Rail Rover 2017

Trumpet fanfare please - nothing less will do for a moment of such exploration significance. Yes, my Rail Rover adventures have been resurrected after a FIVE year gap. Not since 2012 had I last set forth armed with a Heart of England Rover ticket but now the wider Midlands rail network was once again waiting to be (re)discovered - here's what I got up to...

- Tutbury Castle -

Monday 24th April 2017: I've opted for the Flexi Rover ticket this time around which gives me three days travel within a seven day period. Lapworth and Leamington brought the curtain down in 2012 so picking up the baton from those esteemed locations is Tutbury & Hatton on the North Staffordshire Line (Crewe - Derby via Stoke-on-Trent). The station serves neighbouring communities either side of the River Dove with Tutbury being home to a ruined castle, a quaint High Street and a few pubs - I sampled the Leopard for some lunchtime Pedigree. Hatton is actually just over the county boundary into South Derbyshire and has a Nescafe factory as probably its most notable landmark. 

- Foxfield Railway -

Monday afternoon sees me stopping off at Blythe Bridge, a village on the south-eastern fringes of the Stoke-on-Tent city conurbation. The main village facilities (library, post office, Black Cock pub) can be found along the Uttoxeter Road although of particular interest to me is the Foxfield Railway. Originally built to serve Foxfield Colliery, the railway now operates weekends and Bank Holidays as a heritage line from its base on Caverswall Road. Although the site is understandably quiet on a weekday I still enjoy getting glimpses of the goods shed and some of the rolling stock. I then round off the day in Stoke town centre where I'm pleased to see the former Gray's Corner pub (with its Inde Coope lettering) brought back to life as the Olde Bull and Bush.

- Leominster Station Sign -

Tuesday 25th April 2017: Rail Rover Tuesdays are traditionally reserved for Shropshire although I decide to include a little bit of Herefordshire on this occasion. Catching the Carmarthen train out from Shrewsbury, I land in Leominster for my first ever look at the town's railway station, a modest setting that still conveys a sense of transport history. As a sizeable market centre on the River Lugg, Leominster has plenty of attractive architecture to keep me busy: Corn Square with its millennium clock, the Priory Church of St Peter & St Paul and several coaching inns. The Grape Vaults was my choice here and stole my heart with a cracking pint of Ludlow Best to match the old-fashioned ambience and the murmur of local conversation.

- Ludlow Market Square -

One stop back up the line towards Shrewsbury is lovely Ludlow, a place I always enjoy visiting. The whole pace of life seems so different compared to the West Midlands and I savour taking pictures of the Market Square in the shadow of the historic castle. My beer radar then leads me to the Rose & Crown, a courtyard pub hidden away off Church Street that was refurbished last year by Joules of Market Drayton, while the Railway Shed down by the station is now the established tap of the Ludlow Brewery. A pint of Black Knight and some scratchings does me very nicely indeed as I watch the brewers at work.

- Wrenbury Village -

Thursday 27th April 2017: my third and final day of rovering is dedicated to Cheshire as I settle back and relax on the local stopper between Shrewsbury and Crewe. There's something about quiet branch lines and request stops that really appeals to me so I ask the conductor for the train to call at Wrenbury, an unstaffed village halt. I'd never been to Wrenbury before but immediately feel at home, especially with a stretch of the Llangollen Canal to investigate. A succession of lift bridges either side of Wrenbury Mill Marina provide the focus of my towpath tour until a sharp shower sends me scurrying for shelter in the Cotton Arms, a Cholmondeley Road inn with an associated caravan site.

- Shropshire Union at Nantwich -

When the rain relents I return to Wrenbury station for the short journey up the line to Nantwich where my canal capers continue courtesy of the Shropshire Union main line. The stretch from Marsh Lane to Nantwich Aqueduct is sedate and reasonably scenic with narrowboat moorings adding charm along the way. Nantwich's main centre sits beside the River Weaver and the town is historically associated with both the salt and tanning industries (the local football club is nicknamed the 'Dabbers' in reference to the latter). I weave my way through from Welsh Row to Hospital Street, making sure to seek out the Black Lion (as listed in the 2017 Good Beer Guide) for a quality pint of Weetwood's Cheshire Cat. There's just time for me to wave hello to 'Elvis' over at the Railway Hotel before my Crewe connection arrives, and as I make my return back to the West Midlands I hope it won't be another five years until I next see Rail Rover action!