A Show-off!

We completed a short walk around Dimmingsdale valley today. I seem to have injured my foot and was finding it difficult to put too much pressure on my heal. So we took it gently. It's a beautiful part of the Staffordshire Moorlands, only a short drive from our house too. It's also a SSSI site. The area was once owned by the 15th Earl of Shrewsbury.

Within the valley is a large, extremely old Oak tree covered in chains. In the 1830’s a beggar woman asked the Earl for some money. When he refused she cursed him. For every branch that fell off the Oak, a member of the Earls family would die. When a branch did fall off the tree this actually happened. The Earl had chains wrapped around the branches to prevent any more branches falling off.

Towards the end of the walk I spotted 2 mandarin ducks on a log over the pond.

We had coffee and cake in The Ramblers Retreat at the end.