A luxuriously free afternooon took us to a Staffordshire high point near The Roaches. Parking in Wincle, it seemed churlish to walk past the micro-brewery without sampling its wares and kicking a football for the brewery dog. The Rambler was very good indeed. Maybe beer tastes better when it hasn't travelled far?
We climbed steeply through some bluebell woods, as yet not in bloom,
with almost all trees seeming lifeless, to the open pasture surrounding
the gritstone ridge which ends in the rocky Roaches. Just off a path
through moorland scrub we found Lud's Church, a rocky chasm whose walls
are covered in damp mosses flourishing in the shady gloom. It's said
that sunlight reaches into the chasm only on midsummer's day, but every
other day it's probably as cool as it was yesterday.
Heading back along the gritstone ridge, the views were far reaching in all directions; the Roaches to the East, Shutlingsloe roughly North, The Cloud ahead to the West and rich pasture to the South.
The 5 miler whetted the appetite for a hearty pub lunch at Sutton Hall, now restored and thriving after a fallow period some years ago, a really beautiful black and white timbered building typical of the local vernacular architecture.
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