Mirfield to Berry Brow 10/11/19

8.9 miles, via Lower Hopton, Upper Hopton, Dransfield Hill, Houses Hill, Whitley Willows, 

 Fenay Bridge, Birks, Almondbury Common, Bottoms, The Lumb, Castle Hill, Catterson, 

  Lower Park, and Robin Hood Hill.

The last walkable Saturday of the year also gets dropped from the schedule, but not because of seasonal rain, rather a projected maximum temperature of 4C gets me feeling that I'd rather be in bed on such a day, but as we still have a 3+C warmer Sunday to use before my birthday week of being NIW, so we head out for another rail replacement bus ride that seems to be a regular fixture of the mornings at present, taking us out to Mirfield for a tilt at a viewpoint as my planned finale route got walked a fortnight ago. Hop off the bus at the Huddersfield Road bus stand at 9.20am, five minutes walk away from the station, and thus only ten minutes later than a ridden rail would have gotten me out to the heart of the middle Calder valley, but as we set out along Hopton New Road the intense cold of the morning air is felt in the lungs and the view across the fields to Holme Bank Mill and the woods beyond reveals the wisps of a morning mist that has only recently dissipated, and there's frostiness on the pavements too as we arrive at Hopton Bridge to cross the River Calder. Once on the end of Granny Lane, and passing the Flower Pot inn in Lower Hopton, we find ourselves on a familiar path, retracing steps up the suburban ribbon up Hopton Lane at a predictably slow rate thanks to the pitch of the climb, as the alternative field walk seems seasonally unsuitable, meeting the turn to the main body of Upper Hopton with Hopton Hall Lane, passing the old manse and Park farm on the edge of the suburban estate that surround them, getting views over the reverse to the middle Calder as we go. Land by the long wall that contains Hopton Grange and soon come up past St John's church and its vicarage, ticking another Kirklees church off the list, and then come past Hopton Old Hall with its timber framed wings that suggest a lot of vintage, opposite the hall farm, and the arrivals of a late 20th century vintage, joining Jackroyd Lane as it rises on, past the old village school and the last suburban outliers, heading south as we come up level with the woodlands that cover the southern bank of the Calder. Pass Hopton Green farm, and the Clough terrace that sits at an odd remove from the village, and to avoid a twisting road detour, we hit a short and rising field walk between Covey Clough and Benroyd farms on the shoulder of Dransfield Hill, a choice that proves challenging as the waterlogged soil and icy covering make for some hard going on the elevation up to the B6118 Liley Lane, dirtying up the boots something proper as we take our last looks over the middle Calder for this year, territory that still needs further investigation even after 8 years of walking.

Ossett to Mirfield 03/11/19

7.7 miles, via Ossett Street Side, Shaw Cross, Hanging Heaton, Batley Carr, Knowle Hill, 

 Dewsbury Moor, and Northorpe.

Another Saturday disappears beneath sheets of rain, and with it goes my remaining plans of any more trips in excess of 10 miles in 2019, as there's no point at all in contesting the shortening and cooling days of November, and we ought to take things easier, as I've been granted a working break from the long days on my feet at St James's hospital for an altogether more relaxed role back at the LGI, for the time being at least, and thus we look to a Sunday morning stroll and the two remaining targets for my walking in 2019, 600 miles on the year, and a new annual mark, which ought to be achievable in the last pair of excursions. So as Sunday morning sunshine rules the day, we ride out for a relatively local trek, even if the rail replacement and regular service buses take the better part of an hour to get me to Ossett, landing us at the bus station at a whisker ahead of 9.45, just across from Ossett United FC's ground on Prospect Road (the small town being notable for sustaining two minor league teams against good economic sense), and we set off our path by wandering to the small plaza behind the Town Hall, and across the bottom of Dale Street by the complex of Co-op stores, to make our way out to the northwest along the B6128 Kingsway. Only half a mile out and our ticker passes the 600 mile marker for the year, and this suburban lane incidentally gives a fine pun quality to the name of the King's Way church at its bottom end, and once out past Lidl and the Gledhill garage, we are soon deep into ahistorical suburbia, with the vintages running across all the styles of the mid to late 20th century, as our interest wanders to the views to the spire of  Holy Trinity church up the side streets and forward to the Gawthorpe water tower as we shadow the route of the early leg of this year's Long Walk. Things get a more vintage as we land on the old Dewsbury to Wakefield Road at the Leeds Road island in Ossett Street Side, and we pass a rake of almshouse cottages before we cross over the A638 Ossett Bypass via the footbridge by Royd's Mill, where the Wakefield Way brought us on our way towards Gawthorpe in 2015, though our path keeps us on the line of the bypassed old road as it leads us past the Salvation Army hall and on to Owl Lane by the industrial park dominated by Newly Wed foods, over which the Gawthorpe water tower looms, illuminated by the low sun.

