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. 

Asquith Avenue, Morley.

Dean Wood.

Belle Vue terrace, Gelderd Road.

The A62-A650 junction on the Aire-Calder watershed

Beyond, Gelderd Road draws us into Kirklees district, and on through the Birstall Retail park, which doesn't seem to be as closed down as it out to be during a national lockdown, but the rules are much more relaxed this time, as we know due to my pressing them to their acceptable limit as we press on, getting into the landscape of the valleys and hills that feed the river Calder, passing around the top of Howden Clough as it falls away to the south of us, and passing over that most lost of railway passages, the Batley - Adwalton line, somewhere below the car park of Currys PC World. On through the industrial unit and office park-lets we head, passing the Pheasant inn and seemingly setting course for Huddersfield as we continue on with the A62, finally peeling off from it as we arrive where the Kirklees Way route passes over with Dark Lane, with our path taking us onto Raikes Lane, as it rises into the suburban district best described as Upper Birstall, where a view over the town is available the the semis above the road and to those sat on its lower side, but barely traceable to our eyeline, showing just enough to confirm all the landscape wrinkles that we've ventured across. Beyond the work of the gas men who have the road up, we meet the feature that we've travelled this way to see, picking up the alignment of the L&NWR's New Leeds Line, on its passage along the section that's only been incidentally seen west of Upper Station, the site of which can be seen from the bridge parapet at the roadside, with the way ahead having had its cuttings infilled across the watershed hillside, but with an access path in place to take us alongside the Heaton Lodge and King's Park closes that have been built over them, leading us to Field Head Road and its partially lost viaduct. The scrubby land beyond is earmarked for redevelopment, but is still accessible to casual foot traffic, along a rough path that leads into Oakwell Park, a route which you'd hope might endure post the arrival of more houses as access on this unofficial route seems to be expected as fingerposts indicate a direct way downhill into the woodlands, towards the headwaters of Nova Beck, where a substantial embankment runs across it, and the infilling of the cutting on the eastern side is nicely obvious to the historically curious, like myself. Walking the route through the deep cutting to the west seems to be an nonviable option, so we'll have to press on with the path that rises adjacent to it, which doesn't quite offer the views down that you'd hope for thanks to branch and foliage cover, but it's still a grand feature to enjoy along with the other midweek visitors, exercising their dogs, their kids or themselves, as we crest over this rise and come down to meet the metal aqueduct that still has a small stream running over the cutting into a culvert on its southern side. 

Gelderd Road and Birstall Retail Park.

Raikes Lane, Upper Birstall.

Upper Birstall station site.

Field Head viaduct.

Infilled Cutting, Oakwell Park.

The Aqueduct, Oakwell Park.

Keeping on the paths was clearly a wise choice as the cutting below seems exceedingly damp, all the way to the the Warren Lane bridge, another spot where the Kirklees Way brought us down to Oakwell Hall, and the artificial pools beyond needs to paused by because a Kingfisher is spotted darting around, but eluding my camera, before the old railway line rises onto an embankment which offers a shaded passage as it swings around the north side of Oakwell Park, where colliery workings came and went over the course of the last century. Midway along we emerge into the open, to spy the M62 as it shadows the lost railway to the north, before we head on, under the increasingly bare trees and keeping to the wide and clear equestrian path until it splits off, and we keep on the overgrown embankment top as it presses southwest, almost getting all the way to the Bradford Road bridge site before all traces of a path are lost and we drop back to the unofficial access route down to the side of the Moor Lane to pace alongside the impressive retaining walls of the embankment as it runs on to passage over the A652. We'll loop around a bit here, as the abutments of the bridge endure on both sides of the road, which need to be seen from all angles, with the site of Gomersal station having sat on the far side, now lost below the suburban dollop of Summerbridge Crescent, which impedes any attempt to seek the eastern portal of the tunnel below the village and into the Spen Valley beyond, an adventure beyond our remit for the day as we have reached our outbound apex, and need to start the route back by heading southeast with Bradford Road, through the brief green space that keeps Gomersal and Birstall distinct from each other. Pass the Scotland inn and head back into greater Birstall as it reaches out along the A652, presenting a face of stone terraces, town houses and a fair amount of sprawl as we settle into the valley of Scotland Beck as it flows to the southeast, constantly changing its name as its location shifts like so many minor river-lets do in this county, passing below the road completely unnoticed near Trinity Terrace and flowing past the angling lake and not making a clear appearance until we've gotten off the main road and tangled up with an old route on Kirkgate, where it becomes Smithies Beck again, flowing below Birstall bridge.

