Hixon, Shugborough & Stafford – Ep 04

It’s an eerie foggy morning in Staffordshire as I explore the site of a tragic incident on the railway. Then as the mist begins to lift, I cross the River Trent on the impressive Essex Bridge and head across the estate of Shugborough Hall. But as I skirt around the edge of Cannock Chase and head towards the county town, will the flooded rivers Penk and Sow foil my plan of a cuppa in Stafford?

Hi everyone, Dave here! Welcome back to the channel and 
for another cycling adventure Today I find myself in the village of Sandon which is just east of Stafford And my plan today is to do a mixture 
of country lanes, canal towpaths a little bit of off-road
You know the drill by now! But there’s only one potential problem It is foggy this morning
Really foggy Let’s hope it lifts as we start the ride It’s freezing cold so let’s get going and i’ll tell you my plan Right, so first thing’s 
first before we start riding Need to make sure that my lights are on I’ve got my hi-viz jacket on I’ve got my luminous gloves So hopefully I don’t get knocked 
off on any of these country lanes! Let’s go! So my plan today is to head down 
the Trent valley for a few miles before diverting eastwards 
towards the village of Hixon After a bit of a climb, I’ll 
then descend to Great Haywood cross the River Trent via Essex Bridge
head through the Shugborough Estate and the north-west reaches of Cannock Chase
before diverting north-west and eventually making my way to Stafford town centre
where hopefully I can get a cuppa I’ll then use the country 
lanes to the north of Stafford to complete the loop back to Sandon
So this is the first village I’m travelling through today
This is the sleepy village of Salt and there’s not a soul around So as we head towards the village of Hixon now we’re about to pass over a bridge 
over the West Coast Main Line railway it’s all quiet and peaceful here today but 
50 years ago a terrible disaster occured here This is the site of the Hixon rail disaster
which happened in January 1968 This bridge that we’ve just 
crossed was only built in 2002 and before that the road carried on down here and crossed the West Coast 
Main Line on a level crossing Now on the 6th January 1968 
a low-loader transporter carrying a huge 120 ton electrical transformer, was heading down this road Traditionally level crossings had gates and a signalman would come out
and close the gates as a train was approaching But here they had recently installed 
an automatic level crossing where the barriers would lower as
a train was approaching automatically So there was no signalman here
and no-one knew of the transporter’s presence And inevitably the barriers started to lower and 
an express train was approaching from the direction of Manchester 
heading towards London Nothing could be done The train plouged into this 120 ton transformer it must have been absolutely horrific Eight passengers and three railwaymen were killed and 45 more people were badly injured The disaster eventually led 
to improvements being made on automatic level crossings across the country and on a day like today 
where it’s eerily quiet here you can’t really imagine what utter 
devastation must have been here just over 50 years ago on that January day Now if you look carefully at the side of the road there is a memorial here to 
commemorate the people who lost their lives ok so there’s quite a bit of a hill now as we head through the village
This should warm me up! Well as I reach the top of this lane i’m pleased to say that the 
mist is dissipating a little bit I can see a slight view over here to my left some rolling fields let’s hope the sun can burn through
and it turns into a lovely sunny winter’s morning Hello doggy! It was quite windy there high up above the Trent Valley as we headed out of Hixon But now we’re gonna drop back down into the valley to Great Haywood where we will cross the famous Essex Bridge which will lead us on to the 
estate of Shugborough Hall So I’ve passed through the 
village of Great Haywood now and I’m about to cross the flooded River Trent on to the Shugborough Estate and to do that I need to 
cross the bridge behind me This is Essex Bridge so called because it was built in the 
late 16th Century by the Earl of Essex and it is one of the longest surviving 
packhorse bridges in the country We are now on the bridleway 
which passes through the estate here at Shugborough which includes the National 
Trust owned stately home No time for us to stop and look around though We’ve got to head through the 
estate and on to Cannock Chase Oh the gates are closing. Quick! Oh that was close! OK so the mist is lifting a bit more now as we head out of Shugborough 
and on to Cannock Chase Now we are just going to skirt 
around the edge of the Chase and cut the corner between Shugborough and Brocton OK so somewhere here should be a bridleway and here it is! and this bridleway will take us 
from Brocton to Walton-on-the-Hill which is on the outskirts of Stafford Now the fact that Walton-on-the-Hill 
sounds like it’s on a hill leads me to believe that this 
bridleway might be a bit of a climb OK so we made it up the 
bridleway to Walton-on-the Hill and the sign is not wrong – it is on a hill! But the good news is it’s now 
downhill as we head in to Stafford Urgh! God!
I nearly broke my bloody shoulder! Ow! Ow god This is Hazelstrine Lane and it’s a little shortcut which will drop us down on to the 
Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal where I can pick up the towpath and the various other little cycleways which will lead me in to the centre of 
Stafford and a well deserved cup of tea! OK it says Cyclists Dismount but let’s be a rebel Oh my god Oh no! God can I get through? Oh my god Can I get through? Let’s try! It’s like being in a boat! That was fun but a little bit scary God We’re leaving Stafford now 
and we’re on the Isobel Trail which follows the route of an old railway and it passes Doxey Marshes nature reserve which we shall see on our 
left-hand side in a few moments Well I’m not happy about this! This is Marston Lane which as you can see from the blue signs is a designated National Cycle Route and the reason for that is because it’s a nice quiet country 
lane with not a lot of traffic but as you can see today 
it’s choc-a-block along here! The A34 dual carriageway 
which runs parallel to here is currently closed for roadworks So this lane is being used as a bit of a rat run and it’s not very pleasant for a cyclist Now thankfully i’m turning off in a second as I head back to complete the ride at Sandon Well the mist has almost gone and it’s quite a sunny afternoon I’ve made it back here in one piece to Sandon It was a fantastic ride – a little 
bit of everything I hope you agree? and I hope you enjoyed it! Don’t forget to leave me a thumbs up and leave a comment below Most importantly of all, subscribe to the channel so you don’t miss out on any 
more of the cycling adventures here at Smiles per Hour! My name’s Dave and from a 
sunny Sandon in Staffordshire I’ll see you soon!