Tuesday 28 May 2019

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.

Denby Dale Goods Shed.

Lower Cumberworth.

The Emley Moor masts, above Skelmanthorpe.

It feels like this town hasn't gotten out of bed yet as we descend down to the stonier part of town around the junction of the B6116 Huddersfield Road, seeing signs that indicate the proximity of St Aiden's church without us actually seeing it before we cross the lane between the chip shop and the Grove Inn, noting the shack that used to house the town council before joining Station Road and rising past the offices of Jedi Cricket, a fearless manufacturer of sporting goods who seem to have been only too willing to face down the risk of getting sued. Onwards down the declining road, among the terraces with both a rural and industrial flavour, where the air of suburbia still hangs heavily, as we pass over the former L&YR branch to Clayton West, where the narrow gauge metals of the Kirklees Light Railway now run below, looking rather lost beneath the road bridge, and the request stop halt that serves Skelmanthorpe now resides, while the colliery the once served the town now lies hidden below an industrial estate. The town will surely have more to reveal on a future visit as we slip away from the burgeoning suburban growth and pass out of it past the colourful terrace and rural cottage cluster at Park Gate, before passing over Baildon, or Park Gate, Dike and following Park Lane as it rises steeply onto the next ridge along, the one which has the Emley Moor masts on it, which sit off to the west as the view south over the town expands as we elevate up to Park farm and Park Lane house. We then drop into a depression to cross Nineclogs Dike and follow the lane on along the rise to Taylor Hill farm with the mast still standing over the green fields, before we get to an elevated view that reveals the downstream Dearne valley and the high hills that sit along the Kirklees - South Yorkshire boundary, with the Whitley Heights Windfarm among them, and then we focus forwards, away from the recumbent cows that are expecting the rain to come back on, carrying on to Leys Farm and staying alert for the turn towards Emley village. Meet that bridleway, which means damp greenery to plough through, and the steep rise of it illustrates why the roads chose to come a different way as we rise to the cottages and the eastern face of the suburban front on Tyburn Lane, which leads us past the fine western horizon view with the masts prominent before we land again on Chapel Lane, opposite the White Horse inn, which we join again as far as the village cross before setting off up Church Street.

The Grove Inn, Skelmanthorpe.

The Park Gate Terrace.

Park Lane towards Taylor Hill farm.

Park Lane towards Emley.

The suburban growth up here displays its relative vintage well as we pace on towards the parish church of St Michael the Archangel, one of the proud medieval churches of the district with a tower that seems outsized for its nave, finally adding it to sites we've seen before our third passage though Emley takes us past the Methodist church and the terraces and rural outliers that endure among the suburbia at the north end of the village along Rectory Lane. At the Cross Lane - Clough Road corner we meet the path that brought us this way only a couple of weeks back, though the weather is a lot more clement this time as we are compelled to retrace our steps for want of a better alternative route, down to Clough Bridge over Clough Dike, up to Kirkby Grange farm, and then down again, past Kirkby Wood and High field house before crossing Mill Beck and taking the corner that leads towards Flockton Mill and the village pinfold. Here we meet the Kirklees Way route, which we join as to rises along the bridleway which offers a green and expansive view over the heart of Kirklees district before we land in Flockton Green, the once distinctive eastern end of Flockton Village, on Elvis Presley boulevard, which must be an unofficial name of the track that the maps call Mill Lane, where we join the A637 Barnsley Road, a half mile east of where we last saw it. We press west, not sensing a great deal of vintage to this end of the village, aside from Jack's Craft Ale House & Diner (the former George & Dragon inn) and the contemporary house built with the recovered stone of the 18th century bar house on the Hardcastle Lane corner, where we abandon the main road to press into the Kirklees - Wakefield borderlands, as the city sneaks into the eastern horizon below the green mass of Woolley Edge. We are high enough up on this lane to see the Aire Valley power stations, though only two of them now as Eggborough appears to be missing these days, while HMP New Hall rises low beyond the fields to the east, and we meet its driveway after we've gone across the boundary, which is interesting because New Hall Approach follows the alignment of the Caphouse Colliery tramway and even has a small, enduring mining remnant alongside it in form of a lone chimney.

St Michael the Archangel, Emley.

Clough Road, with Kirkby Wood and Flockton Green.

'Jack's', the former George & Dragon, Flockton Green.

New Hall Approach, the former Caphouse Colliery tramway.

Roll onto Old Road to meet way down into Overton, just as the sunny portion of the day starts to fade, landing by the Reindeer Inn as the glumness takes over as we have to follow the link down to the side of the A642 so as to see a fresh side of the village, which shows up an unnecessary error in my route plotting as we land by the National Coal Mining museum and pass inside the Wakefield Way loop as we pace the main road side where Overton village barely resides and all the interest comes from the view over the declining fields of Emroyd Common to the elevation of Thornhill Edge, with the village atop it. Past the Horticentre Nursery and the old toll house, urban living finally arrives at the side of New Road and we land in Middlestown somewhere along the way, getting council houses, the cemetery, terraces and some townhouses on this front before we cut off a corner by slipping off down Nell Gap Lane to make our passage out of the Wakefield Way loop again as we land on Thornhill Road, where the suburbs feel expensive and we head down towards Smithy Brook to leave Wakefield District and to ponder if it will manage to work its way back into any more walks during this season as our focus shifts westward. Our route forwards show ominous clouds hanging over Thornhill Edge and as we meet the hamlet-let at Smithy Brook, the heavens open and the rain comes down at a rare old force, the worst I've experienced since my attempt on Buckden Pike last year, and thus I'm glad I didn't dress for late spring as I squelch uphill to the western face of Thornhill, where the suburban spill has a very grey view over the lower Calder Valley, and our arrival on Hostingley Lane has it looking a whole lost worse than it did a few weeks back. We start to get the fear of maybe having to bail from the trail as we pace up past Rectory Park and back inside the loop of the Kirklees Way as we ascend to Four Lane Ends, but the stiff rain drops off before we turn into Thornhill via Frank Lane, and the we are steeled to finish the trek as we delve deep into suburban living on this peculiar hilltop, still a strange old place to live on the southern edge of Greater Dewsbury.

