A Stafford CYCLING Loop – A 39 Mile Mixed Surface Ride

In this video we cycle from Stafford down the Isabel trail, then out to the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal, then onto the Trent and Mersey canal before heading onto the gorgeous Cannock Chase. We splash through the stepping stones, and down to Huntingdon. The head to Penkridge, Church Eaton and Gnosall. From Gnosall its a little bit of the Shropshire Union canal before heading up the Newport to Stafford Greenway to take use back to Stafford.

Route Links:

https://www.komoot.com/tour/2550122966?share_token=atUzeN9BL5HQdzsW9cJsjUOZGt6j6E9g2e8WTW1xvQKi3sHpTo&ref=wtd

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/course/396932687

Buy me a coffee:

buymeacoffee.com/cyclingn8

Other Videos Mentioned:

Staffordshire and Worcester Canal – https://youtu.be/BD2rkRbxLLk

Potteries Loop – https://youtu.be/jU1247UWr3M

Birmingham to Cannock Chase – https://youtu.be/Bm9pH10_Nho

Shropshire Union Canal – https://youtu.be/GE1pgoOQta4

Thanks for watching!

Hello and welcome to Stafford, the county town of Staffordshire, which lies just on the northern edge of Canic Chase. And that’s where we’re going to be heading today on this 39m mixed surface ride with 24 mi of off-road riding. We’re going to head down through Canic Chase down to Huntington before heading to Pankage. We’ll then make our way to Nosul before finishing the ride on a dishus railway which will take us back into Stafford. So stick around as I guide you around this fantastic route. [Music] We’re starting today’s ride on the Isabel Trail just outside the center of Stafford. This is 5 minutes from the train station or just a couple of minutes from the Doxy Road Long State car park if you’re looking to arrive by car. The Isabel Trail cuts through the western half of Stafford. It’s a former rail line turned into a greenway and named after the last occupant of Stafford Castle, Lady Isabel Stafford, who lived there right up until the English Civil War when the castle was destroyed. The trail is not particularly long, only running for about 2 and 1/2 km, which does make it perfect for an out and back park run. Before we set off down the trail, it’s worth having a look behind us at the old rail bridge, showing us the route that the line used to take as it connected to the main line that runs through Stafford today. Right, we have 39 miles ahead of us. So, let’s get going. Heading north of the Isabel Trail. If you do want to try this ride for yourself, the Kimoot and Garmin Connect route links can be found in the video description. The first part of this greenway has a gravel surface as it makes its way through some open countryside which has avoided the urban development of Stafford due to it being part of the River SA foot plane. And speaking of the River Sao, we’re about to cross over it. The River Sao actually gives Stafford part of its name. Looking at the name Stafford, it can be split up into two parts, staff and Ford, with the Ford part of the name still meaning what it does today, a crossing point of a river. The staff part actually meant landing place. So the name Stafford means landing place by the ford. The surface of the greenway does eventually turn to tarmac as we head past some more urban areas of Stafford. We head under a few bridges and then past the Aston Fields Industrial Estate where if you have a look in the bushes you’ll find the train platform of Stafford Common Station. This was the first station on the Stafford to Utox railway which opened in December 1867. The railway was never a financial success and it closed to passenger traffic in 1939 just after the start of the Second World War. This allowed the railway to focus on goods traffic and military traffic with the line serving RAF Stafford just on the edge of the town. However, goods traffic ceased in 1951, apart from a short stub which ran to RAF Stafford. That final part of the line closed in 1975, allowing the transformation of the line into this greenway that we know today. The greenway is now coming to an end. So, we’re going to take a right turn and head through a housing estate to the A513. Luckily, we don’t have to cycle down this busy road as there is a cycle path down the side of it. And this cycle path will take us over to the eastern edge of Stafford. And as we head down this way, keep your eye out for the Harrier jump jet at the entrance to MOD Stafford. This was formerly RAF Stafford, but transitioned to an army barracks in 2006. Our route brings us to the junction with the A518, which we need to cross over and carry on our route along Hydrant Way, which can be completed along cycle paths. Hydrant Way, which I’m assuming is named after the fire station on our left here, also has a shared cycle path, although these are really glorified footpaths. They’re