Weeford to Drayton Bassett

Just a short walk this morning because Richard was heading home to Norfolk where he was expecting his brother and friend to stay. It was essentially a walk of two halves: a glorious bit through undulating countryside to the west and south of Hints, then a rather long walk along the minor road from the A543 to Drayton Bassett. It had rained in the night, but stayed dry whilst we were walking. We drove both cars from the Rugeley Premier Inn to Drayton Bassett. I was first to leave, but Richard managed to get ahead of me without overtaking; it transpires that Google Maps uses a better route through Lichfield than the Apple Maps App! I was therefore just behind Richard as we drove down the aforementioned minor road from the A453 to Drayton Bassett, where I left my car in front of the Church (SK194003). Richard's clever route to Drayton Bassett was not matched by his choice of route back to Weeford; rather than just heading back to the A453, he decided to go a different route for variety. We followed our next leg's walking route on to the A4091 where next time's route left us to cross a bizarre castellated footbridge over the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal. We turned left onto the A4091, past the entrance to Drayton Manor Theme Park and over the canal. The road from Drayton Bassett was narrow and the A4091 was busy, but we weren't really delayed until after turning left onto the B5404 (Watling Street) where the combination of rush hour traffic and road works resulted in slow progress through Fazeley. After leaving Fazeley behind us, passing a row of parked cars (I wonder where their occupants were going?; there is no obvious station nearby) and managing to avoid being channelled onto the A5, we found ourselves back in the stretch of Watling Street we'd walked along yesterday. We turned down the minor road to Weeford where we parked in the same lay-by as yesterday (SK142038). In contrast to yesterday afternoon, when there were cars everywhere, we had the place to ourselves again. There was a good view across the grounds of the School House restaurant and wedding venue and beyond (see photograph).

In theory we could have shortened our route back to the Heart of England Way by taking a footpath through the grounds of the School House, but we weren't sure where it would come out at the other end. Instead, we walked back to Watling Street and a short distance along it, then turned right along a track past some desirable houses. It appears that we were right to be cautious about the footpath from Weeting; I didn't see it emerge anywhere. We continued over the Black Brook (landscaped in one direction; wild in the other) then climbed up Gorsey Hill. It felt like something out of "The Sound of Music" and good views opened up behind us, though walking through long grass led to rather soggy trousers! We followed the instruction to head for the dip in the saddle, but in fact the route at the top was slightly further to our right, close to some woodland.

We turned left onto a track to Rookery Farm. then past various other buildings including Hints Farm and Great Bingley Farm. At least some of these buildings now appear to be holiday cottages, but if my reading of the guidebook is correct, they were originally built by Birmingham Corporation to provide homes and work for the heroes of the First World War. They certainly had a dark brick construction reminiscent of buildings in the part of rural parts of Cheshire close to Manchester, which I remember from growing up there. I had bricks on my mind so much that I read "Brock Cottage" as "Brick Cottage" and had to be reminded that "brock" is a traditional name for a badger.

We reached the A453 and turned left for a short distance before turning right onto the road to Drayton Bassett. A couple of miles of road walking is not idea, but the road was quite quiet and we made rapid progress, being amused by buildings and businesses with every possible allusion to oak trees e.g. Oak Farm, Oak Tree Farm, Oak Dairy Farm, Little Acorns Nursery etc. etc. The weather turned a bit threatening but it didn't rain and we were soon in Drayton Bassett. The guidebook tells us that Sir Robert Peel (famous for the founding of the London Metropolitan Police, leading to policemen being called "bobbies") was Lord of the Manor here and MP for Tamworth, and it is his fault that the village has no pub; it does however have a Working Men's Club and we had parked opposite, just outside the pretty church. It was VERY early for lunch, but we had a picnic with us so decided to eat it before driving back to Weeford for the other car (almost blocked in by a builder's delivery lorry) and then going our separate ways, Richard back to Norfolk and me back to Milton Keynes for work tomorrow.

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