Experience the best of Alton

Alton is a village in the Churnet Valley, in the Staffordshire Moorlands of central England, close to the southern edge of the Peak District. The valley is wooded and steep-sided, and above the village Alton Castle, a Gothic Revival building designed by A. W. N. Pugin in the 1840s, stands on a rock. Just outside lie the grounds of Alton Towers, once the estate of the Earls of Shrewsbury and now a large theme park with a partly ruined Gothic mansion.

The Churnet Valley Railway runs heritage trains along the river between Cheddleton and Froghall. The market town of Leek, with its antique shops, is about 15 km to the north-west, and Ashbourne, gateway to the limestone dales of Dovedale and Ilam, is a short drive east across the River Dove into Derbyshire. The pottery towns of Stoke-on-Trent lie to the west.

North Staffordshire is the home of oatcakes, thin savoury pancakes of oats served with cheese and bacon, and the pubs of the area pour ales from nearby Burton upon Trent. The weather is changeable and often damp on the hills. Late spring to early autumn is the most comfortable time, with autumn colour in the valley woods, and winter days are short and cold.