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.