Morley West Circuit 06/06/20

9 miles, from Morley Hole, via Chapel Hill, Rooms, Farnley Wood, Upper Moor Side, 
 Barker Hill, Gildersome Moor Head, Cockersdale, Nethertown, Lumb Bottom, Adwalton, 
  Birstall Retail Park, Howden Clough, Birkby Brow wood, Scott wood, Dartmouth Park, 
   and New Brighton.

After our warm spikes and bright days at the end of May, it's entirely predictable that June responds by becoming its usual unpredictable self as rains washes over with the increased cloud cover, and the temperature start to drop, maintaining its reputation as the 'Flaming' month in the pejorative sense, with the first weekend offering a choice of days that are either changeable and windy, or calmer but overcast, which a colleague of mine suggests we might be looking forwards to a Summer like we had in 2007, when it rained consistently from mid June to the following Spring. 2020 can do without a seasonal turn like that, and I'll seize the changeable turns of Saturday morning for my fifth and final trip around the immediate environs of Morley borough, looking to the western side as we head out to Morley Hole for a start at 9.05am, getting going with our familiar passage past Morley Manor, Victoria Mills and the Cheapside parade on our initial trajectory, while noting the oft-overlooked presence of the former Brunswick Arms this time, before we strike a path up Chapel Hill, ascending a sixth of the town's seven, while also noting the ghost signs on the end wall of the Conservative club, easily the best in the area. We'll not be doing much that's too original in today's early going, rising past the old Co-op and Herbert Asquith's house on the way past the old chapel and the run of terraces on the way to the Nelson Arms corner on Victoria Road where we cross the A643 by St Peter's church and join Rooms Lane, as it describes the suburban growth of the town as we press north, up to Springfield Mill park and the tip of Clark Springs wood and on to meet the long stone wall that used to surround a couple of old houses, now lost, which seem to have had nothing to do with either of the mill sites out here. So we progress out of town, on Morley's definitive road to nowhere, over the M621 bridge with its view to the city, and on past the end of the metaled surface, diving into the rural landscape past Lister Cottages and between both the farms that call themselves Rooms, before we come down over the Leeds New Lines, where railway walking won't be a feature of this circuit, noting that the site of Gildersome station has been scoured level, like someone has a brownfield development in mind for it, despite it having been fallow for 55 years now, and then we press on to the A62, among the greenery that conceals the fact there was once a colliery on this corner.

Chapel Hill and the best ghost sign in the borough

The mysterious long wall, Rooms Lane.

Gildersome station, on the Leeds New Lines.

Leeds-bound we progress, past the stink of the waste depot on the St Bernard's Mill site, and on to the pair of derelict cottages by the roadside where the bridleway forwards is met, dropping us down to cross Farnley Wood beck and then rising onto the hillside of Farnley Wood (or Beeston Royds, or whatever it's called) among the fields that now conceal the coal and ironstone workings and the tramway that once fan to Farnley ironworks, while also looking over the fields, and the sharp rise up towards Gildersome, which we are notionally doing a circuit of today, though it's path routes are not really suitable to the kind of circuit we're on today. Hit Wood Lane at the hill's crest and progress westwards, getting that elevated view towards Pudsey, seemingly much closer than usual, and across west Leeds over Farnley Park and towards the upper Aire valley, while also looking back to where we came from as the wind howls up a gale from the northwest, enjoying the panoramic views as we progress on to Wood End and Wentworth farms, while wondering why I've never started compiling a list of secret viewpoints that would be a useful reference tool by now. Land on the A58 at the outermost suburban reach of New Farnley, and there's still no variation from the paths of old as we cross to Walsh lane and to the lost mining heritage that used to longer around the site of Sowden Pit and along Low Moor Side Lane, which we follow to the mission rooms and Lancasterian school before finally making some fresh footfalls as we slip into Upper Moor Side, among the stone cottages to meet the crossroads by the Woodcock inn, where we slip back over the Whitehall Road to start an ascent towards Gildersome properly. Follow the B6126 as it rises up the slope of Barker Hill, among the village's outliers like the used car dealership on the corner and the cat rescue office, before getting in among the remote parts of suburbia, getting more good views to the northwest before we land on the edge of town by the Springfield Villas terrace and the parish boundary stone in the middle of the pavement, and the development on the Moorhead Mill site proves as close to the bulk of Gildersome as we'll be getting today, as our circuit swings away from the main road at New Road, meaning that future circuits might need to be planned to give the village a proper going over.

Gildersome's hill, from Farnley Wood (a hill).

Wood End farm, Farnley Wood.

The Woodcock inn, Upper Moor Side.

Springfield Villas, and the parish boundary stone, Gildersome Moor Head.

