Morley East Circuit 30/05/20

7.1 miles, from Morley Hole, via Dawson Hill, Scatcherd Hill, Town End, Topcliffe Mill, 
 Capitol Park, Tingley Common, Tingley Viaduct, Sissons wood, West wood, Stank Hall, 
  Millshaw, Churwell and Lane Side.

After so many weekends out of the routine, it feels good to have been granted the space to get my walking career back on track, though we shall probably be keeping it local until July at the earliest due to public transport issues, but that's no matter as there's still plenty to mick out around Morley, especially when we are greeted by a bright and sunny morning that gets me feeling all sorts of enthusiastic, ready to push out to the east of town with another three hour course prepared in my mind. Thus it's down to Morley Hole once more, to get going at 9.05am, striking my way for the opening stretch to the south by departing Brunswick Street to rise up and over the shady passage of Dawson Hill, which as we rise over above Morley Bottoms has me wondering just how many of Morley's seven hills we have visited over the course of our recent touring and as Banks, Chapel and Daisy have all featured thus far, we check off this one as number four, and soon strike on to number five as we drop out onto the rising stretch of Queen Street and on up Scatcherd Hill. The town centre beyond has been completely unseen during the weeks of Lockdown, and the main drag of Queen Street past the Town Hall still looks light for general business, though not feeling like a ghost town as well-drilled queues organise themselves outside the green grocers and butchers to keep these local business going, which is an encouraging bit of social solidarity to see as we press on to the south end of town, down to the Fountain inn and the New Pavilion theatre, where the rise of South Queen Street grazes the edge of Hunger Hill, hill #6. So past St Paul's church and the mill conversion before we land on the Bridge Street - High Street roundabout, where we follow the footpath onto Magpie Lane which leads us into the Glen Road estate, shadowing the route of the GNR line to the east of Morley Top station, bounding the development to its south side, while we pass The Carriers Arms, another of the town's hidden pubs, and then follow the pavements and footways as they lead us among the residences of Glen Mount and Beacon Grove, noting that this estate was also built with a lot of green space around its closes, as we trace the embankment onwards along the edge of resumed edge of Glen Road before we land on Topcliffe Lane. Oaks and Topcliffe mills stand proud here, illuminated in the Spring sunshine, and our railway walk proper starts here, joining the Ardsley - Laisterdyke line as it presses east, joining the cycleway into Capitol Park as it follows the embankment between the yards full of cars and beer barrels, leading into the site of the triangular Tingley Junction, where the business park's growth looks like it arrested some years ago, to never be resumed, and the pair of cycling Community Support Police take an interest in my exploits as they pass.

Descending Dawson Hill to Queen Street.

Southern Queen Street in virtual shutdown still.

Railway Alignment behind the Glen Road estate.

The Railway / Cyclepath through Capitol Park.

The railway path briefly degenerates as we drop from Sterling Way to tangle up with last weekend's rote before dropping out onto Dewsbury Road, soon regaining the intended trajectory as we head up the stub of Station Lane to find a clear access point back onto the alignment, where it seems the local landowners at least anticipate foot traffic across the heavily over grown site of Tingley station and then on eastwards, following the route at least as far as Dunningley Lane as it slips away from Tingley Common, and just like on the other side of the A653, there's another lost junction here too. We'll split north here, away from the route to Ardsley, tracing instead the line from Batley to Beeston junction as it heads north, the infilled cutting providing a clear boundary path to trace, which is useful when it could have been ploughed away and rendered untraceable, and thus we keep off the fields of Dunningley Hill's farms, meeting the trackbed level as it starts the embankment approach to the viaduct, which is still heavily overgrown with vintage ballast underfoot, but doesn't impede a trespass to find the bulk of its five arch length shrouded in Spring greenery. It's still fenced off at both ends, but accessible enough to pass over the Leeds - Wakefield line, and the route takes on a proper aspect of trespass as we continue on the north side, staying atop the embankment as far as the missing cattle creep bridge, and we press on along the remaining stretch to the edge of Sissons Wood to make the case for the establishment of a proper path over this way, as any route useful for walking or cycling should be usable in the modern world, and we then head for Middleton fringe path in the shade, not least because the heat has me on the verge of having a funny turn, and thus watering and sit is in order, having lopped a corner off the day's planned route. Don't trace the cutting as it deepens below the wooded bank, as I'm not too sure of its viability, instead keeping higher up to the point where a the view west to Morley emerges, showing a whole lot more greenery than it did at the end of 2018, but then choose to pick up the alignment as the rough plots and woods on this side are surely common lands and not farmed, descending down through the shade where the remnants of some barbecuing accidents can be found, to land by another broken cattle creep in the embankments, where a footpath clearly descends, meaning that the route is clearly passable for the locals of the nearby estate, not that I'll be trying to add those lost footfalls along it today.

