The Halifax Circular 17/10/20

14.5 miles, from Sowerby Bridge, via Warley Town, Newlands Gate, Warley Common, 

 Mount Tabor, Moor End, Mixenden, The Bank, Illingworth, Holdsworth, Holmfield, 

  Slack End, Swales Moor, Pule Hill, Pepper Hill, Claremount, Beacon Hill, Bank Top, 

   Whitegate, Siddal, Salterhebble, Skircoat Green, Long Wood, Scar Bottom, and Pye Nest. 

Just like last year, it's taken a bit of a while to get to my late season Urban Circular plan, as all those schemes between the Colne and Calder just kept on coming, leaving us with only a small sliver of the year left for us to tilt at the last long trail of the year, returning to Saturday walking at the conditions don't look favourable for either day of the weekend, and aiming for an early start as the changeable conditions on the Pennine fringe could easily take a turn at any point after we've laid down our start line at just after 9.00am at Sowerby Bridge station. Thus we depart from the north entrance, onto Holmes Road and immediately head for the Calder crossing between the mill sites at the valley floor, and head up the ginnel that drops us out onto the A58 Wharf Street, which is crossed by the pub on the corner, across from Christ Church as we join Tuel Lane, the short A6139 as it presses its way uphill out of the valley, over the deep lock 3/4 on the Rochdale canal and on past the Lidl store and the tower blocks that loom over the townlet. It's a stiff climb, as is well known in the valley, and there's going to be about 200m of it to do as we aim ourselves to the west of Halifax, on among the terraces and the old school which sit above the blocks of flats as we press on upward, meeting more than one false summit on the lane with frankly inadequate pavements as we rise up, past the Waiters Arms inn to meet the A646 Burnley Road, which has been the northern boundary to our field for the year so far, beyond which a suburban ribbon strings itself along the rising Blackwall Lane. We land in countryside proper as we meet Water Hill Lane, which continues the climb, giving us looks up and down the Calder valley as well as a look back up the Ryburn to the south, as gloom and the hiss of low cloud starts to blanket the scenery, while we still have an upward trajectory to trace as we head up, around the cricket field and  towards Warley Town, a still rural village beyond the reach of the town to the east, which has cottages with fine views on its lower half, ahead of the shaded passage around past Cliff Hill house and the Grange, with the main street, as such beyond. Here we find the Maypole inn, the chapel, and the drinking fountain in the middle of a small picturesque idyll that is really on for the scrapbook, with Warley Town Lane offering us our way onward, past the well concealed suburban accumulation to the village's north, and into the fields by the remote club grounds of Halifax Vandals RUFC, below the westernmost extremity of Halifax, the Norton Tower estate, perched above the tree and moorland clad edge of Camp End.

The Tower Blocks by Tuel Lane, Sowerby Bridge.

The A646 Burnley Road, above Sowerby Bridge.

Rising with Water Hill Lane to Warley Town.

The Norton Tower estate, above Camp End.

