Mirfield to Berry Brow 10/11/19

8.9 miles, via Lower Hopton, Upper Hopton, Dransfield Hill, Houses Hill, Whitley Willows, 

 Fenay Bridge, Birks, Almondbury Common, Bottoms, The Lumb, Castle Hill, Catterson, 

  Lower Park, and Robin Hood Hill.

The last walkable Saturday of the year also gets dropped from the schedule, but not because of seasonal rain, rather a projected maximum temperature of 4C gets me feeling that I'd rather be in bed on such a day, but as we still have a 3+C warmer Sunday to use before my birthday week of being NIW, so we head out for another rail replacement bus ride that seems to be a regular fixture of the mornings at present, taking us out to Mirfield for a tilt at a viewpoint as my planned finale route got walked a fortnight ago. Hop off the bus at the Huddersfield Road bus stand at 9.20am, five minutes walk away from the station, and thus only ten minutes later than a ridden rail would have gotten me out to the heart of the middle Calder valley, but as we set out along Hopton New Road the intense cold of the morning air is felt in the lungs and the view across the fields to Holme Bank Mill and the woods beyond reveals the wisps of a morning mist that has only recently dissipated, and there's frostiness on the pavements too as we arrive at Hopton Bridge to cross the River Calder. Once on the end of Granny Lane, and passing the Flower Pot inn in Lower Hopton, we find ourselves on a familiar path, retracing steps up the suburban ribbon up Hopton Lane at a predictably slow rate thanks to the pitch of the climb, as the alternative field walk seems seasonally unsuitable, meeting the turn to the main body of Upper Hopton with Hopton Hall Lane, passing the old manse and Park farm on the edge of the suburban estate that surround them, getting views over the reverse to the middle Calder as we go. Land by the long wall that contains Hopton Grange and soon come up past St John's church and its vicarage, ticking another Kirklees church off the list, and then come past Hopton Old Hall with its timber framed wings that suggest a lot of vintage, opposite the hall farm, and the arrivals of a late 20th century vintage, joining Jackroyd Lane as it rises on, past the old village school and the last suburban outliers, heading south as we come up level with the woodlands that cover the southern bank of the Calder. Pass Hopton Green farm, and the Clough terrace that sits at an odd remove from the village, and to avoid a twisting road detour, we hit a short and rising field walk between Covey Clough and Benroyd farms on the shoulder of Dransfield Hill, a choice that proves challenging as the waterlogged soil and icy covering make for some hard going on the elevation up to the B6118 Liley Lane, dirtying up the boots something proper as we take our last looks over the middle Calder for this year, territory that still needs further investigation even after 8 years of walking.

Ossett to Mirfield 03/11/19

7.7 miles, via Ossett Street Side, Shaw Cross, Hanging Heaton, Batley Carr, Knowle Hill, 

 Dewsbury Moor, and Northorpe.

Another Saturday disappears beneath sheets of rain, and with it goes my remaining plans of any more trips in excess of 10 miles in 2019, as there's no point at all in contesting the shortening and cooling days of November, and we ought to take things easier, as I've been granted a working break from the long days on my feet at St James's hospital for an altogether more relaxed role back at the LGI, for the time being at least, and thus we look to a Sunday morning stroll and the two remaining targets for my walking in 2019, 600 miles on the year, and a new annual mark, which ought to be achievable in the last pair of excursions. So as Sunday morning sunshine rules the day, we ride out for a relatively local trek, even if the rail replacement and regular service buses take the better part of an hour to get me to Ossett, landing us at the bus station at a whisker ahead of 9.45, just across from Ossett United FC's ground on Prospect Road (the small town being notable for sustaining two minor league teams against good economic sense), and we set off our path by wandering to the small plaza behind the Town Hall, and across the bottom of Dale Street by the complex of Co-op stores, to make our way out to the northwest along the B6128 Kingsway. Only half a mile out and our ticker passes the 600 mile marker for the year, and this suburban lane incidentally gives a fine pun quality to the name of the King's Way church at its bottom end, and once out past Lidl and the Gledhill garage, we are soon deep into ahistorical suburbia, with the vintages running across all the styles of the mid to late 20th century, as our interest wanders to the views to the spire of  Holy Trinity church up the side streets and forward to the Gawthorpe water tower as we shadow the route of the early leg of this year's Long Walk. Things get a more vintage as we land on the old Dewsbury to Wakefield Road at the Leeds Road island in Ossett Street Side, and we pass a rake of almshouse cottages before we cross over the A638 Ossett Bypass via the footbridge by Royd's Mill, where the Wakefield Way brought us on our way towards Gawthorpe in 2015, though our path keeps us on the line of the bypassed old road as it leads us past the Salvation Army hall and on to Owl Lane by the industrial park dominated by Newly Wed foods, over which the Gawthorpe water tower looms, illuminated by the low sun.

Huddersfield to Meltham 27/10/19

7.8 miles, via Folly Hall, Lockwood Park, Dungeon Wood, Beaumont Park, Big Valley, 

 Netherton, Crosland Mill, Hall Heys Wood, and the Meltham Greenway.

The end of British Summer Time brings rain, enough to scupper the chances of any walking of any duration on the last Saturday of October, and thus we have to put my planned route from Slaithwaite to Ravensthorpe aside and see what we can do on Sunday instead, and as Leeds Station is undergoing a total shutdown for the entire morning, we have to scale our plans back and pull up the trip that I had planned to have as my 2019 finale, not least because we're promised a decent weather window to walk in, and also because it's only a modest distance to go when work looms the following day. So we ride the rail replacement bus service out to Huddersfield, the type where possession of a ticket doesn't seem to be necessary for travel, landing us outside the George Hotel at a smidgen after 9.30am, and our course to the southwest has us passing among the array of coaches parked outside the station on Railway Street, and then heading off through the town centre, down Market Street as far as The Hart bar, and then turning down Cloth Hall Street to meet New Street, which is already filling with life despite the shops not yet being open, but the way ahead is clear all the way to the ring road, thanks to a lack of Police incidents this time. Across the Castlegate - Queensgate interchange, we seem to be following our route to Penistone, and so we ought to mix things up a bit as we retrace our path down Chapel Hill, by walking down the opposite side of the road by the parade of takeaways and the Rat & Ratchet inn, and then coming down below the looming main campus buildings of Kirklees College before crossing over the Narrow Canal, and the River Colne, which churns noisily after yesterday's downpours, then passing the Folly Hall Mills and splitting off the A616 by the Star inn for a bit of landscape variation. Albert Street presents an almost entirely industrial landscape, still enduring down the northernmost stretch of the River Holme, with Albert and Bath Mills wholly intact among the remnants and replacements of others, definitely a change of scenery from the familiar sights down to Lockwood Bar, which we meet once we land on Bridge Street, crossing by the shopping parade and and carrying on down Brewery Drive, beside the busy River Holme, where the old Lockwood brewery site is now occupied by Huddersfield RUFC'c social club and the Lockwood Park health and fitness club. The reason to come down this not-apparently public lane is to spot the Penistone Line's Lockwood Viaduct though, which is hard to see from any angle except below, and rises gracefully over the Holme Valley on its many arches beyond the Rugby field, and as I've got little company down here, I'll wander abouts both sides of it to take as many pics of it as I wish, admiring the mass of masonry, its 37m height and 435m length, and the craftsmanship of its creation, naturally as the day's only dense raincloud passes over.

Honley to Ossett 19/10/19

14 miles, via High Royd, Farnley Hey, Farnley Tyas, Anchor Wood, Birks Wood, Woodsome  

 Bridge, Dogley Lane, Highburton, Linfit, Flockton Moor, Lepton Edge, Grange Moor, 

  Briestfield, Thornhill (Edge Top, Overthorpe & Combs), Mill Bank, and Healey.

If you can recall the first half of this season, before we settled into trails around the Holme and Colne valleys, we were traversing the many potential routes across the eastern half of Kirklees, and one path got left over from those days, and so that's where we'll heading today, as the late season and its autumnal weather start to take hold, but at the very least we've been spared the worst of the changeable weather at our weekends, with the weather looking mediocre at worst today, probably due to the Pennines Proximity problem once again. So it's all a bit grey and grim as we alight at Honley station at 9.20am, as we continue to make our best attempt to make multiple uses of all of Kirklees's railway stations, with our projected path sending us off to the north-east as we rise away from the Holme Valley up Northgate, behind Honley High school and among the villas old and new that have parked themselves up here to get the best of the views, rising over the railway and briefly mixing it up with our 2014 path before aiming up among thick tree cover that obscures most of the available panorama to the west. The only hamlet of sorts that we meet on this ascent is High Royd, encompassing only a handful of buildings among its open fields, where no fresh aspect can be gained beyond its largest house of livery stables, and thus rise on past Westwood House, slightly annoyed that the Holme Valley isn't going to give us a reveal before we've met the merge in with Hey Lane, on the level edge behind the declining bank of Farnley Hey wood, where possibly the most 1970s contemporary house in the county dwells. These elevated fields take us beyond the next hamlet-let on the trail, Farnley Hey, which sits at a slight remove from the lane, with Castle Hill rising beyond it, and hopefully that upland lump will reveal its previously unseen angles as we angle ourselves uphill towards Farnley Tyas, while feeling grateful that we've got a footway along Honley Road for the whole trip up, as Raw Gates farm passes at the immediate roadside and School Wood thickly coats the hill crest ahead. The western greyness looks like it's worsening as we land by the village school and make our third pass along Butts Lane between St Lucius's church and the Golden Cock inn, enjoying the pleasingly remote exclusivity that Farnley Tyas's hilltop location gives it (which might well be spoiled by the burgeoning developments on Field Lane and Manor Road), and now that we've completed the first ascent of the day, it's immediately time to head down again, joining Woodsome Road and descending past the short ribbon of suburban dwellings that clings to the hillside edge and passing down below the tree laden side of Farnley Bank wood.

