Cheddleton

Award-Winning Village Pubs

The Black Lion sits on Hollow Lane, directly opposite St Edward's church, and the original fireplace still splits the bar into two rooms, even after the recent rustic-modern refit. It has been collecting trophies: Staffordshire Moorlands CAMRA's Pub of the Season in 2015, Pub of the Year in 2024, and Village Pub of the Year in 2025. Two regular ales, Draught Bass and Timothy Taylor Landlord, sit alongside three changing guests, usually from Titanic, Whim or Wincle, plus a real cider. Patio at the front, enclosed beer garden behind, dogs welcome throughout.

Down at the canal, the Boat Inn has bench seating built to resemble a narrowboat's interior, a short walk over two bridges from Cheddleton station. The kitchen runs to steak and Guinness pudding, Welsh cheese tart, lamb chops with mash, and a Sunday roast of gammon or beef, chicken or pork with onion sauce. Fish finger baguettes come with cod goujons and beer batter. Monday and Tuesday are cask days, discounting Marston's Pedigree and Wychwood Hobgoblin Ruby, with moorings right outside for anyone arriving by boat.

Changing Pubs and Everyday Amenities

The Red Lion, out on the main A520, spent much of 2026 closed, before new tenants promised to relaunch what they called "an iconic meeting place" for the village. That leaves two pubs trading properly for now, not a bad ratio for a village this size.

Shops are thinner on the ground: a 2011 survey counted just one, plus a vet's surgery and two churches. There's a converted schoolhouse tea room, a beauty room, and Truckers Tucker Lenny for brunch.

Morris Glass and Industrial Heritage

St Edward the Confessor, Grade II* and mostly 13th to 15th century, holds stained glass by William Morris and his circle, with Madox Brown and Burne-Jones both contributing, because the Victorian incumbent, Edward Wardle, happened to be a personal friend of Morris's. The reredos is a Flemish Deposition relief turned into a triptych by Morris & Co, with an Annunciation added either side. Six bells hang in the tower, the tenor tuned in G.

Below the church, past the old brewery and warehouses, the Flint Mill has been grinding since 1253. It's now a free museum, run by a heritage trust, on the bank of the Caldon Canal. The water tower above St Edward's Hospital is harder to miss: 135 feet of octagonal Victorian brick that once held 156 tons of water. The asylum itself closed in 2002 and became flats, but the tower still stands over the railway and canal.

Railway and Canal Connections

The Churnet Valley Railway's Cheddleton station, reputedly designed by Pugin, was due for demolition in 1974 until a parish councillor named Norman Hancock parked his car in front of the bulldozers. It's the preserved line's headquarters now, and the Caldon Canal towpath runs straight past it and the Boat Inn towards Deep Hayes Country Park and the Coombes Valley RSPB reserve, with a ten-kilometre circular walk taking in three locks and the Hazelhurst Aqueduct along the way. Buses to Leek and Stoke-on-Trent are infrequent; a car helps.

Deep Roots and Quiet Traditions

The Domesday Book recorded four households here in 1086. As the Area Hive village guide put it, nighttime walks here "feel more serene than tense," which is as good a summary as any of a place where the loudest fixture of the year is a Duck Race on the canal outside the Boat Inn.