Pilsbury Castle & Sheen Hill

This outcrop marks the outer boundary of Pilsbury Castle

This week we returned to Staffordshire to look around Pilsbury Castle. We spotted it from the top of Sheen Hill during last weeks walk and thought it would be work a peek.
We parked in a lay by we had seen last week which is just at the foot of Sheen Hill. The Sun briefly  broke through the autumn mist making a lovely warm glow. It was just a short walk down the road to the footpath then it was a downhill jaunt until we got to a small footbridge over the river Dove. There was a ford just beside it which must have been used in previous centuries.
From the river the track snaked up to Pilsbury and then to the remains of the castle. We took a few pics and noticed the BROKEN SPECTRE which is quite rare.We carried on and eventually crossed the river Dove via some stepping stones. From here we passed a gorgeous farmhouse C1750 Whitle Farm and then it was a slog uphill back up to the road. Rob & Ike carried on to the car while Geoff and myself made a detour to revisit the top of Sheen Hill and this week we saw what we would have seen last week if the weather had been better.

Sunrise through the mist

Sheen Hill basking in the warm early sunlight.

Sheen hill'. The land rises from 711 ft. (271 m.) at Hulme End in the south-west corner to 1,116 ft. (340 m.) at Knowsley in the north on the ridge forming Sheen moor. The ridge has a steep escarpment to the Dove on the east, but the land falls less steeply to the Manifold on the west. Sheen Hill at the south end of the ridge rises to 1,247 ft. (380 m.). It is the uppermost of a series of hard bands of sandstone, known as the Sheen Beds, in the Millstone Grit which underlies the parish.

Rob waiting for the rest of us to catch up

Fantastic engineers these spiders.

Sheep grazing on the hillside

I reckon these spiders must be on piecework

Footbridge over the Upper River Dove

Ancient track from the river ford up to Pilsbury

Sunlight breaking through the mist

Part of Pilsbury Castle

This is how the castle used to look like.

A shot from the top of Pilsbury outcrop with Sheen Hill in the distance

That's my shadow on the mist its known as the BROKEN SPECTRE.
A Brocken spectre (German Brockengespenst), also called Brocken bow or mountain spectre, is the apparently enormous and magnified shadow of an observer, cast upon the upper surfaces of clouds opposite the sun. The phenomenon can appear on any misty mountainside or cloud bank

 

Shot from Pilsbury outcrop looking towards Parkhouse Hill in the distance

Ike & Geoff with sheep on the Pilsbury Outcrop

Sheep on Pilsbury Outcrop

Parkhouse Hill

Still a bit of mist hanging around

This is yet another set of stepping stones over the river Dove

Geoff with Whitle Farm behind

Geoff 

The site of Pilsbury Castle

Pilsbury Castle is an 11th century earthwork motte and triple bailey fortress, probably founded by Henry de Ferrers. The large flat-topped motte, is encased by a wide ditch and the eastern bailey, is defended by a steep-sided limestone reef, which is crowned by an unusual high outcrop and the foundations of a narrow, rubble wall. The southern bailey which has been damaged by ploughing, is defended by a low encasing rampart and ditch. Standing against the flood plain of the River Dove, by the end of the 12th century the castle had probably been abandoned.

View from Sheen Hill

Geoff at Sheen Hill Trig point

View from Sheen Hill

Jim at Sheen Hill Trig point

View from Sheen Hill

View from Sheen Hill

Geoff climbing back over the gate after coming down from Sheen Hill

 This was a cracking walk, started out cool in the misty conditions but quickly warmed up when the Sun came through, the coats soon came off and got packed away. This walk was 4 1/2 miles and apart from the lady at Whitle Farm we never saw another person. We had a quick drink and snack at the car before we set off back home.
See you next week
Cheers

Sheen Hill & The Scary Spider

Trig point on Sheen Hill

We were up before the Sun again this week and headed over to Staffordshire to visit the village of Sheen. The name probably derives from the Old English sceon, meaning shelters, perhaps a reference to shelters for herdsmen pasturing animals there.

We got there about 7:30 and plotted our route to the top of Sheen Hill. Although there had been no rain the grass was quite wet presumably from an overnight dew. The first leg was comfortable but the ascent to the top of Sheen Hill took its toll on us old uns, we just had to have a short rest part way up because it really was a quite steep slope.
At the top the wind was very gusty and almost knocking you off your feet, nice to see the trig point and get something to hold onto.
The views unfortunately were obscured by the mist and low cloud but still impressive.
After a short time at the trig point we slowly got back down and followed a country road back towards the car. We found a quiet spot for our breakfast sheltered out of the wind and guess what we could see the sunlit top of Sheen Hill, bloody typical, why wasn't like that when we were up there?
Anyway we just followed the footpaths back to the village.

The present village, which lies along the road running north-south through the parish, probably existed by 1175 when there was mention of a chapel at Sheen, presumably on the site of the present church. The farms in the village, though rebuilt entirely or in part in the 19th century, are on the sites of earlier buildings

 We had a wander around St. Luke's Church.

The original Sheen church was destroyed at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries but was rebuilt in 1552. Some of the fascinating but grotesque gargoyles date back to medieval times. However, the present church building was rebuilt yet again 1828-32 by Beresford Hope to a design of William Butterfield. In the grounds of Sheen church are supposedly 19 lime trees which have survived from 20 planted back in 1761. Within the church are internal features originally belonging to Margaret Street Chapel in London and an interesting reredos and font of alabaster and Dukes red marble which was extracted from a quarry at Matlock. the graveyard has some ancient gravestones in there the oldest dating back to 1200.

The village is famous for its very successful tug of war teams both men and ladies, with the local pub called The Staffordshire Knot there has to be a connection.

The walk was just under 4 1/2 miles and very pleasant.
See you next week
Cheers

Sheen vicarage by William Butterfield (1814-1900)

Just right for a DIY job

This is an old gatepost, just look at the grooves, presumably to lift out the gate

On the slopes of Sheen Hill

Hanging onto the trig point

Unfortunately the views were restricted by the weather.

On the way back down

Very inventive bird scarer  made up of knives and forks

Breakfast stop with Sheen Hill in the background

Sitting having breakfast when there was this big girlie scream, it was just Ike found a little spider

Sheen Village Cross. The base is probably medieval and the cross circa 1850

A lot of very old tombs in the church yard

St. Luke's Church

The villa