certainly better than having nothing at all. And if I’m not in a rush, I certainly find these more relaxing than cycling on the road. After turning right at the end of Hydant Way, we follow this path down Tixel Road before we turn off and head down what’s known as the Two Waters Way. This is a lovely section of cycleway which will take us again across the river SA and across an area of land that’s regularly flooded by it. And because this regularly floods, the portion in the middle of the two waters way is raised up above the land below. The reason this section of path is called the two waters way is because not only it crosses over the river SA, it also crosses over the river Pank. The River Pank starts its journey in South Staferture near Wolverampton and makes its way up here to Stafford. So this is the River Pank and if you look to our right, we can see the river S that we’ve just crossed over. You can also see the raised section of this cycle way. It’s quite nice the efforts being put in to lift this pathway to make sure it is usable at most times of the year. If we look over the other side of the pathway, we can see where these two rivers meet. The river Pank flows into the river SA with the river SA then flowing into the river Trent. After leaving the two waters way, we’re going to make our way across the road and onto the Stafaceer and Worersha canal. We’ll use the canal to make our way out of Stafford, which means we’ve headed all the way through Stafford from our start right in the center on the Isabel Trail without having to cycle on a road. And I think that’s pretty good going. When we get to the canal, we’re going to take a left turn and head towards Great Haywood. The canal toe path here is a little bit narrow, but it is a decent gravel surface in most places, and it makes for enjoyable riding. This is a very pretty section of canal and also pretty quiet. So you do find that a lot of boers take advantage of that and will more up along here. There’s some pretty low hanging bushes along here as well. So do take care. I got a couple of bumps on the head. Fortunately, I was wearing a helmet so it was all good. It’s been exceptionally dry recently, so the toe path is very dusty. I can imagine after a lot of rain this might not be quite so good. Although I did ride this last November and had no problems at all making my way down here. After the top path swaps sides, it does get quite a bit better and it stays like this all the way to Great Haywood with its junction with the Trenton Mury Canal. The Stafisher and Wooha canal known locally as the Stafs and Wus Canal opened in 1772 and it was designed by James Brinley. Its purpose was to connect the river 7 at Starport to the Trenton Mury Canal thereby connecting some of the great ports of England. Bristol on the river 7, Liverpool on the river Murzy and Hull on the river Humba which was connected via the river Trent. Last year I cycled the entire length of this canal, all 43 mi from Great Haywood to Starport on 7. And if you want to learn a little bit more about the canal, I’ll leave a link in the description to my video on that. But for now, we’re going to cross over the River Sao for the third and final time on this ride and carry on our journey along this very pretty section of canal. And before we get to the junction with the Trent and Mercy Canal, we cross over the river Trent. The river Trent starts off in North Staferture on Belf Moore and flows for around 185 mi before joining the river ooze and heading into the Humber Estri. Shortly after crossing the river Trent, we come to Great Haywood Junction where the Staffordshire and Worersha canal meets the Trent and Murzy Canal. This was an important junction back in the industrial revolution and you can see today there’s still many buildings that lie next to it. We also have a goodsiz warf area which today is full of higher boats but back in the 17 and 1800s this would have been full of boats transporting goods around the country. So the Trenton Mury is the canal you see in front of us now with the Stafisher Musher Canal that we’ve just come off running under the bridge and behind us. It’s currently the last bank holiday in August and the sun is shining. So, there’s lots of people out enjoying this very pleasant area. We’re going to take a right at Great Haywood Junction and head down the Trenton Mury Canal. The first part of which has a very good tow path. We pass Haywood Lock number 22 on the Trenton Mury Canal. And then after here, there’s a turning to head into the Shubber Estate. I did think about routting this through the Sugar Estate as it’s a really nice area, but it would have involved some busy a-road riding. Unless you know another way, let me know in the comments. So, I decided to carry on south down the Trenton Murzy Canal where we lose the good