Category: March 2021

Jinney Nature Trail, Staffordshire – March 2021

The Jinney Nature Trail is the remains of old railway line that ran from Tutbury & Hatton via Rolleston-on-Dove to Burton-on-Trent. It closed in the 1960s thanks to the idiotic Lord Beeching and his drive to close many parts of the rail network as possible.

Happily it is now a short walk (about two miles) from Rolleston to the outskirts of Burton. This was my first chance to get out for a walk for ages and to be more than 9.9 miles from home, because of Covid restrictions. Any fitness is hard to acquire, but easy to lose!

Four miles was quite enough…

Spring is a favourite time of year, so there are as many pictures of flowers as possible!

These pictures and videos are @Aidan Parr 2021, so please ask permission if you want to use them. I’ll probably say ‘yes’!

    Rolleston on Dove to Tutbury, Staffordshire – March 2021

    This was a walk from Rolleston-on-Dove in Staffordshire, along the River Dove to Tutbury and back by a very quiet road and across country back to Rolleston.

    If you’ve got time, Tutbury Castle is worth a look. Be aware that it is privately owned and opening hours are eccentric. At the time of this walk, the castle wasn’t open because of Covid.

    There were lots of dramatic and changeable skies where it looks like you need to pack for every sort of weather: sunglasses, sunscreen, raincoat, hat and scarf. Fortunately, despite dark threatening skies, it remained dry with just a light shower for a few minutes.

    It’s very English location with pretty villages, old churches, swans and spring flowers just starting to bloom, slightly spoilt by the Nestle factory in Hatton. Even if you ignore it visually, the smell of coffee can be overpowering.

    This is the session I discovered that I had dirt on the CMOS sensor of my camera, so you might spot unidentified objects here and there. These are the perils of trying to understood what goes wrong with a ‘proper’ camera after using my phone for so long…

    I thought it would be nice for the swans on the Dove near Hatton to get their own small section:

    These pictures and videos are @Aidan Parr 2021, so please ask permission if you want to use them. I’ll probably say ‘yes’!