Alone Beneath The Sky: Wetherby to York 15/10/16

16.6 miles, via Ingmanthorpe, Cowthorpe, Tockwith, Long Marston, Hutton Wandesley,
Rufforth, Acomb & Holgate.

Another weekend drops off the schedule, as late season fatigue starts to kick in, and the start of a mass staff exodus from work doesn't aid the mood any, so rest is taken and appreciated before getting back on the trail as Autumn lands hard, for there will be no more warm weather in the remaining viable walking weekends, so the last long, long trek needs to be done, one that I've had plotted for a while, originally planned for last year before my focus shifted. So out to Wetherby again, to start out from the north bank of the Wharfe at 9.50am, setting course for a whole bunch of villages in the northern portion of the Ainsty by heading northwards along Westgate towards the Town hall and Market Place to find Church Street and the decorative path up to St James', one of those Victorian town churches that has you wondering where the original Medieval establishment might have gone. A nice bit of faux Early English styling to see in the early going before we rejoin North Street and take the fork of Deighton Road to follow the old Great North Road past the large houses of the old town, beyond the old railway and into the outer suburbia of the latter half of the 20th century, but not for all that far along the B6164 before we peel off onto Sandbeck Lane, where all of the town's industrial units seem to have gathered. Possibly the least attractive way out of the town, but beyond the A168 we meet the countryside, for the moment at least, as the bridleway heads on to the edge of the A1(M), rising up to meet Junction 46 and the outer boundary of my walking field, and the decision to take my old E289 prove to be a poor one as it predates the construction of the motorway and my annotations are unhelpful. I decide that the correct path is down the access lane to the Service station, and then change my mind when half way down and return to meet the farm track that runs down the other side of the hedge and ditch, on the edge of Ingmanthorpe Park, a prettier route and actually containing the right of way it seems, but I think both tracks would have eventually led me in the right direction.

The woodlands provide some context to the path, leading it down towards Ingmanthorpe Grange, which looks a bit scratchy as a farm, but has some nice cottages attached, and our way forwards is along Loshpot Lane, next to a nature reserve, but the roads lead to no sort of village, as Ingmanthorpe seems to be a name shared by a disparate collection of farms without any sort of enduring focal point. There's a lot of fields out here though, and a wander across them is in order to get to our first village of the day, skirting Oates wood and startling the grazing sheep as we head over to War Field Lane, just below the Goosemoor nature reserve, and these are a surprising little feature in this locality. The lane leads us through some muddy going up to Cowthorpe, a village that suggests a very bucolic appearance, but the 20th century seems to have dropped council houses and bungalows upon it without it size increasing appreciably, the best part of the old village is to be found on Oak Road around the church, St Michael's, which is another beauty, naturally. Press on to the road to Tockwith, hopeful that we ought to get sight of the River Nidd as we pace along its rising bank, getting a suggestive course view and a look to Hunsingore on the northern side, but the only view we'll get is by dropping through the car park of an angling club to see the water through a shroud of trees, a surprisingly modest appearance that will have to be built on in coming walking season. The real interest to be found along Tockwith Lane is the number of vintage cars travelling in the opposite direction, and it requires several to have passed before I start to notice the pattern, and acknowledge that a rally is taking place, and it says something about my walking career that this is not the first time I have witnessed such a thing. So that will keep me company on the way past Broad Oaks farm, aptly named, our final crossing of Rudgate for this year and spotting the signs of the former life of Tockwith Airfield, from where this rally emanates, and the roads will be quieter beyond, but we hit the suburban edge of Tockwith immediately afterwards to get the landscape interest going again. This village, almost a townlet, is clearly the focal settlement in these parts, retaining a tonne of period character and a mass of Ainsty stylings, just to keep me happy, also good news it the fact that it sustains two pubs, the Spotted Ox and the Boot & Shoe, as well as a village store, and it just keeps stretching on along Westfield and Marston Roads, keeping all of it latter developments distant at it opposite ends, altogether a place to deserve a lot of praise.

