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| Panorama shot from the dam on 4 March 2017 |
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| Panorama shot from the dam on 4 March 2017 |
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| The old station at Rushton Spencer | The pump by the station | |
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| Cliffe Park Hall, boarded up in 2020 | St. Lawrence's Chuch, Rushton Spencer, March 2020 | |
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| The tightrope walker near the lake dam | The Bridestones, November 2003 | |
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| Yachting on 13 Dec 2009 | Rudyard Visitor Centre Plaque | |
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| Leaving Dam station on a fine Sunday in May | 'Excalibur' takes on water at Rudyard station | |
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| 'King Arthur', July 2006 | 'King Arthur' on 14 February 2007 | |
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| 'Pendragon' on 1 April 2013 | 'King Arthur; on 1 April 2013 | |
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| 'Excalibur' on 14 June 2009 | 'Waverley' on 14 June 2009 | |
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| The lodge for Cliffe Park Hall | Path with rail track on the east side of the lake |
Close to the old railway station at Rushton Spencer is a car park, which is ideally placed for those wishing to walk to nearby Lake Rudyard. A full tour of the lake from here is about 6.5 miles. The lake was built at the end of the 18th century to feed the Caldon Canal. At the south end is a dam. This end is home to a small visitor centre, and a cafe, with both inside and outside seating, where you can get hot and cold drinks and ever-popular bacon sandwiches. Plots of land on the western shore of the lake were sold off and became the sites of small holiday chalets but in recent years most have been redeveloped into desirable holiday homes, some of which are available to let.
There are yachts and other pleasure boats at the Dam end and it is popular with rowers and canoeists. On weekends between the end of April and the end of October, a miniature railway runs along the east side of the lake and it is open every day in August. Details of the schedule are on the Rudyard Lake Steam Railway website. This end is a popular stopping point for walkers and cyclists. There is a small car park. Nearby, is the Rudyard Hotel, where you can get lunch indoors. Sometimes there is a tour boat that takes you half way along the lake to view the sights; it was formerly the captain's boat on a WII destroyer.
On the west side of the lake lies Cliffe Park Hall, built about 1830 in the Gothic style. In August 2017, we found it boarded up but in 2018 it is under new ownership and undergoing restoration.
The church for Rushton Spencer is not in the village but up the hill to the west. It is unusual in that it has a small wooden tower. There was a church on this site from 1206. The exterior walls are believed to date from the late 17th century. The east window dates from 1690 and the south door from 1713. The north aisle, a chapel on the north side of the chancel and the tower are of later date.
It is convenient to pass the church on a walk from Rushton Spencer to the Bridestones and then to the top of the Cloud, where fine views can be enjoyed on a clear day across Cheshire and Staffordshire and into Shropshire and Wales.
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| The Bridestones, March 2020 |
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| Bridestones, 2020 | St. Lawrence's, Rushton Spencer, 2020 |
The Buildings of England, Staffordshire, by Nikolaus Pevsner, Penguin,
1974, ISBN 0 14 071046 9
The Old Parish Churches of Staffordshire, by Mike Salter, Folly Publications,
1996, ISBN 1871731 25 8
1.0 Strict 