Once the Superbowl weekend is done and in the past, the Early Season can get underway, weather permitting as usual, and the first good day to come along is Valentines Day, and what better occasion could there be for reacquainting myself with something I love. Not wishing to push things too hard when I have new boots to break in, the initial stretches will all start from home, allowing me to not lose precious hours of daylight with travelling, and so the first steps of the day are made away from the familiar corner on Queen Street, in front of the Town Hall just before 10am. Routes northwards are getting less clear after so many trips made in the direction of Leeds, and so steps are made across the apron of Scatcherd park, passing below the war memorial and among the posh houses on Gladstone Terrace to the unfamiliar cluster of bungalows that have been dropped in off Bright Street, completely misreading the cul-de-sacs to arrive three-quarters of the way down the cobbled causeway that drops out by Hillycroft Fisheries by the A643 at Morley Hole. Avoid the most direct route to Gildersome, by taking Nepshaw Lane rather than the more recent Asquith Avenue, wandering down this older lane until new builds arrive where the motorway severed it, and drift back to cross the M621, and taking a sneakier detour in the slanted Dean Wood to pace the half mile or so above Dean Beck and the BMX tracks to get a look at the surviving east end of Gildersome Tunnel, formerly of the L&NWR's New Leeds Line of 1900-1965, and now a heavily flooded portal hidden away from view deep in the woods, finally seen in person after an article first posted in 2007 piqued my interest. Depart the way I came in, leaving the private land that is still very popular with local dog walkers, crossing the main road to enter the more accessible half of Dean Wood, where a right of way has developed along its southern edge, muddily making its way in the direction of the Gildersome Spur industrial estate, before meeting a sounder path that takes us over to the A62.
Across Gelderd Road and into Gildersome via College Road, Meeting Harthill Parade and the village green and passing on to the other side of this extensive village via Town End, gaining the impression that this place developed particularly haphazardly, with scattered farmsteads being found among the terraces, council houses and 70s residences that have filled in the gaps without reason or rhyme over the last century. Spring View feels like it might have been a lane that led somewhere but gradually diminishes down to a farm track, leading past Nursery Bottoms and Carr Hall before petering out altogether and more muddy going leads across the fields before eventually getting to the A58 at New Farnley, where Whitehall Road offers a fine aspect of the City of Leeds. The track that takes me behind the houses is the one I pick, proving to be muddy as ought to be expected, before shifting me onto the residential pavements of Castle Ings Gardens in the direction of Low Moor Side, probably the oldest corner of this village, if that isn't over stating it. Field walking follows, tracking north on a partially paved causeway before shifting east to Park Side farm, getting offered a view of Pudsey up on its hillside before striding across the rough ground to meet the northward path that follows the perimeter of the Farnley Hall estate. No views into the parkland but plenty to the west before the track sidles downhill to meet Green Lane, a fine place to obtain an expensive house in the country, and I choose to stay on this lane, tacking east rather than descending to Tong Road just so I can get the view that I anticipated at Hall Lane, getting a West Leeds panorama over Bramley, Farnley, Armley and Wortley, a whole bunch of districts that I do not know well.
Reverse westwards to descend to Tong Road, passing the infamous (and presently empty) pub, the Beulah, on the corner, before taking the path steeply downhill into the Post Hill wood nature reserve, the largest and wildest of the West Leeds parks, departing the high path to descend down to the road at Troydale, an odd and remote collection of council houses and former mills at the beckside where My Sister lived for a while in the 90s, strangely enough. The low path alongside Pudsey beck is getting resurfaced, with a good hard top on the first stages but this gradually diminishes to loose stone, and eventually churned up soil, so what will in time prove to be a good cycle track in the woods, proves to currently be a bit of a bog, and my fortitude gets severely tested before I move away from it following the rougher, but less muddy, tracks that the local walkers seem to know better. A lack of route knowledge eventually has me back on the proper path, and it seems so wrong that the most obvious track is the worst one, but it eventually leads me out of the rural and wild lands and into the territory of West Leeds, the Gamble Hill tower blocks acting as a greeting, and once across Wood lane and Pudsey Road, we fall onto familiar paths outside Wickes, and most of the remaining going will be alongside the Leeds ring road. So on as the traffic roars away to itself, picking my way along the Spring Valley estate road to the point where the A6110 and the A647 Stanningley Bypass merge, or separate if you prefer, eschewing the turns into the various estates and pressing on uphill past the Morrisons supermarket to turn onto Swinnow Road to press on under the railway and the three bridges which mostly make Bramley station distinctive, the old GNR vintage stonework being most ignorable to the users of the current suburban platforms. Another station off the WY Metro list to start 2016 then, though a 1.20pm finish is a bit slower than the pace I had hoped for, but I'll blame the unfamiliarity of my new boots for that, having mostly passed their first examination, and even if they hadn't, they are already way too dirty to consider returning to the store!
5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 2022.2 miles
2016 Total: 7.8 miles
Up Country Total: 1848.5 miles
Solo Total: 1792.1 miles
 |
| Scatcherd Park, the well-loved municipal green space in the heart of Morley. |
 |
| Gildersome Tunnel. Hidden in Dean Wood and out of commission for 50 years now, it might be the Holy Grail of West Yorkshire's UrbEx community. It's taken me 8 years just to see the portal, I doubt I will ever attempt to venture inside it. |
 |
| Dean Wood, between Morley and Gildersome, a semi-urban lung, with a mile of old railway tunnel hidden beneath it. |
 |
| Gildersome village green, possibly one of the architecturally tidiest parts of the town. |
 |
| Whitehall Road, New Farnley. The turnpikes in this quarter are both blessed with excellent views on the approach to the Big City. |
 |
| Farnley Hall park perimeter wall. A fine spot to gain a view across to Pudsey, a view I won't share here as you ought to experience it yourself. |
 |
| The Beulah, Tong Road. a good fantasy property for the wannabe publican. |
 |
| Post Hill Wood, Troydale. This was once a pleasant wild woodland walk, and will be an excellent cycle track in the future, but is currently awful beyond all expectations. |
 |
| Stanningley Bypass meets the Ring Road and the urban exploration of West Leeds starts here! |
 |
| Bramley station offers three bridges but only one in contemporary use, a bit of excessive railway building that now renders this quarter distinctive. |
Next on the Slate: Another fresh trail to the West Leeds periphery.
No comments:
Post a Comment