A sense of place

Enjoying where you are (for example watching a full Moon rising over trees in summer) is a great way of being more sustainable about the energy you might otherwise use to get to other places. However, travel is necessary to see somewhere else and that experience can help you appreciate what is on your doorstep.

Trentham, Staffordshire, the home base for this web site, is almost as far inland as it is possible to be in England – nearly 70 miles away by road from the nearest coast – so, if you love being by the sea it involves several hours journey. Nonetheless, our home village has, in recent years, become a place that attracts many visitors, thanks in a large part to the complex of attractions to be found within the Trentham Estate, once owned by the Dukes of Sutherland. Trentham grew up around the River Trent, which has its source in the Staffordshire Moorlands, which is closer to the west coast but eventually reaches the North Sea to the east after a looping journey of over two hundred miles, which ends at the Humber.

The pages listed below give a pictorial representation of some of the places in the British Isles that we have visited and enjoyed, often in the company of our family or friends: starting from those that are on our doorstep or elsewhere in Staffordshire and then, via some outstanding countryside in nearby Counties, to a selection of our favourite coastal areas in the west, east, south and north.

· Trentham - from ancient parish to modern suburb

· Garden Birds – Trentham, Staffordshire, UK

· Trentham garden mammals

· Cannock Chase - an area of outstanding natural beauty in Staffordshire

· The River Manifold in the Staffordshire Peak District

· Dove Valley Walk

· Chirk & the Ceiriog Valley

· A trip on the River Avon to Stratford

· Sefton Sands

· North Wales Coast

· Anglesey

· Bardsey & the Lleyn peninsular – land of saints and sea

· St. David’s & South West Wales

· The North Norfolk coast

· Walberswick & the Suffolk coast

· Minsmere RSPB Reserve, Suffolk

· Bath & Somerset

· The English Borderland – views of Northumberland & Cumbria

· A taste of Scotland