Tingley (east) Junction, Tingley Common.

Tingley Viaduct is accessible (unofficially).

Cattle Creep, near Sissons Wood.

Cattle Creep, near Middleton fringe.

We will carry on along the route as it progresses north, as these debatable lands seem to have gained many paths aside from the ones vaguely marked on the OS map, and a shady stretch of railway walk continues, along to the approach to the missing Mill Lane bridge, which we'll drop below to admire the towering stonework on its abutments, as well as spotting the Azuma passing on the adjacent line, before we have to pick a route onwards among the tangle of routes, finding that the trackbed north is accessible, though it rapidly turns into a nettle-choked nightmare, and it's not clear if it would be wise to trace it as far as where the branch flew over the mainline, some distance further on. So wisdom has to prevail and a path is picked uphill, beyond the line of electricity pylons to emerge through the trees of West Wood, to land on the common fields where the shire horses still graze, and are being tended by their owners, and thus we press on northwards with the 2018 route, high above the contemporary railway and at a still apparent remove from Middleton and its golf course, eventually meeting the fence to keep you away from the tracks below and following the narrow path among the late season flowering, above the view over to the White Rose Centre, and the Cottingley towers and Morley's horizon. Arrive in the vicinity of the Parkwoods, and having so little of the local wildlife along my passage of the Middleton fringe, it's disappointing to find burned up electrical goods at the path side, and it makes you wonder why people would go to the effort of fly-tipping or dumping stolen goods so far out here, but that's something to leave in our wake as we meet the footbridge over the railway at Beeston junction, where the line from Batley merged in from the south and the track to Hunslet Goods split off to the north, crossing over again to admire Stank Hall barn once more, the medieval survivor that this city really should do more to love, at least before its adjacent farm crumbles away. Descend to meet Dewsbury Road again, rising with it to the railway bridge and crossing to find the footpath that parallels the line northbound, providing access to an old farmstead that looks in need of a purpose after its rural days ended and having had a council estate grow around it, following the track out to Ring Road Beeston, where an even more impressive bridge passes over, and we slip around the bottom edge of South Beeston and pluck a new sort of route along the side of the A6110 that doesn't have us tangling with the roads around the White Rose centre.

Mill Lane Bridge.

The flying Beeston junction was down there, somewhere.

Stank Hall Barn, again.

The railway bridge over Ring Road Beeston.

After a good stretch away from the roads, we've got the main Ring Road to pace alongside as we press on past the White Rose office park, with its dynamic raod-facing architecture, and the long low building of the Millhaw industrial estate beyond, while on this shadier side of the lane we meet an old workshop that is one of the last remnants of the old Mill Shaw settlement that has since been completely reconfigured by the growing city, just like how a length of the Millshaw road was severed from its ancient purpose as it passes through to the bottom of Elland Road at the bottom of Churwell Hill. Joining the A643 here at the day's northern apex, it's mildly amazing that I've never done a road ascent in the 13 years that I've lived in Morley, having only once approached before bailing for a bus on a snow day at the end of 2010, and that's the drag we'll be doing right now, knowing that it's less than a mile up, if the roadside markers are to be believed, starting the ascent under Churwell viaduct and up the most pronounced section of the turnpike as it elevates above the council estate and new village below, and rises on to the village heart, which once sustained two community halls, three pubs and four churches. The drag is definitely one to make you wonder how trams once ran up and down it, but even on a hot day like this it's not a challenge for my legs, as we burn up the route from the 1813 toll bar house to the old St Andrew's church in no time at all, beyond which the going evens off, leaving the terraced faces in our wake as we meet the bold run of semis on the way up to Lane Side farms, opposite the suburban developments that claimed the site of Lane Side mills, with only the managers houses remaining in the roadside plots, and Morley lies beyond, with open fields still free of suburbia on the left. Thus we meet the villas on the run up to the Nelson Arms, the parish church of St Peter and the mile marker at the top of the hill, where we'll aim right with Victoria Road as it sneaks around the middle of the town with all its undulations, past the mill vintage Springfield terraces, the extensively redeveloped site of Prospect Mill, and the Ingles estate, all of which have been noted on our tours around so far before we descend down to Morley Hole once again, with the trip concluded on the nose of 12pm, the sub-three hour circuit feeling both longer than its distance and duration, as my body feel ready to quit on the day shortly after returning home, well illustrating the fact that I'm distinctly out of walking sorts, at the moment.