The Huddersfield Circular 12/10/19

15.9 miles, from Lockwood, via Crosland Moor, Milnsbridge, Golcar, Leymoor, Longwood, 

 Quarmby, Oakes, Lindley, Birkby, Fartown, Woodhouse Hill, Sheepridge, Deighton, Dalton, 

  Waterloo, Greenside, Almondbury, Castle Hill, Newsome, and Lockwood Scar.

The Autumn weather for this trip looks a bit more favourable than that which we've seen over the last couple, while still feeling far removed from the Summer that we still had in the air only three weeks ago, and before the season stats to grip hard, we ought to get the next Urban Circular off the slate, as Huddersfield has been waiting for it for far too long, and we'll start this trip from Lockwood station, one of the town's few suburban stations and the last one on the Penistone Line that has still to be visited, despite having passed though it about 20 times over the course of the year. So we alight at 9.15am (having enjoyed an all too brief ride out on a 158 Super Sprinter unit, meaning that the days of the 142/144 Pacer units might finally be numbered in West Yorkshire), landing by the station that surely landed her on the hillside betwixt Holme and Colne due to the industrial plant that still operates up here, such as the Prospect Iron Works, which is the first thing we meet past the station yard, and also the Park Works, operated by Santasalo nowadays but once home to the other factory of David Brown of Meltham, which we can locate up Park Road to the northwest, at the top of Yew Hill, next to St Barnabas's, the parish church of Crosland Moor. So despite having started out at a previously un-traced location, we are soon enough in familiar territory, exiting the suburbs at the hilltop and coming across Blackmoorfoot Road at the Lane Ends corner, and start off down Park Road West, which leads us down among the high terraces that enjoy a fine view over the Colne Valley, which is looking a lot more inviting than it did a week ago, giving us a fine view or two before we descend down from the bank to Manchester Road. Cross the A62 and pace it up to the Factory Lane corner, where we descend again, to make proper acquaintance of Milnsbridge, which takes us by the long flank of Union Mill and the neighbouring Socialist club, before we emerge onto Whiteley Street, where we are led over the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, and can look over to the enduring block of mills that sit to the east of the village, and also up to Longwood viaduct, carrying the railway up the valley to Standedge tunnel and beyond, with Longwood Tower and St Mark's church rising on the high side, off to the north. That's where our circular route ought to be heading directly, past the Four Horseshoes and up Market Street, over the Colne and under the viaduct, but before we get to the Commercial mill corner, the feeling that we ought to visit Golcar takes hold, and thus we split left onto Scar Lane by Aldi, to set off on the long drag that will add an extra couple of miles and some extra elevation to the day, keeping to the shady side of the lane as far as the Royal inn.

Marsden to Dewsbury 05/10/19

15.8 miles, via Cellars Clough, Lingards Wood, Slaithwaite, Linthwaite, Cowlersley, 

 Milnsbridge (sorta), Crosland Moor, Longroyd, Folly Hall, King's Mill, Moldgreen, 

  Grove Place, Dalton, Hill Side, Kirkheaton, Upper Hopton, Lower Hopton, The Beck, 

   Shepley Bridge, Ravensthorpe, Scout Hill and West Town.

As October lands, I think we can conclude that The End of Summer for 2019 is already done, as no heat or sunshine is in the air as we head out for the final push through the late season, trying to keep going on the walking schedule while the weather allows it, and while the forecast for this trip is far from bad, travelling out for a start in the Colne valley's head means we are going to experience the Pennines Proximity Problem as the cloud hangs heavily on the high hills when the conditions to the east might be much more acceptable. So it is thus as we alight at Marsden at 9.45am, with Deer Hill and Pule Hill heavily shrouded above the valley, and our trip down the station road to the town takes a while as we are poking around the NT office in the old goods shed and admiring the noises of the weir at the bottom of Wessenden Beck and merging Colne before we head up Peel Street, the main drag that is thankfully free of drinkers at this early hour, passing the Mechanics Institute and maybe seven pubs before we land on the A62, the forgotten trans-Pennine road that will be our route of choice. It's only seven miles to Huddersfield from here, according to the Wakefield & Austerlands turnpike milestone, and not eleven to Oldham if we wished to head over the moors, but we set off east above the town's mills at the valley floor, clinging to the high bank as the residential town spreads uphill along the Meltham Road, but we get the feeling of soon being out into the countryside as trees coat the roadside and we get only brief views over the valley, above Wood Bottom Mill and to the fringe of Slaithwaite Moor atop the north bank. Beyond the outermost fringe of the town we come above the wooded chine of Cellars Clough, where the fisheries and well-being spa endure below the roadside, but the mill complex has been completely flattened since it was visited on 2012's canal walk, and we finally start to get some context to our previous visits as we meet the loosely associated hamlet of Lingard's Wood, where terraces sit opposite the Olive Branch Inn, and we can spy the Colne Valley Circular route through the rough fields to the south above Manchester Road, and the old school house forms a bold feature in the foreground to the high north side of the valley. Angled fields fill out the space beyond, where the A62 is clearly is too wide for the amount of traffic that uses it since the motorways landed, and we can start to feel the proximity of Slaithwaite as ribbons of semis arrive above the road and the town cemetery arrives below it, and we soon land among its suburban edge and pace along the terrace that has house numbers in the 1000+ range, which must have caused some Infant school children a nightmare during basic counting exercises.

Lower Holme Valley Circuit, from Brockholes 30/09/19

12.6 miles, via Smithy Place, Hagg Wood, Oldfield, Upper Oldfield, Wood Nock, 
 Slate Pit Wood, Windy Bank Wood, Meltham Mills, Thick Hollins Dike, Royd Edge Clough, 
  Royd Edge, Catchwater Drain, Brow Grains Dike, Blackmoorfoot Conduit & Reservoir, 
   Edge Moor, South Crosland, Netherton, Magdale, Steps, Honley station, and Hall Ing.

Taking a long week end off at the end of September feels like a punt worth taking to get in some necessary time out of work and to fit in an extra walking day but that plan falls with the changeability that comes with The End of Summer, with Saturday not promising a decent weather projection, and Sunday and Tuesday bringing nought but persistent rain, so only one day out of the four turns out to be usable, which is fine when my limbs and brain need a rest, and a bunch of housework needs attending to. So we travel on Monday, when there are far more people on the early trains and the tickets don't have a cheap return option, riding out to the Holme Valley for the second circuit path of the late season, feeling the disappointment that my scheme to head over the Pennines to the Tame Valley and back is going to have to wait for another year but feeling cheered that we have a good four hour window of sunshine to exploit on this trip, as we seek to take in as much as possible of the landscape of the lower valley in a single excursion, alighting at Brockholes, the prettiest station site on the Penistone line at 9.25am. From our perch on the eastern side of the Holme valley, we have a descent to do immediately, down through the suburbs of Ridings Field to meet Brockholes Lane which wends its way down through the terraces and cottages with fine views, an amount of extreme vintage and one Hillman Minx, to come down above the village green and below the village hall in the old church school, coming down below the cliffs of Tor Rocks, atop which St George's church perches, alighting on the A616 New Mill Road by the Rock Inn. Head north for a few steps up to the Smithy Place bar sign, where the River Holme flows below the bridges in a larger and louder quantity than it did on that hot day in June, and we step over the old humpbacked bridge to pass through the small community of new suburban houses and old cottages that spread uphill from the riverside along the lane that ascends steeply up through Hagg Wood, where the A6024 passes trhough about half way up. Above the woods on the corners of Oldfield Lane we meet a suburban enclave that is unclaimed by any of the settlements around, but is clearly here to absorb the view to the north, past the Gibb cottages to Honley among the declining fields below, to Castle Hill above and to the woods that conceal Huddersfield to the north. Rise with the lane, past the piggery and its neighbouring dream houses, heading over the Holme Valley Circular path and getting little by ways of views to the southern half of the Holme valley as we look back to the high eastern side, following the route of the #308 bus as we rise on to meet the off-road hamlet of Oldfield, still looking like a rural enclave away from the suburban spread in the valley below.

Huddersfield to Honley via Deer Hill & West Nab 21/09/19

15.2 miles, via Longroyd, Crosland Moor, Crosland Hill, Crosland Heath, Blackmoorfoot, 

 Laund, Deer Hill Reservoir, Holme Moor, West End, Deer Hill Moss, Horseley Head Moss, 

  Raven Stones, West Nab, Meltham Moor, Meltham, Meltham Mills, Knowl Top, 

   Honley village,  and Newtown.

