Staffordshire Way

The Staffordshire Way is a 92-mile route between Kinver Edge in the south of the county and Mow Cop in the north. However, we have walked just something over 25 miles of it, which is all we're intending to walk for now. This took us from the delightful Cannock Chase, the start of the Heart of England Way (which we walked in 2017, including on my 60th birthday) and Rocester, the start of the Limestone Way (which we walked in September 2021, in low-key Pandemic-compliant celebration of our 40th wedding anniversary). The countryside we have walked through between these two points was attractive and varied, which made me wonder about walking some more of the Staffordshire Way, perhaps even the whole thing.

However, much of the route is not much walked and not well maintained. In particular, some of the stiles are extremely difficult to negotiate; overgrown and rather wobbly, and sometimes broken. This was somewhat discouraging. We realised when we got to the holiday cottage we stayed in whilst walking the Limestone Way, that we were only about a mile from the Derbyshire/Staffordshire border, which runs along the River Dove through Dovedale. And the countryside on the Staffordshire side is every bit as attractive as that on the Derbyshire side, though the latter is much well known. But yet the Staffordshire Way doesn't go to this part of the county. So, for the future, perhaps we just want to get back to Staffordshire!

The Staffordshire Way signposting was somewhat variable, and most of the signs were old to the extent of being almost illegible; the photo shows a rare exception. This shouldn't have mattered too much, given that the route is shown on OS explorer sheets 244 (Cannock Chase and Chasewater) and 259 (Derby) and we had the OS maps app too - and on most occasions these were very useful. However, maps don't help when diversions are poorly signposted which was the case on a couple of occasions, firstly a temporary diversion where we were due to join the Trent and Mersey Canal to the north of the Shugborough Estate, and secondly on the approach to Abbot's Bromley. It's a pity because these areas were otherwise delightful.

Our first leg (Cannock Chase to Abbots Bromley)