The warm and bright weather that flanked both sides of the long Easter weekend doesn't seemed have endured as our next excursion rolls around, which is a shame as we are supposedly at that point in the season where Spring flips over to being mostly warm, and we start to schedule the longer trekking days accordingly, and having spent the opening quarter of the year keeping things relatively local, we need to start aiming further afield as there are plenty of new destinations to be had beyond West Yorkshire, and that will all start today, as we ride to Pontefract again, to start from Monkhill station once again. We depart at 9.30am under glum skies and a stiff breeze and set a course down the station access road, for a change, leading us to North Baileygate to pass around Pontefract castle to its west, to bring us by the partially ruined All Saints church before we set the southwesterly course for the day by joining the A645 Southgate, which takes us below the flats blocks and the spread of the old town on the hilltop, and above Baghill station, the old Pontefract General infirmary and the new Hospital, and the extensive Friarwood gardens, on the site of the Black Friars monastic establishment, the second such in the town. Tangle with the A639 at the west end of town, and keep on with the A645 as Wakefield Road pushes away, past a proper urban ruin below Priory Wood and uphill among mostly terraces on the rise to the west of the town, where we meet estates around the hilltop, once home to Pontefract barracks and its battlemented keep, now a business centre next to the modest home of the 8th Rifles, beyond which we descend down Marl Pit Hill, with the countryside being met past the Kings Croft Hotel and the crematorium, as we pass among the equestrian fields around Ravensknowle farm and its Farmer Copley’s produce store. The rural break isn’t a long one though, as the urban reach of greater Featherstone soon strings itself along the Pontefract Road-side, with the suburban ribbon accompanying us down to the derelict school site, an ideal spot for a redevelopment, surpassed by the new Featherstone academy behind it, before we land among the terraces that you’d expect in this former mining town, which has consumed the once separate village of Purston Jaglin at its eastern end , which is still one of the best names in the county, and we pass the White House inn before we quit the A645 at the corner by The Traveller’s Rest.
Sunday, 24 April 2022
Pontefract to Barnsley 23/04/22
Wednesday, 20 April 2022
Outwood to Fitzwilliam 18/04/22
The three day walking burn across the long Easter weekend is a rarer beast than might have been expected, as this turns out to be only the second time that I've actually completed one, the first time since 2019, and it's a good feeling to have as we keep the legs going in an intense burst so that we might keep the mileage up while other April Saturdays are lost due to the need for necessary socialising, and thus we head into the last trip from greater Wakefield to the local railway stations that I've never finished a trip out to, dawdling our way down to Outwood on a train that feels like its getting held at every signal. Alight at 9.40am, with not too many original footfalls to be made across the first hour or so as we seek the railway paths again, starting out via Lingwell Gate Lane and Potovens Lane as they lead among the suburbia of Outwood and Lofthouse Gate to the obvious hump in the latter where it passed over the Methley Joint Line, before seeking the path behind the back gardens to pick it up in the cutting that leads up to Leeds Road, as well as the section beyond the A61 that has now got its cycleway in situ, both of which weren't traced when we came this way in 2014, extending the accessible route as it presses on east towards Castleford. We'll take a right turn at Anaheim Drive to head south-east as we join the Nagger Lines, the old narrow-gauge railway that serviced Lofthouse Colliery, which now forms another local path behind the suburban gardens of Outwood and Stanley, which seems well used by local exercisers as it pushes us down to Rooks Nest Road and the packet of enduring green fields beyond as we come down to Lime Pit Lane, where the rails are still embedded in the tarmac, and acafe has developed in Spa Fold farm, with a hard path leading us on along the edge of the green before we cross the A642 Aberford Road. It's quite a descent to get to the low section, entering the fields around the meandering river Calder, which hides from view as we pass by Smalley Bight farm, as we look back to the terraces on the road into Wakefield and the treetops of the Stanley Marsh nature reserve beyond them, pondering how many times we've already paced these paths on our travels as we come down towards Stanley Ferry, at least carrying a better understanding of the industrial landscape of the area than we did during my novice days on the trail, acknowledging the Victoria colliery site to our right before we emerge onto Ferry Lane.