quality tow path and head back onto some gravel. Heading down this section, you might get a good view of the West Coast mainline on the right hand side, which runs through the Sugar Estate via a tunnel. We also get a good view of Canuk Chase and the hills that await us. Like the Stafaceure and Worersha Canal, the Trenton Mury Canal was designed and engineered by James Brinley. It was opened in 1777 and is 93 1/2 mi long. However, today we’re only going to be riding about 1 and 1/2 m of this canal. I did ride along a section in my Pottery’s Loop video. So, if you want to learn a little bit more about this canal, I’ll leave a link to that in the video description. But right now, we’re going to turn off the canal and make a right turn as we pass under this bridge. This does involve pushing your bike up some steps here, I’m afraid. And when we get to the top, we’re going to do the first bit of road riding we’ve done on this loop so far. This is a pretty quiet section of road, and it will take us under the West Coast mainline, over the River Trent, and to a junction with the busy A513. But don’t worry, we don’t need to ride on this road, just across it to head to the lane over the other side. The road starts to climb here, but it’s worth it because at the end of this lane is and that moment is where we enter Canic Chase, which has some of the best gravel riding in the West Midlands, possibly even the country. It’s a 26 square mile area of outstanding natural beauty crisscrossed by fire roads and gravel tracks. We now have 7 mi of glorious gravel as we make our way from the northern edge of Canic Chase down to the southern edge near Huntington. This first trail that we head down will take us from the Seven Springs car park where we entered Canak Chase down to the popular area known as the Stepping Stones where we’ll cross the Sherbrook. With this being a bank holiday Monday and the sun shining, this was fairly busy as I made my way from the car park towards the stepping stones. But busy is a relative term and obviously this is much quieter than riding through Stafford. And once we head away from the stepping stones, we head into a much quieter area of Canic Chase. But before we do that, we need to forge the Sharebrook. Bless those mountain bikers thinking they need a 2 and 1/2 in tire to ride around here. It’s much more fun with a 45 mm tire and absolutely no suspension. After foring the brook, which was unusually low today due to the rather dry summer that we’ve had, we take a left turn and start to make our way up the Sherbrook Valley. And when I say up, I do mean up. This ride is generally quite flat, apart from the section on Canic Chase, where we will climb to the lofty heights of 228 m above sea level or 748 ft. And you can see from the stepping stones, it’s a long drag up to the summit. Despite the climbing, this really is a wonderful section of the route. Even though it’s a bank holiday, this was very quiet and I got to enjoy the scenery all by myself. Previously, the Canic Chase area wasn’t open to the public. And when I say previously, we do have to go back a long way for that. In fact, if we go back as far as 1066, the area was designated as a royal forest for William the Conqueror. It served as a game preserve for the monarch and the aristocracy. It contained both woodland and open areas for hunting deer and boar. In more modern times, a lot of the area was mined for coal and also quarried for sand and gravel. And we’ll still see some of that quarrying going on today as we head a bit further around this ride. If you’re enjoying this video, please do give it a like. And if you haven’t already, do subscribe to the channel. It’s absolutely free and keeps the wheels of the channel turning. The Chase was designated an area of outstanding natural beauty back in 1958. And at 26 square miles, it’s actually the smallest area of this type in the country. However, despite its size, it actually provides a wide range of landscapes and wildlife, including the famous Canic Chase deer, which if you’re lucky enough, you might get a sighting of. Unfortunately, I wasn’t lucky today. There’s also been supposed sightings on the chase of werewolves, large cats, UFOs, and even Bigfoot, but I’m not so sure about any of that. We eventually come to a Taunction where we need to take a right turn to carry on our journey. And I am afraid the climbing does continue from here. This was actually a really tough part of the route. Not because it was particularly steep, but because the surface here wasn’t great. Although this looks like lovely gravel. The gravel that was here was actually quite deep in parts, making it difficult to cycle over. And the dusty parts of the trail, because of the dry weather that we’ve had over the last few months, was almost like cycling through sand. I actually think