Huddersfield to Meltham 27/10/19

7.8 miles, via Folly Hall, Lockwood Park, Dungeon Wood, Beaumont Park, Big Valley, 

 Netherton, Crosland Mill, Hall Heys Wood, and the Meltham Greenway.

The end of British Summer Time brings rain, enough to scupper the chances of any walking of any duration on the last Saturday of October, and thus we have to put my planned route from Slaithwaite to Ravensthorpe aside and see what we can do on Sunday instead, and as Leeds Station is undergoing a total shutdown for the entire morning, we have to scale our plans back and pull up the trip that I had planned to have as my 2019 finale, not least because we're promised a decent weather window to walk in, and also because it's only a modest distance to go when work looms the following day. So we ride the rail replacement bus service out to Huddersfield, the type where possession of a ticket doesn't seem to be necessary for travel, landing us outside the George Hotel at a smidgen after 9.30am, and our course to the southwest has us passing among the array of coaches parked outside the station on Railway Street, and then heading off through the town centre, down Market Street as far as The Hart bar, and then turning down Cloth Hall Street to meet New Street, which is already filling with life despite the shops not yet being open, but the way ahead is clear all the way to the ring road, thanks to a lack of Police incidents this time. Across the Castlegate - Queensgate interchange, we seem to be following our route to Penistone, and so we ought to mix things up a bit as we retrace our path down Chapel Hill, by walking down the opposite side of the road by the parade of takeaways and the Rat & Ratchet inn, and then coming down below the looming main campus buildings of Kirklees College before crossing over the Narrow Canal, and the River Colne, which churns noisily after yesterday's downpours, then passing the Folly Hall Mills and splitting off the A616 by the Star inn for a bit of landscape variation. Albert Street presents an almost entirely industrial landscape, still enduring down the northernmost stretch of the River Holme, with Albert and Bath Mills wholly intact among the remnants and replacements of others, definitely a change of scenery from the familiar sights down to Lockwood Bar, which we meet once we land on Bridge Street, crossing by the shopping parade and and carrying on down Brewery Drive, beside the busy River Holme, where the old Lockwood brewery site is now occupied by Huddersfield RUFC'c social club and the Lockwood Park health and fitness club. The reason to come down this not-apparently public lane is to spot the Penistone Line's Lockwood Viaduct though, which is hard to see from any angle except below, and rises gracefully over the Holme Valley on its many arches beyond the Rugby field, and as I've got little company down here, I'll wander abouts both sides of it to take as many pics of it as I wish, admiring the mass of masonry, its 37m height and 435m length, and the craftsmanship of its creation, naturally as the day's only dense raincloud passes over.

Honley to Ossett 19/10/19

14 miles, via High Royd, Farnley Hey, Farnley Tyas, Anchor Wood, Birks Wood, Woodsome  

 Bridge, Dogley Lane, Highburton, Linfit, Flockton Moor, Lepton Edge, Grange Moor, 

  Briestfield, Thornhill (Edge Top, Overthorpe & Combs), Mill Bank, and Healey.

If you can recall the first half of this season, before we settled into trails around the Holme and Colne valleys, we were traversing the many potential routes across the eastern half of Kirklees, and one path got left over from those days, and so that's where we'll heading today, as the late season and its autumnal weather start to take hold, but at the very least we've been spared the worst of the changeable weather at our weekends, with the weather looking mediocre at worst today, probably due to the Pennines Proximity problem once again. So it's all a bit grey and grim as we alight at Honley station at 9.20am, as we continue to make our best attempt to make multiple uses of all of Kirklees's railway stations, with our projected path sending us off to the north-east as we rise away from the Holme Valley up Northgate, behind Honley High school and among the villas old and new that have parked themselves up here to get the best of the views, rising over the railway and briefly mixing it up with our 2014 path before aiming up among thick tree cover that obscures most of the available panorama to the west. The only hamlet of sorts that we meet on this ascent is High Royd, encompassing only a handful of buildings among its open fields, where no fresh aspect can be gained beyond its largest house of livery stables, and thus rise on past Westwood House, slightly annoyed that the Holme Valley isn't going to give us a reveal before we've met the merge in with Hey Lane, on the level edge behind the declining bank of Farnley Hey wood, where possibly the most 1970s contemporary house in the county dwells. These elevated fields take us beyond the next hamlet-let on the trail, Farnley Hey, which sits at a slight remove from the lane, with Castle Hill rising beyond it, and hopefully that upland lump will reveal its previously unseen angles as we angle ourselves uphill towards Farnley Tyas, while feeling grateful that we've got a footway along Honley Road for the whole trip up, as Raw Gates farm passes at the immediate roadside and School Wood thickly coats the hill crest ahead. The western greyness looks like it's worsening as we land by the village school and make our third pass along Butts Lane between St Lucius's church and the Golden Cock inn, enjoying the pleasingly remote exclusivity that Farnley Tyas's hilltop location gives it (which might well be spoiled by the burgeoning developments on Field Lane and Manor Road), and now that we've completed the first ascent of the day, it's immediately time to head down again, joining Woodsome Road and descending past the short ribbon of suburban dwellings that clings to the hillside edge and passing down below the tree laden side of Farnley Bank wood.

