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.

Huddersfield's Market Cross.

Ramsden House, and its Mosaic.

Folly Hall mills, and Kirklees College.

The early morning mist has started to burn off, and the heat come on immediately, as we are presented with a choice of parallel routes forward, and we'll stick to the slightly more major and residential Lockwood Road as it gives us a wider and less enclosed passage, as we pass the Vic pub and spy the church and mosque co-existing on adjacent plots, while enjoying more expansive views of the Holme-side mills on Albert Street from our remove as we come down to the main corner of Lockwood. Here's where we can find the Baptist Chapel and the rather over-sized shopping parade on either side of the Meltham Road junction, where the shift onto Bridge Street takes us over the River Holme, and on to the Woodhead Road, where we'll start to angle uphill among the cottage terraces past the Lockwood Inn to rise onto the high side of the valley, taking us past Emmanuel church and onto the path of the turnpike road as we eschew the option of heading along the more ancient road over Taylor Hill. Greenery soon encloses the road, to give much welcome shade, but it spoils the opportunities for views into the valley below, which is especially a shame as we soon come upon Lockwood Viaduct on the Penistone Line, one of the most well-hidden major structure in the county, barely visible through the trees as it soars high over the Holme Valley so all we'll have to admire of it is the broad banded arch of the passage over the road, which itself disappears in the tree cover as we swing around the hilltop that road avoids. There's not much by way of contextual views to be had before the tree cover ends and the signage welcomes us to Berry Brow, which gives us the feeling that we are just following the railway at a short removes at this early stage, passing the district's outlying terraces at Dodd's Royd by the main roadside,  which feel removed from the settlement further up the hill until it becomes more visible past the old Station Lane, around to the Laxmi restaurant in the old pub at the bottom of Waingate. Rural feelings need to be ignored despite the greenery as we are still within greater Huddersfield, illustrated by the presence of the Holme Park and Bishop's Court tower blocks in the low fields, which feel very odd to find in a valley, where the high sides sit higher than their roof tops, a lot like the ones in Mixenden from a few seasons back, and their bulk dominates this corner as we continue on with the A616, past the Golden Fleece inn and the four storeyed and so very Kirklees styled Lambourne Place terrace at the village's southern extremity.

Lockwood Road, at Lockwood Bar.

The Beginning of the Ascent of Woodhead Road.

Lockwood Viaduct hides rather too successfully.

The older face of Berry Brow.

The Bishop's Court and Holme Park towers, Berry Brow.

Stay low with the turnpike again, as an older alternative angles away over Hanging Stone hill, settling into the tree cover as we find ourselves level with the River Holme, a field's distance away across the pasture, and only occasionally glimpsed before we come around to the outer edge of Honley as industrial plots start to fill out the riverside, with the Queen's Square and Rein Mills sites still enduring opposite one of the district's best ghost signs on the end of Lower Rein terrace. Honley proper is met, after a fashion, past the fertiliser factory at Upper Reins, where the road divides, giving the option of taking the most straightforward route to Holmfirth along the A6024, where most of the buses don't go, a corner that would lead to the main mass of Honley village, located higher up the western bank, while our passage of the Huddersfield - New Mill road leads though the Newtown part of town(?), which grew with the railway's nearby arrival, up the hill to the east. Press on with the low valley route, past the playing fields and Crossley Mills, between the perpendicular roadside terraces and on with sewage works and the Allsops - Replan factory standing as the gateway to the next settlement, Brockholes, which starts up in a bigger way than expected as we pass the Travellers Rest inn and the builders yard. Definitely more to this remote suburb than I'd thought as its terraces and semis fill out the roadside all the way down to the Smithy Place Bar, where the toll list from the old turnpike road still stands at the roadside and makes for fascinating reading before we move on, shadowing the Holme so closely that we could almost mark the day with a River Walking tag, and land in the village centre where the crag  of Tor Rocks on the eastern side of the valley looms ridiculously close and high over the shops below, opposite the Rock inn, naturally. Suburbia has filled the rising fields up towards the railway station, but terraces fill the roadside all the way to the village's end, where the Rock Mill site has had the residential and industrial redevelopment treatment, filling out the valley floor as the road starts a marked rise above it, where we can briefly get a contextual view downstream, the first seen since departing Huddersfield proper, and then its on into the shade and leafiness once more, which lead up to the junction where Thurstonland Bank Road ascends away steeply to the east and Luke Lane drops away sharply to the west, which marks the way with the Holme proper as it flows down from Holmfirth.

Low Rein Terrace and Queen's Square mills, Honley.

The way to Honley proper, Honley Newtown.

The Smithy Place Toll Bar notice.

Rock Tor, Brockholes.

The ways to Thurstonland, New Mill and Thongsbridge.

