Harston Wood Walkabout near Froghall, Staffordshire. 9th August 2024.

Harston Wood - About the reserve

In the heart of the Churnet Valley, the reserve has one of the largest remaining concentrations of semi-natural woodland in Staffordshire.

Highlights

The woodland ground flora looks spectacular in the spring, with the scent of wild garlic and its white flowers carpeting the ground. Look out for twayblades along the disused tramway.

Walk beneath the wooded canopy along the disused tramline for a wonderful pleasant day out at any time of the year.

Nature’s Industry

At almost a mile long Harston Wood is one of the Trust’s longest nature reserves. Although only a short section of footpath passes through the reserve itself you can follow the boundary of the reserve along it’s entire length using the abandoned tramway from Froghall Wharf car park.

Full info over at:

https://www.staffs-wildlife.org.uk/na...

My take on it on the day.

What started out as two hits walkabouts, 2 birds with one stone so to speak, ended in a one hit walkabout that took some finding.

Harston Wood when I eventually found it due no obvious signage from the car park was a delightful and interesting walk. Incidentally the car park itself must be one of the nicest car park's i've ever parked on with the surrounding wharf, greens, trees and the quaint tea/coffee house. Beautiful setting!

This was a different type of walkabout from which I've taken recently. I'm sure I could have gone on for much longer on the track if i'd chosen to, but time and daylight was against me, so I chose to take a relatively short walk through the woodland eventually leading down to a meandering stream.

Not ideal dog walking territory but can be done with care as there are many overhanging sharpies on the tracks, mainly due to encroaching blackberry thorns.

I do plan to return to this walk some time next year (all being well) to explore further into the wood, probably in the spring season to hear any birdsong and to see spring flora.

A big thanks for looking in. Till next time. Stay safe, be healthy and take care.

Alan @ NorthStaffsCountryWalks

Go to my YT playlist "Staffordshire Wildlife Trust | 20 Local Nature Reserve Walkabouts" to view the latest uploads for this series of videos.

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