The Huddersfield Circular 12/10/19

15.9 miles, from Lockwood, via Crosland Moor, Milnsbridge, Golcar, Leymoor, Longwood, 

 Quarmby, Oakes, Lindley, Birkby, Fartown, Woodhouse Hill, Sheepridge, Deighton, Dalton, 

  Waterloo, Greenside, Almondbury, Castle Hill, Newsome, and Lockwood Scar.

The Autumn weather for this trip looks a bit more favourable than that which we've seen over the last couple, while still feeling far removed from the Summer that we still had in the air only three weeks ago, and before the season stats to grip hard, we ought to get the next Urban Circular off the slate, as Huddersfield has been waiting for it for far too long, and we'll start this trip from Lockwood station, one of the town's few suburban stations and the last one on the Penistone Line that has still to be visited, despite having passed though it about 20 times over the course of the year. So we alight at 9.15am (having enjoyed an all too brief ride out on a 158 Super Sprinter unit, meaning that the days of the 142/144 Pacer units might finally be numbered in West Yorkshire), landing by the station that surely landed her on the hillside betwixt Holme and Colne due to the industrial plant that still operates up here, such as the Prospect Iron Works, which is the first thing we meet past the station yard, and also the Park Works, operated by Santasalo nowadays but once home to the other factory of David Brown of Meltham, which we can locate up Park Road to the northwest, at the top of Yew Hill, next to St Barnabas's, the parish church of Crosland Moor. So despite having started out at a previously un-traced location, we are soon enough in familiar territory, exiting the suburbs at the hilltop and coming across Blackmoorfoot Road at the Lane Ends corner, and start off down Park Road West, which leads us down among the high terraces that enjoy a fine view over the Colne Valley, which is looking a lot more inviting than it did a week ago, giving us a fine view or two before we descend down from the bank to Manchester Road. Cross the A62 and pace it up to the Factory Lane corner, where we descend again, to make proper acquaintance of Milnsbridge, which takes us by the long flank of Union Mill and the neighbouring Socialist club, before we emerge onto Whiteley Street, where we are led over the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, and can look over to the enduring block of mills that sit to the east of the village, and also up to Longwood viaduct, carrying the railway up the valley to Standedge tunnel and beyond, with Longwood Tower and St Mark's church rising on the high side, off to the north. That's where our circular route ought to be heading directly, past the Four Horseshoes and up Market Street, over the Colne and under the viaduct, but before we get to the Commercial mill corner, the feeling that we ought to visit Golcar takes hold, and thus we split left onto Scar Lane by Aldi, to set off on the long drag that will add an extra couple of miles and some extra elevation to the day, keeping to the shady side of the lane as far as the Royal inn.

Marsden to Dewsbury 05/10/19

15.8 miles, via Cellars Clough, Lingards Wood, Slaithwaite, Linthwaite, Cowlersley, 

 Milnsbridge (sorta), Crosland Moor, Longroyd, Folly Hall, King's Mill, Moldgreen, 

  Grove Place, Dalton, Hill Side, Kirkheaton, Upper Hopton, Lower Hopton, The Beck, 

   Shepley Bridge, Ravensthorpe, Scout Hill and West Town.