As Summer officially ends, we get the first day of Autumn promising us a day of unbroken sunshine and temperatures over 20C, which is a fine direction to send us out in search of an open moor walk and a hidden summit before we run out of viable days for doing such a thing, and so it's a bit of a surprise to set out on the train and find that beyond the Batley end of Morley tunnel, the Calder and Colne valleys are shrouded in cloud as an inversion has settled in before the warmth of the day has had a chance to dissipate it. Thankfully, it looks like the fog is already breaking up as we roll into Huddersfield at 8.50am, getting an early start thanks to wonky services on the TPEs, a time gain that isn't well used as we set off from St George's square and up the Gothic-y Railway Street, and onto the deeply nondescript Market Street because we have to nip into Sainsbury's to buy extra drink as I've managed to travel light, a store which stands on the site of the circular Cloth Hall of 1766, which has been lost from the landscape since 1929 (though the gatehouse and clock endure in Ravenknowle Park, as seen back in March). Beyond the High Street junction, we're soon out of the under populated town centre and into the municipal district, passing along the walkway between various offices of Kirklees Council and the Magistrates courts before we cross the Castlegate inner ring road, spotting that Castle Hill is still hidden in the mist before we make our way down Outcote Bank to meet Manchester Road by the Chapel Hill student flats blocks, perched just above the Narrow Canal and opposite the Bankfield terraces, and just downstream from St Thomas's church. We head west from here, past the motorcycle dealership and the local branch of Wickes, already low down in the valley of the Colne as we come around past the Bridge Inn and spot my regular train on the Penistone line travelling over Longroyd viaduct as it passes high overhead on its mix of stone arches and steel spans, and we are soon over both river and canal via the Longroyd bridges and following the A62 uphill among the runs of terraces and industrial units to pass under the railway at the south end of its elevated passage. Split off Manchester Road and continue our long rise out of the Colne valley as we follow Blackmoorfoot Road on its long ascent, keeping to a consistent pitch uphill as we have long run of terraces to the south of us, and a varying landscape to the north, passing the enduring site of Crosland Moor mills and the completely built over grounds of Crosland Lodge, a landscape that denies us contextual views in any direction, even at road junctions along the way, though the fog seems to be still in the air if we do look back to the path just travelled.

Upper Holme Valley Circuit, from Stocksmoor 14/09/19

15.3 miles, via Stocks Wood, Fulstone, New Mill, Totties, Scholes (Paris), Cross, Washpit, 

 Cartworth Bank, Well House, Hill House, Whitegate Edge, Dobb, Holmbridge, 

  Digley Reservoir, Green Gate, Thong Moor, Wolfstones Height,  Swinny Knoll, 

   Upper Oldfield, Deanhouse, Netherthong, Thongsbridge, Mytholm Bridge, Bank Road, 

    Thurstonland, and Whitestones.

With my Jollies now retreating into the past already, I think we can now declare that The End of Summer is now upon us, with the sunshine yellowing and the days starting to feel noticeably shorter, and as we've still got plenty of paths on the slate we need to get a move on before we start to run out of days, not that there'll be any more excursions out on the 7.29am train out of Morley as we need to at least have the suggestion of warmth in the air once we are on the trail again, and as we all know frigid mornings are no fun at all. So back to the Holme Valley we return whilst it's still short sleeves weather, with a circuit path in mind as it's not really a large enough space for traversals, despite the quantity of landscape contained within, alighting the train at Stocksmoor station at a whisker before 9.30am, actually to the east of the lands that we intend to explore, but full of the intent to link this corner to the many paths that we've burned to the west of the valley of Shepley Dike (et al), rising to Station Road by the old railway house and setting a course on through this strange suburb of a village on the elevated fields of Stocks Moor, which feels like it barely had any mass or history before the 20th century. Fulstone Lane leads us away from the bungalows and closes and into the fields that ought to be elevating us over the crest into the Holme Valley, but soon takes us downhill, into the wooded cleft formed by the upper reaches of Stone Wood Dike, before we start the ascent towards Fulstone village, with the turbined top of Haw Cliff rising ahead prominently, with the valley behind us giving sight towards Shelley and the Emley Moor masts. The rise of the lane thus takes us on to Fulstone hamlet, an unfathomably tiny settlement to be at the heart of its parish and still small on its steep hillside, which we pass below by taking Fulstone Hall Lane westwards, passing inside the Holme Valley Circular path and on among the fields below the wrinkled edges at the boundary of the Holme valley, with Horn Hill masking us from the passage of the A635 as the lane's eponymous farmstaed and the elevated hamlet-let of Bellgreave farm are also passed, with the edge of New Mill on our horizon. Meeting the suburban edge, and arriving from on high, relatively, it's striking how well Christ Church hides from view, it's pinnacled tower only briefly revealing itself and it's bulk being hidden by a bank of trees once we get up close, and as we descend among the old terraces on Sude Hill it's prominent location seems to have been chosen for maximum visibility from below, as well as finding that New Mill looks that bit more ancient, stone-y and desirable in the late Summer sunshine as we come down on the Penistone and Huddersfield Roads.

Shepley to Clayton West & the Kirklees Light Railway 07/09/19

4.9 miles, via Shelley station, Shelley Woodhouse, Skelmanthorpe, and Cuckoo's Nest, 

 & 1.1 miles from Shelley station to Shepley.

With 2019's Crazy Scheme done and dusted, it's soon time to return Up Country, not least because Mum has another holiday to go on, her third(!) of the year, and despite having enjoyed a week away in the Old Country, with all the hospitality that comes with it, it doesn't really feel like I've had proper Summer Jollies, not least because we didn't have an excursion of any kind while I was away, having filled every day with walking, blogging or yard work, so for this Saturday we'll have our day out, by seeking out the steam railway that hides away in the heart of Kirklees district. So off to Shepley we ride, a step or three away from our recent walking terrain in West Yorkshire, alighting at 9.30am, and setting off east past the station house and former goods shed which takes us onto Station Lane, past the coal drops and down to the railway hotel, now the Cask & Spindle inn, in the shadow of the bridge over Abbey Lane, where we cross the A629 and rise with the narrow lane beyond to the collection of cottages at Shepley Knoll. This is an exclusive feeling corner of the village that's filled with exclusive feeling corners, and here we tangle up with the Kirklees Way route as we trace it back along the shaded High Moor Lane, getting views over to Shelley and the Emley Moor Mast as we go, with the feeling that the morning isn't going to brighten up markedly as we come around to the corner of Yew Tree wood and join the footpath that leads into the fields beyond, up and over a grassy crest and a number of stiles to land us among the docile and sand coloured cows that reside around Hardingley farm. Its driveway leads us to Copley Lane, which we cross, just up from the railway bridges, and join the rough path that leads us up to Upper Ozzings farm (or Ox Springs, if you prefer), where a footpath bridge take us over the Penistone Line, and over to the alignment of the L&YR's Clayton West branch of 1879, where the Kirklees Light Railway's Shelley station terminus now resides, where it's too early to catch a train on the narrow gauge line, and so we'll have to carry on alongside this 3.5 mile branch to its other end, which incidentally never became the former company's mainline to Barnsley. Field paths and an enclosed track take us past Lower Ozzings farm, and up to the towering bridge over Barncliffe Hill road, where we gain a decently surfaced path alongside the tracks of this line that somehow retained a passenger service until 1983, spying the cattle creeps and stream crossings as they pierce the rising embankment, and we plough uphill as the railway dives downwards, soon coming up above the 467m Woodhouse tunnel, the vast cavern of which positively dwarfs the 15 inch gauge line that passes through it.

The Long Walk to Leicester #8 - Loughborough to Leicester 05/09/19

15.5 miles, via Loughborough Moors, Pillings Lock, Barrow upon Soar, Meadow Farm,   Mountsorrel Lock,  Sileby Mill, Cossington Mill, Rothley, Wanlip, Birstall, Red Hill, 
  Ellis Meadows, Abbey Meadows, Abbey Park, St Margaret's, and the City Centre.

Long Distance Trek means Selfies!
#7 at Loughborough station.

The Last Leg of the Long Walk comes around, the latest of my cross country schemes to come to fruition, feeling fortunate that the opening of the late season of 2019's walking has sent some rather good walking days our way so far, and there's not massive pressure to get out early again as the morning temperatures are markedly lower than the preceding couple of days, and anyway, the return rail ticket I bought to Loughborough if off-peak and thus not valid until after 9pm, so the Parental Taxi doesn't need to be ready for the crack of dawn to get me underway. So back to the point where my Up Country and Down Country trekking points finally touched, getting away from the railway station in the shadow of the Brush works at 9.40am, striking across the car parks to Nottingham Road, by the mill that is getting the upscale apartment treatment to descend beck to the towpath of the Loughborough Cut of the Grand Union Canal's Soar Navigation, coming down on the opposite side of it to the residential complex built around a former hosiery factory and passing under the Great Central Railway's canal bridge, their next fixer up job before they can start building their embankments to get to the bridge of the Midland Mainline. We strike southeast from here along the towpath, hemmed in by thick hedge and the town having grown to fill all the plots up to the west side of the canal, surrounding the once rural Little Moorland bridge, and looking like its probably ready to consume the factory site to the south of it, the one with large ghostly lettering along the length of its wall that resolutely refuse to resolve into any readable words, and beyond the town looks to have breached a path into the low fields of Loughborough Moors to the east as a new close or two have arrived on the far side of Moor Lane bridge. That's as far as this town's suburban splurge has grown, with the town ending by the boatyard of the Peter Le Marchand Trust, who run boating trips for the elderly and disabled and whose boats were spotted more than once along the path of the previous day on the trail, beyond which we enter the low fields once again, with only cows in the fields and the morning air still feeling chilly despite the sunshine, with all feeling peaceful beyond Miller's bridge, where there are only random boaters and solo dog walkers out on the canal with me.

