Milnsbridge (sorta), Crosland Moor, Longroyd, Folly Hall, King's Mill, Moldgreen,
Grove Place, Dalton, Hill Side, Kirkheaton, Upper Hopton, Lower Hopton, The Beck,
Shepley Bridge, Ravensthorpe, Scout Hill and West Town.
As October lands, I think we can conclude that The End of Summer for 2019 is already done, as no heat or sunshine is in the air as we head out for the final push through the late season, trying to keep going on the walking schedule while the weather allows it, and while the forecast for this trip is far from bad, travelling out for a start in the Colne valley's head means we are going to experience the Pennines Proximity Problem as the cloud hangs heavily on the high hills when the conditions to the east might be much more acceptable. So it is thus as we alight at Marsden at 9.45am, with Deer Hill and Pule Hill heavily shrouded above the valley, and our trip down the station road to the town takes a while as we are poking around the NT office in the old goods shed and admiring the noises of the weir at the bottom of Wessenden Beck and merging Colne before we head up Peel Street, the main drag that is thankfully free of drinkers at this early hour, passing the Mechanics Institute and maybe seven pubs before we land on the A62, the forgotten trans-Pennine road that will be our route of choice. It's only seven miles to Huddersfield from here, according to the Wakefield & Austerlands turnpike milestone, and not eleven to Oldham if we wished to head over the moors, but we set off east above the town's mills at the valley floor, clinging to the high bank as the residential town spreads uphill along the Meltham Road, but we get the feeling of soon being out into the countryside as trees coat the roadside and we get only brief views over the valley, above Wood Bottom Mill and to the fringe of Slaithwaite Moor atop the north bank. Beyond the outermost fringe of the town we come above the wooded chine of Cellars Clough, where the fisheries and well-being spa endure below the roadside, but the mill complex has been completely flattened since it was visited on 2012's canal walk, and we finally start to get some context to our previous visits as we meet the loosely associated hamlet of Lingard's Wood, where terraces sit opposite the Olive Branch Inn, and we can spy the Colne Valley Circular route through the rough fields to the south above Manchester Road, and the old school house forms a bold feature in the foreground to the high north side of the valley. Angled fields fill out the space beyond, where the A62 is clearly is too wide for the amount of traffic that uses it since the motorways landed, and we can start to feel the proximity of Slaithwaite as ribbons of semis arrive above the road and the town cemetery arrives below it, and we soon land among its suburban edge and pace along the terrace that has house numbers in the 1000+ range, which must have caused some Infant school children a nightmare during basic counting exercises.
The nature of the Colne Valley means that the town spreads laterally with the valley, so there's quite a lot of residential spread of many vintages along the path of Manchester Road before we land at the familiar corner at the bottom of Varley Road, and come above the town's main street and can look across the valley to spy the many mill buildings and St James's church perched on the north bank, before we pass over the cleft formed by Bradley Beck and rise with the road past the old part of town clustered around the former Wesleyan chapel. Pass above Slaithwaite Spa park, and land among more strings of terraces, some of which suggest extreme vintage and domestic weaving heritage, with some nice open vistas over the reverse view across the town and the valley, before we land among the suburban reach at its eastern end, where we look over to the rise of Bolster Moor's hillside to the north, landing on our radar after only 75 minutes on the trail, as opposed to the 3+ hours it took to travel this far on the Colne Valley Circular path. There isn't as much as a field to separate outer Slaithwaite from Linthwaite as the A62 draws us on, fooling us that we are in Huddersfield already when it's still 4 miles distant, coming down to meet the Spring Grove mill complex and the shopping parade opposite, while getting the feeling that the main residential areas are to be found on the rising banks to the south of here with only the older terraces and the former dye works enduring by the main road, as we pass above the Titanic Mill site, which hides completely from view. The village peters out beyond the Royal Oak Inn, and the views over the open fields and the wood-yard direct out gaze to Golcar, sat on its hillside above the valley like it was deposited from on high, and it's pretty amazing just how much greenery and open space there is about as we draw closer to Huddersfield, with the valley's geography ensuring there are many plots that have resisted development while Manchester Road suggests the existence of unbroken runs of terraces along the valley side, as signage welcomes us to Milnsbridge. I don't think we actually enter that settlement though, as it sits at the valley floor, and the ribbons of terraces and weavers cottages that we pass among belong to the district of Cowlersley, which comes down the valley side from the south, filling out the relatively flat terrain below the high and wooded bank at the northern edge of Crosland Moor, while across the way to the north we have the high bank of Longwood edge elevated above the centre of Milnsbridge, with the Longwood tower and the railway viaduct prominent beyond.