Sunday, 17 April 2022
Ossett to Streethouse 16/04/22
After a single night's rest, we're good to go again as Easter Saturday morning rolls around, though the weather isn't looking as propitious as it did yesterday, with early morning mist hanging heavy as we head out, having had to take planning slide rule to project this expedition as a train being absent thanks to the ongoing TPE-RMT beef and strike means that I’m presented with a window that’s either too short or too long if I use Northern’s services via Dewsbury, and that’s why we are today busing it via Wakefield to get to our start line in Ossett. Alight at 9.30am, to the west of the city this time as we aim eastwards, departing the bus station and finding a way down behind Ossett Town Hall and through the vacant market place, before we project ourselves away, down Station Road, passing the old town library and striking out as we are lead over the old station site, and on tracking southeasterly as we pass the Southdale playing fields and land in South Ossett without having ever noticed the join, landing among its statement terraces and getting no sight at all of its parish church as we come down over Manor Road. A field gap does lie beyond, as the road shifts its way around Sowood Farm and Rock House, giving us a mist shrouded look into the space to north of Horbury before we come around into the town itself, passing the Old Halfway House and the Victoria inns as the morning haze starts to rapidly burn off, and once we’re past the old Co-op store it looks like the sunshine will bathe the day against expectations, resuming the warm spell for the long weekend as we come down past the Memorial gardens, the old Town Hall and the public library. Beyond the derelict chapel and Sunday school, we meet the end of High Street, and check the Sowood – Westfield Roads off the untraced by any other route list, to find that it’s as pleasing a stretch as it ever was, offering vintage frontages and views up to St Peter & St Leonard’s church as we pass by again, and still prospering along our fourth(!) traversal before we shift down Cluntergate, with its awesome name and trio of drinking establishments that keep us company as we drop down to the A642 bypass road, which is crossed before Daw Lane and Green Lane can lead us into the residential band around St Mary's church.
Saturday, 16 April 2022
Sandal to Glasshoughton 15/04/22
Having taken a weekend out to visit My Good Friends in Calderdale, and to get in my first night out on the town since the Covid Pandemic started, in Manchester, we can return to the trail feeling socially recharged, which is just as well as the long Easter Weekend is next on the slate, right at the cusp of the year starting to be warmer, and we’ve gotten a trio of routes to cram into the four days, from starting points around greater Wakefield aimed at railway stations that have yet to act as finish lines on my travels, and that’s what we have in mind as we ride out in the Good Friday sunshine. Alight at Sandal & Agbrigg station at 9.40am, and our route starts southeast, through the car park on the western side of it, to find the cycleway that follows the former railway spur that linked the GNR-GCR main line to the North Midland main line off to the south, rising over what feel like a mile against an already sharp natural gradient, to drop us down below one of the many Oakenshaw junctions at the northern edge of Walton village, which we turn away from to follow Oakenshaw Lane north, to soon see an Azuma making shot work of the ascent on its London-bound passage south. Passing north we can look to Wakefield on the horizon, and find a pony loose in the road before we choose to make a brief detour to trace the Barnsley Canal’s section that we didn’t examine in 2015, the channel that meanders north towards Agbrigg, still in water and reedy, forming its own sort of nature reserve with a developing right of way along the tow path, followed as far as the channel remains up to the allotments before overgrowth stops progress and we are compelled to go back the way we came, listening to the sound of the diesel trains making slow progress south on the railway. Back on the lane we spy the viaduct on the canal, and befriend the horses in the fields of Oakenshaw farm as we pass around it, to pass over more railway lines, the Crofton line and the spur to the North Midland line, which seems to be theme in this district as branches and links abound, before we are angled around to meet Heath Common and the A638 Doncaster Road, both of which are passed over, the former on an isolated stretch of former road among the rough grass and gorse bushes, and below the horses grazing the pasture to the south, with the remains of Heath Old Hall on the immediate horizon.
Sunday, 3 April 2022
Pontefract to Wakefield 02/04/22
There's only one day of Walking to be had whilst Down Country, as there's also three days of labour to be done around My Mum's house, and a sudden downturn in the quality of the weather to be contended with before we instead return to this season's regular stomping grounds in search of one of the few remaining trajectories in West Yorkshire that hasn't been traced, which involves installing Pontefract as our probable launch point for trails in many directions for the year, alighting at 9.30am again at Monkhill station, with all of the sunshine of two weeks ago, but none of the heat to go with it. To head westwards, we first fall and rise with Mill Dam Lane, past the Railway inn and the Hope & Anchor to arrive below the bailey of Pontefract castle, tracing it around Beech Hill and Castle Chain to land beneath the keep, and its quatrefoil donjon, before rising to the town up Micklegate and Horsefair, noting just how many tower blocks have been built up the hillside without spoiling the ancient aspect of the town centre beyond the Town Hall, along Market Place to the Butter Cross and St Giles church, and down Beastfair to the war memorial. Split off Cornmarket by the old Courthouse, and descend off the hill via Sessions House Yard and Colonels Walk, between Haribo factory and Leisure centre to find the way down to the railway, which is passed under via the foot tunnel by the playing fields of Pontefract Collieries FC and the urban enclave that has developed around them, rising past Tanshelf station and over the A639 by the gates to Pontefract Park, joining Park Lane as it propels us along the suburban ribbon at the town's west end, past New College and up Park Hill, arriving below the prominent water tower. Having risen with the B6134 to a modest height, a westward view emerges, to the county's distant southwestern horizon, with Woolley Edge and Emley Moor re-sequenced ahead of it, giving us something to look at across the fields of blooming rapeseed as we work our way along the perimeter of Pontefract Golf Course, offering no views north through the hawthorn hedges until its full length has been passed, revealing the look over Glass Houghton and Castleford, and the look towards Leeds, peeking its highest towers above nearby hills, and showing the Aire-Wharfe watershed ridge bounding the city to its west and east.
