Wedgwood's Monument

Sunday 30 April 6 miles

Jane, Tracey, Donna and Hilary 

Was the day going to be warm or cold? Well it was coolish with a bit of rain and wind especially in exposed places.

Having parked in Hall Street in Audley, we walked to the end of the road and then went down some steps along a few paths and we were soon into the countryside.

We climbed up the steps and walked along the former railway,

rough grass, trees, listened to the bird song. Tracey had a bird song app on her phone so she was able to identify the songs, there were blackbirds, bluetits, robins and chaffinches. 

As we walked towards the bigger ponds I could see cars and wondered why they were there as a carpark was not marked on the map, when we got closer I could there were men fishing.

There were sheep in the fields, a lamb was trying to get back to its mother but we were walking between them as the mother was through a gate in another field and the young one was in the field where we were. It made a sudden dash for its mother before we reached the gate

As we got closer to the monument the wind got stronger, we managed to find a little shelter on one side of Wedgwood's Monument and had our lunch. There were swifts flyng about the monument we could hear them but could not see them except occasionally.

Wedgwood's Monument - This now-truncated obelisk on Bignall Hill in north Staffordshire commemorates John Wedgwood a prominent local mine owner (1760-1839), whose will includes the sentence: "I desire my body to be interred within my estate at Bignall End in a vaulted tombe at the summit of a certain field called Old Hill…..and my excetors do cause an obelisk or monument to be erected." and that he should be buried underneath it. This latter request was rejected, and he is interred in Audley churchyard. The Monument was heavily damaged in a violent storm in January 1976 and is now much reduced in height, although the base is still substantial. The monument is a Grade II listed building.

There are 360 degree views all around the monument but with the cloud we could not see too far, but we coud see the rain clouds gathering over Mow Cop. As we were deciding to go after having our lunch the rain started. I thought we might get very wet but it didn't rain too hard. The rain continued as we walked on.

Donna and Hilary held up by a lady with a dog. 

There were quite a lot of stiles around the whole walk so some of us thought there might be aches and pains tomorrow from climbing over all those stiles.

There was beautiful pink blossom (like pompoms) on the trees especially the ones we passed under on Old Road.

We walked across New Road to go into the Wildlife Area. We went around the pond and back up the slope to the car.

We then drove to the Apedale Cafe but they didn't have cake! So Hilary found a cafe online so we went to the Courtyard Cafe at Hall Farm and had some lovely tea/coffee and cake (chocolate flapjack, lemon cake and raspberry and coconut slice) and a hot chocolate.