We pass among the notional portion of Milnsbridge that sits by the A62, and draw closer to the town, passing the road tops that lead down to it and the houses on the main road, drawing closer to Huddersfield and finding the high bank coming right up to the south side of the road, settling Manchester Road onto a narrow perch that starts to gradually draw downhill, among stray terraces, industrial units and more hand car washes than you could ever possibly need, with signage welcoming us to Crosland Moor, despite the fact that it mostly sits high above here. Passing above the wooded cleft of the Colne in which mill buildings still endure, we come up really close to the Narrow canal, though it hides way below the level we find ourselves at and the proximity of Huddersfield is soon felt beyond as we come down to meet the merging urban areas and roads at the bottom of Blackmoorfoot Road by the Griffin Lodge and the largest Halal Butchers in the district, which means we are now in Longwood, with its viaduct passing over the valley as we descend down a familiar roadside to meet the Colne-side at Longwood Bridge. Abandon the A62 to make a passage away from Huddersfield's town centre, joining the B6432 St Thomas's Road as it cuts through the industrial band through the south of the town, passing among various factories and the oddly located Cathedral House mega-church before we are dropped on the A616 Lockwood Road by the Folly Hall mills and its neighbouring bingo hall and casino, crossing the main road to seek the path to the south as it get somewhat less obvious, following the traffic turning as we join Queen's Mill Road. This leads us over the lowest reach of the River Holme, looking as busy as possible without looking threatening, and carry on among the industrial units as we slip below the wooded sides of the suburbia topped Primrose Hill and meet the bank of the Colne with Damside Road, following the river as it churns away, again busy but far from as high as it has gotten recently, coming around to meet King's Bridge and the bottom of the descending Newsome Road. The King's Mill site downstream from here seems to have been absorbed by student residences, as do so many other former mill sites around this quarter, showing what a huge influence the university has around these parts, and we keep by the riverside and its noisy weir as the looming wooded edge of Longley park feels like its squeezed what residential developments have been made by the riverside into as small plots as is possible.
Land on the A629 Wakefield Road, which feels like it seems to be the red route for encountering most of eastern Huddersfield, getting our closest pass to the town before we cross the dual carriageway to pass among the extremely varied mix of shops on the ascending lane as we make our way up the heart of what was Moldgreen village before urbanisation claimed it, finding a bench by the URC on the isolated stretch of the old road where we can pause for lunch and note that there's a nice day out there somewhere, still mostly obscured by two layers of high and mobile cloud. Carry on to join Broad Lane at the Ivy Green corner, which leads us into a mass of suburbia, which nonetheless displays some vintage that clearly predates the mid 20th century housing boom, with some Victorian town houses sitting by the former dye works site at the head of Long Lane, and long strings of Edwardian terraces being found in the lost settlement of Grove Place, around the Swedenborgian New Church. Moving into suburban Dalton, we get hints of the rising hill walks to come to the east of here, finding little of the settlement of a century prior as we come to pass over Lees Hall beck, aka Shepley Dike and any other number of names, and fail to notice that we've tangled up with our 2014 route into the town until we're meeting Crossley Lane and the end of suburbia, where the Minerva works sites still haven't seen any redevelopment work having laid fallow for more than five years now, still looking a bit of an eyesore before we land on School Lane at the bottom end of Kirkheaton. Pass below the bridge abutments of the former railway line, just south of the village station on the Kirkburton branch, and join the rising lane as it passes St John the Baptist's church and the old church school site, noting some terraces of considerable vintage before we ascend into Kirkheaton proper, which might be several settlements under a single name, as we pass through the Hill Side corner and look across the rooftops to the elevated Stafford Hill section to the east, while ascending St Mary's Lane up to the main body of the village, beyond the former mill site that has so far resisted suburbanisation. The steeply rising Shop Lane squeezes its way up among the rural terraces and cottages that made up the old village, crammed together haphazardly on the hill ledge below the continuing rise of Town Road where things get a whole lot more organised, as the old village gives way to the suburbia that has grown out to the north and east, elevating with lanes which rise high enough to finally give us some reverse angle views that we lack while low in the Colne Valley, giving us Meltham Moor on the far horizon initially, before we get Castle Hill and the Holme Valley's eastern edge appearing as we push up Heaton Moor Road.