Wednesday, 30 March 2022
Fosse Way: Narborough to Syston 28/03/22
Pandemic conditions (as well as necessary housework and heatwave) means that it's been a while since we last dropped feet in Leicestershire, so while we are Down Country for a week, to attend a memorial service for a family friend and to aid Mum with some garden tasks and junk clearance, it's definitely time to get back in the Old Country saddle, and revive some plans that I've had on my slate since September 2019, to expand on the county experience that had been built via the courses of the Leicestershire Round and the Long Walk to Leicester, if we can recall that far. The scheme is to trace all the major roads to the minor towns around the county, and we'll be starting with those of Roman vintage, with the Fosse Way as our first, tracing its portion across the city from southwest to northeast, and not its full lengths to Exeter or Lincoln, and we'll not be needing to abuse Parental Taxi privileges to get the start line, as we can bus and train our way out, not starting too late as we're walking the first available day after the shift into British Summer Time, so it's not even a late start as we alight at Narborough station at 10.30am, under the bright sunshine that's lingered on for more than ten days now. This is easily the best vintage village station in the county, with all of its elements still in place and to be regarded before we press up Station Road to the main street by the Narborough Arms, to immediately get us onto our trajectory at the Coventry - Leicester Road corner, not on the actual Fosse but on the old A46, which has migrated away from the city through the 1970s to 1990s, taking the route northeasterly as it takes us past All Saints church and through a Leicestershire village landscape that I haven't seen up close in so long, as we're drawn out beyond St Pius X RC church and the end of the B4114 bypass road, where we pass under the M1. The city appears to lie beyond, but we're still in the county as we enter another suburban enclave, which is probably counted as part of nearby Enderby, just off to the west beyond the motorway, with the width of the road indicating it past significance as it pulls us up to the B582 Blaby - Enderby Road island by the Miller & Carter steakhouse, with St John's road taking us onwards, past the last fields to be seen on this side of the city, as well as Palmers Garden centre, the Park and Ride facility and the HQ of Leicestershire constabulary, ahead of us approaching the A653 Soar Valley Way, the outer Ring Road.
Sunday, 20 March 2022
Pontefract to Leeds 19/03/22
As we meet the last weekend of the Early Season of 2022, and the last official weekend of Winter, it actually looks like we can start dressing for Spring, as the inconsistent weather, tinged by chills that were sometimes offset by sunshine, looks like it’s gone for a while, to be replaced by clear skies that look quite incongruous against the bare trees and barren fields, a lot like what we saw a decade ago, and thus the thick jacket goes away until October and the peaked hat comes out again, as our opening quest to the Five Towns need to be concluded by returning ourselves to the Big City. The campaign will begin Pontefract at 9.30am, and from Monkhill station this time as it’s never featured as a start point before, possibly one of the saddest town stations anywhere, but well-placed for a view to the remnants of the castle and the colliery from its footbridge (but no sight at all of the Ferrybridge power station cooling towers as they were demolished a mere five days after I passed them by last weekend!), from where we’ll descend to Monkhill Road, where we can take a path north, under the eastern station throat and away, taking us through the town’s northern suburban bands of Lady Balk and New Town, now desirable as they are longer overshadowed by the coal mining industry, though the remaining spoil heap of Prince of Wales colliery still looms above their eastern edges. The downhill press takes us under the M62, and into the green space that still keeps Pontefract and Castleford separate, with no cooling towers to see on the eastern horizon, and Xscape off to the west as Spittal Harwick Lane leads us sharply up into greater Castleford, with suburbia soon crowding the road as we come up Toll Hill, where we tangle with the B6136 Holywell Lane, and meet the junction by the former tavern where we split off, tracing the edge of the Fryston and Airedale estates as Redhill lane keeps us on our northwesterly trajectory. We're on Castleford’s highest hill up here, working our way past the recreation ground and the Redhill Sports & Social Club before taking the turn that leads us past the underground reservoirs, and the water tower and microwave masts that render this hillside distinct from far afield, and once up, its soon down again, steeply through a rock-cut channel on secluded section of road that the modern world discourages use of before we come out by Queen’s Park, and follow Ferrybridge Road downhill through the town’s Edwardian townhouse district, down to the Castleford Academy campus and the town’s civic centre.