Kinver, The Million and Enville
16th February 2004
Four or five years ago with Mick, Larry, Peter and Ray I
had a very enjoyable walk in the area of Kinver, which is located
in South Staffordshire. I had wanted to revisit this area (do this
ramble again) so I was delighted when Larry invited me to do a walk
with him and his brother Ken and it was decided to revisit Kinver.
We arrived at Kinver at
10 o'clock and Larry soon had his car safely
parked in a municipal car park in the centre
of the town. While joking about how the
car park would be viewed favourably by Mick -
it was free - boots were put on and soon we
were off. But wait, Larry had to mark
the car’s location on his GPS so he could find
his way back to it later in the day. I
thought this was unnecessary as this walk was
one of Larry's favourites. He’d done it
six or seven times already.
We had walked about 100 metres along the main street when Ken, who had also done the walk a few times, said 'Larry, I think we are going the wrong way' and we were. So we turned around and walked back past the car park in the right direction. Maybe that GPS would be needed after all!
Soon we passed a war
memorial and immediately took a track that
went right towards the local British Legion
Club and a miniature railway. Larry took us to
see the railway before we got back on route
passing the British Legion building on our
right.
The track, soon met up with the River Stour, which accompanied us on our right as we passed through an equestrian centre before reaching a bridge where we crossed the river. There was a brief discussion about whether we should cross the river at this point and we were about to consult the maps when we discovered that Larry had left them in the car. However, I don't think I should say much about forgetting things as the last time I was walking with the boys I forgot my overtrousers and it rained all day! I now have a spare pair of overtrousers. Could it be our advancing years are affecting our memories?
So over the bridge we
went and within 100 metre we turned left along
a footpath and in a few minutes we reached the
Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal and
turned left along the tow path. It was at this
point that Ken informed us that according to
Ray Mears, the famous television survival
specialist - who goes everywhere with a camera
crew – whenever walking close to water you
should always have the chest strap on
rucksacks undone. The logic of this
being that if you should fall in it would be
easier to remove your rucksack and you'd be
less likely to come to a watery end.
This is a lovely
stretch of canal, with some pretty little
bridges and banks carved into the sandstone
and on our left the River Stour meandered in
the meadows below. 'Twas pretty
idyllic. The only disturbance being
cyclists who would come up behind us and
either cough, rattle the gears on their cycles
or make their brakes squeak to let us know of
their existence and their urgent need to get
passed us. I think it would be better if
they had bells or some other means of giving
warning of their approach. Maybe they
had seen Ray Mears on television and in view
of this have not equipped their cycles with
appropriate warning apparatus in case it
should frighten a walker with a chest strapped
rucksack, who jumps the wrong way, which
results in a drowning fatality.
Doubtful, but it’s about the only reason I can
see why people on bikes don’t have bells to
give walkers a proper warning.
After a couple of miles
of walking the tow paths, admiring thescenery
and going under numerous bridges, we came to
our exit point off the canal at Prestwood
Bridge (number 34). Here we turned left
along a track away from the canal.
Within about a ¼ of a mile a lane was crossed
and we walked uphill along a sandy bridleway
into a wooded area known as the Million.
Why Million? I’ve no idea. Maybe
it’s because someone once said there were a
million trees there. I doubt that there
are that amount, but there are still quite a
few, most being tall fir trees. Quite
spectacular but as Ken stated “it would be
nice to see more deciduous”.
We were pleasantly
surprised with the path through the
Million. We had expected the going to be
more difficult after recent rains.
Although there were some muddy areas,
thanks to the sandy soil, and efforts to make
the pathways (bridleways) acceptable to horse
riders the walking was easier than expected.
The route though the Million is very straight forward – you generally go in a westerly direction until you reach a wide lane. Care is needed here as this roadway, where you turn right, has no footpath and was quite busy.