Urban living in the countryside has a more obvious appeal as we conclude our rise along the edge of Kirkheaton's suburban fringe, with the fields opening out to the south and the elevation ending past the aptly named Pennine View, where we meet the high crossroads by the Blacksmiths Arms, passing over a trail from five moths ago as we cross over the high ridge and follow the declining Hollin Hall Lane as it leads over towards the lower Calder Valley, territory which we haven't seen much of since the early going of this year, which we approach between fields of cattle and freshly baled straw. Signage welcome us to Upper Hopton before we've met the Hollin Hall corner of rural cottages, and the village pub, the Travellers Rest, seems to be a quite a distance above it, with open fields filling the space that offers a fine view over Mirfield at the valley floor before houses close up to the roadside, looking largely suburban and removed from the village centre off to the south and uphill from here, so interest looks over the valley towards the Parish church of St Mary's in Mirfield, one of the county's larger establishments that my paths still haven't come slightly close to. There's notionally a gap between Upper and Lower Hopton, but a ribbon of semis on the descending Hopton lane effectively merges the two, and we pass among the older terraces on cottages on the lane before we meet the next suburban enclave by the side of the Calder, spread around the Flowerpot inn right by the riverbank, where Hopton bridge could easily lead us over to Mirfield railway station, but we've got a riverside route to follow, along the north face of the village with the eastbound Granny Lane. Past the village edge, the fields open up to the south to reveal the ancient woods that coat this side of the Calder, and look north to see the enduring Holme Bank mill site, which is partly obscured by the plantation of Christmas trees and pumpkins by the riverside, which might be the most seasonal farm operation in these parts, the main business among the farmsteads and cottages in the hamlet of The Beck, where there is no actual stream apparent, despite being downhill from the Hopton Mills complex. Regaining the bank of the Calder, we come up to Wheatley's bridge, carrying the railway over the river via five stone spans (and the road with a steel one), a quietly impressive structure that isn't so much seen from below, where the trains run over with some regularity, including a new Class 68 and a rake of Mk 5 coaches, signalling the return of locomotive hauled services on the Trans-Pennine route for the first time in nearly 40 years, and adjacent to this is the bridge that serves as unique access to the Dr Reddy's pharmaceutical factory on the north bank, a sight that always piques the interest when spied from a passing train.
Steanard Lane leads us on, along the narrow strip of land between the riverside and the Ladywood Lakes angling complex, before coming up to the Ship Inn and the way over to the north bank of the Calder at Shepley Bridge, landing us by the eastern end of the Mirfield Cut of the Calder & Hebble Navigation, and we press on to Huddersfield Road by the broad sweep of the river above the Low Mills weir, where a detour to visit the previously unseen Greenwood Cut of the canal could easily be made, but the day has turned chilly and any excess miles do not need to be considered right now. So on with the A644, and into Ravensthorpe, which seems much more like its own place, rather than an appendage of Dewsbury, when seen from the roadside, as suburbia and terraces crowd the scene to the west of the Bull's Head inn, and the long parade of shops then follows, serving the local needs with a plethora of take-outs, small grocers and other useful services, all sat to the west of St Saviour's church and the community hub at the Greenwood centre, altogether a settlement large enough to warrant its railway station, a little way off to the south down Calder Road. Industry comes to the roadside beyond, occupying the plots up to the lowest stretch of the River Spen, which could easily be misidentified as a small wharf in the yard of Lawton Yarns when the main road passes over it, just before we land at a familiar scene as we pass under the Scout Hill bridge at the southern end of the Spen Valley Greenway, beyond which we do enter Dewsbury, with the A644 rising sharply past the Ravenswharfe Hotel and the terraces perched above a retaining wall that's getting extensive remedial work applied to it. Settle into a level passage as we pass among the suburban houses and terrace ends along Huddersfield Road and pass into Dewsbury's West Town, coming past the Shepherd's Boy inn and the excellent church pairing of St Matthew's and the RC Our Lady & St Paulinus perched at the bottom of Cemetery Road for maximum visibility, just before the dual carriageway starts and makes its dive below the railway, where picking out a footway gets vague at this late stage. Webster Hill takes us under the bridges and drops us at the corner of the A638 Ring Road, across from the impressively scaled Eightlands Surgery and downhill from the sadly neglected former library and public baths complex, and we ascend, passing below the sweep of the Ashworth Road bridge to come up among the extensive car parks to the west of Dewsbury station, where we've spent much of this year making train connections, where the day concludes at 3.35pm, delighted with my travelling rate for the day, and feeling hopeful that the run-out on the year will allow me to tilt at both 600 miles and my annual mileage record.
