Shugborough Stroll.

We decided to go for walk along the Staffordshire Way which runs right past Shugborough Hall. This is the lovely Grade 1 listed Pack Horse Bridge which goes by the name of Essex Bridge built in 1550 for Queen Elizabeth 1 by the Earl of Essex.

   

The bridge crosses the River Trent, the angled recesses make a nice overview picture we thought. The bridge is built of sandstone blocks and has 14 of it’s 40 arches still visible, as the river is quite shallow and it was a hot day dogs were paddling about cooling themselves. We passed this little wooden Ticket Hut at one of the entrances to the Shugborough estate, but decided not to go in even though it was half price for wrinklies on Mondays.

Sugborough Hall looked nice in the sunshine behind the magnificent Copper Beach tree.

……and here is the zoomed in version.

   

This is the Bridle Path from which you can see nearly all of the beautiful parkland around the Hall. The Tower of the Winds was a replica Water Clock completed in 1765 and is one of eight follies or monuments dotted about. We saw a leat which had been channelled through the woodland and across the railway in an iron trough and on into the park to top up the lake.