As October lands, I think we can conclude that The End of Summer for 2019 is already done, as no heat or sunshine is in the air as we head out for the final push through the late season, trying to keep going on the walking schedule while the weather allows it, and while the forecast for this trip is far from bad, travelling out for a start in the Colne valley's head means we are going to experience the Pennines Proximity Problem as the cloud hangs heavily on the high hills when the conditions to the east might be much more acceptable. So it is thus as we alight at Marsden at 9.45am, with Deer Hill and Pule Hill heavily shrouded above the valley, and our trip down the station road to the town takes a while as we are poking around the NT office in the old goods shed and admiring the noises of the weir at the bottom of Wessenden Beck and merging Colne before we head up Peel Street, the main drag that is thankfully free of drinkers at this early hour, passing the Mechanics Institute and maybe seven pubs before we land on the A62, the forgotten trans-Pennine road that will be our route of choice. It's only seven miles to Huddersfield from here, according to the Wakefield & Austerlands turnpike milestone, and not eleven to Oldham if we wished to head over the moors, but we set off east above the town's mills at the valley floor, clinging to the high bank as the residential town spreads uphill along the Meltham Road, but we get the feeling of soon being out into the countryside as trees coat the roadside and we get only brief views over the valley, above Wood Bottom Mill and to the fringe of Slaithwaite Moor atop the north bank. Beyond the outermost fringe of the town we come above the wooded chine of Cellars Clough, where the fisheries and well-being spa endure below the roadside, but the mill complex has been completely flattened since it was visited on 2012's canal walk, and we finally start to get some context to our previous visits as we meet the loosely associated hamlet of Lingard's Wood, where terraces sit opposite the Olive Branch Inn, and we can spy the Colne Valley Circular route through the rough fields to the south above Manchester Road, and the old school house forms a bold feature in the foreground to the high north side of the valley. Angled fields fill out the space beyond, where the A62 is clearly is too wide for the amount of traffic that uses it since the motorways landed, and we can start to feel the proximity of Slaithwaite as ribbons of semis arrive above the road and the town cemetery arrives below it, and we soon land among its suburban edge and pace along the terrace that has house numbers in the 1000+ range, which must have caused some Infant school children a nightmare during basic counting exercises.

Lower Holme Valley Circuit, from Brockholes 30/09/19

12.6 miles, via Smithy Place, Hagg Wood, Oldfield, Upper Oldfield, Wood Nock, 
 Slate Pit Wood, Windy Bank Wood, Meltham Mills, Thick Hollins Dike, Royd Edge Clough, 
  Royd Edge, Catchwater Drain, Brow Grains Dike, Blackmoorfoot Conduit & Reservoir, 
   Edge Moor, South Crosland, Netherton, Magdale, Steps, Honley station, and Hall Ing.

Taking a long week end off at the end of September feels like a punt worth taking to get in some necessary time out of work and to fit in an extra walking day but that plan falls with the changeability that comes with The End of Summer, with Saturday not promising a decent weather projection, and Sunday and Tuesday bringing nought but persistent rain, so only one day out of the four turns out to be usable, which is fine when my limbs and brain need a rest, and a bunch of housework needs attending to. So we travel on Monday, when there are far more people on the early trains and the tickets don't have a cheap return option, riding out to the Holme Valley for the second circuit path of the late season, feeling the disappointment that my scheme to head over the Pennines to the Tame Valley and back is going to have to wait for another year but feeling cheered that we have a good four hour window of sunshine to exploit on this trip, as we seek to take in as much as possible of the landscape of the lower valley in a single excursion, alighting at Brockholes, the prettiest station site on the Penistone line at 9.25am. From our perch on the eastern side of the Holme valley, we have a descent to do immediately, down through the suburbs of Ridings Field to meet Brockholes Lane which wends its way down through the terraces and cottages with fine views, an amount of extreme vintage and one Hillman Minx, to come down above the village green and below the village hall in the old church school, coming down below the cliffs of Tor Rocks, atop which St George's church perches, alighting on the A616 New Mill Road by the Rock Inn. Head north for a few steps up to the Smithy Place bar sign, where the River Holme flows below the bridges in a larger and louder quantity than it did on that hot day in June, and we step over the old humpbacked bridge to pass through the small community of new suburban houses and old cottages that spread uphill from the riverside along the lane that ascends steeply up through Hagg Wood, where the A6024 passes trhough about half way up. Above the woods on the corners of Oldfield Lane we meet a suburban enclave that is unclaimed by any of the settlements around, but is clearly here to absorb the view to the north, past the Gibb cottages to Honley among the declining fields below, to Castle Hill above and to the woods that conceal Huddersfield to the north. Rise with the lane, past the piggery and its neighbouring dream houses, heading over the Holme Valley Circular path and getting little by ways of views to the southern half of the Holme valley as we look back to the high eastern side, following the route of the #308 bus as we rise on to meet the off-road hamlet of Oldfield, still looking like a rural enclave away from the suburban spread in the valley below.