5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 4212.2 miles
2019 Total: 561.8 miles
Up Country Total: 3749.2 miles
Solo Total: 3898 miles
Miles in My 40s: 2806 miles
Next Up: Huddersfield finally gets the Urban Circular treatment.
As October lands, I think we can conclude that The End of Summer for 2019 is already done, as no heat or sunshine is in the air as we head out for the final push through the late season, trying to keep going on the walking schedule while the weather allows it, and while the forecast for this trip is far from bad, travelling out for a start in the Colne valley's head means we are going to experience the Pennines Proximity Problem as the cloud hangs heavily on the high hills when the conditions to the east might be much more acceptable. So it is thus as we alight at Marsden at 9.45am, with Deer Hill and Pule Hill heavily shrouded above the valley, and our trip down the station road to the town takes a while as we are poking around the NT office in the old goods shed and admiring the noises of the weir at the bottom of Wessenden Beck and merging Colne before we head up Peel Street, the main drag that is thankfully free of drinkers at this early hour, passing the Mechanics Institute and maybe seven pubs before we land on the A62, the forgotten trans-Pennine road that will be our route of choice. It's only seven miles to Huddersfield from here, according to the Wakefield & Austerlands turnpike milestone, and not eleven to Oldham if we wished to head over the moors, but we set off east above the town's mills at the valley floor, clinging to the high bank as the residential town spreads uphill along the Meltham Road, but we get the feeling of soon being out into the countryside as trees coat the roadside and we get only brief views over the valley, above Wood Bottom Mill and to the fringe of Slaithwaite Moor atop the north bank. Beyond the outermost fringe of the town we come above the wooded chine of Cellars Clough, where the fisheries and well-being spa endure below the roadside, but the mill complex has been completely flattened since it was visited on 2012's canal walk, and we finally start to get some context to our previous visits as we meet the loosely associated hamlet of Lingard's Wood, where terraces sit opposite the Olive Branch Inn, and we can spy the Colne Valley Circular route through the rough fields to the south above Manchester Road, and the old school house forms a bold feature in the foreground to the high north side of the valley. Angled fields fill out the space beyond, where the A62 is clearly is too wide for the amount of traffic that uses it since the motorways landed, and we can start to feel the proximity of Slaithwaite as ribbons of semis arrive above the road and the town cemetery arrives below it, and we soon land among its suburban edge and pace along the terrace that has house numbers in the 1000+ range, which must have caused some Infant school children a nightmare during basic counting exercises.