The A616 takes us on into the southern branch of the Holme valley, and very quickly we pass under the enduring bridge of the L&YR's late and lamented Holmfirth branch, still looking robust enough to take a train despite being out of use for over half a century, but forming the only substantial remaining structure on the line as the continuing westward embankment is rudely interrupted by the absence of the viaduct of New Mill Dike, a gap that's immediately obvious to anyone who knows to look for it. Onwards into the woods again as we target our way on to New Mill, entering the shade of Sinking Wood and enjoying the leafy coverage of it and it's neighbour, Hollingreave Bank, all the way to the Rock Cottages terrace that sits below a quarried edge, ideal for having a climbing wall in your back garden, which seems to be a bit of a theme in these parts, as is building an architecturally interest dream house or developing a suburban close in an as locally appropriate style as possible. Despite shadowing the A635 on the far side of the Dike, our arrival into New Mill has it feeling like somewhere new all the way until we land by the White Hart inn, and then have to cross over the tangle of the main roads by the Indian restaurant and the residentially reused brewery site, following the rising Sheffield Road as it passes the New Mill club and heads up to Glendale Mill, the enduring mill site in the village since the New Mill Mills that named it have been redeveloped in a style that looks right for the vintage of the rest of the place. It starts to feel like it's lunchtime as we rise beyond, but it's not even elevenses time yet and with the stiff climb of the day to come it's probably best to hold off for a while and press on, up through Spring Wood to meet the lofty and eponymous terrace at its top, which sits above the residentially redeemed Wildspur mills in the valley below, and thence its on to meet the last suburban outliers of New Mill and to find ourselves on the high apron of fields that sit around the outer edge of the Holme Valley, below the rough edges that sit to the east and south. There's one more notable patch of civilisation to be met at this altitude, nearly 7 miles out on the day, and we pass the top of the road that leads to Hepworth in short order, keeping to the main road as it settles onto a route above  around it, getting some great views across to Dobroyd Mill, the many weavers cottages and such before we pass the Red Lion inn and head through the adjacent settlement of Jackson Bridge, with the rising lanes accommodation numerous tall cottages among the later suburban arrivals, as far up the valley as anyone sensible would want to live.

The Rock terraces, New Mill.

The White Hart, and company, New Mill.

Spring Wood terrace and Wild Spur Mill.

Jackson Bridge, and the way to Hepworth.

The continuing elevation around Hepworth takes us past Bentley cottage and the grounds of Meal Hill house, giving grand views down over the angled fields before we cross the path of the Kirklees Way, beyond which we head out into the unknown to establish yet another southern boundary to our field of walking experience, still maintaining a footway as the road presses its way around the lower reach of Cheese Gate Nab, on its way up to Lower Foster Place farm, where we're finally high enough to get an over view of sorts over the Holme Valley. The route hasn't met its crest yet, but around the Nab End, there's less to see looking back, with even the bulk of Holme Moss looking lost in the haze, and attention focuses across the high fields at the top of Mole Clough, where we come around past Snug House farm, and the Old Tea House, at Mill Shaw Grove, which looks like it's all dressed up for someone's big day, before we meet the footway's end at Lower Mill Shaw. The road is quiet enough to not be stressful as it swing up to Gate Head, where the Methodist chapel with the beautifully located yard forms most of the hamlet, at 300+m above the valley and below its high brow with the push to the crest beyond, past the toll bar cottage and up to New Latham farm, revealing us to be not too far below the route we pressed over Whitley Heights, and reaching its summit at Victoria Crossroads, where farmsteads and cottages clustered around a now absent pub, where we transition into South Yorkshire and Barnsley district. Pause at the top, 340m up, where a bus stand provides shelter from the heat, where lunch is taken, looking over the fields to the tepees in the grounds of Hepshaw farm, while steeling ourselves for the descent to come, off in the direction of the Dark Peak fringe, where the descending road deposits us above the aggregate works at Crow Edge, distinctively located below its trio of turbines, and the views down into the working indicate that its business is pipes, pipes and more pipes. The bowl of its quarry is then mostly concealed from view as we on descend past it, getting a footway again as we meet the village of Crow Edge itself, which surely came up her with the industry and looks to have grown in waves over the years, with the old hamlet up on the upper reaches of the Don having gained two groups of estate houses and a burgeoning suburban appearance that could easily convince you that were on the edge of a town of some scale, if you were to forget to look at the rolling high fields and hillside edges around it.

Hepworth, for suburban living in the Upper Holme valley.

On the road to the Holme Valley's crest.

The Gate Head chapels, and Cheese Nab Gate.

Victoria Crossroads, on the Kirklees - Barnsley border.

The Crow Edge pipe works.

Crow Edge village has all the vintages.

