Morley Central Circuit 21/05/20

7.6 miles, from Morley Hole, via Daisy Hill, Broad Oaks, White Rose, Low Moor farm, 

 Bantam Grove, Burn Knolls, Morley Top, Dartmouth Park, Bruntcliffe, Gildersome Spur, 

  Dean Wood, Gildersome Tunnel, and the Ingles estate.

Wednesday brings the temperature spike that the week was due, but the heat doesn't attract me out, as housework and a general burst of aeration is necessary around my flat, and we wait until things have cooled a little before we strike out again on Thursday, not as early as I'd hoped to be out thanks to under-sleeping through the night and then oversleeping in the morning, which means that I depart feeling ever so slightly addled on my way to the start line at Morley Hole, getting on track at 9.45am and feeling hopeful that my paths won't be crowded as this weather improvement is sure to attract the populace to more engaging climes than this one. So east we strike again, on the literal middle one of the three loops that I've plotted arpund Morley, heading down Brunswick Street in the shadow of the Victoria Mills complex before we join Bank Street to rise up its other half, below the high walls above which Bank House, surely the oldest house in the town, stands, and above the back of the Cheapside parade at Morley Bottoms, pressing on as the road diminishes to a path by the low-rise flat blocks before it ejects us out onto Chapel Hill. Cross the lane to join New Bank Street by the off-license that has never been open in all my years here, heading on among the elevated terraces above the valley cleft through the heart of the town, passing the still vacant Baptist chapel site and declining with the lane to meet my Lockdown Circuit route and the empire of suburbia that has grown to the east of the town, before rising to the Daisy Hill prominence, where the old mill houses still stand along with its gateposts, from which a view back to town can be noted before we strike into the grassy cleft that lies beyond. It's still May Blossom season out here, giving us some floweriness among the foliage as we drop out into the fields once more, and rise up towards the track to Broad Oaks farm once again, as if every local trail feels the need to come this way, it's really to ensure that we get a decent photographic second look at the Social Distancing Circuit route while the greenery of Spring covers it, having been still a mess of bare earth when the lockdown walking session started, and despite the warmth of the day, the view from here to the city is clear and not burdened by haze, giving another good reason to come up here before we strike for the railway bridge.

Bank House, Bank Street, surely the oldest in town?

Daisy Hill's suburban swelling.

The view to Leeds from Broad Oaks farm.

Land behind the White Rose Centre, which is no longer visible from the course of the woodland walk that surrounds it, thanks to the thick growth of foliage that has come on over the last months, meaning there's not much to see of the deserted shopping centre or the railway as we track southwards, until we spill out onto the path by the old foot-crossing, where a grand view leading back into Morley can be had, and the sweep of the tracks demands a brief hesitation to snare a pair of express trains that run by before our circuit can resume. The fields on this south side of the railway feel threatened by the spectre of suburban redevelopment, even the one that has been land-filled and has Cotton Mill beck culverted below it, and the outward spread of the town can be seen as we rise by the fields of buttercups to the enclosed paths that are a mess of shady Spring growth, where we paced in my different conditions on my very first local walk in 2013, noting that all the plots of Low Moor farm have been leveled to become part of the burgeoning Low Moor Pastures housing development. The bucolic name will soon seem deeply sarcastic as anonymous suburbia blankets it, where the builders are out in force as national lockdown relaxes, and our route retraces the one from 7 years prior as we enter that estate that doesn't have a clear identity, tracing the pavements of Rydal Crescent and Newland Drive before meeting the path around Newlands Primary Academy and getting dropped out on Wide lane across from the Gardeners Arms, and we need to seek a new path beyond Wide Lane, as the town suburban band to the south-east is met. This is easily found as the Bantam Grove estate is passed around, by joining Magpie Lane, an essential access road for anyone who lives in this quarter but otherwise a non-vintage road that you might only encounter when riding on the Town's Arriva bus services, and it provides a surprisingly green and undulating route around the suburban spread, passing the Gill Royd Mill site and the plots that maps still call Burn Knolls, as we press west for the better part of a mile, through what feels like wholly new territory so close to home.

The railside view towards Morley.

The Low Moor Pastures development swells the suburbia.

The Gardeners Arms, Wide Lane.

Magpie Lane is Morley's secret suburban boulevard.