The Long Walk to Leicester #7 - Shardlow to Loughborough 03/09/19

13.1 miles, via Derwent Mouth, Sawley Bridge Marina, Ratcliffe on Soar, Kegworth Marina, 

 Sutton Marina, Diamond Wood, Zouch, Normanton on Soar, and Bishop's Meadows.

Long Distance Trek
means Selfies!
#7 at Shardlow

We get off to another early start as we head back to the bottom right corner of Derbyshire, with the Parental Taxi adding another 50+ miles to the 130+ miles that it put down on my behalf yesterday, which well illustrates My Mum's willingness to go above and beyond when it comes to accommodating my crazy walking schemes when she could have so easily cast me out to travel by train and the Skylink bus service, so the note of gratitude needs to be posted here, rather than buried in my later summation. We land at the Navigation Inn at Shardlow at 9.10am, so Mum can make a beeline homeward to do here thing with her Church Lunch Club, and so I can get on with the last mile or so of the Derwent Valley Heritage Way, which we meet when we return to the bridge of the Trent & Mersey canal and descend to its towpath, heading eastwards into the still intact landscape of wharves and warehouses at the heart of this late 18th century boom town, where goods travelling to and from the northwest would by stored and sorted before going on their new markets on the burgeoning canal network. It's a quiet idyll for leisure boating these days, making it hard to believe just how much industry would have gone on here in the 50+ years before the railways became the new transportation method of choice, it's now a place for waterfront living, and going back in time by visiting the watermen's inns such as the Malt Shovel or the New Inn, which we leave in our wake as we pass under Wilne Lane bridge, and we carry on pass the last few canalside cottages and the flood lock that protects the village from inundation, to meet Shardlow's extensive marinas. We can race the active boaters on the canal as we head east, along the long cut that passes Porter's Bridge, the very first on the canal as it makes its long way to Liverpool behind us, and the Derwent Mouth lock leading us out to the very end of the channel where it spills out into the River Trent, where the Derwent Mouth confluence can be observed from the remaining abutment of the original and now demolished Long Horse Bridge.

The Long Walk to Leicester #6 - Belper to Shardlow 01/09/19

17.4 miles, via The Park, Cowhill, Milford (sorta), Makeney, Duffield Bank & Bridge, 

 Peckwash Mill, Rigga Quarry, Little Eaton, Darley Abbey (Mills & Park), Derby Waterfront, 

  The Holmes, Pride Park, Alvaston Park, Spondon weirs, Borrowash Bridge, and Ambaston.

Long Distance Trek means Selfies!
#6 at Belper Station.

With the High Season of 2019 done, mostly successfully despite the wildly inconsistent weather, it's now time to get away from it all, at just about the best possible time, to head Down Country and get back onto the last legs of The Long Walk to Leicester, this year's crazy scheme that has actually slipped pretty far from my attention over the last three months, and now requires all my focus as I travel away to stay with Mum and utilise what is usually one of the best months of the late Summer for my jollies. Travelling on a Sunday had originally had me planning to ride out to Belper to resume the trail, and the Derwent Valley Heritage Way, by train, but a distinct lack of EMR services north from Leicester scuppered that plan and so Mum offered the Parental Taxi for my usage, despite her having to do an 80 mile round trip to get us underway, and that offer is taken up gratefully, taking a ride that visually stitches us up to the last leg as we get sight of East Mill before I get dropped off at the railway station to pick up where we left off in May, at a bright but chilly 8.35am, a good 90 minutes ahead of the rail alternative. We set off from the station up Albert Street to pick up the DVHW again on Green Lane, heading down it to meet King Street by the Memorial Gardens and the Ritz Cinema, with the town main shopping drag running down towards the A6, and we head up this road to the old Market Place at the top of the town, which feels eerily devoid of life at this early hour, before we head on into The Park, Belper's wild space where the morning exercisers can be found. Down we go through the rough field to cross Coppice Beck, and then rise across dewy grass and among trees to find the hilariously slanted football pitch, from whence we find the wooded path that takes us uphill, where a perch above the Derwent Valley is found, concealing the town rather successfully, before we slip behind and then among the houses of Cowhill, at its southern periphery, where we need to slip down among the older looking terraces of Holbrook Road before we can find the high path that will take us on down the valley, and away from the wrinkles of Derbyshire hills that have spread all the way down from the Peak District.

Holme Valley Circular #2 - Holme to Berry Brow 26/08/19

8.7 miles, via Digley & Bilberry reservoirs, Austonley, Hogley, Brook Wood & Black Sike, 

 Upperthong, Wickens Dike, Netherthong, Deanhouse, Honley, Lower Thirstin, Magdale, 

  Mag Wood, and Armitage Bridge.

Long Distance Trail
means Selfies!
#2 at Holme.

Back to the trail on Bank Holiday Monday morning, and there's absolutely no way to get back out to Holme for a start that could be considered early, as thanks to Sunday bus timetables and the most awkward of travel connections, it's going to be a two hour trip out by train and bus (the uphill ride on the #314 taking as long as the downhill trip did, incidentally) and we can't get going until we've alighted at 10.20am, with the wall of heat hitting you hard, and making you grateful that this isn't going to be anything like a long day on the return leg. It's not often that a day's walk starts with the feeling of peak temperature in the air already, but that's where we are as we set off away from Holme's idyll at the habitable limit of the upper Holme Valley, heading up Meal Hill Road but choosing to not duplicate more footfalls on the Kirklees Way route and instead stick to the lane as it passes out of the village past the school which still endures with possibly the tiniest catchment area, and out into the moorland fields beyond Meal Hill farm, where we crest around the hillside with a fine view downstream. We'll split off Issues Lane, and its alternate route onto Black Hill and instead carry on down Further End Lane, where no right of way endures since the creation of Digley reservoir severed it and the Lumbank farms passed out of the landscape, but I'll strike a blow for reviving old paths as it heads towards the water's perimeter path, with the track petering out as we meet Intake Gutter and strike across the rough path to meet the Kirklees Way path again, which steeply descends as it enters the wood at the reservoir's heel, well illustrating the challenge that comes with any circumnavigation of an artificial lake. Bottom out at the dam of the much older Bilberry reservoir, where the colours of the cloughs beyond are much brighter than when seen in 2014, splitting from the rising route of the Kirklees way path again as we continue onto the north shore of Digley Reservoir, which still show traces of the landscape that it consumed during its construction in the 1950s, as we are mostly kept away from the shore behind the welcome shade of trees before coming round to the remnants of Gilbriding Lane, which gets increasingly overgrown as we rise among the quarries that it once served to the lofty vantage point above the reservoir and its dam.

Holme Valley Circular #1 - Berry Brow to Holme 24/08/19

16 miles, via Cold Hill, Castle Hill, Molly Carr Wood, Royd House Wood, Farnley Tyas, 

 Farnley Moor, Height Green, Thurstonland, Haw Cliff, Fulstone, Gate Foot, Hirst Brow, 

  High Brow, Jackson Bridge, Hepworth, Boshaw Whams reservoir, Snittle Road, Bare Bones, 

   Hades plantation, Copthurst moor, Dobb Dike clough, Crow Hill, Riding Wood reservoir, 

    Yateholme reservoir, Holme Woods, and Gill Hey.

Long Distance Trail means Selfies!
#1 at Berry Brow.

It seems that my cursing of this Summer's weather has brought us an exceptionally warm August Bank Holiday weekend, and I'm not going to complain when I've got 24+ miles of walking on the Holme Valley Circular to come, but it's a frustrating contrast to the conditions that I got this time last year when any sunshine on the peaks of Upper Wharfedale would have been appreciated, but we'll take it when it's here even if an early start will need to be in order as the outbound leg of this trip has shown up to be a much longer route than I had anticipated. It seems that the Holme Valley circular is the forgotten route of Kirklees district as no route guide is in print and there's not a single sign or waymarker for it anywhere on the ground, with only the OS map showing up its route on the OL288 plate, and that will have to be our sole navigator as we ride out to Berry Brow station, on the edge of greater Huddersfield and amazingly still not the last station to be visited on the Penistone line, where we alight at 8.20am, surely ahead of all but the most dedicated dog walkers of the borough. So away into the morning haze, and on down Birch Road past the school at this smart outer perimeter of town, with out first destination of the day silhouetted by the low sun, as our trail takes us over Bridge Street and then up Lady House Lane, with its stepped terraces and improbably located suburban outliers along its steep uphill drag, where we soon split off for a field walk, through the damp long grass. We are getting fine views westwards, though, across the wooded cleft of the upper Holme Valley towards Meltham Moor to the fringes of the Colne Valley to the north, and they are views that expand impressively as we gain altitude, up the side of Cold Hill, though the path route is vague as we scratch our way up to the track at the top, which takes us through the cluster of farmsteads at its crest, with a direct line ahead towards Castle Hill. A rougher track ascends us up to Ashes Lane, where small farmsteads cling to the high ridge edge which we have to look down from, towards the spread of Huddersfield below which feels a lot less alien than it did five years back, but still not quite familiar enough, which positively basks in the morning sunshine nonetheless, as does the view to the southwest and the upper Holme Valley, where so many miles will be put down further into this trip.

Denby Dale to Slaithwaite 17/08/19

16.2 miles, via Dunkirk Crossroads, Lower Denby, Upper Denby, Ingbirchworth 

 & the reservoir, Brown's Edge, Wood Royd Hill, Gate Head, Barnside, Hepworth, Scholes, 

  Holmfirth (Gully, Bank and Bridge Fold), Netherthong, Wilshaw, Calmlands, Meltham, 

   Holt Head, and Kitchen Clough.

