Autumn arrives and we're already over the total mileage that we managed in 2021, as very few missed walking opportunities, and the extra excursions and exertions of the last few weekends, have us contemplating where this year might be ending up, regarding the very real possibility of hitting a new annual distance total in 2022, and despite making all my measurements in miles and having no functional relationship with its metric replacement, the reality is that we could very easily tilt at 1,000km before the end of my eleventh walking season arrives, the only plausible way to make it to four figures in a year without doing 13 miles twice a week for nine months. That will be our goal as we return to the long trails in South Yorkshire, with a quartet of routes still in mind as we alight at the southwestern extremity of this year's walking field, returning to Elsecar with a northeastern trajectory to pace, starting under the brightness and chill that comes at 9.30am, rising away to head off along Cobcar Street through the terraced enclave of Stubbin, and then downhill into the 20th century estate landscape of Elsecar, finding the footpath that leads us away from Strafford Avenue to meet the path of the incline which rose up the Jump Valley from the canal wharf to Hoyland Silkstone collieries, over which the four-arched Elsecar viaduct carries the railway. The heavily wrinkled landscape of the valley gives our early going some work as we press uphill with Wentworth Road to Jump village, passing the Jump Club and meeting Cemetery Road by the Flying Dutchman inn, taking a right turn to process along by the terraces and semis with a view over the edge of the Knoll Beck valley, where we furtled last weekend, and passing the Hemingfield cenotaph and cemetery as we pass over the railway line again, just south of the short tunnel beyond Wombwell station, and run into Hemingfield village, as the lane declines to pass the Marbrook apartments in the old tavern, with a fine ghost-signed gable adjacent, before coming around to the junction by the Albion Inn. Like everywhere in this corner, the rural, industrial and suburban eras pile up on top of each other, only a short way away from the little colliery site at the valley floor, which seems lost among the tree clad hillsides these days, revealed from School Street and Beech House Road as we press east, making the turn away as we pass between Beech House and Lundhill farms, and find the lane beyond steepening and narrowing as it drops downhill to pass under the A6195 Dearne Valley parkway, passing The Tavern as the lane bottoms out and then rising sharply again up the side of Lund Hill itself, with playing fields perched to one side of us, and the growth of greater Wombwell expanding in the form of the Hillies View estate on the other.
Sunday 25 September 2022
Elsecar to Adwick 24/09/22
Wednesday 21 September 2022
South Elmsall to Doncaster 19/09/22
As I've already mentioned, traditional patriotism and pageantry is not for me, and I'd honestly rather be at work on the day of HMQE2's funeral, as shutting down many hospital services for the occasion seems like a poor choice when the NHS has 6M+ backlogged admissions to deal with, though trying to run as normal would probably be something of a fool's errand too, when you consider that approximately half the population of the country will be watching the proceedings on TV, and thus the extra bank holiday allows me the opportunity to get out and push the mileage again, on a late Summer day that is a total contrast to the one we had at the weekend. To South Elmsall we ride for an early start, back in West Yorkshire when I had intended to do all my September business in South Yorkshire, alighting at 8.50am, and setting off on a bit of a weird deviation to get us onto the southeasterly trajectory that we had in mind, by pushing uphill on High Street to the corner by Trinity Methodist church before striking along Ash Grove northwesterly though the suburbs and estate houses, above the primary school and leisure centre, on the way across to Minsthorpe Road, where we land by the community college and then press further uphill northeasterly to come up to the Mill Lane crossroads by the Barnsley Oak inn. Suburbia ends beyond as Dale Lane skirts a way around the northern edge of the industrial estate comprised entirely of distribution depots, passing those of Superdrug and ASDA as the Upton Beacon water tower and the Walton Wood mast loiter under the gloom on the northern horizon, we come up to the bottom of the North Elmsall bypass, and join the A638 Doncaster Road as it sets off southeasterly, starting here as there's an inexplicable footway alongside it all the way, processing on as the Wrangbrook junction terrace and the rise of Barnsdale's hill sit across the fields off to the northeast, on the ridge that conceals the flatlands in the east, as we head on by the ever-expanding depot facilities operated by Next. At the end of Field Lane, by Cherry Tree house, we pass over the H&BR Wath branch, where one bridge parapet endures in spite of the extensive road remodelling that has taken place at this junction, and the we're on our way, outside of the Wakefield Way route beyond the cottages at the roadside and soon out of Wakefield district and into Doncaster Borough as bizarre waves form in the clouds before we dive down below Turnpike Plantation, and the South Elmsall quarries, to pass above the Stubbs Hall farm complex, which is most notable for its angling lakes, visible from the railway.
