Alone Beneath The Sky: The Bradford Circular 10/02/17

10.3 miles, from Dudley Hill, via the A6177 Ring Road (& Bierley, Staygate, Southfield,
Great Horton, Lidget Green, Girlington, Manningham, Queens Road, Undercliffe,
Bradford Moor, Laisterdyke & Cutler Heights).

I often joke with Leeds folk about how little they seem to know of Bradford, how they will only travel there for a specific reason, finding that it's never somewhere that they would pass through casually, but the truth is I know very little of the city either, unfamiliar with most of it geography and history, even after 5 years of walking in West Yorkshire. Compare the fact that my Leeds Circular trail crossed 19 different routes through that City, when today's trip around Bradford will cross over only two, with more than three quarters of the City being completely virgin territory to me, so it's fortunate that we have the A6177 ring road to guide us on a 9+ mile circuit, on much older roads than you'd expect around the suburban periphery of the city. Start out from the A650 at Dudley Hill after 10.20am, and it would have been earlier if the #427 bus hadn't done a dawdling act, and the quickest route to the A6177 is along Rook Lane, which quickly illustrates the main aesthetic problem I have with Bradford, all that well-weathered stonework that composes 90+% of the architecture of the city just looks so grey, a particularly unwelcoming appearance under the dull skies which seem to permanently hang in this quarter. Soon enough we are upon Rooley Lane to join the clockwise path of the Ring Road, keen to get to the inside track of the dual carriageway that might offer elevated views towards the city, and soon we are across by the ASDA store opposite St John's Bierley, and we are on familiar territory so soon, above Bowling Cemetery and pressing onwards past the YBS groups offices and the old New Hall farm on the opposite side, looking ripe for a makeover. Soon catch a distant sight of the Sport Centre that the uneducated eye could mistake for the more modest Odsal stadium, and then land at the top of the M606 at Staithgate Roundabout, where a vista open up to show just how high above the city we are, which ought to shed any failure to remember that Bradford lives in a valley with many hills around it. The dual carriageway continues, past the Cedar Court hotel and into the more outer suburban lands around Mayo Avenue, which also has a branch of Matalan and Morrisons, Bradford's greatest gift to British Commerce, and then we tangle up with the A641 Manchester Road, the red route into the city from the motorway and the southwest, where making a foot crossing is very confusing and needlessly difficult.

The ring road reduces to single lanes as we move among the terraces of Smiddles Lane before we find more suburban semis around St Oswald's church on Southfield Road, leading us to another confusing road crossing at the Little Horton Road junction, which offer another good elevation over the city. Push on among some of the oddest bungalows ever noted, looking like a 19th century shanty town, clustered below the Grange Technology College, a prominently located school which commands a fine elevated vantage point, and then snake among the council houses above Horton Park, where another view comes along across the playing fields. The elevation is welcome for the fresh aspects over the city, but less welcome as the weather comes on, and I'd be very grateful if it didn't snow right now, and the drop down must be coming soon as we pass the Victorian complex of Cross Lane school and the swimming baths that is now a beauticians' college. Meet Great Horton Road and the ring road follows it downhill, away from the village-cum-suburb higher up the hill and the descent is pretty steep, passing the many terrace ends and blocks on what must be one of Bradford's most distinctive roads, the long haul up to Queensbury, all the way down to the huge Mumtaz Curry restaurant, before resuming the northwards tack on Horton Grange Road. These terraces of Lidgett Breen feel a bit more upscale and the lane slightly leafier as we move on from St Columba's at one end to the Church of Christ Apostolic at the other, down hill and then uphill again to the junction of Legrams Lane and the high road to Clayton. Then we hit the descent down into some largely industrial or post industrial lands, in the wide valley floor of Clayton Beck, and some greenery teases on the higher lands to the north, but we'll be staying strictly urban as we pull on up to the other side, to pass over Thornton Road, one of the few lanes I have at least ridden on in this city before we move into the northwest quarter of the city. Naturally it's a haul uphill again along Whetley Lane, gaining first our close sighting of Lister Mills at Manningham, and the development of this corner of Girlington is really rather odd, with the council house and the blocks on the south side, closer to the city than the older terraces. Then push on to the B6144 Toller Lane, finding that we won't be getting that close to the Lister Mills that make Manningham so notable, but take solace in some of the other architectural delights on Carlisle Road, the red brick Marlboro cinema and the Victorian library being the pick of a civic centre from another age.

