Trails around Morley's New Developments 5-6-8-12/02/23

8.8 miles, over Four paths and Four days, via Morley Station, Valley Mills, White Rose,

 Broad Oaks, Laneside and Daisy Hill (plus Two in January that We're Not Counting!).

The first Long Week of being NIW arrives and we're going to get going in the locality, as the post-Covid walking experience starts to feel a lot like the Covid Lockdown period as we stay close to home among the fields and paths to the immediate east of Morley railway station, and that turns out to be not the worst of options as there's plenty going around abouts as we see new developments on the Trans Pennine rail route unfolding, as well as suburbanism creeping into the fields in a manner that I'd noted like it seemed inevitable three years ago. I'd like to think that I've usually got my ear to the ground when it comes to local happenings, and I've been kept fully up to date on the construction of the new White Rose station thanks to mail shots from Network Rail, but the very first new that I got of development happening at Morley was when three weekends and one week of total closure of the line between Dewsbury and Leeds was announced to commence in late January, one month on from a long engineering possession for track re-laying over the New Year weekend. This turns out to be due to Morley Station being completely relocated, along the line to the east, away from the portal of Morley tunnel and onto the section of track between the old goods yard and the former gasworks site, which we've been watched being cleared of vegetation and spoil since last summer, in reasonable anticipation of catenary being installed for electrification as part of the Trans Pennine Route Upgrade, rather than having a fully accessible station built with apparent access to improved car parking in the level plots around. Being NIW when there's a full line closure in place thus allows me to go and have a good record of what's going on, which we started over the preceding weekend in January, where we tested out the waterproofing of my lightweight boots as we toured around the station site, observing the relaying of track that didn't seem to straightening out the curve of the line going into the tunnel nearly as much as was advertised, while also giving illustration of the fact that in any heavy engineering scenario, there will always be far more men in high-vis clothing on site than seem to be actually doing anything, with clearly more observing than working.

Ballast Train at Morley Station. 28/01/23

The new Morley Station site, with Heavy Plant. 28/01/23

Track Laying at Gasworks Crossing. 29/01/23

Ballast Train at Morley Station 29/01/23

In a change from my usual blogging style, I'll try to present an over view of what's been going on across the past week and the observations that can be made along the path, as these paths need no major description as we came out to observe the engineering going on, with many trainloads of aggregate being dragged through the new station site, for ballasting the new track and removing additional spoil that's still being dug out, best observed from the top of Station Road, above the Morley Tunnel portal and from the path above the rock face onto Daisy Hill. Beyond the last of these, the fresh vantage point from the Seven Hills Way development can be found, where a gap on the slope among the suburban houses affords us a viewpoint above the new Morley station site, above the cliff and widened cutting that have had much retaining work done to keep them secure, and across from the old Gasworks site, where the level plots afford what ought to be a decent car park space off Valley Road, where the business of laying the concrete walls for the new platforms progress across the week and the installation of a new footbridge looks like it will be the major work for the next few months as its foundations are all that have been laid so far. The view from Gasworks Crossing, beyond Valley Mills, offers the alternate view to the station site, showing up the wire netting that has been installed to keep the landscaped cutting in place, and also showing the spread of the platform edges to the east of the site, initially in place on the south side and in situ on the north by the end of the week, not really looking like they'll be long enough to accommodate trains longer than the four cars that we already receive, and appearing significantly further from the end of Station Road, adding unwelcome walked minutes to our morning commutes. Still, it's good to see all the freight action going on across the week, as that's a very rare spot to be had on this line, and it gets me wondering just how long it will be until the L&NWR vintage Morley Low station will have until it becomes a relic to be recorded for posterity, or how long this construction project will last as the next line closure isn't due until June, and it's easy to figure that contemporary capital project like the Trans Pennine Route Upgrade will probably end up taking longer than the line's original construction in the 1840s

The new Morley Station site, with the old station. 05/02/23

New Morley Station site, and the old Gasworks and Valley Mill sites. 05/02/23

Ballast Train at Morley Station. 06/02/23

The widened cutting and new Station site. 08/02/23

The old and new station sites, an over view. 08/02/23

Ballast Train from Gasworks Crossing. 08/02/23

Gasworks Crossing and the green half of Daisy Hill. 08/02/23

New Morley station's platforms in situ. 12/02/23

Slightly further afield, we need to walk along the paths beyond the White Rose Centre and Broad Oaks farm to get a closer look at the development of the new White Rose station site, where we've watched the embankment being stripped bare, many pile having been driven and much excavation take place since the end of 2021, which has been regularly observed from passing  trains but not examined up close, where we can immediately see that platforms have been installed during the passage of the Dark Season, perched high along the embankment top, virtually occupying the site of the original Churwell station. Much metalwork has been assembled on site, and put together in such a way that doesn't immediately advertise what it is going to be exactly, though there are multiple cranes in place to lift whatever it they're constructing into place, as this work progresses at what seems like a snail's pace, to build something more substantial than the wooden platforms that it will replace at Cottingley, through there's no real indication even yet of whether the works car park constructed by the bottom of Churwell Hill is going to be a permanent part of the site, or how accessibility will work into the White Rose business park or onto Elland Road. Elsewhere, we are compelled to note that suburban development has finally arrived on these fields to the east of Morley, with the new residentail development of the fields of Laneside farm having taken hold, after the fields were scoured flat during the summer and now ground work continues at a pace to claim the only open fields that remained to keep Morley and Churwell visually distinct, looking like the entire level top that faces Victoria Road between the King George Avenue and Harwill Road blocks will soon be lost, to be replaced by so many Lego houses. Whilst not wishing to sound like a total NIMBY, the spread of more mid-scale and under-affordable suburbanism here saddens me, when these fields and paths are still a useful local green spaces, and we can only hope that the declining fields beyond might be spared a similar fate, as it would be horrible to lose what remains of the greenery around Broad Oaks farm and Daisy Hill, where so many steps were taken when trying to remain sane during the lockdown months of 2020, and many more could be made as I try to get the post-viral afflictions of my own bout with Covid out of my system.

White Rose station, from the Broad Oaks path. 08/02/23

White Rose station from the White Rose footbridge. 12/02/23

The Laneside development from Victoria Road. 08/02/23

The Laneside Development from the Broad Oaks farm track. 08/02/23

~~~

Factory Redevelopment on Station Road. 12/02/23

Additionally it would probably be worth noting that the disused factory building on Station Road is also in the grip of a low-speed redevelopment of uncertain purpose, and that there's also restoration going on at Crank (or Dartmouth) mill, after an almost catastrophic fire in the attached maisonette, as well as noting that Albert Road is finally getting resurfaced after many years of complaining about quality of its tarmac, but this is supposed to be my walking journal, not my increasingly middle-aged account of whats going on in the town where I live...

5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 5931 miles
2023 Total: 8.8 miles
Up Country Total: 5,450.3 miles
Solo Total: 5595.4 miles
5,000 in my 40s Total: 4520.8 miles

Next Up: We have to travel somewhere...