Sunday 18 September 2022
Doncaster to Elsecar 17/09/22
It's the End of Summer weekend already, and it's going to be a long one too, the second one of the month, thanks to a Bank Holiday being declared for the day of the funeral of HMQE2, and my patriotic response will be to carry on doing what I do, as being outside to make new experiences in the British countryside is a much more valuable use of my time that reflecting on a life coming to an end after 96 years, and a career in the public eye concluding after more than eight decades, as that will always be the way that I express my love for this country, pushing the field of Walking Experience that bit further abroad. To Doncaster we travel, on this bright and chilly morning, getting away from the station once all trainspotting opportunities have been exhausted, and exit to the plaza at 9.15am, passing the 'Built for Speed' memorial to notable locomotives and horses before we seek a path south-ish, among the railway associated building to the pavements of The Rookery, taking us by the Railway and the Leopard inns before Saint Sepulchre Gate West is joined to lead us to the old GNR goods yard and St James's church, naturally, and on to the side of the A630 Cleveland Street, past the town's tower blocks and along the railway-side to the Balby Road bridge, and passing over the southern end of the Hexthorpe Triangle. Beyond the entanglement with the start of the A18, we set off south-westerly down the Balby Road, to see much more of the residential city than we saw on our previous visits, passing between the terraced faces and the open space of Westfield Park before we cross to find the ginnel by The Rec club, as it leads us down to the end of Lister Avenue, famous as the setting for the BBC sitcom 'Open All Hours' where Beautique hairdressers doubled as Arkwright's store (with Nurse Gladys Emmanuel's house across the way), to be fondly regarded before we return up to the reach the A630 as it leads on past a view over the rooftops north to Cusworth Hall and along to the old Balby village, at the top of the A60. A plausible jaunt to Leicestershire, across the length of Nottinghamshire, could be started from here, away from the White Swan inn and the parish church of St John, as we carry on above the High Road - Low Road division, encountering the Plough inn and the Luxaa apartments before the swing of Warmsworth Road takes us past Scared Heart RC church and uphill, past the shopping parade beyond and into a tree clad passage among the estates that form the boundary between the Balby and Warmsworth suburbs, with The White Church, of St Peter, being met across the way from the Horse & Jockey inn, where the local roads go high and low again as Warmsworth is approached, or avoided.
Sunday 11 September 2022
Swinton to Silkstone Common 10/09/22
It's been all change in the real world this week, seeing both the replacement of the Prime Minister and the death of HMQE2, after a reign of 70 years and truly bringing on the end of an era, but reflections on such things will have to wait, as national mourning isn't for me when there's walking to be done, especially with Summer hurrying towards its close and having a railway walk on the slate which was first mooted some eight years ago, after our 2014 trek over the Woodhead route, but never landed on our schedule as our focuses shifted elsewhere, and what would have been another trail deep into the unknown back then, now sits as an underlining of our Field of Walking Experience in 2022. To Swinton we return then, getting away from the station at 9.45am after we've watched an honest to goodness coal train pass through, passing out to Station Street and Bridge street to pass under the railway and over the canal to join the towpath of the Dearne & Dove as it reaches up the remaining stretch of the pound to the skew bridge back under the railway, which leads to the cycleway path that leads among the green spaces that leads north towards Manvers, not following the canal alignment as it passes over Queen Street and through the scrubby remnants of Bow Broom Wood, meandering northwards with some purpose as it approaches the industrial estates. This leads us to the extensive campus of Dearne Valley College, stretched along most of the length of Manvers Park road, and into the post heavy industrial landscape of what once surrounded Manvers Main colliery, of which nothing remains under the light industry that have replaced it, with no suggestion of the presence of the GCR's passage over Golden Smithies Lane or that of the North Midland Mainline at the A6023 traffic island, where we set off outside of our bubble as we join the multi use path that keeps us away from the traffic on Manvers Way, following the old alignment for a bit as we skirt Fairfield Park Ind. Est. on the site of Manvers Main's #2 pit, and pass below the Brookfields Park site, on our northwesterly tack.
