The 'Back in Lockdown' Finale Circuit 11/11/20

10.7 miles, from Morley Hole, via Dean Wood, Gelderd Road, Gildersome Street, Birstall Retail 

 Park, Upper Birstall, Oakwell Park, Gomersal (station), Birstall (Kirkgate), Popeley Gate, 

  White Lee, Carlinghow, Upper Batley, Scotchman Lane, Elvaston estate, and Scatcherd Park. 

The disappointment that we feel right now is the fact that I am unable to travel away to spend my birthday weekend with My Mum down in Leicester due to the re-imposition of national lockdown restrictions, and so we are effectively back into isolation in Morley for another month while we hope that the Covid infection rate starts to go back down, but extra time on my hands gives me an opportunity to walk some more, after the date that had been the scheduled conclusion for the year, and why not, when there's an opportunity to push my mileage total just that bit further along? So, ahead of turning 46, we'll snag ourselves another local Lockdown circuit, for old times sake, and to snare a few more nearby lanes that wouldn't offer up an otherwise obvious passage, heading out to Morley Hole under the least inspiring sort of late season gloom, for a 9.05am start, and immediately seeking the local roads that haven't already seen all the footfalls back in the Spring - Summer section of the year, which means we head off up Asquith Avenue, heading northwest along a pavement untraced in six seasons, beyond Morley Victoria school and the terraces adjacent to it. Then on, between the Dean Hall and Ingles estates, up to the still extant Deanfield Mills and its terrace block before heading out of town over the M621, and down with the road as it dives through Dean Wood, the enduring bastion of greenery above Dean Beck and Gildersome tunnel, ahead of the rise up alongside the 62 Leeds industrial estate, which has claimed all the open fields between the woodland and the A62, which we meet at the Gildersome Arms corner and join instead of continuing on into the village. We'll keep on Gildersome's periphery as we trace the side of Gelderd Road southwesterly, on the trunk route to Huddersfield (a passage from Leeds that I'm still to do in its entirety, incidentally), landing in a landscape that is almost entirely one of industrial estates facing the suburban fringe of the village, with only a few outliers giving it any appeal at all, like the Belle Vue terrace and Parkfield house, ahead of the rise between the Finnings Caterpillar dealership and the Overland Park industrial estate, by the playing fields and the passage of the Leeds Country Way. Rising up towards the top of Street Lane, gives a clear indication that the A62 - A650 junction at Gildersome Street sits squarely on the Aire - Calder watershed, and why the old Ardsley - Laisterdyke railway line needed a tunnel to pass below it back in the day, and once we've traced our byzantine passage across the traffic island, we start our descent down the other side, below the Junction 27 flyovers of the combining M621 and M62, seen up close on multiple occasions, and still showing up just how overly massive and unnatural motorways appear in the landscape when regarded on foot. 

Brighouse to Morley 07/11/20

10.6 miles, via Brighouse Bridge, Clifton, Hartshead Moortop, Hartshead Moorside, Hightown, 

 Knowler Hill, Liversedge, Littletown, Westfield, White Lee, Smithies, Birstall, Copley Hill, 

  Howden Clough, Bruntcliffe, and Leeds 27 Ind Est.