that this would be better given a little bit of rain. Thankfully, the route does start to flatten out and the surface does get a little bit better as we head up here. Just before we get to Camp Road, it’s worth stopping and having a look at the memorial on the right that you’ll find in the trees. This is the Katy Memorial here. in memory of a massacre that took place in Poland during World War II. In 1939, after the Soviet Union and the Nazis had carved up Poland for themselves, Stalin ordered that 25,000 Poles should be executed, consisting of Polish army officers, police officers, and anyone that posed a threat to the Soviet Union’s occupation of Poland. Many of the bodies were buried in mass graves in the Katin forest, giving the massacre its name. Interestingly, in 1943, when it was clear that the Soviet Union was going to overpower the Nazis in Eastern Europe, the Nazis took up the graves to expose the massacre. Understandably, at the time, no one believed the Nazis. And it wasn’t until 1990 that the Soviet Union finally took responsibility for this awful massacre. We’ve now got most of the climbing out the way, or at least the worst part. So, I’m going to cross over Camp Road and stop at the lovely cafe here. This is Spring Slade Lodge and it’s very bike friendly. It’s got bike racks and you can also order from a window so you don’t have to take your eye off your bike if you’re riding alone like me. A really nice touch is it has water refill station as well to fill up your bottles. I had a ham and pickle sandwich and it was delicious. Leaving the cafe, we’re going to take a left turn in the car park and carry on with this glorious gravel riding through Canic Chase. We’re now about 14 miles into this ride from our start point in Stafford. So, you’re probably thinking I made the cafe stop a little bit early, but I had got most of the climbing out of the way. And I’d also ridden to the start line from my home, so that was an extra few miles on my loop as well today. So, as we carry on with the ride, I’ll point out some more places where you can stop and refuel along the way. This rather dusty track, which I’m sure isn’t always so dusty, brings us to a crossroads where we take a left turn and carry on along our route with a little bit more climbing. But look where we are climbing. A beautiful gravel track in a lovely forest. And the sun is shining. I’ve certainly got no complaints. This really is the dream that gravel bike makers are selling you. It’s not long though before we are heading back downhill as this gravel track continues to take us south through Canic Chase. You will notice on your right hand side that there is a quarry here and this is one of the sand and gravel quaries that I was talking about earlier which is still active today. I’ll be the first to admit that this is quite the blight on the gorgeous Canx Chase landscape. But if you like roads and buildings and other such infrastructure, this is a necessary evil. The track does get quite steep as we make our way down this short descent, and it does get narrow in places. It’s important to keep focused and make sure you’re taking the right line as you head down this rather enjoyable descent. Unless you’re on a mountain bike, of course, then just point it in the right direction. You’ll be fine. At the bottom of the hill, we’re going to cross over Broadhurst Green Road. And then we’re back onto another gravel trail for a short ascent up to the highest point of this ride. Again, even though I’m heading uphill, I’m certainly not going to complain. This really is gorgeous gravel riding. Once we get to the top of this climb and the highest point of this ride, we get a great view of what has to be Canak Chase’s most famous landmark. Construction of the Py Green Telecommunications Tower began in 1963 and it was complete by 1965. It stands at 388 ft high or 118 m. From the top of the tower, there’s a clear line of sight all the way to the BT tower in Birmingham city center. As I said before, this is the high point of our ride. So, from here, we have a lovely downhill stretch, and then the rest of the ride is pretty much flat back into Stafford. The gravel track that we’re following eventually narrows as we head into a strip of woodland called the Huntington Belt. You might even call this trail a bit of gnarly single track. Yes, mountain bikers, calm down. Stop laughing at us. We are on thin tires and have no suspension, but I think that makes it all the more fun. At the bottom of the trail, we come to Lime Pit Lane, and I’m afraid this is the end of our gravel riding for now. We have some road riding to do for now, but don’t worry, there is more gravel riding ahead in this ride. We’re going to take a left turn onto Lime Pit Lane. And again, if you want about directions, the Kimoot and Garmin Connect route links