We drop downhill as the green fields crowd the roadside before we land at the bottom of Cockersdale, by the factory on the old gasworks site and the Valley Court mill redevelopment, swinging around a tight corner below the retaining walls of the A58 above and then seeking the well concealed path of Old Lane, which seems to have been hidden away after the lane was downgraded from traffic use, and this rises us up, through the cover of foliage up to the extended hamlet-let of Nethertown, at a remove from the Whitehall Road below, and filled with suburban des-reses, a spot that the Leeds Country Way brought us through in 2012. There's quite a lot to this outlying edge of Drighlington, which sits to the west of us with the tower of St Paul's church obvious on the horizon, bu we'll not really be drawn to that village, as beyond the smithy cottages we have an equally removed hamlet-let of Lumb Bottom to meet, with a single terrace run at its lowest point and an apparent lack of a access road to the wider world where we bottom out and then rise to the field paths that aim us southwards, taking care to avoid the rider who's also on this route and trying to stop her horse from breaking its trot into a canter or gallop on the rising track. It looks like these fields on the rise up to Pitty Close farm don't have much longer for this world as they've been fenced off for suburban redevelopment, swelling further the settlement at the A650-A58 crossing, robbing us of more greenery in place of residences, and I know what I'd prefer to find up here on the Aire-Calder ridge, where our last views to the north can be taken in, and we can be assailed by the wind again, before we cross over to the other side as we follow the track into Adwalton, landing on the B6135 Wakefield Road by the cottage with a seriously wonky walls problem. Tracing south leads us into the estate around Fairfax Avenue, which as a neat little circus at its heart, which mostly for more car parking than could have have been planned for back in the day, and we get sight on the Emley Moor masts at its southern end, marking our transition over the watershed as we pace along the suburban edge of the village with Margetson Avenue and Walton Drive to seek out the field path that drops us downhill towards the A650 bypass road, which sits on the GNR's Ardsley - Laisterdyke line here, as we should all know by now, and we'll snag a brief refreshment break by the lay-by in the sunshine, as for the first time in a while, I've walked far enough from home to actually require one.

The Valley Court mill conversion, Cockersdale.

The Smithy Cottage, Nethertown / Lumb Bottom.

Suburbian Drighlington prepares to swell further.

Fairfax Avenue, Adwalton.

Old routes are met once more as we press south to the crossing of the M62 via the long footbridge, looking back to see if you really can get a scope of any kind of Adwalton Junction, where the line up from Batley merged in from the south, and thence it's into the car park at IKEA, where the socially-distanced queue for the recently re-opened superstore obscures the ROW path, and as that's the closest to a real crowd that I've seen in months, I'll give it a wide berth by trotting down to Holden Ing way via the other side of the multi storey, noting that the rest of the Birstall retail park looks busy too. I also feel the need to mention here that this site used to be the Oakwell Infectious Diseases Hospital, way back when, which seems appropriate for the times, and you'll have also hopefully noted that we are out of Leeds district for the first time in a while too, slipping into Kirklees as we retrace a route from 2017 among the less than enticing environs of the retail park, and the industrial estate that straddle the A62, and we progress on, still amused by my persistent mis-reading of Pheasant Drive and wandering on to the point where the lost railways cross, where crowds seem to be descending on the recycling centre and tip after so many weeks of not being able to throw anything away, and the Nab Lane bridge is still one to admire despite its infilling below. A trip up the Leeds New Line to the lost southern portal of Gildersome Tunnel doesn't tempt me today (its vast length well illustrated by how long its taken to walk its far end on this circular trip) and we descend to Howden Clough past its Methodist chapel and down to the pair of long terraces by the side of the A643, and we'll trace the side of the Leeds Road as we start our inbound leg of the day, tracing the route of the Kirklees Way as it splits off at the roadside cottage to descend down the steep and challenging path below the pylons down to Howley Beck, where we slip into Birkby Brow wood, just as the day's first rainstorm comes on. Back in Leeds district once more, we aim ourselves up the steeply angled path up to the main track, and then continue up the bank beyond on the path that is just as vague as it was in 2012 when walking the LCW, but somehow manage to arrive at the right point at the bank edge, where a field walk awaits, across the extensive meadows of Schole Croft farm, where the long grass ensures a soaking for my legs despite the rain having broken off, and across the farm track we angle ourselves over to the largely forgotten route of Scott Lane, severed from use by the nearby motorway.

Adwalton Junction, if you have sufficient imagination to see it.

Amidst the retail and industrial parks of Birstall.

Howden Clough and the way to Birkby Brow wood.

Field Walking to Scott Lane, and its wood.

