Chillington Estate & RAF Cosford – Ep 03

I’m back on the bike on a blustery winter’s day, and ready to explore the once-grand avenues leading to the stately home of Chillington Hall in South Staffordshire, before popping over the border into Shropshire to check out the RAF base at Cosford, and most importantly, the cafe!

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Hi everyone
Welcome back to the channel and another cycling adventure My name’s Dave and I hope you can join me as I explore an area of Staffordshire which i don’t know too well This morning I find myself 
in the village of Coven Heath which is just north of Wolverhampton And my plan is this morning, to explore some of the country lanes and various off-road opportunities to the west of here as we head 
over the border into Shropshire It’s a bit chilly so let me 
tell you my plan as we get going Come on! OK so straight away we are leaving Coven Heath now and i’ve dropped onto the towpath of the 
Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal It’s beautiful along here already So the rough plan I have once we get through the village of Coven is to take on some off-roading because i’ve seen on the Ordnance Survey map some intriguing bridleways around 
the estate of Chillington Hall It could be a complete mudbath It could be really overgrown It could be wonderful Let’s hope it’s wonderful Then once we are past Chillington Hall we’re gonna head over the border into Shropshire towards the RAF Museum at Cosford And the reason that’s one of my destinations today is because I know it has a cafe We can then start heading back east through the village of Albrighton and north of Codsall until we eventually get to 
the outskirts of Wolverhampton where the plan is to skirt around 
the Jaguar Land Rover factory back to the finish line at Coven Heath It should be a lot of fun in 
an area I don’t know too well so i’m looking forward to 
doing some exploring today (Dave) Morning!
(Angler) Morning! The fishermen are out in force this morning Right then! Oh this is cool! *clicking sounds* Although there’s something clicking 
in my wheel, can you hear that? That’s annoying Well that was a cool little bridleway 
linking the canal to the village of Coven now I’ve just got to work out 
how to cross this main road and then we’re into the village OK we’re leaving Coven now which was a lovely little quiet village and we’re heading towards Chillington Hall now i’ve got to look out for a 
turning shortly on the left hand side and that is the turning into Lower Avenue which is one of two grand avenues which lead us from the road up to Chillington Hall Now I don’t know how grand it is anymore but let’s find out! It’s showing as a bridleway 
on the Ordnance Survey map but sometimes these bridleways 
can be quite overgrown I think it’s here Okay Well this is lovely This is Lower Avenue which a couple of hundred years ago would have been a grand entrance towards the stately home at Chillington Hall But now it’s just, er like a small linear stretch of woodland with this bridleway running through it Now I don’t know if you can see on the camera but it’s just a perfectly straight bridleway with trees running down left and right So now i’m half way along the very muddy but very pleasant, Lower Avenue as we head towards Chillington Hall but i’ve just stopped to show 
you something interesting Now half way along the avenue is this lovely ornate bridge which carries the avenue over 
the Shropshire Union canal Come and have a look! This is bridge 10,
which is also known as the Avenue Bridge or the Chillington Avenue Bridge and this was built by Thomas Telford to allow the Gifford family of Chillington Hall to pass overhead It’s such a peaceful and quiet location The perfect stop on a bike 
ride to get your breath back Right let’s head away from the 
bridge and continue along the avenue A-ha! Here is our first glimpse of Chillington Hall OK so the Upper Avenue itself is gated off and seems to be part of the private estate but running parallel to the avenue is a lane so we’re gonna take the lane and go and have a look at the hall So this is the end of Upper Avenue and this should be the entrance 
proper to Chillington Hall Let’s have a look what we can see So there it is, Chillington Hall built in the 18th century for the Gifford family and it’s a private estate so i’m going to have to skirt around So my plan is now to go to the right around the edge of the estate lands and pick up a bridleway called Brick Kiln Lane which will take us to the border 
between Staffordshire and Shropshire OK so the estate lands are 
on my left hand side here as I head along this lane and very shortly I should be 
able to turn off onto a bridleway shown on the Ordnance Survey 
map as Brick Kiln Lane and I think it might be here Looks a pretty cool bridleway so far but you never know with these things you could get half-way along and all of a sudden in just turns into a complete impassable overgrown mudbath let’s hope it doesn’t do that! and it’s a good little run Urgh! Oh it’s so slippy Urgh come on! Argh come on! seems to level out in a second thankfully That’s the end of the off road section and now i’m going to turn right and join Donington Lane which will take us towards Albrighton and Cosford My wheels are so muddy! leaves and mud stuck to them Hopefully i’ll clean them off 
now along this lovely tarmac Now unfortunately I’ve got to join this main road just for a little while It’s something I don’t like doing in fact I hate riding on main roads but sometimes it’s the only 
way to link up the lanes so I have to grin and bear it I’m guessing, as we approach 
the Royal Air Force base that these houses that are behind a giant fence are military houses Well I didn’t realise just how exactly how massive 
the Royal Air Force base is here at Cosford Just goes on for miles and miles and here we are at the airfield If i follow this road around it will eventually lead us to the RAF museum (Steward) Hiya!
(Dave) Morning mate, what’s the best way for me? (Steward) Up the top!
(Dave) Cheers mate thank you! Cycle rack? Oh there! Excellent That’s such a great little cafe I’m refuelled now and ready to continue the ride I was really tempted to stay and spend the 
next few hours walking around the museum but unfortunately I need to get back so that’s one for another day The museum itself is free so it’s a great day out i think you just have to pay for car parking but if like me you turn up on the bike then it’s free! And now i’m refuelled we’re going to head back east back towards Wolverhampton there’s a cycleway next to the main road so yeah I don’t have to do any 
more main road biking today So that was Albrighton quite a large village actually one I’ve never been to before now back on to the country lanes Now although there’s no sign this crossroads marks the border between Shropshire and Staffordshire So now I’m back home in Staffordshire! Whoa! Room for me to squeeze? Thank you! We may only be a few miles 
outside of Wolverhampton here but you could be in the middle of nowhere these are some lovely country lanes I’m really enjoying this Another little bit of off-roading I love it! God! Can I get through here? I don’t even know if that 
was a public right of way but it’s leading me back on to the road and nobody shouted at me so that’s a win! And now we come on to the last section of the ride it’s showing as a cycleway on the map and it skirts around the huge 
Jaguar Land Rover factory So let’s check it out! “The Monarch’s Way” Ok so thanks to the information 
board that I just read i’m now on The Monarch’s Way which I hadn’t heard of and it’s over 600 miles long consisting of footpaths and bridleways and it follows roughly the route taken by King Charles II after he was defeated at the Battle of Worcester but i don’t reckon it looked like this back then! So i’m presuming this path we built as part of the construction of the i54 business park which is this huge industrial area 
on the outskirts of Wolverhapton Oh yeah this is lovely! Wow check out the solar panels! hundreds of ’em So cool! So as we head towards the end of this path this will bring us out back in Coven Heath where our journey ends So that’s another ride complete bike’s back in the car ready to go home I’ve got a can of pop waiting for me it was a bit of a tough one, that towards the end it was quite windy as we were heading back from 
Albrighton back towards Coven but it was a great ride it’s 
been a lovely winter’s morning it stayed dry which is a bonus and I haven’t got too muddy 
either which is great too! Well I really enjoyed that ride which was around an area of Staffordshire 
and Shropshire that I didn’t know too well so it’s been quite an adventure today I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have I’ll see you in the next video, bye!