Having walked about a ¼
of a mile along this road (north) we took a
footpath on our left and continued initially
through woodland and then through open
countryside going north west until we reached
a small community called Blundies. At
the T junction we turned left and followed the
road to the most important part of the walk –
a visit to the Cat at Enville. This is a
lovely little country pub. I remember
when I visited previously most of us consumed
“Balti Breakfasts”. These were large
round nan breads, which just fitted on our
plates. These were split in two with
sausage, egg, bacon, beans, and mushrooms as a
filling. I thought them quite delicious,
especially when washed down with pints of
honey tasting Enville Ale. I can’t
remember how many pints I had that day, but I
do remember walking back to Kinver was harder
than I had anticipated. I think along
with others I may have been wobbling a bit!
Today, however, was a
Monday and unfortunately on this day it was
sandwiches only. However, Ken was able to
persuade the bar maid to supply a big bowl of
chips. All were very enjoyable, particularly
with a couple of pints of the honeyed brew.
Around the corner from the Cat are two white gates, which, besides being the entrance to Enville Hall, were the start of our path back to Kinver along part of the Staffordshire Way. So our route back to the car was fairly straight forward other than nearly going the wrong way at Rocky Hall. When we got to the road by this farm there was a temptation to go left, when we needed to go right and then immediately left uphill along a footpath that went in a south easterly direction.
We then strolled down
hill into Kinver and made it back to the car
without the need of GPS navigation.
The walk would be, according to Larry, 8 or 9 miles in length, although it seemed less, probably because of the enjoyable banter and conversations that always seemed to be going on.
If you intend to do this walk you will need two OS Landranger Maps, numbers 138 and 139. You should also note that the Cat, which was the only pub I was aware of that closed on Sunday, is now open every day of the week. Hooray.
‘Seems very bad visiting Kinver and not visiting the houses built into the local sandstone or going on to Kinver Edge. However, I did do this the first time I visited into this area and just to prove it here is a photograph of the the "Boys" looking from the window of a cave house.
We had walked about 100 metres along the main street when Ken, who had also done the walk a few times, said 'Larry, I think we are going the wrong way' and we were. So we turned around and walked back past the car park in the right direction. Maybe that GPS would be needed after all!
The track, soon met up with the River Stour, which accompanied us on our right as we passed through an equestrian centre before reaching a bridge where we crossed the river. There was a brief discussion about whether we should cross the river at this point and we were about to consult the maps when we discovered that Larry had left them in the car. However, I don't think I should say much about forgetting things as the last time I was walking with the boys I forgot my overtrousers and it rained all day! I now have a spare pair of overtrousers. Could it be our advancing years are affecting our memories?
The route though the Million is very straight forward – you generally go in a westerly direction until you reach a wide lane. Care is needed here as this roadway, where you turn right, has no footpath and was quite busy.
Around the corner from the Cat are two white gates, which, besides being the entrance to Enville Hall, were the start of our path back to Kinver along part of the Staffordshire Way. So our route back to the car was fairly straight forward other than nearly going the wrong way at Rocky Hall. When we got to the road by this farm there was a temptation to go left, when we needed to go right and then immediately left uphill along a footpath that went in a south easterly direction.
With us on this part of
the walk was Bill. We met Bill, a semi
retired mechanical engineer who used to live in
this area, just inside the aforementioned white
gates where he had parked his car. There was
plenty of conversation on this part of the walk
with a lively exchange of views on numerous
subjects, mostly relating to local government and
politics in general. It became fairly obvious
early on that Bill was more right wing than the
average local government officer. We
said farewell to Bill on the outskirts of Kinver,
and Ken remarkedit was probably a good time to say
goodbye as differing political persuasions could
have resulted in the discussions getting more
intense – or words to that effect.
The walk would be, according to Larry, 8 or 9 miles in length, although it seemed less, probably because of the enjoyable banter and conversations that always seemed to be going on.
If you intend to do this walk you will need two OS Landranger Maps, numbers 138 and 139. You should also note that the Cat, which was the only pub I was aware of that closed on Sunday, is now open every day of the week. Hooray.
‘Seems very bad visiting Kinver and not visiting the houses built into the local sandstone or going on to Kinver Edge. However, I did do this the first time I visited into this area and just to prove it here is a photograph of the the "Boys" looking from the window of a cave house.
