From Colliery to Countryside: Running Whitfield Valley & Chatterley Whitfield

If you love the contrast of wild nature and industrial heritage, this one’s for you.

We take on a 3.5-mile route through Whitfield Valley Nature Reserve and Chatterley Whitfield Heritage Country Park — a landscape shaped by coal mining, reclaimed by nature, and now criss-crossed with peaceful trails and cycle routes.

We start from the free car park beside Ford Green Hall Museum, heading north through reedbeds and alongside a stream that once flowed beneath mountains of colliery spoil. The trail winds through lush greenery, dotted with wildflowers and birdsong — a nature-lover’s dream.

But this is no ordinary run.

Soon, the trees part to reveal the derelict remains of Chatterley Whitfield Colliery — once the first UK mine to produce over a million tons of coal in a year. Its red-brick relics and towering chimney now stand silent, framed by grass and sky.

We climb to the summit of the landscaped spoil heap, where a 360° view rewards our effort: the rooftops of Stoke-on-Trent stretch out below, and Mow Cop’s rocky crown rises on the horizon. The path then loops back south along a smooth, accessible cycle route — a relaxing way to finish.