In reply to briansy:
Castle Ring has some nice little walks around it and down into Beaudesert old park. Unfortunately, the old estate with the manor house ruins, ponds etc is private property and owned by the scout association so it's pretty hard to get onto/off site.
A few nice walks over the heathland area around brocton coppice, a loop starting from Coppice Hill/Punchbowl car parks and taking in the old WW1 camp and down to the Commonwealth and German cemetries, then back up through the valley. Another nice route would be to cross the A513 and follow the Staffordshire way through the Shugborough estate and then back down the canal to seven springs and then along through the old oak forest (maybe stopping off in Great Haywood to see Tolkein's House and visit the pub).