Berry Brow to Sowerby Bridge 08/08/20

15.5 miles, via Armitage Bridge, Armitage Fold, Big Valley, Nether Moor, Crosland Moor Stone
 Circle, Crosland Hill, Milnsbridge, Scarbottom, Golcar, Scapegoat Hill, Longwood Common, 
  Round Ings, Slack, Outlane, Sowood, Sowood Green, Stainland, Dog Lane Mills, Bottomley, 
   Barkisland, Greetland Wall Nook, Norland, Norland Town, Spark House and Scar Head.

We've had a few days of high temperatures since my walking year formally revived this Summer, but this turns out to be the first to land on a Saturday, which allows us to head out with the anticipated worriies of how to keep cool and watered, rather than dry and warm as it has mostly turned out so far, and thus the sunshine blazes down as we take an early morning rid on three trains to get to our start line in the Holme valley, a bit remote from the usual lines of Colne and Calder, but making a whole lot more sense when it is recalled that this year was intended to have trails blazed westwards towards the Tame valley before the pandemic came a-calling. So to Berry Brow we head, where 2019's season ended, another world ago, alighting just ahead of 8.20 and rising to the suburban front of the district on the high east side of the valley, pacing along Birch Road before we set our course away down Station Lane, past the old station site and The Railway inn before descending down to the A616 Woodhead Road, which we join and then cross to head down among the tree cover around Carriage Drive to soon meet the valley bottom, crossing the River Holme via Armitage Bridge. The local landscape of Armitage Bridge house's parkland, the mass of Brooke's Mills office park and the parish church of St Peter's have all been noted on our last August passage down here, but the terraced blocks of Armitage Fold were not, built to serve the mill complex and located a ways down Armitage Road at the valley floor, now forming a pleasing little suburban enclave below the woods that crowd the west side of the Holme valley, through which we ascend again on the way up to meet Meltham Road, to enhance the feelings of 2019's travel experience. Progress with the shade coating the B6108 for a stretch, because I still haven't been able to suss if the route from Butternab Road to Delves farm is publicly accessible or not, and erring on the side of caution has us getting a s close to Nether ton as we can before returning down Nether Moor Road to make our passage across the Big Valley, through the tree cover of Dean Clough and under the former Meltham branch line before rising up towards the farmsteads, where the lane is gated off and the view to their personal overbridge is best viewed, ahead of the next climb. The steep cobbled lane leads us uphill, alongside the edge of Dean Clough woods and away from the farmsteads that have clustered here, giving us a really good turn of early exercising, barely half an hour into the trip, as we come up to the open fields of Nether Moor, which we eventually strike across with the lane, just downwind of the Crosland Moor airfield, with enough altitude having been gained to have us higher than our start point and rewarded with a view across the Holme Valley to Castle Hill and far beyond.

The Railway Inn, Berry Brow.

Armitage Road, Armitage Fold.

Delves Farm bridge, on the Meltham Branch.

Castle Hill and the Holme valley flank, from Nether Moor.

Early morning dag walkers and joggers seem to enjoy this lane too, as there's the suburban edge of Huddersfield to be found beyond the top of Butter Nab Spring woods, where the Crosland Moor Stone Circle is to be found obstructing a local playing field, not an ancient site by any means, as the rock has clearly been extracted from local quarries, but it's a fun curiosity to prevent the grass being used for ball games, and the town growth in this direction has hopefully been stalled for a while thanks to the rock extraction that still goes on along both sides of Thewlis Lane by the Johnsons Wellfield operation. We are then led out over Blackmoorfoot Road, and on to Crosland Hill Road, where the town has butted right up to this hillside hamlet, now a desirable sort of high suburb crammed up around the ancient Crosland Hall farm, the Rising Sun inn and the rural growth of cottages and terraces of another era, one which isn't large enough to accommodate a pavement as we crest over to the Colne Valley side of this ridge, which becomes apparent as we pass the outlying Quarry Terrace, before the descent starts with Deep Lane. The cliff side on this south side of the valley is so steep that Deep Lane almost clings to its side as it laterally traverses it downhill, among quarry remnants and tree cover that make you fell that a view upstream in the valley won't be easily forthcoming, and one is only spied in the break of foliage around Pymroyd Lane, where we can look across to Longwood and it's edge and up to Golcar and Scapegoat Hill, boldly advertising the height to come on the north side. Much altitude has been shed as we drop down through the continuing tree cover to land on the A62 Manchester Road, which we cross to join Whiteley Street as it drops us down to meet our previous path in Milnsbridge, combining up with it as we come across the Huddersfield Narrow Canal between the locks on either side of the road, passing the Four Horseshoes on one side and the extensive mill and warehouse district on the other, ahead of meeting the main drag, which the River Colne bisects as we make our first actual crossing of it for this year. We are then lead uphill, towards Commercial Mill and Longwood Viaduct, but a detour demands itself to consider the last stations of the Colne Valley, which would have been most useful to my travelling needs for this year, and the first of these can be located by joining the path the rises above the back of a run of terraces up to Bankhouse Road, where Longwood & Milnsbridge station once stood, from 1849 to 1968, with platforms covering all four tracks of the mainline, and with the plinth for its buildings on the south side still in situ above the retaining walls, ideally located for a traveler who might want to alight a train to further investigate West Huddersfield on foot.

