Hanchurch Woods Blue Walk – Family-Friendly Woodland Loop in Staffordshire

A not-so-blue Blue Walk

Saturday 14th September 2024. Today, after a week of almost constant rain, we were blessed with beautiful weather on the Saturday and a perfect-for-walking temperature too, so we set off to do the ‘Hanchurch Blue Walk‘, a 7.5mile wander to Swynnerton and back from Swynnerton Old Park forest.

A Walk of Many Water Towers

Last month we’d had a lovely first walk at Swynnerton Old Park, and we wanted to get back again, but to try a different walk. The Hanchurch Blue Walk looked the perfect choice. After enjoying a big breakfast of my Staffordshire Oatcakes (a staple from my husband’s hometown!), we made our way to the same car park that we’d used on our last walk here, parking just in front of a beautiful old Water tower. This time though, we headed the opposite direction of Swynnerton Old Park through Harley Thorns, a smaller woodland next to Swynnerton Old Park. The walk actually directs us down the road but we decided to sneak through the woodland for a more rural walk. Consulting our OS map before we’d left, we saw some suitable footpaths, and it turned out to be a well-walked footpath – bar a handful of overgrown bushes and brambles!

It wasn’t long at all before we hit Common Lane. This is a gravel track that, we noticed, was really pretty sandy in some places, and we pondered on whether this part of England had at one point been underwater, as we see a lot of sandy lanes around here.

Common Lane went on for around 1.5 miles, through a farm yard, past a random security guard standing by some gates in the adjacent woodland, and finally arriving at Hatton Pumping Station. This building has been converted to fancy apartments, and the building always causes a conversation whenever we pass it in the car. It was nice to walk past it and actually manage to take in the beautiful architecture of the place – and the boys had a field day spotting some fancy cars in the car park 😂

It was at this point that we had to cross our first busy road (not fun on a blind bend) and have a short walk down a country lane that ran parallel to the train track – much to the delight of our train mad youngest!

From Cats to Combines

It wasn’t long before we peeled off to the left down Gorsey lane. We initially passed a couple of old red brick houses but saw nothing then for a while, until we turned a corner and noticed a large sign. At first we thought we were heading towards a Hotel, but it turned out, as the howling came into earshot, that we were actually heading towards a Cattery and Kennels! The footpath lead past the buildings and then forked left behind them.

Heading through the field, my youngest spotted a HUGE spider web and on it was a spider, lunching on a moth! He insisted I took a photo of the spider for our blog – enjoy folks!😂

The field footpath saw us arrive at another main road, where we crossed over and went through another gap in the hedge to rejoin more fields. So far we had encountered no stiles or gates, which was quite nice as our last few walks have had some really rickety old and broken stiles to get over 😂 This field greeted us with some amazing views across Staffordshire. The footpath lead up at an angle and almost had Sound of Music vibes as we walked up to the horizon!

Over to our left we saw a combine harvester busy working, but our route appeared to lead through another field, filled with maize, and we thought we’d miss the combine harvester. However, the footpath actually lead us straight to the very bottom of that field, via a diagonal path. As we poked our heads through the hedge we saw the huge machine heading towards us, so we opted to wait for it to pass before we crossed. The boys absolutely loved watching it, not least because they were quite close to it so they could see it working. It’s funny because we often get heavy farm machinery in the field behind our house but somehow this seemed more exciting for them 😄

Once the combine had passed us safely, we headed towards the opposite corner to a little hedged walkway, bringing us out into Swynnerton village.

A Viewpoint

When we’d initially discussed doing this walk, we’d noted that Swynnerton had a pub, and thought a brief stop here might be a nice idea to give the boys a break as it was only their second 7+ mile walk. However, as we entered the village the sound of church bells (on a Saturday afternoon) and the abundance of people in their Sunday Best told us a wedding was in progress, and of course as we passed the pub, we saw it was clearly full, so decided to continue on with our walk instead. Another classic car took the boys minds off of their initial disappointment and we headed back out of the village and up Stab lane with no more mention of missing out on a cold, refreshing drink.

