Wakefield to Batley 16/02/19

7.1 miles, via Westgate End, New Scarborough, Alverthorpe, Kirkhamgate, West Ardsley, 

 Soothill, and Batley Mill. 

The Sun continues to shine down unseasonably as we finally land at the end of my long break away from work, and as no social plans have been made for this weekend, getting in a bonus round of walking seems wise, especially as for the first time since before August Bank Holiday weekend last year, we have Northern Trains running a full slate of services having finally settled their beef with the RMT with an entirely predictable agreement to not downgrade the status of conductors, which will hopefully make my walking plans for 2019 much easier to complete. Not that I'll be using their services for any part of today's trip, as all my rides will come courtesy of TPE and LNER (no, not that one) and I don't get many opportunities to ride the King's Cross express as a local service so I'll take it when it comes, landing me at Westgate station at 10.05am, and setting off towrdas the last route to bring me into this town, but shifting down Back Lane to give me a slightly different perspective as we pass between the snazzy Unitarian chapel and the Orangery, a very disused arts centre. Then we pass under the elevated platforms of the station and get a perspective on it that show up more of its original Victorian form, of which so little remains above after two redevelopments in the last 50 years, and then it's on into the shadow of the walls of HMP Wakefield, the more contemporary end of it, where the CCTV surely observes me passing as I wave my camera about before we can emerge onto Westgate End, by the prison's tied houses and set off west with the A642 once again. However we  get a different set of views by pacing in front of the terraces of Morton Parade, with Ings Beck running in a deep channel before them to create surprising waterfront living in the heart of the city, and the path really ought to continue on past Plumpton Terrace too, but it ruins into a vacant lot so we have to double back a bit to regain the roadside and join Alverthorpe Road as it peels off by St Michael's church and the snooker hall.

The Orangery, Wakefield.

HMP Wakefield.

Plumpton Terrace and Ings Beck.

Suburban Wakefield awaits along here, bringing us Victorian terraces and 80's suburbs, as we also graze the eastern edge of the Flanshaw estate, gradually noting the district as being New Scarborough as we pass the Scarborough Arms and the old Co-op store before rising up to meet Batley Road by the Red Lion and set the course for the remainder of the trip along this lane that has been seen many times in many different places on my wandering travels so far but has not yet been walked in its entirety. Initial footfalls feel familiar as my first walk into Wakefield came this way in 2014, and steps are retraced past Flanshaw primary school, on amongst the jumbles of townhouses and on past the new branch of Aldi to meet Alverthorpe's playing fields, where you'd never guess the GNR line through Ossett once ran, and then it's on through a fresh stretch of Alverthorpe itself, between the old school and chapel, and past the old pub that is now a veterinary surgery. It's worth lamenting that St Paul's church is just a bit too far off from the road, beyond the current school and the suburban spread, to detour for the closer look that is deserves as its tall, dark bulk is distinctive on the horizon from so many local vantage points, and we leave it in our wake as we pass the Crown inn and the road that rises beyond the council houses to find a new development growing here too, calling itself Lindale Park and not having grown enough yet to obscure the view to All Saints Ossett, that sits proudly on the horizon. Open fields emerge to our left as we progress, though suburban Wakefield continues on the eastern side of the road all the way to the Wrenthorpe Lane corner and the monument to the Lofthouse Colliery disaster, also marking another stretch of the road which we've visited before, as our path rises and views open out back to the city and add the Gawthorpe water tower and the Emley Moor masts to the horizon, before we cross onto the path of the Wakefield Way that took us over Lindale Hill and its quarry remnants back in 2015. Thus we arrive in Kirkhamgate, still looking like a rather loose collection of homes spread across the rural, industrial and suburban vintages, but clearly a place that has endured in its history enough to have a substantial war memorial on the Brandy Carr Lane corner, just down from the Methodist chapel and only a few steps short of the Star Inn which sits by the side of the M1 as it swings its way around the town.

The Scarborough Arms, New Scarborough.

Alverthorpe, with the hiding St Paul's church.

The outermost edge of Wakefield, Batley Road.

Kirkhamgate.

