Spring Sqwalk 13th May 2011
 
Up for it were:
Yupmeister, Mid Week Tone, Pedro, Dasher, Malc Jay, Mr Tahoohigh, Heavy Steve Machine, Paul Hecky Thump, Mrs Hecky Thump (Wendy), Austin Knott, Jax Knott, Debri (Debbie Holihead), B.Ed - Brian Edwards, Mark, and GPS-cott
For most, the train left Stoke station at 7.24am, arriving in Hatton just before 8. We'd hoped to get groupsavers but sadly we had to cough up the full £8.90 as they weren't available this time.
With only the one carriage we wondered who was driving, or even if there was a driver. The conductor couldn't help us as it was his first day on this train apparently.
Getting the cold shoulder, Mr Tahoohigh realised Pedro’s bottle of 'orange squash' on the storage rack had been leaking. 'I need an umbrella, ella ella', he cried, all the vodka's gone'.
It was a bright sunny start as predicted as we jumped off at Hatton to meet up with the Heavy, Heckies and Knotts at Hatton station, together with Brian and Mark who were joining us for the first time on an office sqwalk.
We didn't walk too far, as the Castle café stop was only 200 yards up the main road towards Tutbury. The cafe was quite small but very friendly and efficient. The queue for the toilet out the back delayed the restart with Brian being last out. With a head count underway Joe confirmed at Brian's name 'Ian teer'. Possibly a new nickname??
Fully assembled we headed up towards the castle entrance, where a peacock took a fancy to Heavy. 'Feel the weight of that', he said picking up one of its feathers, 'it's as light as a feather aint it'.
Sadly the castle wasn't open this early in the morning so we gathered for a group shot in front of the wall. 'Bring on the wall'.
GPS became the official photographer for the day snapping to his hearts content whenever he spotted a chance. Check out his banana at the end of these notes.
Tutbury Castle for the historians out there was built in 1061, just a few years before the Norman Conquest of 1066. It's a spectacular castle with a large deep moat, that sits on top of the hill looking over the town. It was also used as a prison to hold Mary Queen of Scots from 1569, who was beheaded on 8th Feb 1587 just two years after leaving the castle. The tower where Mary was held still stands today.
The majority of Tutbury Castle today is in ruins, but it's reasonably well preserved. It is also noted to be one of the most haunted buildings in Britain, hosting none other than the ghost of Mary who has been seen roaming around by many a visitor.
     
Looking back to the castle we could just make out the remnants of the towers etc as we left Tutbury and headed on to Sudbury.
 
     
There was a narrow overgrown section on the way across to the Fauld crater with loads of nettles. Luckily we were all wearing long trousers, oh except for Hecky thump, hee hee.

A minor domestic could be heard between Austin and Jax over the correct way up and over to the crater. As they'd only walked this stretch the week before, who'd got the best memory and who would be proved right? I can't say, but better luck next time Jax....
 
The size of the crater unfaulded before us. It was huge, although the amount of vegetation and trees disguised its full extent.
 
We pulled up at the memorial plaque for 5 minutes to absorb the size of the disaster and to see the names of those killed in the explosion. The plaque, was fought for by various people (including Slippery's family) as a recognition of the crater being the grave of 18 people.


Several relating reports are shown below.
 

The first newspaper cutting from derby Telegraph re the Fauld explosion in 1944:
     
Pictures taken by Burton Mail 1 day after the explosion:
 
     
 
     
Article from 2004 (60 year anniversary) which tells the story of Slippery's two uncles (Lewis Frow who died in the explosion, and Ken McLeod who was trapped but survived and still lives in Burton, and by chance later married Lewis's sister (Slip's aunty))
     
 
 
It was all downhill after the climb to Fauld, and Austin and Jax had made up. The sun was still shining as we approached private land owned by the Duchy of Lancaster. We had a choice of entering the woods or continuing down the lane which would get us to the pub quicker. No contest....
Dasher admitted he was worried, especially as he didn't drink.. He was dreaming of his first pint sitting on the bar waiting for him.......
He wasn’t alone!
     
The Dog and Partridge soon came into view.
Their web site hadn’t shown any handpulls which was a little bit concerning but on arrival we soon spotted a small segregated bar with 3 handpulls, including Flying Dutchman and Adnams Broadside. Despite our excitement of discovering the pulls, there was only Abbott on sadly, so we made do. At least we weren't staying too long today, just long enough however to carry out running repairs to a blistered pair; GPS and Heavy, using Yup's emergency kit.
     
We advised the landlord about the lack of handpulls shown on their web site and he made a note to inform his web page designer. Was it 2 or was it 3?
Job done we moved on.
Within an hour we arrived at the Vernon Arms in Sudbury, passing a gleaming red E Type Jag, owned for the day by Mr and Mrs Slippery, who joined us for a short time before heading off to the peaks.
     
Debris spotted a fascinating caterpillar foraging in GPS's scalp.
Heavy said it was trying to get its leg over, leg over, leg over, leg over.......
 
     
The food which we had to pay for in advance for some strange reason, was ok but not good, with only one pudding being ordered by Heavy.
Pedro and Debris munched through their burgers. 'Is yours moist', asked Pedro. 'Yes, and I’ve also had onions which always make me fxxt', came the reply. Quickly the discussions changed to Joseph's walking stick and it's origins.

We wondered out to the local bus shelter to catch the bus back to Tutbury as it started to rain, and all 15 of us squeezed in, keeping the locals at bay.
There was a rush to the wooden platform at Tutbury where B Ed. explained its construction, how it would last around 20 years, and that there had been no station at Hatton until recently. Amazing what you find out on these walks.
Again one train carriage and a hundred thousand of us squeezed on for the short journey back to Stoke, where a few staggered along to Wetherspoons for a final half.


Another fab day


Yuppers
 
AND FINALLY    

Click on GPS-cott's banana to watch his video of the day unfauld.