August so far could easily have convinced me that The End of Summer has arrived a month early, as the cooling temperatures and constant reappearances of rain could fit neatly into the turning weeks of September, and even the yellowing of the evening sunshine seems to be coming on more quickly than usual, all of which have me carefully picking my routes to fit with the weather, and dropping plans to do anything on the open moorlands after the rains have been hammering down throughout Friday afternoon and evening. So we'll no be taking the planned trip onto Meltham Moor this weekend, and instead pull up a walk off the reserve list, one which should be mostly keeping us on the roads and giving us a chance to put down some miles at a decent speed after last Sunday's debacle, riding the rails out to Denby Dale, and choosing a later start so the mornings drizzles can work themselves out before we've gotten too far underway, alighting at 9.45am under skies that are much glummer than projected, and take a few minutes to shelter as the rain has its last fall for the day before we set off. We seek the footpath that leads down to the A636 Wakefield Road by the Dale Inn, passing more developments of Suburbia in the Countryside as we go, crossing the main road to head down Norman Road to meet the Springfield Mill complex and the river Dearne at the valley bottom before heading up the valley side and eastwards with Dearneside Road, among the old cottages of the village and below the suburban growth that has filled out the southern bank of the valley. As we meander our way around to Miller Hill and the rising road out of town, the geographically minded among you will have noticed that we are heading away from our intended destination, and the simple reason for that it after having made so many routes around this part of the West Riding in the late Spring and early Summer, it feels like time to take one victory lap around the area before we put it away for a while, and that's why we are on a bit of a broad circuit up and out of the Dearne valley as the day starts to warm and brighten. We're not quite getting the contextual views that I crave as we make our way uphill, as Denby Dale viaduct manages to hide its considerable bulk from the viewpoints at this remove and so we focus on going up through the green fields and past the isolated, and wonderfully named, Romb Pickle terrace on the way to the Dunkirk Crossroads, filling in a blank on the map that will be the theme for much of the first half of this excursion.

Colne Valley Circular 11/08/19

13.4 miles, from Golcar, via Linthwaite (Hoyle House and Lower Clough), Banks Brow,

 Kitchen Clough, Yew Tree, Top o' the Hill, Lingards Wood, Holme Moor brow, 

  Binn Moor brow, Binns, Bank Bottom, Marsden, Huck Hill, Slaithwaite Moor, Reaps Hill, 

   Scout Wood, Merry Dale, Ainley Place, Wilberlee, Campinot Wood, Crimble Clough, 

    Westwood Edge, Bolster Moor, and Heath House wood.

Another Summer Saturday drops from the schedule due to heavy rainfall, as if the peaking of national all-time temperatures in late July was the cue for everything to go downhill and render the remainder of the season changeable and rather chilly, and so we are shunted onto a Sunday trip again, with my options limited by the issues that come with transport connections, and that's why we end up on an early bus ride out to western Huddersfield to start the Colne Valley Circular walk from Golcar, not a part of the world I've travelled into so far due to its distinct lack of railway stations. So alight the #301 bus by St John's church, in this village that has now been largely consumed into the neighbouring town's suburbia and we make our way to the Colne Valley Museum, where we'll have a 9.05am jump off, elevated above the valley side and surrounded by the many cottages of the domestic weaving industries of the early 19th centuries, and set off with the guidebook in hand, ready to be informed as to why so many houses have multiple storeys and large upstairs windows as we head down the steep Carr Top Lane, because many had their workshops located in the part of the cottage where maximum daylight for their workshops could be gained, it seems. This guide, which I've had my shelf for over 5 years, seems keen to inform me about everything there is to see on this route, and provides detail about the Sunday School and the lost Baptist Chapel on Chapel Lane before we hit the path by the burial ground that seems far to slick and slippery for comfort, descending us down towards the railway lines, where two short viaducts span a descending brook, one a disused relic of much busier times on the L&NWR's Leeds to Manchester lines, which are passed under to hit the soft track that descends to the valley floor under the cover of trees. Meet the Huddersfield Narrow canal by lock 15E, which has us tied to a familiar trail again, albeit one that's nearly 7 years old, and the route guide would send us along the towpath, but I'm ready for a deviation even at this early stage, which will take us down by the side of the Colne, which charges angrily after the rains of the last two days, along the path on the edge of the flood plain where the long grass will quickly saturate one's trousers, taking us around the Linthwaite's famous Titanic mills, named for their 1912 completion date, rather than their massive size, and our route goes straight through their carpark, where the Titanic Spa and many apartments now dwell within the site.

Hadfield to Marsden via Black Hill 03/08/19

15 miles, via Padfield, Runal Intake, Devil's Elbow, Torside Crossing, Torside Reservoir,   
 Crowden Great Brook Clough, Laddow Rocks, Grains Moss, Dun Hill, Black Hill, 
  Black Dike Head, Good Bent, Dean Clough, Wessenden Head, Hey Cote Hill, 
   Hey Brinks, Rigg Shaw, Rams Clough, Binns and Bank Bottom.

After my Summer Jollies, it seemed wise to take a weekend off, as I'd been going at it on the trail for every weekend since the middle of April, and once back in work we experienced the most horrifying temperature spike, pushing temperatures up past 30C, which were then followed by the most dramatic shift downwards as the last weekend of July came around, more than 12C cooler and with both days blighted with rain that fell for many hours, scuppering any plans for getting out regardless of how modestly they might have been scaled. As it happened, we probably wouldn't have gotten out as it was, as an impromptu drinks get together was had on the Friday evening of the 26th July with my good friends IH & AK as we needed to have one last turn around with M&SW before they move away to Edinburgh at the end of August, which was a nice break from routine and had me snoozing off the booze for much of Saturday as the rain pelted down in a way that seemed entirely inappropriate. As M&S had scheduled up a final session for the next Saturday along, being available for that would be appropriate having enjoyed 23+ years of friendship with them, but a return ticket to Hadfield was starting to burn a hole in my pocket, with the August weather looking just a weird as July's, getting in my statement walk of the year, the one with West Yorkshire's actual summit in it, had to take priority, involving a 2+ hour trip out to the part of Derbyshire that isn't threatened with being underwater after a week of storms, a journey that would be so much easier if we could get the TPEs to stop at Guide Bridge and not have to make the connection at Manchester Piccadilly. So alight at 9.40am, feeling that it's slightly odd that it should be here, about as far south as is possible, that I have chosen to make my contact point on the west side of the Pennine divide, admiring the once mainline station that now sits at the lonely end of its branch line, starting out be retracing steps to the Trans Pennine Trail, admiring the views over the suburban rooftops to the moors to the north of Longdendale before passing under the old Woodhead Line at Platt Street bridge. This leads us into Padfield, among the old terraces and newer arrivals that have clustered around the largely still industrial site of Hadfield Mill, rising with the long uphill terraces of Post Street, which seem to be the way of such things on the west side of the Pennines, heading up past the former Wesleyan Chapel to meet the old rural village on Padfield Main Road, around the Peels Arms inn and displaying a whole wad of rural charm on the lane up to the Whitehouse Farm B&B.

Witton Weavers Way #2 - Dimple to Witton Park 18/07/19

18.5 miles, via Turton Heights, Cheetham Close, Turton Tower, Jumbles reservoir, 

 Turton Bottoms, Edgworth, Wayoh reservoir, Entwhistle, Edge Fold, Cadshaw, 

  Darwen Moor, Darwen Tower, Earnsdale reservoir, Tockholes, Chapels, Stockclough, 

   Green Hills, Holly Tree, Cherry Tree, and Pleasington Fields.

Long Distance Trail

means Selfies!

#2 at Dimple.

The way this week has scheduled, with our trip to the Land Registry falling on a Tuesday, and with us visitors not wishing to get in the way of My Sister's family's first weekend of the Summer holidays, we are thus compelled to walk on consecutive days so that we might get away on Friday, which forecasts as deeply mediocre, and leave myself enough weekend to blog properly and get the brain in order before I find out where I might be working next week (the last couple of weeks since supposedly transferring to St James's hospital have seen me bouncing all over the LTHT sites). So we rise early, which is absolutely necessary as this 32 mile trail hasn't conveniently divided into equal pieces, and so up the lane we two head from Egerton to Dimple for an 8.35am start, with both of us taking entirely different expectations of the weather to come on the day as we pass Ciao Baby and make our way further up the A666 Blackburn Road to pick up the Weavers Way as it takes us past Buffs farm and onto the fields to the north of it, aiming ourselves uphill to attain the top of Turton Heights, which isn't the most straightforward of aims as its over 100m up from the roadside within half a mile. The local cows in this field seem more curious than yesterday's as to our progress up through the long grass, but we've gotten enough of a head-start on them to get out of their enclosure and onto the steeply rising moorland path unscathed, with early sunshine coming on to tease us with warmth and illumination of the valley of Eagley Brook as we can almost see down to Bolton before we land on the moorland cap with a decent enough track, heading up to the crest to get a view over to the Bradshaw Brook side and on to the Holcombe Moor side and Ramsbottom Peel Tower. Unfortunately, the way forward on the crest toward the southern end at Cheetham Close follows a ditch through the knee length grass, which is firm enough to walk on, but the morning dew soaks into our trousers and waterlogs our boots before we get far past halfway along the top, where a fence and a wall block our path, and My Sister curses the route forcibly and states her intention to travel no further up here as we're forced to stop and wring out our socks, and ponder the wisdom in our choice of route, especially as a herd of cows sits at the summit beyond.