Thornhill Edge from New Road, Overton.

New Road, Middlestown.

Ominous Clouds over Thornhill.

Four Lane Ends, Thornhill.

It's a pretty stiff rise to meet Edge Lane, where the vintage potion of the village can be found, arriving by the Scarborough Inn, and fisheries, where we cross to Chapel Lane and move to pace around the perimeter of Overthorpe Park as the rain briefly intensifies again before we soggily land on Edge Top Lane, where a sports club has developed on the site of Overthorpe House and an over-sized Anderson shelter appears to house the Thornhill Social Club. We carry on into the council estate that sits along Mountain Road on the north edge of the village, or town really, seeking the path though the close that will lead into the woods beyond, which we find in the second one along, where the sudden high view over Dewsbury is great, but the steep path down through Mountain Top woods as advertised on the map isn't clear, and thus we head downhill on the less sharp paths that switch back and offer no real clues to our directions though the trees. Dead reckoning wins out as we meet the most direct route downhill, which isn't fun to descend with all this dampness underfoot as we lose height rapidly and get thoroughly moistened by vegetation before we land on a metalled track that doesn't really go anywhere, aside from leading us down aside from leading us down to Lees Hall Road while offering no view at all to the hill we just descended. Arrive in Thornhill Lees by the curved terrace on the Ingham Road corner, and we get some sunshine again as we follow the road among its council houses and terraces on the way over to B6117 Slaithwaite Road, which we join by the Nelson Inn and follow over the Calder & Hebble Navigation, and then continue along as it leads between the long terraces up to the local primary school and over the wide bridge over the Calder valley railway line, where Thornhill station once resided. Glumness and rain returns in force as we come around past Ratcliffe Mills, and the school and vicarage of Holy Innocents church, the impressive loftiness of which can't really be seen from the side of the B6409 Savile Road, which we have joined as it briefly grazes the southern bank of the Calder before it leads us in towards Savile Town, past Headfield Mills and the close called The Sidings, which advertises the lost route of the line into the Midland Railway's Savile Town goods depot, which once passed under this road.

The Scarborough fisheries and inn, Thornhill.

The steep path through Mountain Top woods.

Slaithwaite Road, Thornhill Lees.

Headfield Mill, Savile Town.

Townhouses and terraces come to the roadside as we pass around the edge of Savile Town recreation grounds, noting the ornate drinking fountain on the Warren Street corner and also noticing just how wrong two storeyed terrace houses look when they've had another floor added to them, which there are several to see before we arrive by the enduring industrial district on Mill Street East, opposite the Dewsbury branch of Asda. The rain finally eases of as we cross the Calder via Savile bridge and enter Dewsbury among the retail parks that sit around the yard of All Saints, the Minster and parish church, joining the town centre after making a passage over the wide A638 Aldams Road and follow the rather quiet Church Street and Westgate northwards among the shops as they pass the old market place, the Victorian arcades (which are filled with scaffolding) and the Dewsbury Pioneers building. Don't make for the station as Northgate leads us to we the A638 ring road again, which we cross by my favourite mill in the county, passing under Dewsbury Viaduct as we carry on along the A652 Batley Road towards Batley, passing the enduring remains of Spinkwell Mills, where both Aldi and the Dewsbury Learning Quarter occupy parts of its vast site, and head on into a landscape of many small and vintage mills and yards in various states of usage and decay which stretch into this non-specific hinterland which we call Batley Carr. Terrace stubs and many pubs also hide along here, while the site of Batley Carr mills has been residentially redeveloped, and when we meet the Jack Lane corner we have to detour to look at the retaining walls of the former station yard on the equally former GNR line in the shadow of the contemporary railway before we get back on track passing around Redbrick Mill, a less ancient factory redevelopment that is now home to a mecca for all sorts of modern interior decoration stylings. Then on, with the Livingston Mill site still enduring among the terraces and light industry at the lower edge of Batley, where we meet the gym that lives on the site of the legendary Batley Variety Club, and also the Legends Bar a little further along, clearly living off the reputation of its neighbour, as did Chapo's and Brooklands, I'm guessing. Our finish line lies ahead, as the proud warehouses on Station Road rise above Rouse Mill Lane, which we join with an eye on the clock as we are running in very fine with the train times, hitting the steep slope of Spurr Lane on the rise to the station as the stopping train is spied on Batley Viaduct, and I can't be sure where the late burst of speed came from, but somehow we arrived on Batley's platforms before the 13.14 service, and the brief ride homeward, departed.

The Calder at Savile Bridge, Dewsbury.

Westgate and Northgate, Dewsbury.

Bradford Road, Batley Carr.

Redbrick Mill, Batley.

Brooklands, Legends and the former Batley Variety Club.

5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 3885.1 miles
2019 Total: 234.7 miles
Up Country Total: 3468.1 miles
Solo Total: 3594.6 miles
Miles in My 40s: 2478.9 miles

Next Up: High Season and the probably the Longest Trail of the Year.

No comments:

Post a Comment