Crosland Moor Stone Circle (not vintage).

Crosland Hill farm, Crosland Hill.

Golcar and Scapegoat Hill from Deep Lane.

The River Colne at Milnsbridge.

The platform plinth and access ramp, Longwood & Milnsbridge station.

We pass along the south side of the line behind the terraces until we find the path that rises up to the footbridge that takes us over the line, some way to the east of the former station, where new developments are being put up to claim some of the view on the north side of the valley, and we descend down the side of Lower Gate to meet the former station entrance by the roadside, and the Station inn, still intact but not a pub anymore, where we dive under the railway to seal our loop around the site and descend down the steps to Hope Street and Armitage Road to direct us back on track among the local terraces. So past Commercial Mills again as we join Savile Street, which gives us more grand viaduct views as we rise up to Crow Lane and Scar Lane, arriving by the Royal inn, with us getting dangerously close to retracing our path along last year's Urban Circular route, so variation needs to be made as we cross to Britannia Road to progress on a fresh route, past the long sweep of the curved terrace that hangs on the high bank above the Colne and the then on, into another shaded lane that keeps low as the way uphill splits away above us. We are thus led down to the former industrial quarter that once endured by the riverside, where three mills once grew around the Scar Bottom farm site which clearly preceded them all by a century or more, and parts of two of them still endure, Scarbottom and Stanley, with part of the latter placed by out of the way suburban housing while the former still has business uses, while also being insanely close to the canal path that we cannot see, and there's also a run of semis down here too, perched high above the lane and making best feature use of their sloped front gardens for rockeries and terracing. Railway interest resumes as we come up to lineside height once again, as well below the village's hill is where Golcar station used to reside, also lost for 52 years and as equally sizeable as its downstream neighbour, once accessible from the overbridge but now erased aside from the indentations in the retaining walls above and the feint impression of the footbridge in the stonework, another drop off point that would be useful to the modern traveller, though combining both the lost stations at the Milnsbridge goods yard site would be most economically sound, I'm sure. Golcar awaits, up the hillside above, and Station Lane leads us up there on a twisting course, among the weavers' cottages, Victorian villas and the accrued suburbia that have developed most haphazardly over the centuries, as if the village was intended to be dropped on the hilltop and it missed, smearing down the steep slopes above the Colne valley, with every option of ascending route being as picturesque as the next, but all of them having the sharpest of gradients, which leads us back to Carr Top Lane, where the Colne Valley Circular brought us down, on surely the shallowest of road angles available.

The Station hotel and terrace, Longwood & Milnsbridge station.

Longwood Viaduct, from Milnsbridge.

The mills at Scarbottom, Britannia Road.

Golcar station with footbridge imprint and buildings recess.

Carr Top Lane, Golcar.

