Alone Beneath The Sky: Featherstone to Moorthorpe 03/10/15

16.8 miles, via High Ackworth, Ackworth Moor Top, Fitzwilliam Country Park, Kinsley, Hemsworth, Upton, Wrangbrook, North & South Elmsall.

Finally back to Saturday walking, and this is one of those trails with a distance that I wouldn't want to approach without having a rest day in hand, and it has to get cleared off my slate asap because the days are going to start abbreviating soon enough as Autumn closes in. Even so, an early start isn't really obtainable when you pick Featherstone as your start point, isolated on the Wakey - Ponte line, but another one to tick off the list as I start out around 9.45am, the trip down Station Lane and Pontefract Road confirming my impression of the town as low-rise, surprisingly extensive and resolutely post industrial. That hasn't stopped new development cropping up on the field next to the path I cut last year, opposite The Junction, and in the early going the pubs are the most interesting features along the roadside, but suburbia emerges, after a fashion along Ackworth Road, in the entertainingly named district of Purston Jaglin, the parklands offing some much needed space and greenery. Strike out into the fields by following the coach road which once accessed Ackworth Park, and the ascending track gives a good view north to the familiar landscape horizon around Pontefract before dropping out on the A628, opposite the distinctive water tower, below which the Ackworth Plague Stone still stands, a rare 17th century relic. Push on down Pontefract road, beside the plush dwellings on the edge of Ackworth Park, past one of the eccentric milestones on the edge of High Ackworth and into the village that looks like is has been pretty upscale for a few centuries, complete with charity hospital and the parish church of St Cuthbert. Press on down to middle (?) Ackworth, with its large Georgian school, established by the Quakers and finally abandon the turnpike to Barnsley on the edge of Ackworth Moor Top, slipping down Mill Lane to go in search of a railway walk that has been a long time coming.

Soon find the trackbed that once linked the S&KJR to Hemsworth Colliery from 1914 to 1961, and even a relatively minor line of a couple of miles length has some impressively engineered features as we start down the roughly cut rock cutting to pass under the A628, and thence down the linear park that has developed through the middle of the village. It's a surprising survival when you consider that this is a line with no romance attached to it and late 20th century development could have swallowed it, but it endures, passing under the A638 Doncaster Road, and on under the shade of trees to the perimeter of Fitzwilliam Country Park. The cyclist would have to follow the perimeter track, but the walker can get away from the pong of the poultry farms by taking the rough track across the top of the grassy mound that has grown on the former colliery site, and the way is obvious enough to not get lost on the way across, with the view from the top giving a good panorama, despite the gloom and haze. Delighted that my way finding skills are still sharp, I arrive next to the colliery village in Fitzwilliam, passing over the station throat and getting a slightly better view of the settlement than I got last week, pushing on down Wakefield Road and through the boundary into the neighbouring village of Kinsley. It looks much the same as its companion, being noted for its greyhound racing stadium and its pub named after the village, clearly another post-coal sort of place, and that impression is maintained as we push on up the road past Vale Head park and into the edge of Hemsworth. Detour around the town, among the bungalows on Spring Vale Rise to get over to the old Ponte - Barny Road again to peer over the bridge parapets to check out the site of the bafflingly absent Hemsworth Railway station on the Wakey - Donny line, before carrying on down Station Road and onto the footpath behind the suburban gardens of Little Hemsworth.

Past the terrace ends to find the track that leads out of the town, almost hidden by recent housing developments, carrying on under the A628 bypass and have some difficulty picking the correct track the crossing over the railway, but get greeted by sunshine finally coming on as I go in search of a long section of the Hull & Barnsley mainline, its passage clearly obvious on the far side of the bypass but not clear on this side, but I find the way to go beyond the trees, beside a field of what looks like pampas grass, and rising along the alignment until it meets the A6201 cutting through it, and beyond this deep cleft, the passage onwards is clear, having gained bridleway status and a decent walking surface. Pause for late lunch before pressing on to the S&KJR crossing, the OS map showing up its annoying habit of illustrating bridges that aren't there anymore, but the replacement footbridge gives us some real coal hauling action on the metals below before the day starts to take on its crazy section. Despite being really close to the finish line in Moorthorpe, my path is about to take a long trip in the wrong direction before folding back on itself, and so move eastwards as we head across the very top of the South Kirkby colliery site, in search of the trackbed once more. Find it soon enough, mostly riding atop a heavily wooded embanlment in the direction of Upton before it is interrupted again by the A6201, slipping into a wooded cutting before rising to the A638 Doncaster Road traffic island, where we meet the Upton & North Elmsall station house at the roadside and down the path adjacent fragments of the platforms that haven't seen traffic since 1932 still remain. The trackbed beyond doesn't offer much by way of the suggestion of railway, as the country park and fishing ponds on the colliery site south of Upton have developed around it, but after a while a broad rock cutting emerges to renew focus, and an embankment follows before being cut off by a missing bridge.

The continuing section, as embankment returns to cutting seems less well trodden, but a lot more impressive as we seem to be slightly elevated but still below the natural wrinkle of the landscape, and we press on until the Wrangbrook interrupts us once again, and for the second time in this vicinity, finding the onward path proves challenging. Lose the actual junction site once across the beck, but the way to Sheepwalk Lane can be easily found across the rough ground to the north of Brookside farm, and the best relic on all of the H&B in West Yorkshire is to be found down the deep rock cutting beyond. It's worth a half mile of trespass and a clamber over many concrete barriers to find the west portal of Barnsdale tunnel, the 1100m beast under the ridge that separates this burgh from the flatlands to the east, dressed in red brick and dark stone (and sadly inaccessible when the urbex stuff that I read suggested that getting in was possible) but being dead straight the sight of the east end by the A1 is a tiny light in the far distance. Return to the lane, and the long hairpin back to the finish line starts, joining the side of the A6201 to meet the Wrangbrook Junction railway terrace, oddly dropped among the fields, before finding my way onto the path across the fields to the seemingly non existent bridleway that follows the stream over to North Elmsall Hall farm. This provides the lane that runs me into North Elmsall, a ridiculously tiny Hamlet, quite unlike its southern companion, and quiet since the A638 has bypassed it, and a field walk beyond has me on the right track to Minsthorpe Lane, but there will be no fast-tracking along Mill Lane as the wall is hit, and its a slow walk down to South Elmsall, over the railway station and on through the busy town centre where the main street fairly hums with activity. A slow pace is made in the direction of Moorthorpe station, noting the church that has taken over the billiard hall (rather than the other way round) and the kung fu school which has grown among the colliery terraces, it's another small loop closed, mind you, rolling up to a close at 4.15pm, 40 mins early for the ride home, and not 20 mins late!

5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 1957 miles
2015 Cumulative Total: 554.8 miles
Up Country Total: 1797.3 miles
Solo Total: 1745 miles