We've got the meandering cleft of Sledbrook Dike keeping us company as we descend with the lane down towards the Don Valley proper, which hides somewhere below the rolling wooded hillsides to the south, with one rising where nothing seems to appear on the map, between here and Hartcliff Hill, as we carry on past Bents farm, while taking looks up the windfarms on the ridge to the east and being slightly perplexed that our view to the Dark Peak fringe is vaguer today than it was on previous trips, despite our closer proximity. We finally change roads when we meet the former schoolhouse at the crossroads in the relative middle of nowhere, switching onto the Holmfirth - Penistone Road, the B6106 Lee Lane, which strikes directly eastwards, descending to meet the beck crossing and then rising sharply to a blind summit against the local traffic before settling into some level going among the local farms, with Illions and Flash House in the fields above and Hazlehead Hall in the fields below as we press on through the intensifying heat, before rising past Copperas House and finding the stump of the ancient Catshaw Cross at the roadside, enduring in situ after many centuries. The hamlet of Catshaw itself lies to the south of the road we pace, and could be passed without noticing if from this lane, as the fields stretch on down the lane, interrupted by only a gas storage depot and a contemporary corn mill before we gain a footway and start the run down towards Millhouse Green, noting the cattle in neighbouring fields trying to cram their herd into the smallest amounts of shade as possible, while also powdering the number of vintage cars and tractors out on the road today, as if something more than the good weather might have drawn them out. Spy the A628 coming down under the bridge on the Trans Pennine trail to the south of us as the road reaches into the groove that runs between the High Bank and Hartcliff Hill elevations, as suburbia joins the roadside as we meet Millhouse Green, which has some suggestive vintage around the Blacksmith's Arms and the Manchester Road junction, but along the lane beyond is all suburbia of all vintages at a distinct remove in the upper Don Valley, its nature completely changed since the industries that grew it moved on (and if the old OS map is to be believed, one of its mills specialised in the production of Umbrella Frames, which might be the most oddly specific manufactory encountered on all my travels so far.).

Sheffield Road enters the upper Don Valley.

Lee Lane crosses Sledbrook Dike.

Catshaw Cross endures in situ.

The Corn Mill, and High Bank.

Millhouse Green, at the Manchester Road corner.

In the green space beyond the Methodist chapel we can at least find a bench to sit on for our last watering session before we hit the last push of the day, pressing on into Thurlstone, another place where this seasons treks converge, meeting St Saviour's church at its western end, presenting a less impressive façade than it does when viewed from the hillside to the south, and noting that the Phoenix Works site seems to accommodate all of the contemporary industry in the village according to the amount of signage directed toward it. Carry on into this most likeable and blackened of villages, where the Huntsman inn stands out thanks to its thick coating of whitewash, descending past its own Methodist chapel before we meet the bottoms of High Bank Lane and Towngate, where we tangle up with the routes that just keep on coming this way thanks to it being the sole crossing point on the Don in the locality, so for the sake of variety we don't cross Thurlstone Bridge and instead pace the footpath through Hoyle Mill to use the footbridge beyond instead. Back up to the A628 to land on Penistone's suburban front again, but under somewhat brighter skies than last time, noting the number of military jeeps on the road and the noise drifting down from the nearby showgrounds, that reminds me that it's Armed Forces Day in the town, which might go some way to explaining why it feel busier than a normal Saturday around the eat & drinkeries as we come upon Bridge End, beyond which we'll strike uphill for the town centre. We've done a pretty good job of tangling up the paths around Penistone as we depart the two route previously seen to ascend alongside the terraces Bridge Street to meet the Long Walk route as it meets the police station and passes under the former railway and contemporary Trans Pennine Trail, meeting the route into town along St Mary's Street, where we find that nearly every establishment has dressed itself in patriotic garb for the occasion. The crowds are out as predicted, and are thus to be dodged as we make a beeline for the finish line, along Shrewsbury Road past the Parish church of St John the Baptist, and the council offices, library and Paramount cinema which all share the same complex before ascending with Eastfield Lane to the TPT route and the convenient route into the back of Penistone station, where we wrap at a shade before 1.50pm, a ridiculously early finish for a trip of almost 15 miles, but we've another lunch break to take ahead of my train home coming, and the peak heat of the day will thus be directly avoided as we travel, on board trains or sheltering under various station canopies.

St Saviour's, Thurlstone.

Manchester Road, Thurstone.

The Don at Hoyle Mill.

The White Heart, Bridge End.

Penistone dressed in patriotic colours (also: Bicycles).

5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 3967.9 miles

2019 Total: 317.5 miles
Up Country Total: 3550.9 miles
Solo Total: 3677.4 miles
Miles in My 40s: 2561.7 miles

Next Up: Reservoirs and Moorland on our last major trip into South Yorkshire for this year.