Climb done, at least for now, we land on Church Street, between the Colne valley museum and St John's church, but before we progress on, along the shopping street of Town Gate, we need to break off for elevenses, as it's that time of day, at long last, snaring a bench in the shade for food and watering, as well as curiosity as to my choice of routes from a local oldster, and thus fortified we need to move on, as the day has already reached a heat that isn't conducive to loitering, so off we head, past the Co-op and the war memorial corner to Swallow Lane. The climb resumes, into the suburban reach of the village, of multiple vintages that don't quite jibe with the older face of it, taking us up past the Commercial Inn and the cricket club, before we split off the roads to make our way up Old Lane, the forgotten original lane up to Scapegoat Hill, which has some harsh steepness in its early going, with the sunshine's heat offset by shade until we reach the length of it that runs as an access track to the Hillside and Upper Haughs farmsteads, while teasing the views over the upper Colne Valley as we go. Land on Taylor Lane, and finally tether ourselves to 2020's field of walking experience as we continue to make our way up through Scapegoat Hill village, where des-res development still seems to be claiming every available plot among the ancient farmstead and terraces on the hillside, with the weather and clear view making it really obvious why you might wish to live here as we push up to moorland altitude on our way past the Liberal Club to High Street, where the Scape House inn might offer the best view of any beer garden in the county. The village barely settles onto the high fields beyond, as if everyone wanted a view, even during the rural era, and the Baptist Chapel and the village school sit on the rise of School Road beyond, as the fields open out to house masts and an underground reservoir, ahead of us landing on Longwood Common at 340+m up, that pleasing patch of heather moor that the Kirklees Way brought us over in 2014, and still offers the best sort of view down the Colne & Calder catchment, with the crisp and haze-free horizon offering a view across most of West Yorkshire, even as far as the Wolds and the North York Moors in the far east. Clearly the Pennine Manor hotel is up here for the views of the 320 degree panorama alone, and it's crazy that we aren't even over the main watershed here, as we are above the branch of the Longwood Brook valley, as we start our way down the north side with Round Ings Lane, getting our view of the M62 as it passes north of Huddersfield on the ridge over to the Blackburne valley, as well as a look to Great Manshead Hill and Stoodley Pike, way upstream to the northwest, before we retreat below the shade of trees as our route wanders onwards.

Town End, Golcar's main street.

The Colne Valley view from Old Lane.

High Street and the Scape House, Scapegoat Hill.

Longwood Common and the Pennine Manor hotel.

The M62 passing above the Longwood Brook side valley.

There isn't much of dramatic ridge to cross ahead as we come down through the Round Ings farms complex and split onto the alignment of the old road as it comes down to the Horsepond terrace and the corner that was severed by the motorway's construction, before we take a turn with the lane as it traces the uppermost waters of Longwood Brook and leads us into the hamlet of Slack, a rustically suburban enclave in the shadow of the M62, right next to the clubhouse of Outlane Golf course, with its other access lane leading us under the motorway to run us up to the A640 New Hey Road, landing us in Outlane itself. This high route over into the Blackburne valley is going to do well for getting us into new villages, having only seen the eastern end of this one six seasons back, with most of it ribboned out along the Lancashire-bound turnpike that we have to cross to continue north, taking the footpath that slips between a couple of suburban closes that could also claim to be among the remotest parts of greater Huddersfield, despite the watershed forming the crossing into Calderdale, with the B6112 Stainland Road leading us over Sowood Hill to next river valley up. The road descends towards Sowood, another growing suburban village at a good remove from nearby towns, sat at the uppermost reach of the Holywell Brook side valley of the Blackburne, with seemingly all the housing orientated to get the best view to the east and the run of the hillside that contains the Colne valley to the south, and while modern maps divide it into two settlements, older maps suggest it was three, and it really looks like one to modern eyes, not feeling rural rmeote thanks to the quality of the road running though it. So where Sowood Green starts, or if it even exists at all could be open to conjecture, as the high roadside gains residences on all the plots that will contain them, with our ridge walk taking us on, beyond the village hall, which was once the village school, and down among the outlying farms and cottages to the revealed view of the upper Blackburne to the west, confirming that this corner of the county is full of hidden ridges, valleys and views that you would only find if you came looking for them deliberately. Stainland is the next village to appear, arriving as its suburban tail stretches its way up the B6112, ahead of us splitting off along Back Bowling Green Lane to lead us to the village green and bus terminal at the west end of the village, all looking rather nicer under a welter of sunshine rather than the rain clouds of a few weeks back, and so a quick saunter around is in order before we break for lunch in the shade, across the way from Bowling Green primary school, which has a mock-up tractor in its playground.