A number of lanes, rising from the southwest join and cross at the hamlet of Newlands Gate, or Four Lane Ends (because there's five of them), with our northbound route taking us onto Workhouse Lane, which very clearly starts to trace the eastern edge of Luddenden Dean, which gives us a view that we have to mentally reorientate ourselves to as the hiss of rain continues, giving us a direct look upstream on the Calder towards Luddendenfoot and Mytholmroyd before recognising the nab end of Midgley Moor across the way, and tracing the emerging northwesterly reach of the valley beyond, as we rise on past the South and North Clough Head farms. It's not the sort of landscape to expect on a normal urban circular route, but that's part of the oddness of the town to the west of us, spread all the way up the rising and relatively level fields to the east before stopping abruptly at the declining edge of Luddenden Dean, all well concealed from us as Heath Hill Lane traces the western slopes of Tower Hill, giving us sight down to the Oats Royd Mills complex far below, and pressing us up to high moor altitude as the lane crests, before revealing the not-too-distant horizon of the Calder-Aire watershed. It's been seen from afar a good few times, but this trip will mark our closest approaches to it for this year, as we crest around to a landscape bisected by the upper reach of the Hebble valley, with our future path already visible off to the northeast as we leave the immediate influence of the Calder and head on towards Mount Tabor, another suburban outlier at a crazy sort of altitude, beyond the Heath Hill farms and sat on the crossroads on the old lane over Ovenden Moor to the Worth Valley, with the Springhead inn at its heart. Pressing on along Moor Edge Lane, we meet an air shaft by the roadside, probably waterworks related as there aren't any railways of collieries in this vicinity, and also look down towards the deep gouge of the Hebble valley beyond the fields, as if every branch of the Calder needs to have a statement passage, regardless of the size of the stream in it, and our route will keep us skirting this high edge for a while, passing the Highfield and Green Royd as we approach the only previous route that we've blazed out of this end of the town. We meet this route from 2013 past the former pub and curry house on the edge of the Moor End hamlet, which scatters itself at the roadside and the nearby hill top, making it feel like the last outpost on the lane before we are presented with the looming edge of Ovenden Moor, but a peer down the valley will show up the fact that the Mixenden estate is up here, with its ranked parades of council houses below, at a seemingly odd distance from the town, as if it were the only flat land available when the time for expanding the social housing stock came. To keep on our circuit we need to pass through it, dropping from the high fields by following Clough Lane down into the estate, which you could be forgiven for thinking got randomly dropped up here in the 1960s, but it has been a village prior to its arrival, sustaining a mill and a brewery, the sites of which we pass before meeting the long run of stone terraces facing the blocks of whitewashed council semis, which stretch down the valley to the southeast. 

Workhouse Lane, above Luddenden Dean.

Heath Hill Road, traverses Tower Hill.

Mount Tabor village, suburbia on the moors!

The upper Hebble valley, beyond Lower Highfield farm.

Moor End hamlet, keeping away from the roads.

The terraced front of Mixenden, Clough Lane.

Continuing on, we pass Mixenden's school and activity centre, before passing below the long earthen dam of Mixenden reservoir, opposite the local park and another terrace that once served another mill site, industry which came up here thanks to the plentiful supply of water power brought by the downstream passage of Hebble Brook, which we meet once we've passed out of the urban edge of town, past the former Hare & Hounds inn, with Mill Lane drawing us onto an uphill drag on the far side. With the open fields of cattle to the sides of us, and the looming rough edge of The Bank rising ahead, you could feel like we are back into the countryside, again, and as you look back across the estate below, with the moorland and reservoir perched above it, the social isolation that it suffers comes into sharper relief, as if living away from the town isn't an ideal lifestyle pathway for many, a thougt to ponder as our climb switches us back onto White Gate, and elevates us around the the edge of the plateau on which most of northern Halifax stands. Splitting onto Field Head Lane, we come around to the top edge of the town, as it skirts the northern boundary of the Illingworth estates, and gives us an elevated view to the Calder - Aire hills which now stand much closer, looking across the fields to the Upper Brockholes hamlet, where the Calderdale Way brought us into an alien landscape some eight seasons back, and as we come up to cross the A629 Keighley Road, the main passage north, it's telling that the terrain to the north is yet to be paced after all these years. Join Pavement Lane is it takes us past 2012's pick up and drop off bus stop, regarding just how far Halifax grew outwards in the 1970s before being arrested by the greenbelt apron that preserves the fields that surround Bradshaw village (one of many sharing that name around these parts), beyond which we can look up to Soil Hill, the highest lump on this stretch of the watershed ridge, still shrouded by low cloud and mist, while our day's northern apex is passed as we drift onto Green Lane. This traces us around the Illingworth Moor estate, presenting a familiar vintage to that which has preceded it, and the fashion continues as we pass along Illingworth Road and Hey Lane too, which lands us below the hill that Queensbury sits atop, while drawing us down into the main branch of the Hebble valley, formed by Ovenden Brook, looking across to the high passage that awaits us as we come in to the south of the Holmfield industrial estate as we meet Holdsworth Road.

Hebble Brook at Mixenden Mills.

Mixenden Reservoir, and the Ovenden Moor edge.

Illingworth Estate and Soil Hill.

The view towards Queensbury from Green Lane.

Riley Lane and the return to the (other) Hebble valley. 

