The Long Walk to Leicester #2: Horbury Bridge to Penistone 20/04/19

12.8 miles, via Netherton, Midgley, Bretton Park, High Hoyland, Cannon Hall, 

 Daking Brook, Rons Cliff, Gadding Moor, Gunthwaite Bridge, Cat Hill, Broad Hill, 
  and Watermeadows Park.

Long Distance Trek means Selfies!

#2 at Horbury Bridge

Still feeling sore as the next day comes around, not because of my new boots rubbing me up the wrong way, but more because of a sore muscle in my right thigh, pulled when descending the steps to Soothill Tunnel and now aching constantly after hours of resting it, not a bad enough pain to prevent me heading out, but enough to temper my expectations for what ought to be a 5 hour run, and thus we seek an early start so that we might get ahead of the weather and avoid the worst of the heat by aiming at the 2.19pm train home. The journey out to Horbury Bridge is immediately improved due to the #427 bus out of Morley having so few passengers boarding it that it arrives in Wakefield ridiculously ahead of schedule allowing me to hop on the earlier service to my start line, hopping off the #128A at 8.50am, way earlier than I'd ever conceive of starting a day's trekking in April and make my way to the corner of Bridge Street where we can rejoin the path south, opposite the house with the blue plaque that celebrates the mission church of Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould, author of 'Onward, Christian Soldiers'. So south again, past Bosco's coffee & champagne bar and on down the A642 to slip over the River Calder, looking all calm after the business of three weeks ago, passing the Bingley Arms to again ponder its viability, and then over the Calder & Hebble Navigation which marks us finally starting our way out of the Calder Valley having started our trek from high up on its watershed divide with the Aire. Our route lead us up Netherton Lane which is some steep going with some pretty terrifying early morning traffic on it, rising above the suburban closes and getting a look down the through the haze that hangs over the lower Calder before rising on, over the bridge on the MR's ill starred Royston to Thornhill line, and up towards the next village, enjoying the views, up the valley and back to Horbury and Ossett, and looking down to the viaduct that just calls out for accessible reuse in the future.

The Bingley Arms, and the Calder & Hebble Navigation, Horbury Bridge.

Looking back to the Calder Valley, and Horbury Bridge.

The lane leads us into Netherton, naturally, and this is one of those villages that seems to have been extended by generations of suburban growth, with its oldest portion feeling like it's the lowest part, around St Andrew's church, which seems to hide from view in its triangle of surrounding lanes, but oddly it doesn't feel like it's related to, or lower down than, its neighbours Middlestown and Overton, on the other side of the deep and wooded cleft of Coxley Beck. So we rise with the lane, noting the many vintages of suburbia that we find once we've passed the village school and the site of Netherton Hall, running up through many bungalows before we reach the terraces around the Primitive Methodist chapel and the Star Inn, and then continuing up through many council houses and finally finding the suburban glut at the southern extremity and literal top of the village, only the cemetery than remains to be see before we push off into the countryside. There's a few farmsteads to see along the laneside as we press on, with the Emley Moor mast landing on the western horizon, with the Flockton water tower in the nearby foreground, continuing on to pass the lane down to the fencing centre (that's wooden outdoor features rather than swordplay) and slipping through the woods around the scrubland of Stock's Moor, pondering that the Caphouse colliery tramway of 1854-1941, one of the lost industrial relics of the county, used to pass this way but fail to see it (finding out later that it passed through a now lost tunnel beneath this road). Next up comes Midgley, a very loose association of houses and cottages that barely qualifies as a hamlet, even if it has a desirable suburban enclave built on an old sawmill site, as well as a nonconformist chapel by the equestrian farmstead and the Bar Lane corner, and it's here we shift onto the A637 as passes the Black Bull inn and the Midgley Lodge motel and golf course, high on the ridge between the Calder and Dearne, where views down can be taken on both sides, though the best vista is to the southwest. Top Lane gets us back on a southerly track, leading over towards the A636 Denby Dale road, with Emley Moor on our western flank, and the towns in the Dearne valley showing up through the haze, namely Clayton west and Skelmanthorpe, actually visible now we know where to look, and then woodland comes up to the roadside, and continues once we're over the turnpike and onto the rough track that leads into Bretton Park, where we pause to water and admire the Bentley Grange bellpits far down below, before crossing a second early season track as we go on.

The Star inn, and old terraces, Netherton.

Lower Spring Wood.

The former chapel, Midgley.

The Dearne Valley on the morning haze.

