27/12/15 - Two Churches

Distance - 5.5 Miles
Geocaches - 3
Walk Inspiration - Country Walking Magazine, October 2014, Walk 8
Pub - Acton Arms, Ringwood Forty Niner

I'm not sure that we have had a more surprising start to a walk.

With only three hours of daylight before the anticipated rains came in, I looked for a walk both short in length and local.  Country Walking Magazine, as so often has been the case, provided suitable inspiration.  The walk was plotted, the Geocaches loaded and the co-ordinates to the suggested parking area banged into the car's sat nav.

I wasn't expecting this.

Car Park like no other

As we approached from the main road, Sonia asked if we were pulling into someone's drive.  I replied that we should be parking at a Church.  Sonia asked if it was someone's private church.

This is Morville Manor - the first of our Elizabeth architecture treasures seen today and true enough, on the banks of Mor Brook, is the anticipated Church.

Staring at the Sun - into Morville Church

We were never going to get away with this walk clean.  The pathway underfoot is best described as Terra Infirma.  We have come partly prepared for the pub later.  We both have gaiters but only I have the foresight to bring spare drinking shoes.  Sonia promises to visit the pub by performing an impression of Sandie Shaw.

One of the few places sans mud

Mor Brook delivers us to the Lye and a stiff climb up a little used lane to Meadowley.  First cache of the day offers fine views of the Black Country.

We find the correct path from the Jack Mytton way to be met in a waterlogged field by dog walkers with at least half a dozen hounds.  Some of them bark at us.  All of them charge at us.  The greyhound cross is a jumper that likes ladies.

Sonia now has her top half matching her bottom half, with two great long muddy paw prints running down the length of her soft shell jacket.  Forget barefooted sixties chanteuses, if this continues, I will be taking Lady Godiva to the boozer.

At least the views make up for things.  Country Walking must agree as the route card in the magazine is accompanied by an almost identical photo to this.

Shropshire in its finery

The OS Map is littered with that strange script they use to denote items of historical interest.  In this case, the site of a medieval village.  We move on a couple of centuries to be met with our next item of architectural interest and are met at Upton Cressett by a view that can't have changed too much since the Armada.

First glimpse of the Elizabethan Upton Cressett Manor House

There's another tiny church to explore and a Geocache to hunt.

Upton Cressett Church

The weather starts to close in and the heavy going has made the walk feel a lot longer than its 5 miles.  I consult the map and see a footpath that can save us a mile but misses another architectural gem at Aston Eyre.

I ask Sonia whether she wants to take it.  To be fair, she asks what will be missed.  When I say an isolated rural church linked to a manor house, she reminds me that we have seen a couple of those already.

No doubt the original plan would have been followed if I had answered with a Tea Shop.

We make the correct decision, the clouds drop, leaving things misty and the promised rains imminent.  If it was any more slippery underfoot, we would never have made the treacherous descent Aston Hall.

Rarely have the red lines on the map been so close together in so much mud.

Relieved to make it down safely and back to Morville Church

De-Gaiter and investigate the Acton Arms pub over the road.  Lovely people, they adapted the menu from a Sunday Roast to a Chicken Sandwich.  Its the 3rd day of Xmas and we just couldn't face another huge meal.

Acton Arms, Morville

Still, Room for a Ringwood Forty Niner