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Cannock Chase
Exploring mainland Britain’s smallest designated Natural Landscape area
Sometimes my imagination sends me on a wild goose chase.
I was sitting in a Cannock supermarket cafe, eavesdropping on other people’s conversations, as most writers do, when two women walked past me with their tea and cakes.
“Have you visited Freda’s grave?” one asked the other.
“Wasn’t she the Great Dane who marched men regularly across the Chase?” her friend replied.
Frustratingly, they sat too far away for me to hear the rest of their conversation, but Freda sounded a fascinating woman.
I’d heard of Boudica, Queen of the Inceni Tribe in East Anglia, who fought the Romans in AD47, but I’d not come across Freda before. I wanted to know more.
I wasn’t far from the Museum of Cannock Chase, on the outskirts of Hednesford. This free museum explores the social and economic history of the area.
At twenty-six square miles, Cannock Chase is mainland England’s smallest Natural Landscape, which used to be known as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