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| Peel Street, Marsden. |
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| Wood Bottom Mill, Marsden. |
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| The Colne Valley at Lingard's Wood. |
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| The A62 at Slaithwaite's western end. |
The nature of the Colne Valley means that the town spreads laterally with the valley, so there's quite a lot of residential spread of many vintages along the path of Manchester Road before we land at the familiar corner at the bottom of Varley Road, and come above the town's main street and can look across the valley to spy the many mill buildings and St James's church perched on the north bank, before we pass over the cleft formed by Bradley Beck and rise with the road past the old part of town clustered around the former Wesleyan chapel. Pass above Slaithwaite Spa park, and land among more strings of terraces, some of which suggest extreme vintage and domestic weaving heritage, with some nice open vistas over the reverse view across the town and the valley, before we land among the suburban reach at its eastern end, where we look over to the rise of Bolster Moor's hillside to the north, landing on our radar after only 75 minutes on the trail, as opposed to the 3+ hours it took to travel this far on the Colne Valley Circular path. There isn't as much as a field to separate outer Slaithwaite from Linthwaite as the A62 draws us on, fooling us that we are in Huddersfield already when it's still 4 miles distant, coming down to meet the Spring Grove mill complex and the shopping parade opposite, while getting the feeling that the main residential areas are to be found on the rising banks to the south of here with only the older terraces and the former dye works enduring by the main road, as we pass above the Titanic Mill site, which hides completely from view. The village peters out beyond the Royal Oak Inn, and the views over the open fields and the wood-yard direct out gaze to Golcar, sat on its hillside above the valley like it was deposited from on high, and it's pretty amazing just how much greenery and open space there is about as we draw closer to Huddersfield, with the valley's geography ensuring there are many plots that have resisted development while Manchester Road suggests the existence of unbroken runs of terraces along the valley side, as signage welcomes us to Milnsbridge. I don't think we actually enter that settlement though, as it sits at the valley floor, and the ribbons of terraces and weavers cottages that we pass among belong to the district of Cowlersley, which comes down the valley side from the south, filling out the relatively flat terrain below the high and wooded bank at the northern edge of Crosland Moor, while across the way to the north we have the high bank of Longwood edge elevated above the centre of Milnsbridge, with the Longwood tower and the railway viaduct prominent beyond.
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| Britannia Road, Slaithwaite |
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| Terraces to the East of Slaithwaite. |
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| Linthwaite, and Spring Grove Mills. |
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| The Green Colne Valley, looking towards Golcar. |
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| The Terraces of Cowlersley. |
We pass among the notional portion of Milnsbridge that sits by the A62, and draw closer to the town, passing the road tops that lead down to it and the houses on the main road, drawing closer to Huddersfield and finding the high bank coming right up to the south side of the road, settling Manchester Road onto a narrow perch that starts to gradually draw downhill, among stray terraces, industrial units and more hand car washes than you could ever possibly need, with signage welcoming us to Crosland Moor, despite the fact that it mostly sits high above here. Passing above the wooded cleft of the Colne in which mill buildings still endure, we come up really close to the Narrow canal, though it hides way below the level we find ourselves at and the proximity of Huddersfield is soon felt beyond as we come down to meet the merging urban areas and roads at the bottom of Blackmoorfoot Road by the Griffin Lodge and the largest Halal Butchers in the district, which means we are now in Longwood, with its viaduct passing over the valley as we descend down a familiar roadside to meet the Colne-side at Longwood Bridge. Abandon the A62 to make a passage away from Huddersfield's town centre, joining the B6432 St Thomas's Road as it cuts through the industrial band through the south of the town, passing among various factories and the oddly located Cathedral House mega-church before we are dropped on the A616 Lockwood Road by the Folly Hall mills and its neighbouring bingo hall and casino, crossing the main road to seek the path to the south as it get somewhat less obvious, following the traffic turning as we join Queen's Mill Road. This leads us over the lowest reach of the River Holme, looking as busy as possible without looking threatening, and carry on among the industrial units as we slip below the wooded sides of the suburbia topped Primrose Hill and meet the bank of the Colne with Damside Road, following the river as it churns away, again busy but far from as high as it has gotten recently, coming around to meet King's Bridge and the bottom of the descending Newsome Road. The King's Mill site downstream from here seems to have been absorbed by student residences, as do so many other former mill sites around this quarter, showing what a huge influence the university has around these parts, and we keep by the riverside and its noisy weir as the looming wooded edge of Longley park feels like its squeezed what residential developments have been made by the riverside into as small plots as is possible.