So, as of November 5th were into our second National Covid Lockdown, but it already looks like it's going to be a different beast from the first, as much greater flexibility and mobility is permitted, and indeed expected, this time around, and despite inessential travel being discouraged, I'm figuring that a single half-hour trip out of the region at the end of my walking season to complete the second leg of my homeward bound trip is going to be way down the risk list as we speak, and that the British Transport Police are going to have better things to do that track down solo-walking miscreants like myself. Thus my revived season concludes by heading out from Brighouse, just like it started back in July, alighting my train at 8.50am having travelled out through fog and mist that looks like it's going to linger over the whole day, and again starting out by not taking the most obvious route forwards, by heading west from the station via Railway Street to Gooder Lane, so we might pass the church of St John the Divine, which claims to be in Raistrick, to further confuse the geography of the area, ahead of pacing John Street to meet the long flight of steps that drops us down to Bridge End by the Star inn. Joining up with the A643m, it takes us under Brighouse viaduct and over the Calder at Brighouse bridge, before snaking around to meet Briggate once again, passing over the Canal and completing one of my most fatuous detours designed to keep my paths fresh, only getting properly on track as we join Bethel Street as the local shops are opening up, and barely showing the indications of the lockdown situation that exists at present, while getting the feeling that we've really done a number on this town centre during my many passages across it this year. Lawson Road leads us to the tangling of the local bypass roads, where we cross over to get on track with the A643 Clifton Road again, passing though the industrial band that sits around the lower reach of Clifton Beck, which is crossed over ahead of passing over the Calderdale Way route and meeting the remains of the railway embankments of the L&YR's Pickle Bridge line, with the station remnants of Clifton Road station being seen to the south of the main road. The climb of Clifton Common beyond is one we've paced before, and continues our theme of serious rises and falls on the year's paths, rising past the strings of terraces that rise up the hillside from the hillside up to the suburban infill, before we reach the open fields ahead of Clifton village, where we'd expect our views back into the valley, but there's just fog blanketing the scene instead, meaning all our attention will settle onto our pace in the absence of views as we run past the Armytage Arms and rise to Highmoor Lane beyond.

Mytholmroyd to Brighouse 31/10/20

10.7 miles, via Ewood Hall, Midgley, Lane Ends, Luddenden, Hollins Wood, Newlands Gate, 

 Norton Tower, Highroad Well, Thrum Hall,  Halifax (The Gibbet, Cross Fields, North Bridge 

  and Charlestown), Southowram Bank, Bank Top, Withen Field, Southowram, 

   St Anne in the Grove, and Brookfoot.

I'd really have liked to have gotten out to Mytholmroyd during half term, but with My Good Friends having both returned to full time teaching since the summer, and the worsening Covid rates doing their best to amplify the risk factors, it just didn't seem wise to try to re-establish my Support Bubble at this stage, and thus it is rather reluctantly collapsed until the Festive Season at the earliest, but as it has been my home-from-home over this past season, it still seems sensible to use the town as my start line for my homeward bound finale, back to Morley by the shortest route possible(?). Unfortunately, the weather projection isn't looking too clever, but a Sunday option isn't there thanks to engineering works screwing everything up, ans so we alight 9.10am, feeling certainty that there will be rainfall during the trip, following the pattern of the week if we can judge by the flows of Cragg Brook, as seen from New Road, and the Calder as observed at Mytholmroyd bridge, looking far fuller than they did on any of my visits in the Spring and Summer, though still way below dangerous flood levels, obviously. In keeping with this year's theme of tracing many ups and downs, that's what we'll keep to as the last legs home are forged, starting by rising from the A646 Burnley Road and setting off up Midgley Road, past the Russell Dean store and over the Rochdale Canal via White Lee bridge, past the enduring Clog Mill, and through the band of vintage houses before we reach the elevated reach of suburbia beyond, with the sizable Calder Learning Trust in its midst as it stretches uphill, with the descending channel of Foster Clough running through it, before entering its culvert. Further up the valley side than you'd expect, we finally break into the countryside, angling ourselves to the east, looking up to the woods of Han Royd Bank, and rising carefully up to the hamlet of Ewood Hall, which seems to have retained all of the farmsteads, barns and auxiliary cottages of its estate, while managing to lose its main house, though Ewood Court appears to be for sale if you've got a lot of cash to drop, to gain a residence with views to Cragg Vale, Scout Wood and Crow Hill. That's the landscape we'll take in as we power uphill along the well-contained lane to meet Height Road and Midgley village again, which doesn't have quite the appeal seen previously on a glum day like this one, with it all feeling a bit more removed from the world, strung out at the end of a very remote bus route and feeling like a bit of harsh weather could isolate it horribly, revealing just how much the weather can affect my regard for a location, not that the residents seem to mind as they come and go along Town Gate and we press through to the Lydgate junction once again.