can be found in the video description. If you want to say thank you for those or thank you for the video, you can also buy me a coffee via the link in the video description. And if you want to help support the channel, give this video a like and make sure you’re subscribed. It’s absolutely free and it’s massively helpful to the channel. Line pit lane is quite a nice downhill and as it’s smooth tarmac you can enjoy the view a little bit more than we could on those gravel downhills on Canic chase. You can take in the view of the Rican in the distance. Although I’m not sure my iPhone camera quite does this view justice. We can also see the Huntington Pit Mound. This conicle-shaped hill with the flag on top. This was formed from the waste material that came out of the Littleton colery. Coal mining was a really important industry here up until 1993 when the Littleton Collery was closed. The closure of the coal mine obviously had a huge effect on this small town of Huntington. And since its closure, there’s been a lot of efforts to regenerate the town and reclaim the land that the extensive colory workings covered. We’re now heading down Cox Sparrow Lane. And after passing a small industrial area, we cross over this bridge with green railings. This is in fact an old railway line and I’ll talk a bit more about that later because we cross it again further along the ride. In terms of road sections, this is the worst part of the ride. As we leave Huntington, the road does turn to a 60 mph limit. Fortunately, we’re not on here for very long, though. After riding for about a mile on this busy 60 mph road, we head straight across a crossroads, continue for a short while before taking a right turn onto a very quiet lane, which is known as Mikkelwood Lane, and then we’re back to the type of riding that I like if we have to be on the road, a nice quiet single track lane with not a lot of Traffic. After passing through some wooded areas, the lane heads out into the open through some farmland. And again, we come across that disused rail line. This former mineral line ran from Huntington over to the main line at Pankerage. It served the colery at Littleton, transporting the coal that was taken out of the mines there to further a field. It was used right up until the 1980s when it was closed. There was a campaign to turn this into a greenway connecting Huntington and Pankorage via a traffic-free link. Sadly, that never came about cuz that would have been really useful on this ride and some of the line is now in private ownership as you can see by the signs. So, it isn’t likely to happen in the future sadly. We’re now just over 20 mi into this ride and just about to pass under the M6 motorway. We’ve crossed the M6 quite a few times in my videos, including on the Curly Whirly Loop video and the Birmingham Tanic Chase video. So, what I’ll say about the M6 is that this particular section was built in 1966, and we’ve just passed under the motorway between junction 11 and 12. We’re now about to cross over the Stafisher and Worersha Canal. And we’re going to ride down this for another section. Having already ridden a part of this just on the edge of Stafford. You will need to carry your bike down the steps here, but it’s worth it cuz at the bottom we’re back on gravel again. This pretty section of canal will take us right into Pankoridge. And although it’s not the best to path in the world, I have ridden this in winter and it’s generally not too bad. After just a demar on the canal, we head under this pretty bridge and take a left turn to head back on the road and make our way through Pinkage. Our route takes us right through the center of Pankage where we’re going to head up to Stafford Road and take a right turn. Although Stafford Road is quite a busy road, through Pankage it has a 30 mph limit, so it’s not too unpleasant to cycle on. Pankorage would make a good time to stop. There’s plenty of shops here and pubs for you to be able to stock up and refuel. I’m not sure any particular cafes I could recommend, but if you do know any, please do let us know in the comments. As we head up Stafford Road, we’re going to head over the river Pink, the same river that we crossed over in Stafford on the Two Waters Way. After taking a left turn and heading down Leaveale Road, we come across the Pankridge Vioaduct, a very pity rail bridge, which takes the main line between Stafford and Wolverampton over the river Pank. This was built in 1837 for what was then called the Grand Junction Railway which connected Birmingham to the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. The line was surveyed by Robert Stevenson who designed the vioaduct. It consists of seven arches each spanning 30 ft and the whole vioideuct is around 80 yard long or 73 m. From here we’ve got around 9 mi of road riding. However, most