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| As Close as we'll be getting to Milnsbridge. |
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| Britannia Mills, Longroyd. |
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| Folly Hall Mill, Huddersfield. |
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| The uppermost reach of the River Holme. |
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| The King's Mill weir on the River Colne. |
Land on the A629 Wakefield Road, which feels like it seems to be the red route for encountering most of eastern Huddersfield, getting our closest pass to the town before we cross the dual carriageway to pass among the extremely varied mix of shops on the ascending lane as we make our way up the heart of what was Moldgreen village before urbanisation claimed it, finding a bench by the URC on the isolated stretch of the old road where we can pause for lunch and note that there's a nice day out there somewhere, still mostly obscured by two layers of high and mobile cloud. Carry on to join Broad Lane at the Ivy Green corner, which leads us into a mass of suburbia, which nonetheless displays some vintage that clearly predates the mid 20th century housing boom, with some Victorian town houses sitting by the former dye works site at the head of Long Lane, and long strings of Edwardian terraces being found in the lost settlement of Grove Place, around the Swedenborgian New Church. Moving into suburban Dalton, we get hints of the rising hill walks to come to the east of here, finding little of the settlement of a century prior as we come to pass over Lees Hall beck, aka Shepley Dike and any other number of names, and fail to notice that we've tangled up with our 2014 route into the town until we're meeting Crossley Lane and the end of suburbia, where the Minerva works sites still haven't seen any redevelopment work having laid fallow for more than five years now, still looking a bit of an eyesore before we land on School Lane at the bottom end of Kirkheaton. Pass below the bridge abutments of the former railway line, just south of the village station on the Kirkburton branch, and join the rising lane as it passes St John the Baptist's church and the old church school site, noting some terraces of considerable vintage before we ascend into Kirkheaton proper, which might be several settlements under a single name, as we pass through the Hill Side corner and look across the rooftops to the elevated Stafford Hill section to the east, while ascending St Mary's Lane up to the main body of the village, beyond the former mill site that has so far resisted suburbanisation. The steeply rising Shop Lane squeezes its way up among the rural terraces and cottages that made up the old village, crammed together haphazardly on the hill ledge below the continuing rise of Town Road where things get a whole lot more organised, as the old village gives way to the suburbia that has grown out to the north and east, elevating with lanes which rise high enough to finally give us some reverse angle views that we lack while low in the Colne Valley, giving us Meltham Moor on the far horizon initially, before we get Castle Hill and the Holme Valley's eastern edge appearing as we push up Heaton Moor Road.
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| Old Wakefield Road, Moldgreen. |
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| The Swedenborgian Church, Grove Place.. |
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| The still derelict Minerva Works site, Crossley Lane. |
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| St Mary's Lane, lower Kirkheaton. |
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| Town Road and the framing of Meltham Moor, upper Kirkheaton. |
Urban living in the countryside has a more obvious appeal as we conclude our rise along the edge of Kirkheaton's suburban fringe, with the fields opening out to the south and the elevation ending past the aptly named Pennine View, where we meet the high crossroads by the Blacksmiths Arms, passing over a trail from five moths ago as we cross over the high ridge and follow the declining Hollin Hall Lane as it leads over towards the lower Calder Valley, territory which we haven't seen much of since the early going of this year, which we approach between fields of cattle and freshly baled straw. Signage welcome us to Upper Hopton before we've met the Hollin Hall corner of rural cottages, and the village pub, the Travellers Rest, seems to be a quite a distance above it, with open fields filling the space that offers a fine view over Mirfield at the valley floor before houses close up to the roadside, looking largely suburban and removed from the village centre off to the south and uphill from here, so interest looks over the valley towards the Parish church of St Mary's in Mirfield, one of the county's larger establishments that my paths still haven't come slightly close to. There's notionally a gap between Upper and Lower Hopton, but a ribbon of semis on the descending Hopton lane effectively merges the two, and we pass among the older terraces on cottages on the lane before we meet the next suburban enclave by the side of the Calder, spread around the Flowerpot inn right by the riverbank, where Hopton bridge could easily lead us over to Mirfield railway station, but we've got a riverside route to follow, along the north face of the village with the eastbound Granny Lane. Past the village edge, the fields open up to the south to reveal the ancient woods that coat this side of the Calder, and look north to see the enduring Holme Bank mill site, which is partly obscured by the plantation of Christmas trees and pumpkins by the riverside, which might be the most seasonal farm operation in these parts, the main business among the farmsteads and cottages in the hamlet of The Beck, where there is no actual stream apparent, despite being downhill from the Hopton Mills complex. Regaining the bank of the Calder, we come up to Wheatley's bridge, carrying the railway over the river via five stone spans (and the road with a steel one), a quietly impressive structure that isn't so much seen from below, where the trains run over with some regularity, including a new Class 68 and a rake of Mk 5 coaches, signalling the return of locomotive hauled services on the Trans-Pennine route for the first time in nearly 40 years, and adjacent to this is the bridge that serves as unique access to the Dr Reddy's pharmaceutical factory on the north bank, a sight that always piques the interest when spied from a passing train.