Contemporary Manningham is illustrated by the presence of the Jamia Masjid Hanfia mosque complex by the roadside, and the older aspirations of the district are further illustrated along the terraces on the decline of Marlborough Road down towards the valley of Bradford Beck, where a number of pre-Victorian developments grew on the old city boundary, Apsley Crescent being potentially one of the most attractive residential streets in the entire city. Over the A650 Manningham Lane and it's a steep descent down Queen's Road among the upscale suburbia of the late 19th century, before passing over the valley floor where industrial and commercial premises still thrive, and views up the valley to Bolton Woods, Shipley and Rombalds Moor emerge, and once the passage across the railway and Canal Road are made, the view back across the city centre appears, with Valley Parade stadium sitting prominently above it. Lunch at the King's Road junction, pretty quickly as it's so damned cold and then pull on uphill, betwixt suburbia and allotments before a moment's respite is gained at the A6176 Bolton Road crossing between The Bolton public house and the entrance to Peel Park. Then Lister Lane and Valley View Grove continue the ascent above Bolton Halls and the parkland, illustrating to me why the A6177 Ring Road is really pretty useless as a bypass and why most of the traffic in the city still ploughs through Bradford City centre. Soon arrive in Undercliffe, where the best houses must have excellent views over the city, and you wonder what cliff we might be under because we've got the big skies of high elevation above us again as we make the passage over the A658 Harrogate Road by the curiously style St Andrew's church, passing on along Northcote Lane between terraces and allotments on the may to Killinghall Road. It's pretty level going for a while now, as I know there should be no more major clefts in the local landscape, and passing to the east of Bradford Moor golf course ought to offer some views to the city but we are denied by high walls and too much vegetation, and we can note some numbered terrace on the opposite side as we approach Bradford Moor park, with it considerable duckpond. Soon crash into the B6381 Leeds Old Road, to give us a close to home feeling on another road which I have ridden on, noting the Habib's restaurant that was clearly a pub once, and note that there have been a number of prominent sites that have been repurposed by the locals in recent decades, and you now what else I've noticed a lot of in this city? Adverts for charities, mostly Islamic ones, naturally, but way, way more of them than I've seen anywhere else.

Back into the south east quarter and feel like there shouldn't be far to go now, and it's a longer walk down to Leeds Road than I was expecting, and after all this stretching today, I start to get a feeling for the development of Bradford as we go, as some of the smallest terraces are to be found down here, probably the equivalent of the many tiny back-to-backs that grew up in Leeds before being demolished in the 1960s, these stone built ones still enduring. Pass another Mosque too, the Islamic Cultural and Educational Association, only the second one seen the circuit and I had expected to see more, maybe my expectations ought to be tempered by the thought that many of Bradford's Moslems might not be as observant as you might think? Anyway, leave cultural thoughts to those with a sounder education in such things, I'm much more here for the industrial heritage, soon located across the oft-ridden path of the A647 Leeds Road, as we drop into the declivity that carries the railway between the two cities, and a peer over the bridge show us where Laisterdyke station used to sit, once at the junction of seven different GNR lines, but now showing little of its former significance, aside from the station gates and the house looming above the track on New Lane. Push on up Sticker Lane, rising to the elevated views over Bradford once again, the land to the city's side never having been particularly residential, so there are plenty of views over the industrial and commercial properties to be enjoyed, at least before the weather starts to close in, and the hail-snow starts to fall. Lucky that we are on the home stretch as we make our way across Cutler's Heights, passing the top of Parry Lane and my other previously walked path in Bradford, noting that this seems to be where all of Bradford's car dealerships have gathered, I think I count seven of them before we meet residential lands again, across Fenby Avenue (love that name by the way, but haven't seen anything named after Delius on my travels, sadly). Push up to the A650 again, and decide to finish the full circuit as the weather briefly backs off, taking the path through the underpasses and over the footbridge to the far side of Wakefield Road, emerging by the Methodist Church whose presence keeps the lanes narrow, and continue along Rooley Lane, passing factories and The Cross Keys pub (on the wrong side of the road to provide a warming brew) before we meet Rook Lane again. Circuit of the A6177 complete, it's back to the A650 to await the #427 bus again, passing below the main road to the bus stop by the sex shop for a 2.15pm finish, but soon withdraw to the stop with a shelter by Knowles Park as the hail-snow starts to fall hard and Tong Street gets a blanketing that it surely hadn't expected.

5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 2585.7 miles
2017 Total: 20.7 miles
Up Country Total: 2358.9 miles
Solo Total: 2330.4 miles