Uttoxeter to Rocester

This was our final leg of the Staffordshire Way, taking us to the start of the Limestone Way at Rocester. We had planned to start our holiday on the Limestone Way in Uttoxeter because there is a station here, and we had intended to travel by public transport and to stay in B&Bs. The reality was rather different; we were still very cautious as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic and so we were instead heading to a self catering cottage in two cars. This leg of the walk, and the first few miles of the Limestone Way, were completed en route from Norfolk; we parked one car in the extremely useful (and free) car park by the village hall in Ellastone (SK116435) and drove the other back to the Trinity Road car park (SK094333) opposite Waitrose in Uttoxeter, and paid our £5 for more than three hours' parking. We had coffee in the Waitrose coffee shop and used their toilets, and set off walking at around 11.45am.

The start of the walk was not what you'd describe as promising, with some some characteristic Staffordshire Way difficulty in route-finding past building work near the station, then passing through an ugly utilitarian gate onto the grounds of the racecourse. We were soon crossing more attractive meadows, with cattle grazing, though it was impossible to photograph back to Uttoxeter's church without warehouse buildings getting in the way. We reached the busy A50 and took a path adjacent to it, over the River Dove...ah, and in so doing passed from Staffordshire into Derbyshire. So this leg of the Staffordshire Way was actually mostly in Derbyshire. We descended close to the river and passed underneath the A50, emerging close to an old bridge which we couldn't get close to because of the dense undergrowth.

We crossed a crop field as the river meandered off to the west and back, then climbed up a wooded bank and followed at either the top or the bottom of this for most of the walk. It was attractive walking. We stopped for lunch, then descended through the grounds of Eaton Hall Farm, home of Doveridge Clay Sports Centre, where shooting was in progress, making it rather noisy. Further on, we passed Eaton Dovedale Farm and some buildings that appear to be owned by the JCB company, who are based in Rocester and seem to own everything around here! As we approached Rocester we came closer to the river, where two men were fishing.

We climbed up to the old Rocester Bridge and crossed the river, thus returning to Staffordshire. Rocester shouldn't be confused with or pronounced in the same way as Rochester. Rocester seems to be correctly said as "Rouster". There is a prominent mill in the centre of the village; the JCB Academy (one of a new breed of "University Technical Colleges") is now housed within the building, but it appears that Tutbury Mill was originally built by Richard Arkwright for cotton spinning. The Staffordshire Way continues through Rocester but we reached the start of the Limestone Way, so switched allegiance. The continuation of our walk, onto the Limestone Way from Rocester to Ellastone is described here.