RUSHTON SPENCER AND LAKE RUDYARD

Grid Ref: SJ 936 625
8 & 9 April 2003, 1 November 2003, 23 May 2004; 8 Jul 2006, 14 Feb 2007

 

Station Pump
The old station at Rushton Spencer The pump by the station
Cliff Park Hall Church
Cliff Park Hall St. Lawrence's Chuch, Rushton Spencer
Lake Rudyard Bridestones
Lake Rudyard, viewed from the dam The Bridestones, with Hermione and Snuffles
Railway Steam engine
Leaving Dam station on a fine Sunday in May 'Excalibur' takes on water at Rudyard station
   
locomotive visitor centre
The Locomotive 'King Arthur', July 2006 Rudyard Visitor Centre Plaque
Lake Locomotive
14 February 2007 King Arthur on 14 February 2007

 

Close to the old railway station at Rushton Spencer is a car park, that is ideally placed for those wishing to walk to nearby Lake Rudyard. The lake was built at the end of the 18th century to feed the Caldon Canal. At the south end is a dam. In the summer time a miniature railway runs along the east side of the lake. On the west side of the lake lies Cliffe Park Hall, built about 1830 in the Gothic style.

The church for Rushton Spencer is not in the village but up the hill to the west. It is unusual in that it has a small wooden tower. There was a church on this site from 1206. The exterior walls are believed to date from the late 17th century. The east window dates from 1690 and the south door from 1713. The north aisle, a chapel on the north side of the chancel and the tower are of later date.

It is convenient to pass the church on a walk from Rushton Spencer to the Bride Stones and then to the top of the Cloud, where fine views can be enjoyed on a clear day across Cheshire and Staffordshire and into Shropshire and Wales.

Source:

The Buildings of England, Staffordshire, by Nikolaus Pevsner, Penguin, 1974, ISBN 0 14 071046 9
The Old Parish Churches of Staffordshire, by Mike Salter, Folly Publications, 1996, ISBN 1871731 25 8

 

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