Brown End Quarry Walkthrough near Waterhouses in Staffordshire. 5th September, 2024.

About the reserve

Follow our interpretive trail which tells the story of how the rocks in this area were formed and what the land was like over 300 million years ago. Not just all rocks, the adjoining grassland areas have developed a wonderfully rich limestone grassland flora. Mid-summer is the best time to visit to see the wildflowers at their best and an abundance of butterflies.

A first for Staffordshire!

Brown End Quarry became the County’s first geological nature reserve when it was acquired by the Trust in 1987. Brown End was quarried for limestone from the mid 18th Century until 1950, when its inclusion within the Peak National Park restricted further development. Quarrying finally ceased in the mid 1960's. For much of this period the stone was dug by hand and typical production in the late 1940's was about 5,000 tonnes a year – not much by today’s modern quarrying methods!

The above information was sourced from the website link below. For more information about Brown End Quarry Nature Reserve, please go over to:

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

My take on the walkthrough on the day...

First off, I'd like to mention here that this was PART 1 of this particular Local Nature Reserve walkabout, because unknown to myself at the time of starting this walkthrough with my dear wife, our grandson, and of course our pet pooch, Millie, I chose to take the wrong route. Oops!

I should have paid more attention to the notices just off the car park where we parked up rather than listen to one of the local lady dog walkers (see video) who pointed us in the wrong direction for the actual Brown End Quarry proper walk.

Alas, all was not lost though. We got to walk along the well maintained tarmaced track of the former Leek and Manifold Valley Light Railway for at least a mile and a half whilst viewing and enjoying some really nice scenery almost alongside the very interesting looking dry river bed of the River Hamps.

Our aim was to reach a tea room a couple of miles away on the track which a local fella had said is normally open during the day. Unfortunately for us on the day it had been closed temporarily. Fortunately we found out a half mile or so short of the walk so we didn't end up walking that extra mile or so to be disappointed.

There are quite a few open fields on the right side of the walk early on into the walk. The left side is banked up with plenty of different types of trees and ground foliage to see. Things opened up more about a mile or so into walk where there were many trees, shrubbery and open fields to view and enjoy. We didn't get to see any wildlife as such, but there were some late grassland flora dotted about here and there on route.

A bit disappointed there were no sit down benches along the route we covered. We had taken a picnic with us and ended up standing whilst eating. No big deal, but it would have been nicer to sit down whilst eating the lovely grub my dear wife had prepared for us all. Freddie, our grandson was okay though, he got a seat in his pushchair :)

All in all I would give this walk a resounding 7 out of 10. It would have most definitely been a solid 8 out of 10 from me if the dry bed of the River Hamps had been flowing with water.

I'm really looking forward to visiting this site again (PART 2, the proper Brown End Quarry walk), hopefully very soon as part of this series.

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.

   • Staffordshire Wildlife Trust | 20 Loc...  

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