Railway ghostliness

 

Stafford railway station has been empty (ish) and a little ghostly over the last twelve months. It'll be interesting to see if it returns to its former numbers.

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Light & shade

Country-walking traditionally starts again after Easter (at least, it does for light-weights like me).

 

I do love these Springtime moving-picture vistas, with the sun and cloud moving rapidly in the sky, sweeping light and shade in quick succession over the hills. 
Fast-changing moments have rather been a theme of the last year.

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Fish pour off the bridge

 

This stone sculpture on a bridge in Newcastle-under-Lyme above the Lyme Brook, is called 'The Return'. It vaguely amuses me, though I do worry some of the fish on the far edges of the parapet are actually dead. Who knows?

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Getting close to a Tudor wonder

 
This is about as close to Broughton Hall as you'll get, unless you're fortunate enough to be invited to one of the magnificent Grand Charity Balls that are held here every so often.

Broughton Hall is a famous Elizabethan manor that has been in private hands since it was built, but - one of the magical aspects of the British footpath network! - a walkers' path gets this close to it.  Thus: at least one can admire the wonderful exterior from relatively close.

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Falling foul of Henry

 
What drew me to this stained-glass in Brecon Cathedral was the Stafford Knot in it of course - you can see the knot on this man's shoulder.
He is Edward Stafford, the third Duke of Buckingham.
(The first duke had been born at Stafford Castle and was also the Earl of Stafford. He was the one who had first adopted the knot for the family's badge/livery.) 

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Poor Edward was executed in 1521 after annoying Henry VIII for something or other. 

Sighing to the workhouse

This must have been a most miserable passageway 150 years ago.
The Victorians of the town of Stone lived and enjoyed themselves on the east side of the river, so, on the west, they built the local Workhouse, in which the desperately poor were housed.
To access the workhouse from the comfortable side of town, the poverty-stricken had to pass through this passageway under a small bridge.  A bridge of sighs.

 

After the end of the Poor Laws, the old workhouse became a hospital, and is now - by a curious twist of fate -, luxury apartments!

Geese vs parks

 
Canadian geese are probably the least liked of all birds to be found in Britain. They can be aggressive and hard to disperse.  But, worse than this it seems, park managers despair when they see the birds settle on their patches. This is because, over time, the birds simply nibble away at the luscious swards - and create bare grounds of uncovered mud. There are even guides online on how to cull them (humanel, of course).

The geese like to settle by water.  Here they have destroyed the greens on the riverside walk in Burton.

Singles at Hoar Cross

 

Despite being a relatively young church (built 1876), Holy Angels at Hoar Cross is a stunner, and gets hugely high ratings from both visitors and 'church-crawlers'.  

However, this photo is of the church's single pews (I've neer seen single pews before).  They could almost have been custom made for worship in a time of Covid social distancing...!

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.

Wall/bridge/lock/road/canal/path

This road-bridge on the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal (1770) is Grade-2 listed, believe it or not - though it was built by Brindley, so does deserve its bit of fame. And it is strangely elegant.
The odd arrangement you see here the because of the challenge set to Brindley to build a lock and bridge in one structure - he always loved a challenge!
If you want to go look for it, it's no 49 on the canal and is to be found in Awbridge (Trysull).