There's a bit on actual rural vintage to be seen here as we trace our way though the largely lost village of Holdsworth, where its major farmstead and hall endure, the latter as a hotel complex, and we get ourselves tangles up with the Calderdale Way route here, retracing its steps as there isn't an obvious alternative to take to get across this valley, dropping with the lane though its stone lined cutting as it passes below the St Anne's school and Trinity Academy campuses before meeting the old railway line passage under Brow Lane by the Netherton and Holmfield mill complexes. It's straight uphill again from here, choosing to not make the detour up School Cote Brow to see what's been going on with Highways England attempting to destroy rather than preserve Queensbury Tunnel, and press up with the lane on probably the hardest drag of the day, past the short terraces and Brigg Royd cottage, ahead of the lane taking off up Windy Bank and us splitting off to pile our way up Crooked Lane, finding the setts to be honestly too slippery to walk on as we rise up to get our view back across north Halifax and to the routes already travelled in the west. Land on Queensbury Road, just shy of the Bradford district border at Catherine Slack, marking a late season route that has had to be excised from this year's plans, and our path carries us over to Swales Moor Road, so that we might travel to the east of Halifax via the high road above Shibden Dale, where we let the Calderdale Way depart downhill as we stay high up, looking across the deepening valley and its banks of autumnal trees to the rising mass of Black Dyke mill, standing tall above Queensbury. The views down don't endure, as the lane moves away from the high edge, pressing across the levelish hill top, past the yards, recycling plant and protein factories of the Leo Group's complex, while also noting that the high lane is absolutely thick with dirt, to the point of having a streetcleaner rolling back and forth, as an apparent matter of normal business, proving necessary due to the presence of a pair of nearby quarries, which seem to be digging out and processing more soil than the normal range of aggregates. Our lane crests here, before dropping down to meet the hamlet of Pule Hill (not that one), where the roads out of the Hebble valley and Shibden Dale cross at a low point on the ridge, where the Swimrite leisure centre stands at the crossroads, possibly the smallest of its kind that I've ever seen, ahead of the dry ski slop reaching down Pepper Hill, which isn't doing business today, but is the obvious landmark up here to spot from the other side of town, which can be viewed by casting an eye to the west once again, with us above the converging branches of the Hebble.

Netherton Mills, Holmfield.

The sharp ascent of Crooked Lane, again.

The head of Shibden Dale.

Perpetual street-cleaning on Swales Moor Road.

The dry ski slope, at Pule Hill

The view over the town is grand, with the low cloud lifting but the greyness remaining pervasive as my inkling that we are tracing the old road to Bradford being confirmed as we skirt around the high hillside on Bradford Old Road, with the view gradually revealing a sightline down towards Dean Clough and the high points of the town centre, with the bulk of the town rising to its west, giving us another great feeling of altitude again before we need to head downhill, among the fields around the High Royd and Dirk Carr farmsteads, on the way down to Claremount Road. Keeping to the east side of the Hebble valley, we land among what counts for the suburbia on this side of the town, a narrow band on the high road that doesn't seem to be more than 40 years old at any point, with the village of Claremount beyond looking mostly like its been purposefully replaced with suburbia, with St Thomas's church alone displaying its Victorian origins, perched on the hill edge on an obviously prominent location when viewed from below. It's not too far along before we get to Godley Bridge, which takes Lister's Lane over the A58 Godley Road, burrowing through its rock cutting off to the west, and landing us in a close proximity to the town centre which will last a while thanks to the unique geography of this valley, while also landing us back insdie this year's walking field, after the highly illuminating venure to the north, picking out our route as it drops us down the after-thought lanes that link down to Godley Branch - Beacon Hill Road, close to the best bailing option down to Halifax station, which we won't be needing as the sunshine finally starts to break the cloud blanket. Naturally we get most of the sunshine while we are on the heavily wooded lane that rises from the town up the east side of the Hebble valley, giving us soime autumnal clours to enjoy as we pace the slippery and leaf-littered pavements on the road as it wends its merry way back uphill, anticipating the views downhill which take a while to arrive, revealing us directly across from the Nestle factory, railway station and Eureka! complex, while also revealing looks to the Piece Hall and Square Chapel, the Lloyds building and The Shay stadium. The evolving view back towards Calderdale, looking across to Wainhouse Tower and the rising bulk of Manshead - Crow Hill, would have us feeling close to the finish line already, but there's a lot more of this circuit to go yet, as we rise to pass the only pair of habitations on this lane, with grand views over the illuminated town still, ahead of the top of Southowram Bank, which lands us in Bank Top, naturally, where we shift on among the recently developed flat blocks on Trooper Lane, which immediately leads us downhill again, along a steep and slippery passage of Yorkshire cobbles once more.