Millshaw's contemporary industrial landscape.

Hammering the ascent of Churwell Hill.

Leafiness abounds at Lane Side.

The Springfield Mill terraces.

5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 4425.2 miles
2020 Total: 158.7 miles
Up Country Total: 3962.2 miles
Solo Total: 4111 miles
5,000 in my 40s Total: 3019 miles

Next Up: Go West, Young(!) Man!

~~~

Lockdown: Day 69

Now that we have a walking career of sorts to blog about again, I'm not certain exactly what point my Lockdown journal might have, especially as the easing of the restrictions through the next few weeks could render the concept pretty much meaningless by the end of June, despite it continuing to be notionally in force, but with the threat of COVID-19 still very much in the air, a reflection on the times still seems apt, even if it's presented as a briefer sketch at the end of my regular walking weeks  than it has been for the preceding months. Indeed, we looked at how quickly the world's normal routine ground to a halt back in March, so seeing how things continue to unfold ought to be recorded for the foreseeable too, and that's where we find ourselves in the last week of May, getting back into the routine of work and feeling grateful that in this initial spell at least, train travel is not feeling at all fraught as Morley station is still devoid of commuters and the trains no busier than they were two weeks back. The regular timetable is back in force on our line, which means the 0717 train is the local service once more and showing no more passengers on the run into Leeds than it did as the cross-country variant, and it's not looking overly busy at Leeds station, either, though the newly installed one-way system does funnel the travellers into what occasionally feels like a crowd, and the extra distance to travel on foot for outbound services isn't great for time-keeping purposes, but there's no real indication of a general increase in business going on across the city, though there's a marked increase in car traffic, as folk avoid public transport and snarl up with the ongoing roadworks. Anyway, for work I'm back on the Clarendon Wing library site once more, drafted back in to aid with auditing that has been put in place over the last month, landing among a staff of six additional people whom I previously didn't know, making it feel like I might have slipped into an alternate universe as a group of temp staff aid with our workings, as there are three audits going on simultaneously, and trying to make sense of what's been happening during my weeks off site is really too mentally exhausting to go into here. So it's a four day burst of putting one's head down and getting on with the archiving task at hand, not one organised in a fashion that I'd have chosen but that's why I'm still working on the floor, happy to see that our regulars are still in decent fettle and that no one else has gotten sick, and actually feeling delighted for my colleague who's finally been able to get an urgent dental appointment after nine weeks of needing one.

One-way shenanigans at Leeds Station.

After that burst, my long week off feels as distant as my time off in March did, and the business of work feels just as tiring as it did before, and that could easily be coupled to the frightening shortage of sleep that has affected me throughout the week, as if my body has decided that I really don't need more than 5 hours per night, and that I will somehow subsist through my working days on that much, regardless of how much energy I might need to expend, which sets my mind to look forward to my next block of time off, six weeks on from now. Looking into the wider world, we see a national COVID-19 death toll, landing just shy of 38,500 as of this weekend, which again shows a distinct arresting of the rate, and when coupled to a marked decrease in the hospital population ought to inspire a feeling that this is heading in the right direction, but the stats from the ONS are now suggesting that there might be another 10,000 deaths to add to the figure as patients for which a corona virus infection was a secondary contributing factor, and the actual death toll might be in excess of 60,000 due to all the deaths caused by not being able to access treatments or other hospital services during lockdown. Thus we find ourselves looking into the coming months feeling like this will be the real acid test for the pandemic situation in Britain, as on the one hand we finally have HM Government hitting a testing target of getting 200K people tested daily, but on the other we have concerns that the Test and Trace scheme that is planned to cover the easing of lockdown is not going to work or be apt to the scale of the task, and when you couple that to the disquiet about reopening schools, and the practicality and wisdom of reviving large chunks of the commercial economy, the difficulty of the times remains obvious. Then there's the hearsay and contradictory reports about whether restrictions for the at risk groups of the health vulnerable and elderly are due to be lifted or extended, and the picture just muddies further, so much seems to be built on trusting the populace as rational actors who will take the proper precautions for their own health and well being, and that's hard to believe will work out well when crowds descend on the parks and beach resorts at the first sign of warm weather, and the on-going tale of Clarence Boddicker's odyssey seems to gave done much for breaking the consensus on the very wisdom and necessity of self-isolation and social distancing, right at the point where it needs to be taken as seriously as possible.