Knightsfields Farm to Colton

The next section was walked on Thursday 10th February, 2005 and according to the book should have been about 9 miles but we did 11 according to the GPS. We started from the road outside Knightsfield Farm and straightaway got into the mud. We have all found that walking in mud can be very tiring especially when there are lots of stiles to climb. Again we were very lucky with the weather. Cold but dry and we soon got warm. The first part of the walk was much of a muchness across muddy fields and a few stiles to Hobb Lane and Marpit House Farm. We then found ourselves in Bagot's Park which is part of the ancient royal Needwood Forest and we saw remnants of this in the form of 'stagheaded' oaks which because they were not in leaf were easy to pick out. We saw a couple of fieldmice on this part of the walk and also some rabbits playing in the open. First wild life we had seen on the walk apart from birds. Whilst negotiating the fields on the way to Abbots Bromley we lost our way for a while which may account for some of the extra distance which we did. We put it down to someone turning a Staffordshire Way signpost to point the wrong way. The GPS pointed us in the right direction, however and we found our way back to the route and eventually into Abbots Bromley via Schoolhouse Lane and came out right opposite the ancient Butter Cross.
At this point it was mutually agreed by some of us, to have a pint. We decided against the Goat Inn and instead crossed the road to The Crown where we were allowed into the bar by the licensee, dirty boots and all. He even allowed us to eat our own sarnies! Brilliant.
We left after about threequarters of an hour and a pint and a half and went straight to church. This was the church of St Nicholas and we went there to view the reindeer horns which are used in the famous Horn Dance which everyone knows is held in the town on the Monday after the first Sunday after the 4th September. We left there and were now approaching Blithfield Reservoir in the vicinity of which I broke the big blade on my Swiss army knife. A new stile had been erected and nearby bits of the old one had been thrown into some undergrowth. A distinctive white and yellow Staffordshire Way marker plaque was still attached to a piece of it and I thought it would make a nice memento, tried to lever it off and snap! Blithfield reservoir is an important wildfowl refuge but they were on an away day when we walked past.
The rest of the walk was fairly uneventful except just past Stockwell Heath (a pretty hamlet with a village pond). We had to climb a stile into a field on the approach to Colton and there were a couple of horses in it. Coddy said he was averse to horses or they were averse to him and we assured him that it was ok but no sooner were we in the field than the ran up to us in a very frisky manner, baring there teeth at us (no not smiling) and as we made off a bit smartish one of them tried to rip open Pete's rucksack (it's only a Nike one, so it didn't really matter). Flaming wild life! We made Colton safely after another good walk. Not so varied as some but enjoyable nevertheless.