A firmer track below the feet arrives as we skirt the field of burgeoning barley to the south of the woodland that isn't named on any map, but which I'll call Scott Wood for the purposes, passing above the fields that amazingly haven't haven't seen any footfalls since a very short encounter back in 2013, rising to meet the woodland's edge as the path guides us up to the edge of the M62, and rewarding us with a scenic view possibly unequaled in Morley's locality, giving us a view from Ossett parish church, across the whole southwestern flank of Kirklees and around to the moors of southern Calderdale. It's always good to snare such a view, and to understand most of what you're looking at, which we turn our back to as we pass over the motorway via the footbridge to nowhere, which seems to have a bit more purpose now as the residential development of the fields below Bruntcliffe Road is confirmed with the fields ahead now having estate completed upon them (and are mostly concealed by a high fence, keeping us out or them in?), while those to the west are fully in the grip of the builders presently, with the path route still open between them, which we follow up to the A650 by the covered reservoir to land by St Andrew's church and the Vicarage hotel. Drizzle comes on to give the day a damp end, crossing by the Italianate and pebble-dashed villa to follow Levisham Street into Dartmouth Park, which hasn't quite got the crowds in it that you might expect, though the changeable weather has probably cramped the will of many to exercise and break their self-isolation, pressing on to the main entrance by the Animals at War memorial, to join Scatcherd Lane as it passes behind Morley Academy and below the rugby and cricket clubs. Over the lost Morley Top line we pass, our last time over the many transport transport arteries that we've crossed to day, and slip into the the suburban landscape as we come down to Corporation Street, where the Town hall tower rises beyond Morrisons, and our route heads towards its conclusion, down among the semis to the corner of Bright Street, where we slip again into the bungalows of New Brighton, to once again descend the stone causey down to Hillycroft fisheries (which is open again!) to conclude the day at Morley Hole at 12.35pm, feeling like I've done the borough pretty well over the last few trips.

A surprise panoramic view over Kirklees is always welcome.

Suburbian Morley claims all the fields above the M62.

Dartmouth Park.

Old School suburbia on Corporation Street. 

5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 4434.2 miles
2020 Total: 167.7 miles
Up Country Total: 3971.2 miles
Solo Total: 4120 miles
5,000 in my 40s Total: 3028 miles

Next Up: Pushing a trail a little further afield!  EDIT: A Lot Further, it transpires.

~~~

Lockdown: Day 76

Another week of 'Phase 2' of the easing of the Corona Virus lockdown, and from my perspective, it's another where nothing much seems to have changed, despite the reopening of schools and some retail sectors having now started, for me it's another week of feeling delighted that the morning and evening trains are still running at well below 25% capacity, and no weird wrinkles are coming along to otherwise disrupt my ordinary days, as the world still seems oddly quiet, despite there being plenty going on. There's still plenty of disquiet and unease to be felt about the lockdown situation, of course, feelings that will probably carry on for at least another 6 to 8 weeks, as we await the possibility of a second wave of COVID-19 infections, a wait that just continues the pattern of waiting that has characterized the 10+ weeks of lockdown so far, waiting to see where the pandemic situation goes, waiting for things to get better, waiting to see if another social shuffling results in anyone getting ill, waiting for clarity on the future. The strangest thing about the last week, though, is the feeling that it's the very first where it feel like the news agenda has had something else to address, so the UK death toll having crept past 40,000 is a figure that seems to have been pushed into the background as the fallout from another episode of police brutality in the US, resulting in the seemingly pre-meditated death of another unarmed black civilian, has spilled over into waves of nationwide protests and unrest that have not abated despite lockdown conditions and the predictably heavy-handed responses of the authorities, having now gone on for more than a week and showing no signs of abating. Indeed, the protests have gone international, in no small part to people having little else to focus their attention on beyond the circumstances of the pandemic, and there's a lot to say on the issue as voices are raised on this country's deeply chequered past on matters of race relations, and allowing many to reflect on the privileges they have been granted merely by growing up within the majority ethnicity. All told it's a massively complex issue that needs wiser heads and a better forum to discuss it than I can provide here, but it's another illustration of how 2020 is shaping up as a watershed year, probably the second defining year of this century, though whether that will be for better or worse will only be discovered way further down the line, not that I'm feeling that hopeful.

The responses to the situation at present, with the easing of lockdown restrictions, is mirrored neatly by how Mum and I are feeling about what the immediate future might hold, as she optimistically looks forward to the possibility of being able to get together during my week off in July, only five weeks distant from now, and being able to get out to engage in small pieces of local business and sociable interaction with regards her church and members of its congregation, while I feel quite the opposite, feeling more resistant to the idea of a return to normality. I'm actually starting to dread the idea of the trains starting to fill up again, having grown used to being able to sit with no one at all in my sight lines, and when you have problems with crowds like I do, issues which have only grown worse as I've gotten older, the idea of the city starting to fill up with people is just alarming in the extreme, risking the further spread of this disease that just won't quite retreat into the background. So I'm not looking too far into the future yet, organizing my ideas to only take me as far as July, and then waiting to see what comes next, be it better or worse, and at a testing time like this, stuck waiting and pondering, it's useful to finally get a meeting with my departmental manager at work to give us some news on what we've been doing these last few weeks and where it's all going to lead. It turns out that the massive drop in hospital activity has resulted in initiating the push towards a paperless/paper-light future, and the culling and auditing that we've been busying ourselves with proves to be part of that strategy for Medical Records, as expected, and that gives us some clear direction on where we ought to be headed over the coming weeks and months, and that's all good to know, indeed it's always useful to have meets when you actually learn something new. Of course, a lot of this would have been useful to have come by a month or so ago, but such are the ways in this complicated age, and with the coming weeks of June looking like the hospital is going to start resuming a lot of its services, returning us to something that resembles a normal working environment in the LTH trust, and thus for now, I think there's very little of cultural value, or anything else to be gained, in continuing to report my working exploits here, as walking and living in the era of the Corona Virus should now be my primary focuses for blogging, rather than talking about working through it.