Wet lands

 
It has been wet wet wet underfoot.  The snow-melt didn't help either.
I thought if I walked on the top of the ridge at Kingsley it would be drier, but the fields were sodden even up there.
On a track, just twenty yards down from the top, I saw this pipe, which is a farmer's way of trying to drain the excess water from the land.  Some hope... it just kept on gushing, so much so that it was creating a completely new runnel beneath it.

Lockdown ways

 

Lockdown again, so back to what we did in the last one - go for walks.

Wulfhere's lonely place

The ancient Saxon king Wulfhere based himself at a site near Stone - and it's popularly supposed that his fort was probably right here, on a high mound called Bury Bank at Darlaston.

Now covered in woodland growth, there is no sign of what once might have been.  In fact, the owners of the site only allow tours very infrequently, so generally it broods in lonely silence.  The ghosts have the place very much to themselves.

The actual Dead Pine Gulch

In my previous post about Chartley Moss, which is a very weird place, I referred to a location within it known as 'Dead Pine Gulch'.   The name made me laugh as it sounded like something out of a Western.

I thought you might like to see a photo of the actual spot known as Dead Pine Gulch.  Complete with dead pine.

A battle... or maybe not (?)

The Saxons, or maybe the Anglo-Saxons, fought the Danes (or maybe it was the Britons) on this spot some 1300 years ago... apparently.
Actually, there is very little evidence that a battle was fought here in Tatenhill on Battlestead Hill (which overlooks Burton and the Trent river), or what its importance was, but local folklore has it so, so, er, that's that.

If you walk through the wood there are markers to show you the path, and on the markers even are depicted heads of Saxon warriors - which is playing a bit loose with history, but I guess legends have their own history too...

Link: Battlestead Hill Wood

Under the green wood trees

It's been warmer than usual for January so far, though still damp.  The dampness brought out the emerald green in these mossy woods.

Battlestead ... battle?

Up the slope from the village of Tatenhill is Battlestead Wood - and all over the wood are footpath signs imprinted with a Saxon warrior's head. This because an old legend in the village refers to a famous battle being fought there sometime pre-Conquest.
Trouble is: the documents referring to any battle are pretty thin, and the only real evidence of a battle there is the local verbal tradition. Still, it's quite spooky walking round the woods.

Coincidentally, the exhibition of Staffordshire Hoard pieces (all from the Saxon era) is now starting its tour round the county - being in Stafford at the moment. I saw some of it a year ago, but the pieces were so small, I found it hard to get enthusiastic.

Links: Staffordshire Hoard 2011 tour / Saxon sites in Staffordshire