Tuesday 6 September 2022
Doncaster to Swinton 05/09/22
For Monday of our long weekend, we're ready to get on the trail again, admittedly not all that early as train services are dictating the time window available, but not quite ready enough as my first train connection out of Morley gets cancelled, which puts me in an immediate time hole, though it allows me plenty of time to organize tickets beyond my WYMetro travel area, unfortunately going on a total mind vacation while doing this and managing to get my mCard boundaries confused, purchasing one that doesn't permit me to ride the LNER express service out (and costing extra £s!), meaning that we have to wait for the local service at Leeds, and burning nearly an hour of viable day before we've even started. It's thus 11.10am when we get out of Doncaster station, heading back the way we came after a fashion as we take a turn into the Frenchgate shopping centre, certain that a path must lead through to it's north end, found by traveling up to, and down from, the food court and through the bus interchange, under North Bridge and around the back of the B&M store, so that Grey Friars Road might take us along the Don Navigation waterfront, and around to a circuit of three sides of St George's church, Doncaster Minster that does much for giving the city more than the status of 19th century railway town, it's Gothickry to be admired before we close the loop by passing up onto North Bridge. All local routes to the north side of the Don have to go this way, passing the Halfords and Boots Optician on the Marshgate island, to lead over St Mary's bridge by the Three Horse Shoes and onto the traffic interchange with the division of the A638 and A19, leading us under the avoiding railway line and onto new pavements on our desired southwesterly trajectory as we join Sprotborough Road as the town's suburbia fans out on the fields away from the riverbank, looking like it had a couple of distinct bursts of growth in the mid 20th century, on the stretch from the Screwfix store to the Community Library. We've travelled some way along, past the Sainsbury's Local, the Newton Arms inn and the Goldsmith centre before we feel that we ought to be looking at the map, as we are finally blazing a long trail across E279, not that route finding is particularly important yet as it's still straight forward road travelling as we rise to pass over the H&BR-GCR joint line / Trans Pennine Trail for the fourth time, and follow the ascending Melton Lane as it passes the Levett and Richmond Hill schools, and carries on through the council houses and 1980s suburbia before it peters out, revealing open fields to the south above the green and woods shrouded passage of the Don, and the council grit depot to the north, before the A1(M) passes below us.
Sunday 4 September 2022
Bentley to Wombwell 03/09/22
It's worth a brief reflection to note that August Bank Holiday weekend has never been that rewarding in terms of my walking career, having only brought multiple days of exercise in three of my past seasons, probably becasue I've been keeping the powder dry for my week of Late Summer Jollies at the start of September, which we won't be enjoying this year because of how I've arranged my leave with regards other things going on, and thus we approach the End of Summer with only a long weekend booked in its place, where we might have hoped to have travelled away before my plans rearranged themselves. Instead we are still pulling walks off the normal slate, and finding that today we will be doing something very rare indeed, which is travelling between two places which have arrived on my radar within a calendar year, which will also not pass through any part of the walking bubble that had been previously established across the last decade, which has not been done (outside of holiday trips) since 2015, which has me realizing just how tethered we have gotten to the Field of Walking Experience that we had inflated over my first four years on the trails. So everything we see today will be exclusive to the season of 2022, as we resume our east-west passages across South Yorkshire, alighting at Bentley at 9am, deep within greater Doncaster and setting a course southwesterly down Watch House Lane between the terraces and the spread of suburbia that hasn't claimed the extensive allotment gardens, ahead of the rise over the old H&BR - GCR joint line, the contemporary Trans Pennine Trail, and thence down among the semis to the passage over the A638 York Road, immediately getting us back to crossing this year's trail as we land outside the York Bar WMC, just downwind on the old Roman Road path. Cusworth Lane leads us on, among the suburban spread, where Dillicarr House is the only residence of a particular vintage, with the Mallard inn (hopefully named for one of the city's most notable products) sitting opposite, beyond which we detour slightly into Cusworth village, where most of the local rural flavour can be found, around the British Orthodox church and the way into the public park in the grounds of Cusworth Hall, just another noble pile to add to the number in this quarter, where we are led through the woods and up to the end of the driveway by the gatehouse, trying to not get tangled up with the participants in the local park run before we alight on the roads once again, at Back Lane.