Witton Weavers Way #1 - Witton Park to Dimple 17/07/19

14.9 miles, via Billinge Hill, Yellow Hills, Close farm, Hoghton Bottoms, The Horr, 
 Causeway wood, Sun Mill, Stanworth wood, Red Lea, Abbey Village, Rake Brook reservoir, 
  Roddlesworth reservoirs, Tockholes plantations, Hollinshead Hall, Pasture Houses Hey, 
   Longworth Moor, and Delph Brook plantations.

Long Distance Trail means Selfies!

#1 at Witton Park.

Anyone who's been following my walking career across 7+ years and two blogs will be aware that walking the Witton Weavers Way has been planned for in every walking season I have done, but has never gotten onto the schedule as circumstances have always found me doing something else when I've travelled to the West Pennines to visit My Sister and her family, so as the eighth season presses on to my Summer Jollies, we find good reason to get it off the schedule as My Mum needs to come up country as we three all need to be in one place to get some business sorted with HM Land Registry. That's all sorted at the Fylde office on Tuesday morning, which hopefully resolves all the remaining issues with regards our inheritance of Dad's estate, and then we can shift focus onto tackling this 32 mile circular trail that supposedly celebrates the pre-industrial heritage of this corner of Lancashire, that is actually Blackburn with Darwen's major trail, as Bolton district doesn't actually have one, which My Sister and I will be able to take on while enjoying the flexibility of having two other adults around while My Nieces go through the motions of their last week of school. So onwards, getting driven up from Egerton to Witton Park on the western side of Blackburn in the Parental Taxi, for a start at 9.15am, in alien walking territory but in a corner that's still plenty familiar as this former country estate that has been Blackburn's municipal park since 1946 has been a regular stomping ground for My Sister's family, and the route, starting off past the arena and athletics track, up to the old  pavilion and into Big Cover Wood traces the route of the first walk that I ever took with my Younger Niece, in the late summer of 2008. The rising track is just as testing for the early going as it was then, and I always seem to pant harder when in company, as I'm compelled to walk at someone else's pace, rising to the open fields that give us a look over the southern portion of Blackburn, with Ewood Park stadium obvious, and back to the northern flank of the West Pennine Moors, which this trail will take a while to get to as it loops northwards for a while, pressing uphill past Higher Garden Plantation to the limit of the parkland at Under Billinge Lane and joins the path across the slanted plots on which the woodlands of Billinge Hill stand, though we won't be seeking the summit path this time, but instead hang close to its western perimeter on the sharply rising and sometimes obscure track to seek the route westwards.

Holmfirth to Hadfield 13/07/19

13.8 miles, via Hinchcliffe Mill, Holmbridge, Holme, Lane, Holme Moss, 

 Heyden Brook valley, Heyden Bridge, Woodhead Reservoir, Crowden, 

  Torside Reservoir, Hollins, Rhodes Wood, Valehouse Wood, and Tintwistle. 

After six weeks of pushing the boundary of my Field of Walking Experience southwards, and using the High Season weekend to probe the upper reaches of the Don Valley, like I'd promised to do, it's time to shift focus and start to looking westwards, so that I might start pressing westwards, so that we might properly investigate the Holme valley while Summer is still in business and can get in the long days of travelling before the days shorten too much, and having made such a big noise about all my approaches toward western Kirklees, my first day of travelling from within it will actually be striking for a finish line far beyond it. An early start is essential, predictably enough, but not just because of the length of the trip, but also because I'm NIW for the week and My Mum is travelling up so we might get some issues with regards my legacy and inheritance sorted out, and so it's away on the earliest of plausible trains and then off on the nearest available bus to land in Holmfirth for an 8.50am jump off, which comes after the necessary use of public conveniences as there are not going to be many places for comfort breaks on today's trip. July ought to be bringing the joy of the season, but the projections for the day have gradually rendered it mediocre, with little chance of sunshine in the day's first half, and thus we're off under gloomy skies, but wholly tolerable warmth, as we note Holmfirth's memorial pillar to the Treaty of Amiens of 1802, a rather premature monument to peace with Revolutionary France when 12 years of the Napoleonic Wars would start only 14 months later, placed opposite the bus stands that have been the focus of all our visits so far, before we make for the opposite bank of the Holme, which takes us up the politely dressed shopping parades of Victoria Street. Even before regular opening hours, the town feel busier than it ought to be, and thus the people need to be shed from our path as we strike westwards on Huddersfield Road, the other main street so far unseen in this town, as it leads past Holmfirth's market and mill, to the division point of the A635 - A6024 where the choice of moorland routes needs to be made, and admiring the landscape of weavers cottages and modest factories that still look the part of a town that originally thrived because of the domestic production of woollen goods, rather than heavy industry.

Penistone to Holmfirth 06/07/19

16.9 miles, via Spring Vale, Castle Green, Snowden Hill, Underbank, Smithy Moor, 
 Underbank Reservoir, Midhopestones, Upper Midhope, Langsett Reservoir, 
  Crooklands Wood, Swinden Lane, Snow Road, Stone Rucks Moss, South Nab, 
   Windleden, Winscar Reservoir, Harden, Hade Edge, Longley, and Under Bank.

They say that wisdom comes with age, but it's taken me until my eighth walking season to realise that when travelling a distance by train, especially out of West Yorkshire, that money can be saved by purchasing an open return ticket to your destination as scheduling a return trip within a month could result in your costs being almost halved, a useful bit of genuine common sense that seriously only came to me with the start of Summer, having already burned rather too much cash on my jaunts into South Yorkshire this year. It's going to be the last one of those for this year on this trip, as our area of interest needs to shift over to the western portion of Kirklees before we start to run out of sufficient days to do it justice and so we travel back to Penistone, with my return ticket pricing the trip at less than £6 rather than more than £9, aiming at an early start as there's a long trip to come, but cursing the fact that the Summer weather hasn't come with us, with grey skies and the threat of drizzle hanging in the air as we disembark the train, because it seems to be cold here more often than it's hot. Working our way around to the station exit means it's nearly 8.50am when we get going, heading down the station approach past the office of Lavender International, which apparently occupies the building that once housed the DC electric railway controls of the old Woodhead line, and drop out onto Sheffield Road by the former station hotel, turning left so that the very short blank space down to Wentworth Road might be filled in on my walking map, which achieves almost total coverage of all the potential routes out of Penistone. We head back under the viaduct end with the road into Spring Vale, noting the ambulance and fire stations by the council depot that weren't seen on the last trip by, before ploughing on though the parades of terraces that sit below skies that look as glum as they did on my previous jaunt through, before we take a left turn with Green Road to head up to the wide and expanded railway bridge that carries the railway to Barnsley and the Trans Pennine Trail to Sheffield, the Upper Don Valley section of which will be saved for a future year despite it teasing me with offers of a WW2 era tank ramp and a turntable pit to see.

Huddersfield to Penistone 29/06/19

14.8 miles, via Lockwood, Berry Brow, Honley (New Town), Brockholes, New Mill, 

 Jackson Bridge, Gate Head, Victoria Crossroads, Crow Edge, Catshaw Cross, 

  Millhouse Green, Thurlstone, and Bridge End.

I'm not sure why, but discovering that June this year had five Saturdays in it gave me a great sense of joy, as if it was granting me an extra weekend between my late Spring and early Summer breaks, which is completely ridiculous as the number of available weekends is pretty much a constant, but we have managed to be super-productive as this year's High Season has come on, and while we might have not had the best of the weather through it, we have a one day heatwave coming on for this occasion, spiking in the high 20s when we've seen no really hot days in the last month. So, an early start is due to keep ahead of it, riding out to Huddersfield to finally make a proper trip into the Holme Valley as our walking interest for the year starts to shift westwards, departing the station at a whisker or two after 8am, with early morning mist keeping the heat off as we strike on into the town centre, a landscape that still doesn't feel that familiar despite many transits through it, heading out across St George's Square and on to the main shopping drag along John William Street. Despite being an hour ahead of the shops opening, there's still plenty of people out and about, getting an early jump on the day as we press on, admiring some of the rather distinctive works of late 20th century modernism that loiter among the Victorian Parades, passing the Market Cross, the sole enduring feature of the 18th century town, and making our way southwards down New Street until we find our way blocked by the police, investigating shenanigans from the night before. So we have to improvise a detour, down through the arcade of Market Avenue to the parallel Victoria Lane, which turns out to also be taped off, which means a further excursion off route, around the curved terrace of the Piazza Centre, which circuits the town's Library & Art Gallery, before we head up High Street, past the Town Hall and Ramsden House, with its mosaic of Huddersfield's early industrial history before we can get back on track, down the end of New Street that must have looked all the rage in the 1970s. Meeting the Queensgate - Castlegate inner ring road marks the end of the town centre, and we cross to join the A616 Chapel Hill, which descends away swiftly, directing our eyes into the valley to come as we descend past the looming bulk of Kirklees College's campus, with the town's continuing industrial district filing out the plots to the east as we come upon the passages over the Huddersfield Narrow Canal and the River Colne in short order, and beyond the Folly Hall Mills, we've got a whole lot of fresh territory to explore.

