An alternate route towards the coast, and a first stride into Wakefield District are needed whilst the days of February cannot offer days without gloom and drizzle, so only a modest mileage is going down as I set out from the Town Hall at 10.25am, heading down Albion Street to follow the bottom half of Commercial Street down between the mill complexes that fired the growth of this town, dropping onto the old route of Wide Lane, before leaving the 1930s council houses behind and crossing the parkland that sits aside Magpie Lane. Then it's onwards among the late 20th century closes following the rights of way that have endured so green spaces can still exist among these developments, and then it's a sharp drop down beyond Peacock Green to cross Topcliffe Beck, before rising on the broken and muddy track up to Topcliffe Farm. The farm lane offers a hard surface over to the Capitol Park East office estate, and across Dewsbury Road we meet the embankment that was once home to Tingley station on the GNR Ardsley - Laisterdyke line, where I'll be sneaking through the trees around the back of the garage and café, to meet the enduring railway formation as it heads towards Ardsley, with the branch off from Tingley East Junction still clearly visible. Clear railway formation, with a path but without a right of way, takes me all the way to the trotting field by Thorpe Lane, and the road has to be followed up towards Middleton as the railway vanishes beneath the local Golf course.
Below Middleton Estate, a rough track takes me amongst all sorts of construction and industrial debris to the site of Ardsley railway yard, where a right of way exists, flowed alongside the Leeds to Daoncaster line, where the signal box endures among the devastation, before Passing beneath the M62 to rise along Colville Terrace to meet the Dolphin Beck Marsh, which forms a recovered green space that endures among the post colliery residential developments that have grown around Thorpe on the Hill. Sticky going leads us beneath the Stanhope Road bridge and onto the Leeds Country Way route, alongside Bowling Beck and down to The Nook at Lingwell Gate, hitting the rising road and under the railway and M1 to enter Wakefield district by that odd terrace that seems to have been dropped by the motorway. Lingwell Gate Lane offers the long downhill walk to the finish line, offering views to the familiar site of the former Lofthouse Colliery, and no hint of the proximity of the Wakefield 41 industrial estate, hidden behind the trees. There are still a few formerly rural outliers to be found on the outskirts of Outwood, but as soon as we are among the houses, we are upon the railway station and the day is done at only 12.20pm, completing the axis away from Morley that had yet to be tramped, and offering me a future jump off point into the last largely unexplored corner of the county.
5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 1413.7 miles
2015 Cumulative Total: 11.5 miles
Up Country Total: 1318.1 miles
Solo Total: 1186.7 miles
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| Peel Street Mills, Morley. The most impressive of the Mill conversions that have been developed in this town, giving an important reminder of the local industrial heritage that might have been otherwise forgotten. |
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| Topcliffe Farm, Morley. A fine viewpoint for much of south Leeds, and clearly visible from any high point in the city, but today we got a rural aspect and no views whatsoever, because it's February. |
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| Tingley East Junction, Tingley Common. Nice to find another railway relic so close to home, and walkable too. The old GNR lines go left to Tingley Viaduct and Beeston junction, straight on to Ardsley junction and Wakefield. |
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| Ardsley Goods yard. The signal box endures among piles of debris from construction and industry, on a site ripe for redevelopment, so one day this will surely be a feature in an upscale section of the Leeds Commuter belt. |
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| Dolphin Beck Marsh, Thorpe on the Hill. A nature reserve that has recovered from the pollution of the coal mining days, and has been protected from the redevelopment of any available brown field site, a very pleasant spot. |
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| Lingwell Gate Lane, Outwood. The final mile along the road is nearly always a drag, and Outwood is still proving largely enigmatic to me, despite forming the other half of my parliamentary constituency. |
Next Up: The Coastal Path leads to Garforth.
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