Kingsley

Pubs and the valley climb

Cask ales, a dartboard, a fireplace and a jar of dog treats by the bar — the Blacksmiths Arms on Shawe Park Road is Kingsley's only pub actually standing inside the village these days. Tripadvisor reviewers rate it 4.5 out of 5 from 39 reviews, praising the prices and the welcome from locals. There's a beer garden and a pool table besides the darts, and water bowls at the door for dogs.

You reach the village on a climb. The Staffordshire Way crosses the Caldon Canal at Cherry Eye Bridge, then goes steeply up Banks Lane into Kingsley, the view opening out behind you to Ruelow Wood. The village sits on a gentle eminence above the River Churnet, on the western edge of a steep, wooded valley.

There used to be more choice. The Bull's Head closed in 2019 and reopened as a shop in 2022; the Old Swan became a private house; the Plough was demolished for housing. Mining once kept several pubs going. Now there's one.

Down in Froghall, opposite the heritage station, the Railway Inn is known for a Beef and Stilton pie, a wood burner in the dining room, and five en-suite rooms for anyone staying over. Its trading status was uncertain at the time of writing, so check before visiting.

Village landmarks and local lore

Kingsley has no shops left — it once had butchers, grocers and a haberdashery. The post office survives in reduced form, run out of the Village Hall on the High Street, open Mondays only, 2.30 to 4.30pm.

St Werburgh's Church is Grade II listed, its tower base going back to the 13th or 14th century, the nave rebuilt in 1820 and the chancel in 1886. The tower carries a clock, six bells rehung in 1891, and an uncommon wooden sundial.

Three stone blocks in the churchyard are locally said to be former stocks, and tradition holds there were bear-baiting and bull-baiting rings here too, though a local farmer disputes it.

From Domesday to the Redmen

Domesday recorded Kingsley under two owners in 1086, with eleven households, valued at ten shillings to the lord.

The Froghall to Consall Forge circular runs 7.2 miles with about 1,128 feet of ascent, through farmland and back along the canal past old industrial remains. A flatter route follows the canal north to the Black Lion at Cheddleton.

This was iron country: an 1880 survey plan shows 66 coal mines and a scatter of ironstone workings nearby, employing 1,500 men at their peak, with 30 barges a day carrying ore down to Froghall Wharf. The miners were known as the Redmen, for the dust that coated them.

Rails, raptors and community

The station opened in 1849 to serve Thomas Bolton's copper refinery, closed in 1965, and was demolished. Volunteers rebuilt it from nothing, and the finished building was opened by the record producer Pete Waterman in 2004. It's now the line's southern terminus, with a coal-fire waiting room and a tearoom by the river.

The Kingsley Bird & Falconry Centre, on a 30-acre hillside above the valley, runs flying displays and falconry courses. Alton Towers is eight minutes down the road; Cheadle, the nearest proper town, is four miles off.

The old Methodist chapel at Kingsley Holt closed for worship in 2019 and is now the community-run Kingsley Holt Centre. Kingsley Holt Carnival, a separate fixture, began in 1949.