Dodworth to Stocksmoor 22/06/19

17.5 miles, via Silkstone, Noblethorpe, Hoylandswaine, Oxspring, Roughbirchworth, 

 Sheephouse Height, Hartcliff Hill, Hill Side, Hornthwaite Hill, Thurlstone, Royd Moor, 

  Ingbirchworth Moor, Dearne Low Common, Piper Junction, Lane Head, 

   Shepley (Cliffe), and Stone Wood.

Summer lands, and the weather manages to actually look appropriately seasonal at long last, not that I'm full of the joys as the weekend rolls up, largely because I'm knackered after my first week of working at St James's Hospital, performing the same role as I did at the LGI but in a much busier office and at a much higher tempo that I've gotten used to, meaning I do seven hours of raw labour a day before sloping off home to crash hard, which means my weekly exile to the archive at Seacroft on Fridays feels like a useful respite after that. So we don't start as early as necessary as Saturday's trip gets underway, aiming at route that was virtually improvised in the preceding week as a few gaps and omissions were noted around the paths already walked and the excursions plotted for the future, and as the day promises to be in excess of 17 miles it makes sense to get it done while we linger at the top of the High Season, riding out to Dodworth on the fringe of greater Barnsley on a 142 Pacer unit that gets very crowded as we pass into South Yorkshire, to land at this most modest and minimalist of stations at a measure or two after 9.50am. Sunshine falls on us as we join the B6099 Station Road as it takes us northwards, over the level crossing and on along the boundary of the Fall Bank industrial estate, up towards the A628 bypass road, which we don't immediately join as a leafier road awaits, beyond the traffic island and The Fairway Hotel and Pub, following Elmhirst Lane as it skirts the Dodworth Business Park on the site of the Old Silkstone Colliery and on towards Silkstone Golf Course on the lofty edge of the Cawthorne Valley. We join a superseded green lane that pushes west, which I'd assumed was the original A628 route before the bypass was built, but judging bu its narrowness and considerable overgrowth, this route was diverted a long, long time back as the turnpike chose to avoid this steep hill edge, which allows us a quiet start to the day and teases some lofty views as we go, forwards towards Hoylandswaine's hillside and over the periphery of the Dove valley. Descend the lane to meet the road that I had been prepared to ignore, but Barnsley Road will lead us over some green gaps on my maps and cross some previously burned paths in this area so that's reason enough for me to dome this way today, pressing west as we lead into the shade of Silkstone Fall woods, before we meet the footpath-free Silkstone Bypass, which we'll follow with some wariness as that village centre doesn't really need to be seen up close again, so soon.

Barnsley to Holmfirth 15/06/19

17.2 miles, via Shaw Lands, Dodworth, Silkstone Common, Berry Moor, Four Lane End, 

 Oxspring, Spring Vale, Penistone (Bridge End), Scout Dike, Ingbirchworth, High Flatts, 

  Birds Edge, Lane Head, Snowgate Head, New Mill, Lydgate and Town End. 

As we progress into the 2019 High Season, the long days ought to invite the possibilities of starting early, but the appeal of getting on the trail before 9am is diminished by the fact of it refusing to get particularly warm even as we alight on the last weekend of Spring, and even then getting out early is going to be a non-starter when the body isn't willing to get going a work o'clock on a Saturday morning, having not had any rest time over the preceding six days. Factor in the discovery that I'm being reassigned at very short notice at work, and have thus just completed my last shift at Leeds General Infirmary after 20+ years on that site, it's hardly a surprise that my brain is all sorts of haywire as the weekend lands, and all my walking gear has to be gathered at the hurry up to get me out to Barnsley with another South to West Yorkshire stretch in mind, disembarking the train at 9.10am, as the morning's sunshine start fades to be replaced by a light covering of cloud that will persist for the whole day. Third visit of the year, and I'm already starting to get a feel for Barnsley town centre, though its main drag of shops is yet to be seen as we depart the Interchange onto Eldon Street which takes us past the Parkway cinema and the Civic theatre before we take a turn up through the Victorian Arcade, which does its best to culturally elevate its rather humble residents and tenants, as we rise to meet Market Hill and the way past the Town Hall once again as we land on Shambles Street. We shadow the back of the main shopping parade along here, as well as passing below the buildings seen on our previous passage through the town, getting a fresh angle on the Sixth Form college, the Borough Council offices and the Lamproom Theatre in its former chapel before we drop down past the Premier Inn to meet the Townend Roundabout, which offers vistas over southern Barnsley to stimulate interest for a future walking season before we eventually pick out the route that will take us westwards. Dodworth Road, the A628, will take us on into another district of proud townhouses that have probably seen better days, stretched out beyond the soon to be former Marlborough inn, looking like it might have once been on of the town's most desirable residential streets, with only the accumulated centuries of soot staining making it look like the coal town of history, though a peer down a couple of side streets gives some indication of the much more modest terraces that grew with the collieries in the area back in the 19th century.

Shepley to Darton 09/06/19

14.9 miles, via Shepley Marsh, Lane Head, Piper Junction, Dearne Low Moor, 

 Whitley Common, Whitley Height, High Bank, Thurlstone, Penistone (Bridge End), 

  Hoylandswaine, Cawthorne, and Kexborough. 

Walking plans for Saturday are junked when the rain comes on hard, continuing June's pattern of frustratingly inconsistent weather and temperatures that are unbecoming for this point in the season, and thus we shift our trip to Sunday, a much clearer looking day, with a more modest mileage scheduled after last weekend's distance, only picking my route minutes before leaving home after trusting my ability to get a 15 mile trip down in a fixed 5 hour 45 minute window. The transport issues are what make Sunday tripping so frustrating, and the 40 minute layover at Huddersfield while awaiting the Penistone Line train is no exception, even when it does allow an extensive trainspot, but despite having only one job to perform, Northern Fail can't get it done, and we don't get underway until 15 minutes after the scheduled departure time as they can't shunt their unit into place among all the TPEs. Thus we arrive at Shepley, right at the western edge of this year's walking field, at 9.40am with my error margin for the day lost already, and thus we set off knowing that no display of urgency will be necessary at all as we strike off southbound on the rising Station Road, which illustrates well how the village gradually grew down the hillside to meet the railway, rising through a century's worth of suburbia to meet the Kirklees Way route by the Old Hall of 1608 (and the replacement New Hall is notable by its absence). Past the Jos Lane corner, we are rapidly off to establish another new southern boundary to my field of walking experience, which has been done so often this season that it's barely worth mentioning, and then it's downhill to meet the village Co-op and the Black Bull inn at the corner of Marsh Lane, and then it's onward uphill again, past the former Sunday School and the church of St Paul and carrying on among the formerly rural cottages and farmsteads that sat at the old top end of the village. Pass the Farmers Boy inn, another one for the fantasy career as a publican and carry on through the ribbon of suburban houses that has grown to meet the formerly separate enclave of Shepley Marsh, arriving in the fields above the village with the looming mass of Nabscliffe rising above, and we'll be heading over that, after a fashion, splitting off onto the rising Row Gate by Marsh Cottage and following a small pony being taken out for their first road walk, and getting some grand views that match some of those from the nearby vantage point from last week, but this time we have sunshine aplenty as we look over the valley of Shepley Dike and beyond, while rising to meet the A635 Holmfirth Road.

Barnsley to Huddersfield 01/06/19

18.4 miles, via Old Town, Gawber, Redbrook, Barugh Green, Cawthorne, Daking Brook, 

 Nether End, Dunkirk Crossroads, Denby Dale, Upper Cumberworth, Lane Head, Shepley,

  Shelley, Kirkburton, Highburton, Fenay Bridge, Almondbury, Moldgreen, and Aspley.

Having made four trip to Barnsley over the years, by four rather tangled and straggly routes from the north, it's time to definitively add South Yorkshire's closest major town to my field of walking experience by blazing a trail from it through the heart of Kirklees District to that borough's administrative centre, a long trek that will probably be the longest of the season, and one that has felt like it might just be that bit too far as Huddersfield doesn't sit all that proximately in the mind. It's a good one for that start of the High Season though, as we start our burst of trails in the hinterlands of hills and valleys around the Dearne, the Don and their various branches, and despite the distance on the slate we don't get an early start, not landing at Barnsley until 9.10am as despite the lengthening days of June being afoot, this one looks like it'll have little by way of sunshine in it. So we set out by passing through the Barnsley Interchange bus station, which sits on the site of the former Barnsley Court House station, where services on the Midland Railway's metals used to stop before they were combined into the enduring L&YR/MS&LR Low Town station in 1960, and as we cross Eldon Street we pass the court house itself, now a branch of Wetherspoons, before we ascend Regent Street, where the Town Hall stands at it head, dramatically. Pass around this impressively huge pile in Portland Stone, leaving the town's early morning shoppers behind, as we move onto Westgate, which passes into the town's legal and administrative district as it passes the Police station, the law courts and the district council offices, before we make the dynamic turn onto Sackville Street by the Lamproom Theatre and the Premier Inn to enter the Old Town. Barnsley is so mentally synonymous with the coal industry that it's hard to conceive of it having a part that looks like an upscale district for the Victorian Mercantile classes, but endures here as we pass among smart stone terraces and the odd urban villa before we pass over the railway line to Penistone and beyond, to meet more bold terraces in stone and brick on the rising Gawber Road beyond. It's definitely going to be a day of up and down on this trail, as we land on the high crest on this corner of town, moving among much more recent estate buildings as we pass Barnsley Hospital, aka the District General, which is not a building to inspire love, but one that sits large and distinct on its hillside on the site of the former Union workhouse, a very 1960's edifice facing the most 1950s of council estates, where the sole hint of rural vintage is the Gawber Road WMC in the former Halfway House Inn.