We have made previous traversals out here, of course, but things get a lot more familiar as we land on the converging High Street and Bridge Street, above which the old embankment of the GNR's line through the town loom, and as we come around the traffic island to the bottom end of Chartists Way we can trace the full extent of the long-lost Morley Top station, from the bridge abutment on High Street, and the LP Supplies factory on the platform site with the station house opposite, and on to the yard's retaining walls and the Good Shed that still stands in the ownership of ATS Euromaster. That's another full local lane traversal done as we land on the Fountain Street roundabout, continuing to the west as we head for the other end of town, carrying on with the B6123 and passing the Morley Academy and into that empire of stone terraces, where a path towards Dartmouth Park needs to be picked out and I cannot recall if it's East Park Street on New park Street that leads to its corner, I pick the former and it turns out that the latter was the right one as I arrive among the villas that surround it one road too early. Don't venture into the leafy park itself, which seems well patronised today, instead tracing its perimeter along St Andrew's Avenue to meet its eponymous church on the corner of Bruntcliffe Road, where the footway of the A650 well lead us westward still, noting that every green space to the south of here, aside from the covered reservoir, appears to have gotten a residential development on it, stretch the town all the way to the side of the M62, and then we press on among the industrial units to meet the Bruntcliffe crossroads, and its Morley in Bloom garden, where we cross the A643 by the Toby Carvery and pass over the M621, where the distant view of the hills to the southwest teases us horribly. Meet the edge of the Gildersome Spur business park and take a right onto Nepshaw Lane South, tracing the edge of the motorway and the industrial estate, which I'd swear has enlarged to now reach the edge of the old railway alignment, while the empty plots beyond appear to have been scoured and leveled rather purposefully too, as if for some plant development that never quite arrived, robbing the rough track of its rural feel before we come upon the caravan park on Nepshaw Lane North and land on Asquith Avenue by the town's westernmost suburban outliers, and ticking over the marker for 3,000 miles in my 40s as we go (still easily on target to hit 5,000 miles in this decade despite the two months lost to Lockdown).

Chartists Way and the Morley Top station house and yard.

East Park Street is not the direct route to Dartmouth Park.

Suburbia grows apace by the A650 Bruntcliffe Road.

Gildersome Spur claims every available field in its environs.

We could strike for home directly from here, but having gotten as far as Dean Wood means we ought to give it another visit, along with what dwells within, joining the well-walked northbound track that hangs above the concealed BMX track before we find a path that angles downhill towards Dean Beck, which is thick with the growth and aroma of wild garlic, tracing the downstream course as it leads us down for a long stretch, knowing that it will land us above the north portal of Gildersome tunnel, last seen in early 2016 and now shrouded in dense foliage, but looking a whole lot drier than it did on my previous visit. Carefully trace the route down to the track level of the New Leeds Line, and find there's no lagoon at all in the approach cutting, and it's possible to approach the bricked up portal to peer into the darkness beyond the access gate, only needing to take care of the stream of orange-tinged water that flows out of it, and the mess of detritus that sits there too, also noting the weirdly cold micro-climate at the tunnel mouth and the cool breeze that blows out if it, and that has me delighted, as only an enthusiast for industrial archaeology can be, worth the detour and the confusion that comes with trying to trace a path away. Unable to see the overgrown direct route out above the portal, we are compelled to follow the track into the fields beyond the woods before tracing a route south that has us back on track below the tree cover, and lead back to the B6126, where we can take the turn towards the otwn over the M621, and then to detour again by entering the Ingles estate, which doesn't seem like a route worth taking among the red brick council house on Horsfall Street, as far as the Asquith Primary School, but once on Ingle Avenue the reason for coming this way seems more apparent. Here we can find the heart of the what was created as Morley Corporation's flagship social housing development, which has just celebrated the 100th anniversary of its ground-breaking and has a vintage appeal that isn't to be found in more-recent council estates, looking like a well-chosen mix of whitewash and interesting building accents on its way down to side of Victoria Road, where the mill house is the only surviving building of the now suburban site of Prospect Mills, and the path of the A643 leads us down to the side of Morley Victoria Primary school, where the Key Workers' kids are enjoying playtime, before our loop seals back at Morley Hole, at 12.35pm.

Dean Beck and its crop of Wild Garlic.

Gildersome Tunnel, as dry and approachable as it ever gets.

Tracing a path back through Dean Wood.

Ingle Aveneue, The Ingles estate.

The Prospect Mill House, Victoria Road.

5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 4407.9 miles
2020 Total: 141.4 miles
Up Country Total: 3944.9 miles
Solo Total: 4093.7 miles
5,000 in my 40s Total: 3001.7 miles

Next Up: Still Holiday Walking in Circles, even further to the South.