Slack Hamlet.

The A640 New Hey Road, Outlane.

Sowood stretched out along Stainland Road.

The Holywell brook valley, from Sowood Green.

Back Bowling Green Lane, Stainland.

Our route of a rather indistinct northward trajectory resumes its wandering path as we split off westwards to make another traverse of the Blackburne valley, not too far away from the last one as Coldwells Hill and Dog Lane take us down below Providence Hill and Higher New Yard farm to the north of us as we come down below the rising hillsides to the south, still getting the view up to Scammonden Dam before we drop below the Spring Terrace and start the rapid descent to the valley bottom, which arrives much more quickly than it did last time around. The mill sites that developed on this lane seem to be still in industrial use, with Dog Lane woollen mill advertising its presence from a way up the valley side thanks to its prominent water tower, while the New paper mill site has grown massively as part of Sonoco's recycling plant, with a mass of chimneys and pipework abounding, and despite it being apparently fallow today, the air is thick with the smell of solvents and after crossing Black Brook itself, almost completely concealed below, getting away from the thick atmosphere seems like a wise idea. Not the easiest task as the shaded lane beyond rises sharply, leading on to farmsteads upstream, with our route up Pitt Hill Lane leading up to its eponymous farm along a steep stretch of cobbles that does not invite motor vehicle usage, before the going eases to offer us our first array of particularly well-lit views of the upper valley, under the relentless sunshine that makes a relatively easy slope tougher as it heads up to the Lower and Upper Bottomley farms that form much more of a significant hamlet than the Beestonley one a mile or so downstream. The wooded head of Bottomley clough means a direct route to the north isn't easy to come by as we rise on, past Handcfoft farm at the roadside and below the ancient looking Wormald to the north of us, looking like we are going to direct ourselves all the way up the valley side to the hamlet of Krumlin (the third place in West Yorks that could be located in Wales, after Pontefract and Aberford), before Clough House Lane gets us back on a northbound tack. This route expands our panorama, giving us a view back over Stainland and down the valley towards Greetland, as well as the valley divisoins towards Elland and Halifax on the way up to the settled high side of the valley, which settles in the Colne valley ridge and advertises the proximity of the Ryburn valley, just visible to the west as we come upon Scammonden Road, which skirts around the well planted estate of Howroyd House and also presents the curious tree with a hole purposefully cut through its crown to accommodate the passage of elevated electrical cables.

Dog Lan and Spring Terrace

Sonoco's Recycling Plant on Black Brook.

Looking back to Stainland over the Blackburne, from Bottomley.

Donnstream view of the Blackburne from Clough House Lane.

The tree with a hole in it, Scammonden Road.

At the top of the lane, that's another valley traversal done, not that I'm making a point of counting them, and it returns us to Barkisland as we come up to cross the B6114 Saddleworth Road, as if this village needs to be one of the important nodes of our travels around the Blackburne, and as we're about to settle onto its north bank for a while, we need to move on between Christ Church and the cricket club, where the weather has brought out a crowd for the match, before we cross over the Stainland Road and rise on, beyond the schools and the suburban reach to the village's north, as we are lead to the Greetland Road. Our route of many corners and angles turns us again, eastwards as we trace the side of the B6113, kept off the tarmac for a stretch as a gravel path runs along the bank past the Common Royd terrace and the Sandyfoot Clough cottages, before we are compelled to walk with the road, rising up to Heath Lea farm, which boasts is 'Home to one of the top herds in Barkisland', ahead of a continuing ascent, up to Lightcliffe Royd farm and the looming Gallows Pole plantation, from where our expansive views over the Blackburne valley open out. A grand old sort of view, filled with summer greenery, looking quite different from the views that we got from the lower road only a few weeks back, withe the lane drawing us up to the hamlet of Greetland Wall Nook, which seemed a lot more substantial from below, oddly as cottages string out along the lane, with a nicely located B&B at its west end, and its prominent chapel almost hiding from view at the roadside, with suburban outliers also arriving on the scene ahead of the quarry pits that forged the settlement, around the Spring Rock inn, which is attracting the revellers with its sunny gardens, despite the ongoing pandemic. Split off the main road here, and strike out along Norland Road, past the sports fields that seemed to be located miles from anywhere on this hillside when heard from the Calderdale Way on our first trip up here, and we progress on along what might be a viable footway, cresting around the ridge to get a view towards the valley joins of the Calder and Hebble, as well as their surrounding woodlands, ahead of us gaining an horizon that features Norland Moor, rising beyond the farms of Vicar's Lot and Lamb Hill that fill the level fields before it. That's a high land that hasn't been seen up close since 2012, and our route soon lands on last week's as we arrive at Clough Moor bridge, and are presented with all the route possibilities that will take us around the loose association of Norland Town, high above the start of the Upper Calder, picking New Clough Road as it hopefully offers the most expansive views, as well as the flavour of purple heather moors once again on the way down toward Moor Farm and the Kitson Lane terrace.

