above of 1875. From the White's Directory of Staffordshire of 1851 I found that the house was the seat of T P Heywood, esq and that it was known as Dove Leys. I assumed that T P Heywood is the TPH of the initials in the second photo, that M H was probably his wife and that they were responsible for the later additions to the house. In order to verify this I looked at the Census returns for 1871 and found living at Doveleys Thomas Heywood and his wife Margaret, 4 daughters, 2 sons and a family friend. There were 10 servants including a valet, a general servant, a laundry woman, a cook, a scullery maid, 2 nurses and 2 housemaids. At the back of the house lived a butler and his wife their three sons and two lodgers who were the coachman and his wife. It was a large household; no wonder the Heywoods made extensions to the house.

The morning was warm and sunny and the short walk through the cool woods took us close by the River Dove which was flowing quite rapidly through the fields at the side of the house and garden centre on its way down through Rocester and past the old cotton factory there. When we got back lots of people had arrived and were setting up umbrellas and small gazebos on the lawn in the coach turning circle at the front of the house. As there were huge bowls of water, plenty of shade and lots of beautiful dogs around we asumed that a dog show would be taking place at some point in the afternoon.

I thought you would like to see a photo of the sculpture in the lake at JCB, if you look closely you can see a heron perched on the gull on the left and a black swan underneath the one on the right. There are many water birds here, including the black swans, herons, egyptian geese, barnack and barnacle geese. We also spotted a runner duck. It is a popular place for both locals and visitors to stop and take a walk and for children to feed the ducks.

On Rudyard Lake

The lake at Rudyard was built as a reservoir in 1797 to supply water for the local canal system and it still supplies water for the canal which runs into Leek nearby the River Churnet. Later in the 19th century, the North Staffordshire Railway Company ran a track beside the lake which joined up to the line between Manchester and Uttoxeter. This opened up the lake to tourists and people used to flock in droves, on weekends and public holidays, from the industrial cities of Manchester and Stoke-on-Trent. Two of the visiting tourists were the parents of the poet and writer Rudyard Kipling, who named their son after the lake where they had met and fallen in love. Today the lake is used for leisure pursuits like, sailing, canoeing and fishing as well as cycling and walking along the pathways which run close by.

The best place to park is near the Rudyard Lake Steam Railway which runs at weekends and during school holidays and from here it is a short walk to the dam head which you can cross to gain access to the Visitor Centre, Activity Centre and cafe.

The path which goes up behind the activity centre leads to two footpaths; the Staffordshire Way and the Staffordshire Moorlands Way.

We followed both for a while and then cut off onto the Staffordshire Moorlands Way which took us behind some of the large, secluded houses which stand on the edge of the lake.

It was a glorious afternoon, with dappled sunlight underneath the trees and plenty of wildlife to watch and photograph. It was so quiet and still except for the birds flying between the trees and calling to each other; we saw plenty of blackbirds, a thrush, a tree-creeper and, of course, a squirrel or two. The air up on the pathways must be very clean as the walls alongside were covered in moss and lichens.

I love these old stone walls and I'm convinced that I can see a face in the one below. Or is it just my vivid imagination?

I found my first foxglove of the season, too, just coming into flower.

After a while we set off back along the way we had come and joined the walk to the picnic site which takes you as far as the boat house. Some days the lake is busy with people sailing or canoeing and also with the pleasure boat Honey taking people along the lake.

During our visit there were just a few people wandering around and a group of ramblers taking refreshments at the cafe. We paused at the cafe for ice-cream before setting off back towards the station to pick up our car and drive home.