Bradford Old Road, above the town and the merging Hebble valleys

St Thomas's church, Claremount.

Godley Bridge, over the A58.

Beacon Hill Road, and woods.

Halifax town, spread to the west.

Trooper Lane provides a steep downhill passage.

All this rising and falling is enough to make me glad that I've chosen to stick with my heavy boots for these late season trips, as the ankles might have gotten a workout otherwise, and as we land on the end of the suburban reach of Blaithroyd Lane, we meet our first footpath of the day, leading us south again, and undulating a way up to the mast at the bottom of Higgin Lane, surely an essential beacon to maintain mobile coverage among the wrinkles of Calderdale, and it's here we break for lunch, still absorbing the views over the town, and watching the comings and goings at the railway station, far below. Refreshed, we press on feeling like a decent grasp of the lay of the land around Halifax has been gained before we need to descend into the Hebble valley again, which comes as the tarmac surface leads us down to the partially abandoned Snydale farmstead, from which a rough track steeply directs us downhill, while also angling us past the southern boundary of Stoney Royd cemetery and leading us down to Whitegate Top, gaining a viable surface by the high terrace and then drawing us past a bunch of pleasing terrace ends on the way down the valley side to the Cross Keys inn. At the top of Siddal New Road, we're still relatively high over the river valley, but with the views lost as we press on with Whitegate Road, back in a suburban landscape of stone terraces and modest brick semis of Siddal as they rise around St Mark's church, another Victorian pile that's obvious when riding the train up the valley, although we can't be too certain as to our location relative to the far bank of the valley as the tree cover offers us no sightlines at all. Still, press on though this other major suburb on the east side of town, crammed into blocks of terraces and semis on the declining edge of valley side down from the former fireclay work, the chimneys of which still rise into the skyline, and if we had a brighter, warmer and longer day to contend with, carrying on along Oxford Lane to the south would probably be the course for day, keeping us on towards Exley and Elland before we need to seek a very long way back to the finish line. Today however, we need the best available route downhill, and that's met at Bottoms, another steeply cobbled lane that drops down to the valley floor, one which only ambitious locals and those following their sat-navs would use otherwise, leading us down to the passage over Hebble Brook once again, via Bottoms bridge, which sits next to the former passage of the Halifax Arm of the Calder and Hebble Navigation, with the path previously walked running past the infilled bridge by the close at Millside Way.

The Higgin Lane mast.

Whitegate Top and the high terrace.

St Mark's church, Siddal.

Oxford Lane, Siddal.

The infilled canal bridge at Bottoms.

If we were feeling lazy we could trace the canal paths back to the finish line, but as this year has been a long season of ups and downs, we need to do more of that, pressing away from this hard-to-access suburban enclave at the valley floor, by pressing up the cobbled run of Crossley Hill, a lane deeply unsuited to modern transport, which lifts us up to the level of the terraces by the Huddersfield Road, and over the converging railway lines south of Dryclough junction, digging their way up the Hebble Valley via tunnels and rock cuttings. Arrive by the A629 again, crossing over by Calderdale Royal Infirmary, the historical Poor Law Union hospital, and joining Dudwell Lane as it rises onto the high plateau that looms over the merging Hebble and Calder valleys, a sight we get little of as it shifts into the suburban spread of Skircoat Green, on among ranges of terraces and semis, as well as a couple of distinct oddities as it sweeps around on a wider passage than seems necessary, while doing its best to conceal All Saints church as its spire rises over the scene. Arriving by the top of Copley Lane gives us the feeling of finally being on the inbound leg, as most of the remaining trip will have us heading west, and we'll transition across to meet New Lane by the Standard of Freedom inn (making an ultra-patriotic pair with the Volunteer Arms in the valley below), pacing out this high lane that allows a narrow band of suburbia with a view along it, above the steep bank on the north side of the Calder valley, while affording fine views over the rooftops and gardens to the extensive spread of North Dean Wood on the far side. It turns out to be not accessible along its full length, probably due to instability on its perch, but as we meet the edge of Long Wood, taking over from the suburban runs, we have an alternative path to join though it, dropping steeply down through the canopy of ancient and gnarly trees, with sightlines locating us opposite Copley church before we land on the long path that traverses the wood's length at a consistent sort of level, the sort of route that's always great to find in the late season, flecked with the colours of the season and resounding to the patter of falling acorns. I ought to have gotten to know the woods of Calderdale better by now, having had a copy of Chris Goddard's book about them on my shelf for far too long, but we'll have to regard them with an amateur's eye for now, emerging onto the lane of Birdcage Hill as the only other walkers in the vicinity are met, as we cross over to Scarr Bottom Road, rising again after we shed all that height on our previous stretch, not really getting any sight of the rock edge above that terminates the level plateau on which the town sits to the north of us, but getting another fine array of gnarly trees of Scarr Wood to admire as we pace uphill along the roadside.