of this riding is on very quiet rural lanes. We’re going to head from Pankitch to Bradley, Bradley to Church Eaton, and then over to Nosul where we can again do some gravel riding. As we head over to Bradley, we can keep a look out on the right hand side for some great views of Canic Chase. Py Green Tower stands tall on top of the hills that make up this area of outstanding natural beauty. Although I definitely didn’t pick the best place to take some film of this with the power lines and the house in front, but there are some good views as you make your way down this section of road. Before we get to the hamlet of Leaveale, I’m assuming it’s a hamlet. I don’t think it’s big enough to be a village. We take a lefthand turn which is signposted towards Bradley and head down a road that gets even more rural, if that’s possible, than the one that we were on. As we head to Bradley, we take a left turn and then another left turn in Bradley itself, which brings us out onto a lovely quiet lane, which will take us over towards Church Eaton. This lane is not a wellused piece of road, as you can tell by the greenery in the middle of the road surface. Well, I say greenery. Because this road is not used very often, maintenance is not on the top priority list for the council. So, the service in places is pretty bad. I was definitely glad I was on a gravel bike at this point and not a road bike. At the end of this lane, we cross over a stream via a ford. And around the Ford, the surface gets particularly bad as it’s covered with sand and gravel from where the Ford has obviously flooded previously. However, at the end of this hot and dry summer, there is no sign of the stream that flows through this ford. If you are considering tackling this ride during a wetter period, it’s a good idea to have a backup plan just in case the Ford is impassible. Imagery on Google Maps suggests that this road sometimes has to be closed if the flow through the ford becomes too much. At the end of this lane, we take a left turn and head towards Church Eaton, a lovely village with a 12th century church and TUDA buildings. Our route also takes us right past the village pub, the Royal Oak, which has some outside seating if you’re looking for somewhere to rehydrate. From Church Heat into Noel, it’s around 3 mi. And it’s all done on these beautiful rural lanes as we continue to make our way through this very pretty Staferture countryside. We’re soon coming into Nosul where we’re able to leave the roads again and head onto some more gravel riding. When we get into Nosul, we’re going to take a left turn and head up Warf Road. As we head up here, there are a couple of shops if you’re looking for somewhere to refill your drinks bottles. Then we’re going to head past the boat in over the Shropshire Union Canal and then take a right-hand turn to join the tow path of the canal. And that is all the road riding for this ride completed. From here, back to Stafford where we started. We do not need to ride on a road. This very pretty toe path takes us through Nosul and past the navigation in yet another pub where it’s possible to stop and hydrate. The Shropshire Union canal or the Shropy as it’s affectionately known runs from Wolverampton to Elmere Port and links the Birmingham Canal system to the busy port of Liverpool and its original name was the Birmingham and Liverpool junction canal. It was built quite late in terms of the canals, not being completed until 1835, and it was the last major engineering accomplishment of Thomas Telford. Sadly, the tow path along a lot of its length is not great. I rode this a couple of years ago from Wolverampton to here at Nosul, and it was a challenge to say the least. I’ll leave a link in the video description to that video if you want to find out more about this canal. We only ride along the shops union for around half a mile before we head under this disused railway bridge and take a left turn to head up onto that disused railway which we’re going to use to make our way back into Stafford. So we’ve just come up the steps there up from the canal onto this Dishus rail line which is part of Route 55 of the National Cycle Network and as you can see by this sign we’ve got a 7 and 1/4 mile ride back into Stafford. This is the former Wellington to Stafford railway line which closed in 1966 and the section between Newport Shropshire and Stafford has been turned into this 12mile greenway. As we’ve just left the shops Union Canal, it’s interesting to know that this railway was constructed by the Shopsshire Union Railways and Canal Company. So the company that operated the Shops Union Canal was the same company that built this railway. One of very few railways in England that was operated by a canal company. But they obviously saw that change was coming and move with the times. The trail