That's all for Wakefield for the time being, though its growth will surely take a while to get as far as Kirkhamgate, and we head into the countryside proper for a while as we rise up Jaw Hill, with its reservoir and waterworks at its top, where its 100+m top gives us one last look towards Wakefield's centre before the relative proximity of Leeds district is felt as we switch vantage points and get a clear view over to East Ardsley, with St Michael's church tower rising prominently above it. The road then hits a steepling descent to head downhill and cross over the beck the flows south from Ardsley Reservoir, and also gives us a view to fields filled with solar panels as the road demonstrates that not all the old routes are friendly despite maintaining a footway to keep the walker safe, and from Spring Bottom (where the old 1906 OS map randomly comments 'Who could have thought it', incidentally) the lane rises again to pass into Haigh Hall wood, which sits rather far from the farm that names it. That's to be found just to the south of the Common Side end of West Ardsley, the southernmost edge of Greater Leeds, where we can slip inside the path of the Leeds Country Way as we pace on in front of the suburban houses that have a grand view over the unspoiled fields that sit to the north of Gawthorpe and Ossett, while also recalling the trip made down here in 2014 before we enter the consumed hamlet of Beggarington Hill, where rural buildings, a former village store and the Hare & Hounds endure among the encroached suburbs. The descent to Hey Beck takes us has us joining the Leeds Country way route again, only acknowledged by the view over the fields to St Mary's Woodkirk and otherwise unrecognised since my 2012 visit, and passing outside that path has me feeling mildly embarrassed to admit that I'd not even realised that we would pass inside Leeds district, however briefly, on today's trip, which is a mark against my supposedly excellent geographical brain, as we continue into Kirklees and start the rise again up Heybeck Land. There's suburbia aplenty up here, with bungalow and semis lining the road to make you think you are in the heart of an urban area when you are in reality in another ribbon of residences spread out like the A653 Leeds-Dewsbury Road which we meet by the Babes in the Wood cross roads, and then cross to take the road on towards Batley, another of those local trajectories that I really ought to have travelled by now.

The descent of Jaw Hill.

Common Side, West Ardsley.

The Hare & Hounds, 'Beggarington Hill'.

False Suburbia on Heybeck Lane.

Stone faced semis only cover one side of Soothill Lane, gaining the B6124 number as it goes, and the fields to the south give us views towards Emley Moor mast as it rises beyond St Paul's Hanging Heaton, while Gawthorpe Water Tower and All Saints Ossett retreat from view, and the 100+m elevation gives us a look back over the path we've travelled today, which is really quite unexpected, especially when considered that the woods to the north of here are at the outer fringe of greater Morley. Rise on as the day's summit seems determined to arrive late, and we pass Croft House and Manor farm before the trip finally summits and we arrive in Soothill on the outer edge of greater Batley by the Lydgate Lodge care home, and land in the midst of suburban semis when my mind had it that there were quite a lot of stony and rustic house up here, a memory that seems entirely incorrect as we pass only one terrace before meeting the villas on the high edge of the valley above the town. Again I'm glad I'm not driving as the evolving view of the distant horizon is a fine one to observe as footsteps are taken downhill, as across Kirklees we can espy the Colne-Calder hills, Meltham Moor, Castle Hill and Holme Moss-Black hill, all of which ought to enjoy some probing before the year is done, and the stony face of that was expect is met as we pass the local Working Men's Club, and pass inside the route of the Kirklees Way as our path continues to descend. It really is one of those descents that just keeps on going, as the most memorable corner of Lower Soothill is met just a way above the passage over the railway line, where the double station layout that the GNR and L&NWR developed for Batley is much more obvious on this occasion after a lot of trees and overgrowth have been cleared away. We could break the trip here, but we still sit some height above the town, and there's still a few proud warehouses to get a view of at the very bottom of Soothill Road, and its only a few steps along Mill Lane to get to Batley's 'The Mill' outlet, and doing this trip in the reverse direction from the original plan allows me to detour there to see if The Works and Mountain Warehouse have anything to offer me (more cheap size 6 trainers to add to the pile, if you're keeping notes), though I'll eschew the full tour as I think this day has been long enough. Thus it's back up Station Road among the warehouses to seal the day at the station at 1.05pm, with time aplenty for photographing trains passing over the nearby viaduct, noting the touching memorial to the murdered MP Jo Cox, and feeling delighted that we are already 27+ miles into 2019 when I had feared that February might end up getting completely scrubbed from the walking schedule.

The view back to the path well travelled, Soothill Lane.

'Upper?' Soothill.

Soothill's amazing descent, part 1

Soothill's amazing descent, part 2.

The Mill outlet, Batley.

5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 3678 miles
2019 Total: 27.6 miles
Up Country Total: 3284.9 miles
Solo Total: 3391.7 miles
Miles in My 40s: 2271.8 miles

Next Up: A break Down Country for My Dad's Memorial Service.