We also walk the reverse route of the Wakefield Way path, again, as the track leads us downhill through the open fields of Home Farm, where the cattle are kept well away from our track as the Dearne valley vista opens out and our eyes can trace the route to come across the lower half of Bretton Park, and on over Hoyland Bank, and it's odd to feel just how familiar this landscape has become having regarded it as mostly alien not much more than a month ago. We could skirt Bretton Park with the Wakefield Way route again, but for the sake of variety and interest, I choose to enter the Yorkshire Sculpture Park as it's free to access it and only costs if you need to park your car, and so we follow the driveway down to the west car park, among the representative human sculptures and the many real human visitors, with me not knowing much about this particular art but sharing the amusement of the little boy who just has to point out all the nudity to his parents. Pass the billboards that declare that 'All Schools Should Be Art Schools' and then come across the Rushbond Building, home to the café and learning centre, and then enter Arcadia, according to the signs, following the shaded path offers views to various installation pieces, like the bunny with boobs by the Camellia house, the replica fitted kitchen, the circle of conversing animal heads, or the video screen of various walking people passing by. This leads us down to the side of the canalised River Dearne, by the pile of monumental slabs that looks a lot like something out of The Flintstones, and also that entertaining stack of cubes that was here back in 2015, and thus we carry on over the river via Cascade Bridge, and on between the Upper and Lower ornamental lakes, entering South Yorkshire and on into the park's Long Side pastures, where the cows aren't enclosed, though the weather is warm enough to render them docile. We take the bridleway that leads us southwest, away from the route to the Longside gallery (where we carried at least one of my nieces when they were very small), up a long and steady drag that will lead us to the top of Hoyland bank, really feeling the pull as another walker overtakes me at a pace, though my slow going does allow me to stop and absorb the views back as Bretton Hall and St Bartholomew's chapel are revealed in the parkland and the location contexts, in the shadow of Woolley Edge are revealed, and then obscured by tree cover over the path, before departing the parkland by the lodge house that houses a kennels and cattery business.

The way to come, across Bretton Park.

The Camellia House and the 'Bunny-Girl', Bretton Park.

Upper Lake, Bretton Park.

The way just travelled, across Bretton Park.

We then continue uphill along Litherop Road, which sits at the edge of the Hoyland Bank woods, which fall away sharply to the west of us, while revealing the first blooms of bluebell season on the sharply angled ground, and the haul keeps on going, with the mind feeling that elevenses is due as we approach the top of the hill, some 217m up. Here High Hoyland's former parish church, All Hallows, is found, at a remove above the village, but home to a graveyard with an enviable view, looking into the Cawthorne parish branch of the Dearne, where we can look over the bank of woods above that concealed village, over towards Barnsley in the east, and to the wrinkles in the west where our path will be taking us after we've paused on a convenient bench for another watering and snacking break. We return to the descending Church Lane to approach High Hoyland village, peeling away from the high wooded edge on the north side to meet open fields before we mark a triumphant arrival point below the tall and exquisitely presented Hoyland Hall, presenting its best face in the bright sunshine, and then we join the main road though the village, tangling us up with our last prior path of 2019, and again showing the views across this sub valley of the Dearne. The descending lane beyond The Cherry Tree promising us three hours of virgin territory to come, and so down we go, away from this most presentable of villages, and the largest settlement of not we'll see until we reach our destination, passing the residential outliers and the former chapel on the steeply declining lane, looking forward to pick the route we'll be taking to the southwest, wondering which bank of hills we'll be heading over and if our path will take us past the curiously turreted house we can see atop the next ridge down. Landscape context is gradually lost as the lane winds downhill, as the long banks of Cawthorne Park and Margery Wood obscure all sights to the east, and the looming bank of Deffer Wood obscures all to the west, not that we can feel entirely lost as the Kirklees Way took us around the top edge of that forest back in 2014. We reach a bottom of sorts at the entrance to Dean Hill farm, and the start to rise again, past the sharp end of Margery Wood and the main route into Deffer Wood, passing a gatehouse lodge that must have been the northern entrance to Cannon Hall's estate, as well as sitting on an old road as we are now on New Road and obviously skirting the parklands, spotting the tower of Cawthorne's church before rising in the shade of trees and admiring just how much woodland there is in this corner of South Yorkshire.

All Hallows, High Hoyland.

Hoyland Hall, High Hoyland.

The way into the Cawthorne branch of the Dearne valley.

Deffer Wood.

We then crest by Tower Cott house, which we spied from higher up the hill and resist the temptation to follow the tourist traffic that is heading into Cannon Hall's parkland, staying with the road as it tracks downhill towards the bottom of this particular basin, almost starting to tack eastwards before we have to make a course correction west and join the bridleway that leads us parallel to Daking Brook, and over to Jowett House farm, a deeply ancient a lovely complex with a proud 17th century farmhouse at it heart. We lack a surfaced route to take us on westwards so continue with the grassy bridleway that eventually degenerates into a footpath, over several green fields that are occupied by docile horses and have dried surprisingly hard beneath our feet, settling into a rather under-involving landscape at the valley floor as we track our way to Spring House farm, where woodcutting equipment has been piled all over the path route and the local guard dog isn't at all happy to find me in his yard. The farm driveway leads us down to Lane Head Road, the A635 which is locally the Barnsley to Holmfirth road, while actually running from Doncaster to Manchester along its full length, though its a pretty modest lane here, passing the cottages alongside Daking Brook before slipping off uphill, while we join the lane leading towards Gunthwaite and then slip onto another off-road stretch, heading into the woods and fording and bridging Rons Cliff Dike, the same stream with a different name. Rise into the trees of Rons Cliff Wood, rising with the bridleway up to Heald House, which is looking particularly derelict and probably only functionally accessible by this rutted lane, carrying on as a couple of local dogs seem intent to chase me up the path to the wood's high edge, despite the fact that their walkers are taking the lower path though the trees, while we look west in the hope of getting some landscape context as we are close to the top of this side valley of the Dearne. The nearby farms are the pair of Broad Oaks, I think, while the village at the hilltop is probably Upper Denby, while as we meet the path at the top of Rons Cliff itself, we can look eastwards and guess that the farm across the pastures is lane head, while the north-eastern view surely show us the back of Hoyland Bank and the lower portion of the Woolley Edge ridge while our route is starting to tack away from its destination again as we meet the open fields of Gadding Moor, which shows up an unfortunate error in my route plotting. 