brings us out onto the A518 near the center of Nosul and past the Acorn Pub just on the opposite side. Another possible place where you can stop for hydration. We now have to cycle down the side of the A518 and what is a shared footpath and cycle path here. Obviously, the trains did not take this route when the line was open. They used to cross over a bridge just here. You can see the embankments on either side of the road. When the line was closed, unfortunately, the bridge was taken down as it was quite low and seen as a hazard on the route. We now have to cross the road via a cycle crossing and head back up the trail to the top of the embankment. Here at the top of the embankment is the site of the old Nosil station. Unfortunately, there’s nothing much of it left today. I have looked around here before, but not been able to find any remains of the station. So, let’s continue our journey towards Stafford and towards the next station, which is Horton. The section of the trail between Horton and Nosell is probably one of the less cared for sections of this greenway. As you can see, it’s quite narrow in places, and if you are going to ride this in winter, do expect to get a little bit wet and see some mud. This line was completed in 1849 and originally trains would run all the way from Stafford to Shrewsbury with a section of line between Wellington and Shrewsbury being jointly owned and operated together with the Shrewsbury and Birmingham railway. The section of line between Wellington and Shrewsbury is still in use today, but this section of line closed in 1966, a victim of the infamous beaching cuts. A small section of the line was kept open between Wellington and Newport. However, that was closed in 1969. Although it’s frustrating that transport links like this no longer exist, even though they would be extremely useful today, it is great that we have this fantastic greenway running the full 12 mi from Newport to Stafford, which makes for some fantastic traffic-free cycling. The line never went through Horton itself, but bypassed the village on its northern edge. The station was located here where station road passes over the top of the line. There is some rubble in the bushes here, but there’s nothing substantial left of the train station today. There is a car park here which is quite handy. So, if you wanted to start the route from here, this would be the place to park. From Horton to Stafford, the service of the greenway is really good and it’s quite a wide track. So when there’s nobody about, you really can get quite a move on down here. As we approach the village of Darington, we cross over Crossing Lane and the adjacent Crossing Cottage. There’s also an interesting sign here giving some of the history of the railway with some accompanying historical photographs. As you pass through Darington, look out for some of the railway memorabilia, including an old rail signal and one of the incline signs that still stand on the edge of the gardens today. After passing Darington, we again cross paths with the M6, which we go under to make our way into Stafford. We should feel quite lucky really that we do have this bridge under the M6 here, as this section of the M6 was completed in 1966, the same year that this section of railway was closed. As we come into the suburbs of Stafford, our route brings us out onto a private road. This is a really short section of Route 55 of the National Cycle Network. But strangely, cycling is forbidden on it. So, definitely push your bike until we get to this point where we can join a shared cycle path which will take us back to where we started this route on the Isabel Trail. Due to some large housings estates that have been built here recently, the road network has been extensively redeveloped and a lot of shared cycle paths have been put in. Previously, we needed to cycle on the road to link up the greenway with the Isabel Trail. But now that’s not the case. We can use these shared cycle paths to make our way all the way to the start of the Isabel Trail. And that’s it. We’ve completed this 39m mixed surface trail. And what a cracker it’s been with some particularly gorgeous riding across Canic Chase and some wonderful greenways. I’ve really enjoyed it and I hope you have as well. If you’ve watched the video till this point, please do give it a like and drop me a comment. And if you haven’t already, please do consider subscribing to the channel. It’s absolutely free and really helps me to keep making videos like this. If you want to have a crack at this route yourself, the Garmin Connect and Commute links to the route are in the video description. If you want to say thank you for those roots or thank you for the video, you can also buy me a coffee via the link in the description. Thank you very much for watching and happy cycling. [Music]