Cheddleton

Waterwheels Below the Village

Two waterwheels turn at Cheddleton Flint Mill, down on the River Churnet below the village. They are named George and Helen — the northern wheel 22 feet across — and they once ground calcined flint for Josiah Wedgwood's creamware over at Etruria. The mills stopped in the 1960s, the last millers being George Goodwin & Sons, who left every bit of machinery in place when they walked out. Volunteers have been restoring it since 1967. It's free, most weekends March to October.

The village sits above all this, on the western edge of the Peak District, three miles south of Leek. The Churnet and the Caldon Canal run side by side through the valley below.

Two Pubs, Two Settings

Three pubs, and no filler among them. The Black Lion is tucked up Hollow Lane behind St Edward's church, which means the parking is close to hopeless, but it won CAMRA Staffordshire Moorlands Pub of the Year in 2024 and one TripAdvisor reviewer settled the matter with "Best pub in Staffordshire!!!!!" It does Sunday roasts, steak and ale pie, real fires, up to five real ales, and fish and chips that a reviewer reckoned "surpass any chip shop." Tapas on Thursday evenings, fish and chips on Fridays. Dogs are made to feel at home.

Down by the water is The Boat Inn, canal-side on Basford Bridge Lane, right beside Cheddleton Station and the wharf. Big portions of home cooking, Marston's ales, a garden on the towpath, cobs on Tuesdays. It's the natural stop for anyone walking the canal or riding the railway.

Main Road and Morris Glass

The Red Lion is on the main road, 18th-century and Grade II listed, with a snug on the right and a restaurant to the rear. It closed for a while and reopened under new tenants — "Cheddleton's Beloved Red Lion Pub to Roar Again," as one headline put it. Steak nights, a veggie menu, roasts, and live music Fridays and Saturdays. For shopping there's the village store and Post Office; anything more specialist is Leek's job, three miles north.

St Edward the Confessor is worth the walk up Hollow Lane. Grade II*, medieval fabric, but the reason to go inside is the glass — mostly William Morris & Co., made 1864–69, with angels bearing ruby wings in the south aisle by Edward Burne-Jones. The connection is local: Thomas Wardle, the Leek silk-dyer who worked with Morris, was churchwarden here.

Unusual Lives and Valley Days

Cheddleton has form for unusual residents. Sybil Leek, the self-styled Queen of the Witches, grew up at Victoria Cottages off Station Road, going about in a hooded cloak with a pet snake called Sashima and a jackdaw named Mr Hotfoot Jackson, who reputedly came along to coven meetings until he died in 1969.

For walking, the Flint Mill to Stepping Stones loop runs about four and a half miles along the river and canal, and Deep Hayes Country Park offers 143 acres of woods and pools nearby. The station is heritage-only now — steam trains on the Churnet Valley Railway, saved from demolition in 1974 by a parish councillor. The mainline is at Stoke, nine miles west; the number 16 bus runs to Leek.

The Water Tower After the Asylum

The great water tower of the old county asylum still stands over St Edward's Park, holding no water now, converted to flats across eight floors.