Jowett House farm.

Spring House farm.

Heald House, Rons Cliff.

Gadding Moor.

The way forward is obviously up Cat Hill, south west of here, but deciding to cross country to get there seems to have been a mistake as a road choice would have made the way clearer and this we have to take the slanted and meandering path that leads us downhill over several fields on the way back down to the beck, losing height rather unnecessarily before we meet the track that leads us through the rather idyll scene that has been created around the secluded Gunthwaite Mill. The driveway lead us to the road, and creates another awkward angle on this supposedly southbound trek, but Cat Hill Lane leads us up and on the track away from the influence of the River Dearne, and there's a solid 100m to ascend, on a lane that's thankfully quiet but showing the scars created by previous careless drivers, and its slow going up as the panorama is gradually revealed behind us, as we pass the loosely associated farmsteads and cottages on this slope. A grand spot to retire and enjoy the views as one local farmer informs me, and as we hit the top stretch, we get a fine view to identify the way we came over, and as approach the high top of the ridge the Emley Moor masts appear, over the Dearne Valley proper, joining the bridleway at the 250m summit and getting a view to the windfarm on Whitley Height in the west with promise of the Don Valley being due to arrive in the landscape ahead of us. The lay of the land delays its appearance, but the eyes have already wandered in the direction of the indistinct uplands of the Dark Peak and to the more obvious shape of Hartcliff Hill, while trying to pick out the Trans Pennine Trail route passing though the depression below it, and we've wandered for a while around the fields of Crab Tree House farm before we properly get the reveal down towards Penistone, parked at 200m up and above the upper reaches of the River Don. We've got some descending to do before we meet the main river at the heart of one of the five major catchments of the Humber estuary, following the slabs of the bridleway down to the side of the A629 as it bypasses the town, crossing it by Well House farm and then descending Well House Lane as far as the railway bridge to look north to Well House tunnel as it passes under the Don-Dearne watershed in the most improbably brief passage.

Gunthwaite Mill.

Cat Hill.

Whiteley Height windfarm.

Penistone in the Don valley

Here we meet the suburban top edge of Penistone, the Broad Hill estate, which fills all of the space between this lane, the railway line and the A628, while displaying a look that my eye thinks looks a lot like the semi-detached fashion of Leicester, still 80 miles or so distant from here, crossing the main road from Barnsley as it heads on towards the Woodhead Pass and joining the quiet Water Hall Lane as it descends to the river, feeling like it ought to be the red route into the town while it actually a pedestrianised dead end. You could almost miss the crossing of the River Don as the channel is distinctly missable at the point we pass over it, on possibly most mundane bridge imaginable, and if you want a decent bridge and channel combo, entering Watermeadows Park fits the bill, where the river creates some width and dramatically looming banks as it flows east, and we're following it as we've got a spare 15 minutes to kill to get a closer look as Penistone Viaduct. It's another to admire, one of four on the L&YR's metals up to Huddersfield, high above the river and its 29 arches which is enough to get me feeling all enthused and to make me look like the weirdo as I pace around the park taking a lot of pictures. Getting back on track comes next, returning to the path as it rises up though the suburbia to meet Bridge Street, which we rise up to pass under the Trans Pennine Trail, and the former MS&LR route through Woodhead tunnel, the third east-west line we've met on our travels, passing the goods yard and coal drops before we rise to the town centre up St Mary's Street as it leads up the church of St John the Baptist(!?). Pace around the churchyard and past the library, the council offices and the Paramount cinema (all in the same building complex), before descending to Sheffield Road and pass under the skewed bridge and finally ascend up to Penistone station, to stitch my isolated trek from 2014 to the local walking field at long last, and to conclude the day at 2.10pm, toasted by the unseasonal heat and burned by the cost of the ticket back to West Yorkshire, but set up nicely for my Spring Jollies when the Long Walk to Leicester will encompass three days of trekking into and through Derbyshire, over the Dark Peak and down the Derwent Valley.

The River Don, South Yorkshire's definitive river.

Penistone Viaduct.

The MS&LR Goods Yard and Coal Drops, Penistone.

St John the Baptist's church, Penistone.

5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 3771.1 miles
2019 Total: 126.7 miles
Up Country Total: 3384 miles
Solo Total: 3490.8 miles
Miles in My 40s: 2370.9 miles

Next Up: Absolutely the last trip out of Wakefield for the Year, I Promise.