Here we passed a view point and ducked in to admire the views and see what was showing on the Toposcope.

This was another walk that we could spot the Wrekin and smile proudly that we’d walked this (not once, but twice!) already this summer! My mad idea this summer to walk as a family to make memories was working, as little conversations and anecdotes about our two Wrekin walks poured out! After some time admiring the views and enjoying a quick snack and drink, we made our way back to the road, passing yet another water tower! I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many in such a small area! This one has also been converted to a residence.

I’m not a fan of road walking and actively look for walks with minimal, if any, roads, but sometimes they can’t be avoided. Fortunately, this was just a short section on an otherwise wonderful car free route. The reason I avoid roads where I can is because I get frustrated at drivers who don’t slow down, or give a wide berth, for walkers or cyclists – especially when I have my children with me. In a world where people are getting increasingly lazy and jump in the car over walking for even the shortest of distances, I don’t think most motorists realise just how frightening it is when they zap past at 60mph only centimetres away from you! With only one particularly close encounter with a car, I was pleased when I noticed the roads verge start to widen up to a larger area with trees and we, clearly like many others, judging by the well walled pathway, ambled safely through this until the next road crossing.

The Final Stretch

As we crossed onto this country lane, with around 2.5 miles still to go, the littler legs among us were starting to get a bit tired. I cracked open the Kendall mint cake, my secret ingredient to helping the children get to the end of our longer walks in good spirits! They love the stuff and it really helps morale, especially on our longer walks.

As we wandered down some lanes with some really beautiful houses on, our conversation went on to discussing the houses we were passing, and which one was our favourite and why. Eventually the houses faded out and views across Stoke on Trent came into our sight. We stopped to show our eldest the clearly visible Stoke on Trent Football Stadium. He enjoys football and plays for our local U11s team. 3 days before our walk, his team had had a training session with a coach at the stadium so it was fun to show him where it was, and see the outside of it!

Finally the reservoir came into view and we could tell the boys that we were nearly back at the car. We also got a better view of the water tower from this, and what I assume is a pumping station – that wasn’t visible at all from where we parked. My youngest pointed out the obvious cracking on the brickwork, which to be fair I’d totally missed, and both boys said it was a shame it was just being left. Our youngest also spotted all the vegetation growing off the top. It’s amazing the small details children spot that adults often don’t! I was too fixated on how on earth the little old thick glass panes had managed to be smashed 😂

Family Feedback on Hanchurch Blue Walk

We had a really lovely chat about this walk when we got home as a whole family, and it was great to get some feedback from Dad too. He said he particularly liked the first part of the walk through the woods and to the water tower, and also the fields between the road and Swynnerton village, where we saw the combine harvester. The boys chimed in that they also loved seeing the combine – our 8 year old particularly loved getting to see the combine up so close – ‘it’s the closest I’ve ever been to one working before‘ – and he also enjoyed jumping over the lines of straw that were left behind by the combine. Our 10 year old also loved the combine as he really enjoyed seeing how it worked, separating the grains, and working with the tractor to collect them. They also both mentioned that they loved seeing the Ferrari at the converted water tower 😂

I found it a really enjoyable walk because it was mostly really easy – and by that I mean, it was just walking! There were no stiles or gates to contend with, we could just get on with walking. There weren’t really many hills either, other than a couple of slight gradients here and there. I wasn’t keen on crossing the roads or the short road section – for the reasons mentioned above. I loved seeing all the old Water Towers. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many in such a concentrated area, and they are such beautiful buildings, a real testament to our historical architecture.

TOTAL MILES: 7.62 | TOTAL TIME: 3h26 (3h03 Moving Time)

Let me know if you’ve done this walk, or would like to, and don’t forget to follow the Country Code:

• Enjoy the countryside and respect its life and work
• Guard against all risk of fire
• Fasten all gates
• Keep your dogs under control
• Keep to public paths across farmland
• Use gates and stiles to cross fences, hedges and walls
• Leave livestock, crops and machinery alone
• Take your litter home
• Help to keep all water clean
• Protect wildlife, plants and trees
• Take special care on country roads
• Make no unnecessary noise