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| Cresting into the Lower Calder Valley on Hollin Hall Road. |
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| The Travellers Rest and Upper Hopton. |
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| Hopton Lane, Lower Hopton. |
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| The Christmas Tree & Pumkin farm, The Beck. |
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| Wheatley's Bridge on the Calder. |
Steanard Lane leads us on, along the narrow strip of land between the riverside and the Ladywood Lakes angling complex, before coming up to the Ship Inn and the way over to the north bank of the Calder at Shepley Bridge, landing us by the eastern end of the Mirfield Cut of the Calder & Hebble Navigation, and we press on to Huddersfield Road by the broad sweep of the river above the Low Mills weir, where a detour to visit the previously unseen Greenwood Cut of the canal could easily be made, but the day has turned chilly and any excess miles do not need to be considered right now. So on with the A644, and into Ravensthorpe, which seems much more like its own place, rather than an appendage of Dewsbury, when seen from the roadside, as suburbia and terraces crowd the scene to the west of the Bull's Head inn, and the long parade of shops then follows, serving the local needs with a plethora of take-outs, small grocers and other useful services, all sat to the west of St Saviour's church and the community hub at the Greenwood centre, altogether a settlement large enough to warrant its railway station, a little way off to the south down Calder Road. Industry comes to the roadside beyond, occupying the plots up to the lowest stretch of the River Spen, which could easily be misidentified as a small wharf in the yard of Lawton Yarns when the main road passes over it, just before we land at a familiar scene as we pass under the Scout Hill bridge at the southern end of the Spen Valley Greenway, beyond which we do enter Dewsbury, with the A644 rising sharply past the Ravenswharfe Hotel and the terraces perched above a retaining wall that's getting extensive remedial work applied to it. Settle into a level passage as we pass among the suburban houses and terrace ends along Huddersfield Road and pass into Dewsbury's West Town, coming past the Shepherd's Boy inn and the excellent church pairing of St Matthew's and the RC Our Lady & St Paulinus perched at the bottom of Cemetery Road for maximum visibility, just before the dual carriageway starts and makes its dive below the railway, where picking out a footway gets vague at this late stage. Webster Hill takes us under the bridges and drops us at the corner of the A638 Ring Road, across from the impressively scaled Eightlands Surgery and downhill from the sadly neglected former library and public baths complex, and we ascend, passing below the sweep of the Ashworth Road bridge to come up among the extensive car parks to the west of Dewsbury station, where we've spent much of this year making train connections, where the day concludes at 3.35pm, delighted with my travelling rate for the day, and feeling hopeful that the run-out on the year will allow me to tilt at both 600 miles and my annual mileage record.
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| Shepley Bridge on the Calder. |
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| Huddersfield Road, Ravensthorpe. |
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| Scout Hill Bridge on the Spen Valley Greenway. |
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| St Matthews's, and Our Lady & St Paulinus's churches, West Town. |
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| The former Dewsbury Library & Public Baths, Wellington Road. |
5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 4212.2 miles
2019 Total: 561.8 miles
Up Country Total: 3749.2 miles
Solo Total: 3898 miles
Miles in My 40s: 2806 miles
Next Up: Huddersfield finally gets the Urban Circular treatment.
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