Leaving this potential retirement village behind, the road leads us into the expanse of Marston Moor battlefield, really more than a mile in the width, where on the evening of 2nd July 1644 the decisive battle of the English Civil War for control of the North was fought, a major success for the alliance of Parliamentarians and Scottish Covenanters under the Earl of Leven, and a critical defeat for the King's forces under Prince Rupert of the Rhine. It's size means it takes a lot of absorbing, but the rise to the south is where the forces of Parliament deployed, and the fields to the north are where the Royalist rout took place, the monument obelisk to Cromwell and Fairfax fils at the eastern edge confirms the geography for us, as well as providing a reminder that 40,000 men engaged, and 4,000 died in these fields, and it's a good place to take lunch, as it offers somewhere to sit that isn't on the ground. Return to the 21st century and press on along the lane, passing under the power lines and on into Long Marston village, which seems to have ribboned its way along the road with houses of all kinds of vintages filling in the gaps between the farms and more sizeable residences, and it doesn't gain focus until the Collingham & York turnpike is met, and the pub, the Sun Inn acts like some sort of centre. Any village would seem disappointing after Tockwith though, and some of the development choices here haven't been great, but the old school building is a gem, and the parish Church of All Saints is so far removed from the rest of the village that it might be considered to be in the neighbouring hamlet of Hutton Wandesley. This is an altogether puzzling one, as if a bunch of houses associated to the farms attached to Hutton Hall have managed to almost become their own village, and you can't linger long because it just ain't big enough, as the farm tracks are picked up to hammer out a mile or more of a shortcut across the fields in the direction of Rufforth. Easy going in the opening stretches, following the drains that cut across this flatland, and getting a bit rougher once you hit the fields shared with livestock, and altogether sketchy as the equestrian fields outside the village are met, as if the local horsey folk definitely do not want you disturbing their animals. Still, the spire of All Saints church has been our sentinel on the trot over to Rufforth, and the local lanes drop us right outside it as we land on the B1224 in another village that sits comfortably on the line between commuter belt and bucolically charming.

Fortify myself before setting on my way, but with my own supplies rather than any obtained from the Old School tearoom or the Tankard Inn, and put the rest of the village on the list for another visit as the way forward is going to involve walking along the main road for a while, and so the traffic must be faced head on, alright where the verges are wide but somewhat alarming around some of the turns. Keeping attention on the road is also tough when we have Rufforth Airfield on the south side of the lane, which seems to be shared by both light aircraft and motorcyclists, and I've no idea how that is supposed to work, and the buzzing of aeroplanes will continue as the road returns to open country and the significant ticker on the year brings me on to 500 miles in 2016, so a small celebration is due in this rather undistinguished corner. Push on to the A1237 York Ring Road and set attention to the edge of the city, gaining a footway and soon wandering into the leafy suburban lands of Acomb, an altogether better face than that of Foxwood, and along Wetherby Road Acomb Green is soon met, a lovely little park in a natural depression. The road into York shows up a few surprises after we've passed the commercial centre of Acomb along Front Street, as this is a road which has both a Cold War bunker and a Mormon temple on it, hidden among its high terraces and parklands, as well as a parish church which hides from view completely and it undulates a lot more than I was expecting too. Crash into the A59 Holgate Road and join the cyclepath around the back of the Fox inn to get a close look at the still enduring buildings of the NER's carriage works, and then head up among the terraces on Wilton Rise to meet the high footbridge over the York avoiding line and to get a lofty view to the city, which is a bonus and to the former wagon worksite below, now looking far from its days of activity, which I can recall from 30 years or so ago. Taking the Cinder Lane path behind the York station car park shows up a few surviving relics of the railway days at the edge of the old goods yard, especially the main good shed, and all the railway heritage you could ever want is to be found on Leeman Road after all, where I haven't visited the NRM in far too many years. Pass through the underpass below the northern station throat and move around the station hotel's grounds to roll up to York station for the last time this year, landing on the platform at 4.15pm, and all feelings that I have done a number on this city should be tempered by the thought that I have only visited the southwest corner of it, and there's probably still plenty of that to be explored before venturing into the remaining three quarters.

5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 2517.8 miles
2016 Total: 503.4 miles
Up Country Total: 2302.3 miles
Solo Total: 2286.9 miles