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.
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| The Coal Drops, Shepley Station. |
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| Hardingley farm. |
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| Shelley Station. |
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| Barncliffe Hill road bridge. |
Meet Shelley Woodhouse Lane at the top and pass among its scattered cottages and mill site on the way over the hilltop to meet Huddersfield Road and railside path that continues on the far side of the B6116, where the deep cutting and tree cover obscures any real view of the railway alignment, and so attention wanders north to the evolving horizon to Emley Moor past Hopstrines farm, until we come past the footbridge where the tree cover has been cut back, and then to the Strike Road bridge where the best view of the track can be gained. With the railway having started operations by now, we can get some train action as the #7
The Tram (a remarkable miniature copy of a GER C53 class)
tootles westwards on the early track inspection run, soon to be followed by the eastbound passage of the 10.20am service with #4
Owl smoking up a storm at the head of a five carriage rake, and from there we carry on towards Skelmanthorpe station, which the path drops down to meet, directly south of the colliery site that kept the original line in business until 1984, and despite it being a minor halt on the KLR these days, having been the line terminus between 1992 and 1997, it still has a station sign worthy of a selfie. Rise steeply up to pass over the Station Road bridge, and pull away from the railway for a while as we graze the edge of the town, passing among the houses on Saville Road and down around the Green Side mill site, and thence uphill, noting the 1825 dated New Green terrace before coming up to the school and Methodist chapel on the Elm Street - Pillings Lane corner and taking the latter of these back into the countryside, where Clayton west arrives on our horizon, with the woods of Hoyland Bank rising beyond it. Stay at a remove from the railway as we drift downhill, getting more views of the local cows in the fields above than we do the embankment below, only getting to approach it again as we drop down with the path to pass under the line by the line's original 1991 end point at Cuckoo's Nest halt, where we can scurry up to the railside to catch the 11am service running through, with #3
Hawk (in Thomas the Tank Engine colours) at its head.
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| #7 The Tram, on the early morning line inspection, from Strikes Lane bridge. |
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| Skelmanthorpe station, and the Station Road bridge. |
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| New Green terrace and Green Side mill, Skelmanthorpe. |
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| Cuckoo's Nest halt. |
Onwards into the fields to the north of the line, taking a drifting route that leads us down among the idly grazing cattle to a track that shadows the railway line, where several occupation bridges can be spotted along the embankment as we head down to the farm track that runs down the side of Park Gate Dike, shadowing the railway as #2
Badger runs light engine westwards, and then #4
Owl passes a little later on the return leg of the early morning service over the access bridge to Upper Langley farm. Pass the site of the lost Lower Langley farm and turn with the path to pass under the embankment via the long and deep footpath passage that shows up the scale of the engineering that that came with the construction of the line, finding that the farm fields beyond are being built on as Clayton West continues its suburban expansion, filling in the fields and redirecting the path on the north side of the piddly little stream that turns out to be the River Dearne, beyond which the original suburbs of the village can be found along the side of Wakefield Road. Cross over the A636, and make our way towards the finish line, toward the imposing bridge over the main road and than turning up Park Mill Way into the Dearne Park Industrial Estate, beyond which the terminus and HQ of the Kirklees Light Railway can be found, in it ow building since none of the original station buildings survived after the cessation of passenger traffic on the old line in 1983, but now forms a busy little corner beyond its miniature railway, playground and party DMU carriage, and we roll in at 11.40am, just too late to catch the service that's imminently departing, but we're in good time to nab a table in the cafe to snaffle a brew and a caramel slice before we can wander around the new station site. It's been in business since 1990, with its shed and turntable for the narrow gauge locomotives sited at the west end, and the original goods shed now in use as workshops at the east, with #4
Hawk soon arriving to take the 12.20pm service off to Shelley, and we'll board this for the ride back through the landscape that has been mildly spoiled by having walked through it in the preceding hours, but it's a fun ride in the peace of the rear carriage of the train, away from the children's party up front as we roll on through Cuckoo's Nest halt and run around the other train at Skelmanthorpe, travelling back at a speed that far exceeds walking pace, despite the small scale.
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| The access bridges from Park Gate Dike |
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| The Langley Farms footpath passage. |
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| The KLR's Clayton West station. |
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| #2 Badger at Clayton West Shed. |
Beyond we've got the traverse through the deep cutting and the vast chamber of Woodhouse tunnel, which is certainly the experience you'd expect being on a little train in an underground space that was built for ones four times the size, with us running into Shelley station after 12.45pm, having covered the 3+ mile route at a pretty decent clip, alighting to watch the locomotive run around and water, but to not linger, just up from the old junction from the Penistone Line as all the set up here is to keep the little kids entertained, which it does with playground and bouncy castle. So back again, making sure that every bit of the railway furniture gets photographically catalogued on the return trip, again nabbing the quiet coach and looking like the weird older guy who visits the facility that's really geared itself to the amusement of children and young families, not that such an image really bothers me, landing back at Clayton West with a need for lunch, where again credit goes to the cafe for quick exerciser, getting my soup ready in ample time for met to eat and raid the gift shop before we hit the return to Shelley on the 2.20pm train. I'd happily have ridden another round trip, but that would have started to extend the day unreasonably, but having taken the time to observe the turnaround of #3 Owl, it's time to head away for the mile of return walk to Shepley at 2.55pm, descending the access track down to Copley Lane and passing under the bridges of the former Clayton West junction, which will be our last fresh observation of the day before we retrace our steps westwards, not that it's a drag at all passing though the fields of Hardingley farm or looking across the valley to Shelley village or the Emley Moor masts as the sunshine has really come on late to colour it all so differently. So back we go, along High Moor lane and down through Shepley Knoll to Abbey Lane and up Station Lane to close out the day at 3.20pm, though the clocks at Shepley station tell me that I'm five minutes earlier than that, which is odd, and despite this having been an intentionally short walking day, we've still managed to be out for as long as if I'd done 15 miles, but the important fact of the day is despite having only done 6 miles of trekking, we've passed the notional target of 500 miles for the year, and we haven't even gotten out of the Summer yet, so we could be looking at all tilt at the annual record in 2019, if the walking endurance endures, which is has, so far...
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| Woodhouse Tunnel. |
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| #3 Hawk at Shelley station. |
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| #4 Owl at Clayton West station. |
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| The Clayton West junction bridges, Copley Lane. |
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| The Emley Moor masts from High Moor Lane. |
5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 4153.3 miles
2019 Total: 502.9 miles
Up Country Total: 3690.3 miles
Solo Total: 3839.1 miles
Miles in My 40s: 2747.1 miles
Next Up: Getting back in business in the Holme Valley.
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