Martyn's Blog

On Wednesday 11th May, I took an evening train from Burton on Trent down the line to Tamworth for a walk around the Tameside Local Nature Reserve, around a 25 minute walk south of the railway station.

After my evening train ride and walk a few weeks ago in Ambergate and Whatstandwell, I am hoping to do a few more evening travels this summer, seeing as the evenings are lighter at this time of year.

I caught the train from Burton down to Tamworth at about ten to six in the evening. It only takes ten minutes, so I arrived around 6 o’clock. I walked from the railway station to the town centre, which was unsurprisingly almost deserted. I made my way to the Tamworth Castle Pleasure Grounds, a place where I have partaken in some pleasure a couple of times in the last couple of years. It had started to rain when I arrived in Tamworth, but it was only a passing shower, and it yielded an impressive rainbow.

The Tameside Local Nature Reserve is around a twenty minute walk from the Tamworth Castle grounds, via a footbridge over the River Tame, close to where it meets the River Anker.

The rain stopped and was replaced by bright sunshine as I walked along the raised pathway between the main road and the nature reserve itself. I soon arrived at the main entrance to the reserve.

The nature reserve was created when the nearby A5 bypass road was constructed, and is home to a variety of birds and animals, including herons, kingfishers, foxes, grass snakes and many more. There was a huge crowd of birds on one of the islands in the middle of the lake, making a heck of a noise.

There were very few people around the nature reserve that evening, just a couple walking their dog and a handful of other people walking dogs or just out for a stroll in the evening sunshine. I happened upon a few little chicks, presumably with their parents. I think they are herons, but I don’t know for sure. By the way, I didn’t go too close to them to get this picture.

After about an hour of walking, it was time to head back to the railway station to catch the train just after 8 o’clock back to Burton on Trent. On the way, I saw a couple of fitness classes happening in the car parks near the River Tame footbridge. I would have joined in, but I left my PE kit at school years ago.

I walked through the Castle Grounds again on the way back to the station, where I took the above photo. I have made a note to have a proper day out in Tamworth at some point, visiting the castle and having a right good walk around the castle grounds. I saw that there’s a small replica of the solar system in sculpture form in the grounds, so I look forward to checking that out one day.

When I got to the station, there were not many people around. There was a young lad and a man who I presumed to be his grandfather taking videos of passing freight trains, the same trains whose slow running delayed my train back to Burton by a few minutes. That’s par for the course, though; I don’t think I’ve ever caught a train from Tamworth which has been on time.

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