The railway tunnels at Crossley Hill.

Dunwell Lane and All Saints church, Skircoat Green.

New Lane and the view over the Calder valley.

Long Wood and its well-built path.

Scarr Wood above Scarr Bottom Road.

Emerge from the woods by one of the many terraces that perch on the valley sides, and get a dynamic range of fungi to regard at the roadside before we get to a view of the upstream Calder that finally has us feeling like we're back in the vicinity of where we started, which is just as well as the day's warmth has already passed and there's no more indications of any more sunshine breaking through, indeed rain feels more likely as we drive on uphill, towards Scarr Bottom, over which Wainhouse Tower looms, offering all sorts of picturesque opportunities. Thus it's a shame that we haven't had the sunshine continuing long enough to illuminate the scene as the world's tallest folly tower looms over it, as it offers all sorts of fun aspects as it looms over the terraces on Scarr Bottom Road and Upper Washer Lane, where we incidentally pass over 2015's Irish Sea Trek route, passing between the old chapel and the houses with the most prominent of shared chimney stacks, before finding a new route by the Wainhouse Tavern, along Edwards Road, between the old Pye Nest school and the high terraces arranged at the oddest of angles to fit them on the high valley side. We then shift into a suburbia of semis of a certain vintage as we carry on to meet the A6142 Pye Nest Road (there's a few very short A-roads stretches around here, we might note), which presents the estate as it cover the grounds of the eponymous lost houses, seemingly still presenting the reach of suburban Halifax as we head downhill, as we've travelled quite a distance downhill, beyond a run of bungalows with views and the Prospect Avenue council house block before we meet signage welcoming us to Sowerby Bridge, muddying the uniqueness of the town that bit more in my mind. Still, we're close to sealing the loop here, arriving above the colourful Bolton Brow council houses, and the enduring school complex, and passing below the RC church, ahead of meeting the sharply descending A58 Rochdale Road as it merges in by the Shepherd Rest inn, and then dropping down to combine with the A6026 Wakefield Road, by the prominently located veterinarians offices, where we cross over at the head of the high street to shift back down Chapel Lane. This leads us down to the Calder valley floor, taking us past the Navigation Inn, possibly the oldest in town, and our passage over the Calder and Hebble navigation, just shy of the Sowerby Bridge Wharf, and the origin of the Rochdale canal, past the apartment development on the canal-river island and thence over the Calder itself at Gas works bridge, and onto Holmes Road once more, leading us along below the railway embankment and into the factory landscape around the station, where we seal our Urban Circular trip in a very satisfying time, at just ahead of 3pm.

The upstream Calder view, from Scarr Bottom.

Chimney Stack and Wainhouse Tower, from Upper Washer Lane.

Pye Nest Road, leading to the Halifax - Sowerby Bridge boundary. 

The vets surgery on the Wakefield Road corner, Sowerby Bridge.

The downstream Calder from Gas Works Bridge, Sowerby Bridge.

5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 4698.6 miles

2020 Total: 432.1 miles

Up Country Total: 4235.6 miles

Solo Total: 4372 miles

5,000 in my 40s Total: 3292.4 miles

Next Up: Visiting a hidden side valley of the Calder, unseen up close in eight years.