Alone Beneath The Sky: Bradford to Horsforth 25/02/17

8.7 miles, via Bolton, Eccleshill, Greengates, Calverley, & Horsforth Vale.

We can be glad that the worst of Storm Doris's weather has passed by the time the weekend comes around, but there will still be glumness in the air as Saturday commences, though the worst of the rain will have passed by the time the day starts at Bradford Interchange once again, and thus the day will not be spent dodging the rain showers. So on our way at 10.10am, feeling that as we now have the basic geography of the city in our minds, it's time to start filling in the details, and thus we leave going the other way along Bridge Street and down Vicar Lane to note that the name of the lost station lives on in the identity of the entertainment complex adjacent to it, known as the Leisure Exchange. Cross Leeds Road and meet the new and old faces of the city on Well Street, where the proud Victorian warehouses that survived the 1960s remodelling still stand facing the Broadway centre, which has finally been developed to fill in the Forster Square hole that feels like it endured for more than a decade. Not a shopping centre to really excite the senses, but a huge improvement over what went before, and even though the square itself has now vanished beneath M&S, the statue of W.E. himself still stands outside the old GPO, now the Kala Sangam South Asian arts centre, giving us a pretty handy coverage of most of Bradford's recent histories in a single location. Hit the ascending Bolton Road away from the city centre, between factories redeveloped as flats and a casino, and the remnants of a residential district long lost on the way up to the A650 Shipley Airedale Road, the dual carriageway that must be crossed to meet the long rise into Eastern Bradford. It gets leafy and greenish pretty quickly as we go, offering some good views across the valley, and the rocks outcrop on the eastern roadside, by the sadly disused Prospect of Bradford public house, and it's hard to believe that this road used to be residential along its full length. Views keep coming as the rise continues, pulling away from the valley edge and meeting the long terrace that curves along the roadside up to the Gurdwara in the old Methodist chapel, and then a rightwards sweep takes us the boundary of Peel Park, and above the path previously seen on Queen's Road before we meet and cross it by the Bolton public house, which might be the second one located on this very road (which would make a certain amount of sense as this is at least the third Bolton that I have so far encountered in the north country, and I know there are more to come as well).

The A6176 continues to plough on uphill, a stretch of old turnpike with smart Victorian villas and the prominent church of St James on the southern side, and the mess of suburban Bolton scattered in the landscape crease off to the north, a rise that offers more looks back to Bradford's city spread down its valley and across its many hills, and even once across the Idle Road crossroads, the climbing isn't done, illustrating that this is a town a lot like Halifax, where it's uphill in every direction. Taking a path along Stone Hall Road offers a more direct route than the main road, and it turns out to be a much prettier one too, as we move into Eccleshill, past the Prospect pub (also out of business despite its views) and the parkland before we quite unexpectedly hit the middle of the village. Failure to look at the old OS map or to acknowledge the hint in the road name has me completely taken by surprise to meet the stone built village centre, looking way older than much of the surrounding suburbia and clustered around the prominently located Mechanic's Institute, it's a village that has managed to hide in Bradford's sprawl, and still possesses a ton of character despite the many takeaways along Stony Lane, it also has a Ukrainian Orthodox church, because of course it does. Tag this corner as Bradford's most desirable suburb as we meet Victoria Road and start the descent of Park Road, a pretty steep one down among some developments that might have been quite snazzy when new in the 1970s, and as views down the Aire emerge, we meet a hint of the other railway walk that Bradford will offer as we pass a remnant of the bridge that once carried the GNR Laisterdyke to Shipley branch overhead. Continue down, but do not follow the tree lined lane any further towards The Park, once a golf course, instead taking a northern turn onto Harrogate Road, where the A658 can lead us down through the villas, council estates and pre-fabs (?) of Greengates, to meet the leisure centre and shops at the crossroads with the A657 New Line that will take us away from greater Bradford and on into Leeds District, our walk through the unknown ending as we pass over Carr Beck and the path of the Leeds Country Way, walked some 5 years ago now. So on towards Leeds and on through Calverley, avoiding the main village by taking Clara Drive though Calverley Woods, that odd lane laid out for residential development but aside from the Leonard Cheshire home, there's not a single house along it of a style or vintage that honestly deserves the location, and I'll pace it despite it being technically private because it's accessible at both ends and offers a view into the eponymous cutting, which I still can't believe didn't have an industrial purpose.

There was industry in the woods beyond, quarrying mostly, but there are building remnants among the trees that are suggestive of something that only an expert on the local history could immediately identify, and our muddy detour among the trees and local dog walkers ends as we meet Thornhill Drive, which leads us to the corner by the school and St Wilfred's church. Back with the A657 it's onwards in the direction of Leeds, leaving behind the villas and pubs, the Thornhill and the Calverley Arms, and meeting the green space that keeps Calverley distinctive, descending markedly, looking to Horsforth across the river valley and not getting any closer to the edge of Rodley as our path will go cross country for the first time in the direction of the canal. It's a slippery and steep field walk down to Owl bridge, over the cut of the Leeds & Liverpool canal, and then a short way along to the hidden steps down to the muddy approach to Calverley Bridge, and it's over the Aire, looking higher than it's been in a while, to find a bench to pause upon for lunch time, as I'm not going to get to the finish line without refuelling. Then comes the push up the other side of the river valley, over the railway, past the Horsforth Vale development that still doesn't appeal to me at all, and on to Bar Lane, another of those old roads that the modern world didn't want that leads up to the A65, a haul that would have been little fun when a packhorse was the favoured mode of transport. So to Horsforth's suburban sprawl, below the features of Hunger Hills and St Margaret's church, pacing Hall Lane on a long loop around Horsforth Hall Park, which would demand closer examination if its titular Hall were still in situ, but only ancillary buildings remain looking more rustic than stately, and so we'll leave it to the locals and enjoy the stray rural building among the suburbs before making the crossing of Fink Hill to meet Town Street. Finally make proper acquaintance of Horsforth's main drag and primary shopping street showing up a vintage and styling that is unlike most of the rest of Leeds, and for some reason the soot blackened stone of many of the buildings is far more appealing to me than ones that have been cleaned, and it's a look that endures all the way up to the merge with Church Avenue as the lane becomes Long Row. It's a good time to wonder if the Brownlee Arms shares a relationship with our local triathlon brothers, a thought to ponder as stone suburbia sends us all the way to the Old Ball roundabout, and then it's down Station Road to the finish line at Horsforth station, all done at 1.45pm, and hopeful that the Bradford - Leeds bracket is going to offer more interesting paths as we move out of Winter on the road into Spring.

5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 2603.2 miles
2017 Total: 38.2 miles
Up Country Total: 2376.4 miles
Solo Total: 2347.9 miles