Barkisland Cricket field.

Lightcliffe Royd farm and Gallow Pole plantation, from Greetland Road.

Chapel Terrace, Greetland Wall Nook.

Greetland's playing fields, high above the Blackburne.

The stray edge of Norland Moor, New Clough Lane.

We drop with the lane, spying the spread of southern Halifax as it reaches down to the valley side, with Wainhouse tower and Crossley Heath school prominent above, coming down to the Moor End corner, where the bulk of the village, or more realistically hamlet, sits atop the fields across the way, around its old halls and pub, with our route of choice diving downhill further, towards the perched Hollin Well farm, at the end of the oddly named London Road which swings its way around this high edge above the Calder. With North Dean woods on one side, and Sear and Long woods on the other, it seems to be a landscape that doesn't invite easy access, despite having river, canal, road and railway passing through it, with Copley viaduct standing out among the greenery that almost successfully conceals the suburban village of Copley, and the former Halifax BS HQ, ahead of our turn around the end of this high bluff, passing above the newer Norland Halls and the top of Fall Lane, home to a dramatic bridge over the railway, far downhill from here. We've chosen an undulating lane to conclude on, which emerges from the greenery coverage as we come up above Sowerby Bridge proper, revealed definitively as its own place after many years of speculation, looking across to Bolton Brow initially as we rise onto Sparkhouse Lane, along which its very loosely associated hamlet stretches, passing the Bethel chapel and terrace, and the Lower Spark House on the rising lane, ahead of the reveal of the sweep of the upstream valley of the Calder, past the town with it tower blocks, parish church and polymer factory. More terraces cling to the hillside, as the lane passes among the steeply angled fields, and past the Upper Spark house, ahead of the terrain levelling off enough to allow equestrian fields to fill in the plots around Lane Ends house, and our turn downhill can be definitively made here, down Sowerby Croft Lane, following the bin lorry as it makes its way down to Hawks Cliff house and we can do our good deed for the season by directing motorists in search of the pub up the hill called The Hobbit, by not directing them to seek out Middle Earth or a cinema about seven years ago. We're ridiculously close to Scar Head up here, descending down Boggart Lane, which we approach instead of the footpath alternative, and if the high section on the verge of the Ryburn valley seemed steep, the lower Norland Road section, diving into the bank of woods below the Hope Street terrace is alarmingly acute, testing the overheated legs on the last footfalls of the day, as it we arrive in the industrial district around Sowerby Bridge station, and pass under the Holmes Road railway bridge by the coal drops to approach the finish line at the townside north entrance, overshadowed by the valley mills, for a day wrap up at 2.50pm.

Norland Town and its old halls, beyond the fields from Moor End.

The woodlands at the foot of the Upper Calder, from London Road.

The descent of fall Lane towards Bolton Brow.

The descent of Sowerby Croft Lane to Sowerby Bridge.

The Holmes Road bridge and the coal drops, Sowerby Bridge.

5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 4560.4 miles
2020 Total: 293.9 miles
Up Country Total: 4097.4 miles
Solo Total: 4236.8 miles
5,000 in my 40s Total: 3154.2 miles

Next Up: The High Moors route to the 69th and final station visit in West Yorkshire!
EDIT: Or Alternatively taking the weekend off to visit my Support Bubble again?