Turning: part of Staffordshire Moorlands Walking Festival – 28 Apr 2025

“Take a moment and imagine you’re in the forest now. Leaves and earth can be felt under your feet, bluebells are hazy blue on the horizon, twigs snap as you move. Above, birds sing as the canopy unfurls into green. The sky above is visible and just ahead the path reveals itself. Now, take a deep breath and smell the trees, earth, sap. You feel like you could drink this moment.”

This is a short, mindful walk designed to encourage people to explore how they can build their own health by moving more, engaging with gentle creative practice and spending time in nature.  

Our walk will be no more than one mile and will feature grounding, movement and invitations to connect with nature carefully sequenced and designed to introduce you to the restorative effects of nature for health.  

You will be invited to share what you notice in a sharing circle, guided by the walk leader who may use prompts such as what you’ve noticed, or how you feel inside. Participants may follow these suggestions or not, sharing can be expressed through speech, movement, dance, song. Whatever feels comfortable to you. Overall, this session will be very quiet. 

At the end of the walk, we will share tea made from botanicals to be found growing in the recreation. 

We are going to walk the lesser-known Woodcroft Recreation Ground, in Leek.  

Part of Staffordshire Moorlands Walking Festival

Date: Monday 28th April 2025 

Meeting and end point: Woodcroft Recreation Ground, Beggars Lane, Leek.  

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Walk start time: 2pm 

Walk end time: 4.30pm 

Walk length: approx. 1km 

Walk pace: slow with plenty of time for pausing to notice the landscape, flora, fauna and fungi as we pass through.  

Joining information: this walk will take a maximum of 2.5 hours and follows a less trod circular route across a mixture of grass, earth tracks and trails. The walk is gently up and down hill throughout. Our route may be wet in places so sensible footwear is a must. 

This walk is suitable for anyone who wishes to switch off and unplug for a while and you will be asked to leave your devices off or on silent and firmly locked in your bag.  

Arrive ready to walk 15 minutes before we leave. 

Toilets: there are no toilets available on the route.  

Refreshments: At the end of the walk we will share a tea together. 

Equipment: seating mats, walking poles and dry robes will be available to borrow but if you have your own please bring them.