Denby Dale to Batley 27/05/19

13 miles, via Lower Cumberworth, Skelmanthorpe, Emley, Flockton Green, Overton, 

 Middlestown, Thornhill, Thornhill Lees, Savile Town, Dewsbury, and Batley Carr.

After what felt like my longest break away from home in a while, which was my first proper holiday in two years, we return to the more mundane matters of walking locally again, returning to the previously unseen byways that still litter Kirklees District, and after all that nice weather that sat comfortably over the days in Derbyshire, it all looks rather mediocre as we return to West Yorkshire and tune up for our Bank Holiday Monday stroll. We ought to not be surprised by this turn of events by now, by travelling through the early morning rain as it falls on Dewsbury and Huddersfield hardly gets me feeling inspired as I seek an early jump off so that there night be r'n'r time available at the other end of the day before we get back to work after so many days away from it, and thus we land at Denby Dale station at 8.35am, with most of the borough still asleep and with us setting a course northwards after so many trips going south. We'll not really see anything of the village as it clusters in the upper Dearne Valley, instead taking the exit that leads us past the old goods shed and the yard of a builders merchant to find the walkable path that leads though the linked closes of Bromley Bank and Bluehills Lane, which I can only hope were developed on a brown-field site as this is the sort of suburban-living-in-the-countryside that I find so repellent, which is only used as a path route today as it lets us join Cumberworth Road about halfway up from the valley. Land on this lane as the glum start to the day passes, with a stiff breeze from the northwest sending the weather on over the Dearne Valley and its high southern side as we go north, with sunshine coming on as we rapidly wander into Lower Cumberworth, a much more rural sort of village, where the Kirklees Way brought us on an east-west path in 2014, and thus we've briefly adds another few square miles to the experience field as we pass the Forester's Arms and hit the descending Shelley Woodhouse Lane, which soon has us out among the more scattered houses again. Here we pick our path, joining Ponker Lane, with its awesome name and convenient footway to lead us up the rising lane over Ponker Hill toward Ponker farm, cresting by the covered reservoir and giving us that view to the Emley Moor masts that might be their best angle before the lane starts to descend in Skelmanthorpe, where most of the suburban houses at the town's edge seem to boldly protest the future development of any more suburban houses on the greenbelt land at the top end of Cumberworth Road.

The Long Walk to Leicester #5 - Rowsley to Belper 23/05/19

17.3 miles, via Northwood, Churchtown, Darley Bridge, Oker, Matlock, High Tor, 

 Matlock Bath, Cromford, the Cromford Canal, High Peak Junction, Robin Hood, 

  Whatstandwell, Ambergate, and Scotches (plus the Derwent Valley Heritage Trail Leg #3).

Long Distance Trek

means Selfies!

#5 at Rowsley

Take two days out from the trail to allow the legs a rest and to blog to my hearts content in the down time, and also to do holiday stuff, because I'm on holiday, which has Tuesday spent riding the train at Peak Rail, because it's not a trip away without visiting a preserved line (which would make Dad happy, for sure) and then Wednesday is spent getting in the industrial heritage in at Cromford Mills, where the concept of factory manufacture took off in the late 18th century. With holiday whims satisfied, we can thus get back in the walking saddle on Thursday, knowing that another 17+ mile day lies ahead, with weather that promises a lot of sunshine and heat, in complete contrast to the already distant feeling trip over the Dark Peak only five days back, taking off in the Parental Taxi with a bag full of food and liquids that I know I'm going to need for a jump off at the Grouse & Claret in Rowsley at 9.05am. We're right by the side of the A6, which as we know is one of Leicester's main roads and could rightly be followed for the remainder of my Long Walk, but we know there wouldn't be as much fun in that, and the Derwent Valley Heritage Way will offer a much more peaceful take as it ventures down Old Station Close, to the sight of the second and longest enduring of Rowsley's stations, lost under industrial units since its 1968 closure, and we could walk the cycle path on the railway formation south from here, but the way wants us to venture into the beech woodlands by the side of the river, and so that's the way we head. A nice and shaded start to the day, feeling that it's much longer walk down to the newer Peak Rail station than it felt when we drove down there, and only slight landscape hints are felt during our passage, and oddly, we miss seeing the confluence of the River Wye as it flows in from the west, and it's odd that such a major branch of the Derwent could arrive invisibly, especially as I knew that I was looking for it.

The Long Walk to Leicester #4 - Bamford to Rowsley 20/05/19

14.4 miles, via Shatton bridge, Goose Nest wood, Leadmill bridge, Coppice wood,

 Grindleford bridge, Horse Hay coppice, Froggatt wood, Frogatt, Calver, Bubnell, Baslow,

  Chatsworth Park, and Calton Lees (plus the Derwent Valley Heritage Trail Leg #2).

Long Distance Trek means Selfies!

#4 at Bamford

Sunday makes for a nicely chilled out day away as we spend it settling into our rather curious cottage in Winster, one which has two double bedrooms, a dining room that seats six, but a living room with only space for two armchairs, so it'll be fine for Mum and myself to fill for the week, and the village itself has a tonne of charm, with many stone cottages crammed together on its hillside, largely borne of the lead mining industry and sat around the National Trust's very first property, the 15th century Market Hall. Thus relaxed, we are ready to go again on Monday as the weather showed a marked spike in improvement, tootling our way back up to the Hope and Derwent Valleys to resume the trail, not getting out quite as early as I'd would have liked, due to Mum accidentally breaking our cottage's shower, and me managing somehow to successfully fix it, landing us at Bamford station for a 9.30am start, hopeful that I haven't seen too much of today's passage already on our way back. Anyway, I can guarantee that this will be a much shorter and gentler trip than Saturday's escapade, as we make our way back over retraced steps over Mytham Bridge and past the Hope Valley Garden centre to resume the Derwent Valley Heritage Way, at Shatton bridge, leading into the dead-end village of Shatton and taking us over the lowest crossing of the River Noe, the main watercourse of the Hope Valley itself, which flows to our left as we pass around an equestrian paddock as we make for the Derwent's bank. Where the Noe converges with the Derwent is where the latter becomes considerable, as both drain an extensive area of moorland, and thus we have a large channel to follow as we join the undulating an occasionally high bank of the river, skirting along the edge of the broad pasture below the rises of Offerton Moor to the south, following it around Kentney barn before we get a reveal of the local Dark Peak company behind us, with Lose Hill and Win Hill flanking Crookstone Moor, the eastern edge of the Kinder Scout plateau. Bamford Edge also muscles into the view as we press on, but there's not so much to see going forwards as the bank gets tight and undulating until we get a reveal of the hillsides above Hathersage, a proud Derbyshire village that looks like it will remain completely unseen from this trail, hidden away on the north-eastern bank, with only signage indicating its presence somewhere beyond the coverage of trees and the string of stepping stones.

The Long Walk to Leicester #3 - Penistone to Bamford 18/05/19

17.5 miles, via Cubley, Sheephouse Height, Midhopestones, Ewden, Smallfield, 

 Bradfield Dale, Bole Edge Plantation, Strines, Moscar, Ladybower Reservoir, 

  and the Thornhill Trail (plus the Derwent Valley Heritage Trail Leg #1).

Long Distance Trek

means Selfies!

#3 at Penistone.

It's a weird feeling to organise a holiday for the family without having Dad around to enjoy it too, but after his passing getting away for a week was one of the first thoughts for the future that Mum and I shared, and with a legacy having come my way, affording a few weeks away over the coming years shouldn't dent my finances at all, and as Mum has gotten her driving confidence going again, added to getting herself a sat-nav app, her being my taxi for a week of walking across Derbyshire should be as straightforward as is possible. Getting going is the first order of business then, leaving Morley at ouch o'clock in the morning, and leaving Mum as custodian of my flat and the baggage as I make for the trail that will link my local wandering fields to the Midlands, which probably aren't as far away as my brain would think, riding the rails and cursing this month of May that still hasn't brought any consistently decent weather, arriving at Penistone for an 8.45am jump-off, under gloomy skies and clouds that look like they could threaten rain at a moments notice. We thus start our resuming path into the unknown by slipping onto the Trans Pennine Trail path which heads south of the station and reveals the platforms of the former MS&LR Woodhead route, which were coated in trees when we visited in 2014 and haven't seen a regular passenger service since 1970, and we then slip down Eastfield Avenue to make our way through the town, rising among the terraces on Church Street to pass around the other side of the parish church of St John the Baptist. Land on the High Street opposite the pubs and the Co-op, and am struck that folks seem to already be out in force despite the early hour and we press on south as the stone houses slip from townhouse style to a scale more modest, and occasionally rural before the lane takes a dip and slips solidly into suburbia, gaining the name of Mortimer Road as it goes. The rise away from the Don valley resumes as we climb towards the bottom end of town, and there's more to Penistone than you'd expect clearly, meeting the council estate at Cubley, right about where the Barnsley district bus terminates and we start to slip into the countryside, past the Cubley Hall hotel and pub, and into the elevated fields that lie beyond, shrouded in an uninviting grey haze, which sadly gives us little by way of gaining a contextual view into the landscape around-abouts.