Additional information
Terrain
- Wide gravel tracks, roads and dirt trails, many stiles
Landscape
- Ancient woodland, farmland and hilltop
Dog friendliness
- Under close control in the country park
Parking
- Car park opposite Heritage Centre, gates close at dusk
Toilets en route
- At Heritage Centre, when open
About the walk
Apedale Community Country Park, just to the west of Newcastle-under-Lyme, has a rich and varied history. The name itself has two possible meanings: one suggests that the word ape comes from the Latin apis meaning bee; the other is that ape is short for apple. Whichever you prefer, it seems probable... that Apedale was once an ancient rural landscape, although for the last 2,000 years, it has been anything but… Iron smelting in Apedale probably goes back at least to Roman times, if not before, but the impact on the landscape would have been negligible compared to what came later. Mining in the region is known to date back as far as the 1200s. This was made possible in the early days thanks to large deposits of coal lying at or very near the surface. Of the four main Staffordshire deposits, the Potteries Coalfield was by far the biggest, comprising an area of 100sq miles (259sq km). The Potteries, though, were doubly blessed. Not only was there coal to be mined and sold, but there were rich seams of high-quality clays that could be used to make pots. As the pottery industry developed, so the demand for coal increased, and the Apedale collieries would have played a major role in meeting that demand. The arrival of the first canals in 1777, thanks partly to the vision of people like Josiah Wedgwood, precipitated a boom in business throughout the region, and the emergence of the railways 60 years later proved to be another catalyst to productivity and prosperity. With the Industrial Revolution well under way, iron mining and smelting enjoyed its own boom thanks to the invention of the blast furnace in the late 18th century. Apedale was a major centre of production, at one point providing employment for more than 3,000 men. Rising costs, however, sent local industry into decline by the 1920s, and when the owners lost their fortune in the Wall Street Crash, it ended altogether. Coal mining in the area, however, continued until 1998, when the last deep mine was closed at Silverdale, just a mile or two to the south of Apedale. For much of the 20th century Apedale remained a barren and desolate place but today little evidence of the area’s industrial heritage remains. Nature has reclaimed the spoil heaps with luxurious ferns (see Fern Bank, on the map), and trees are recolonising the land, creating 455 acres (184ha) of woodland, meadows and pools that everyone can enjoy. Active reclamation work began in 1995 and continued efforts to improve and develop the park and its facilities reflect a triumph of nature over industry. Apedale Community Country Park is probably as green now as it’s been in the last 300 years, an ancient rural landscape reborn.
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