Warren Lane bridge.

The Embankment path, Oakwell Park.

The Moor Lane retaining wall.

The Bradford Road bridge abutments.

Trinity Terrace and Bradford Road, Birstall.

On the slightly rising lane, we come up to Birstall Parish church, St Peter's, which I've probably already noted is a fine companion to All Saints Batley down the valley, with its squat and turreted tower, and wide aisles which make it appear to have three naves, while we also pass the Black Bull in before coming out onto the A643, where our way ahead is blocked thanks to Garfitt Hill being closed for resurfacing, and thus we have to detour with Church Lane up towards Gomersal Hill Top, pondering if this is the fourth or fifth time I've been unlucky with roadworks impeding my intended walking passages this year. Having risen above the valley in the wrong direction, we hang a left by Craven Terrace and join the B6122 Muffit Lane as it sends our detour back to where we wanted to be, entering a rural landscape and passing the farmstead at Popeley Gate, and onward around the fields of Popeley Fields on the hillside that separates us from the Spen Valley, while not getting a downhill view thanks to the thick hedge and tree cover which persists all the way to Woodside farm house, which sits barely shy of the A62 crossing, where it's both the Leeds and Huddersfield Roads. Cross by the old pub, now the Shama restaurant, entering the settlement of White Lee, which either named or was named by its former colliery, and soon enough pass the Black Horse inn and come across the Old Leeds Road from last weekend, and then we need to head downhill, as we could be drawn all the way to greater Heckmondwike if we were to miss the turn onto Carlinghow Road, which draws us down into the reach of greater Batley, which reached its extremity up here back in the 80s judging by the suburban stylings we see. It's a bit of a tour through the growth of the town as we drop back into the valley, passing among 1950s council houses, and older terraces which form the finger of urbanization that runs up the hillside, forming the village-let cum urban district of Carlinghow, which might have a distinct centre somewhere around where we split off onto Ings Road, which leads us into the industrial landscape back at the valley floor, where we return to the side of Carlinghow Mills and its crenelated tower, crossing Bradford Road again to make our third point of contact with a main season trail, and securely tethering our local lockdown bubbles to my wider 2020 walking field.

St Peter's Birstall.

Muffit Lane, Popeley Fields.

The older vintages on Carlinghow Lane.

Carlinghow Mills, Bradford Road.

Smithies Beck appears at the foot of Carlinghow Hill, and is passed over before the inbound leg starts in earnest up the valley side, rising steeply to pass under the previously walked route of the L&NWR's Batley - Lower Birstall line, and thence up past the very derelict Batley District Hospital and the very active Grammar School next door, before ploughing on uphill, through layers of exposed sandstone before cresting into the suburban and distinctly upscale landscape of Upper Batley, where the outermost reach of our early season bubble brought us. So past the houses contained behind their walls and banks of well-established trees before we head down into the next valley, as Timothy Lane pulls us downhill, partly along a pavement that isn't wide enough to accommodate walkers and the overhanging hedges, before we combine up with the B6123 as it passes below the remaining embankments of the GNR Batley - Adwalton line, much more evident than on our first passage over it today, as we decline down past this town's outliers to meet the valley floor by the passage of Howley Beck. The way home from here is barely original, but both of my prior passages of Scotchman Lane have been downhill, and this is lane that needs to be tested in an uphill push as my legs feel about as primed as they'll ever be after the stretches of this year, and so it's pounding the pavement uphill back into Leeds district as we hammer it up past the Needless inn, and on to meet the hardest stretch of all, below the edge of the fragmentary Morley Spring Wood, where we meet the suburban ribbon down from the town at its top, and feel fortunate that that is going to be all for hard climbing this year. Uphill we head still, along the suburban frontage, which reveals its location quality as we rise back towards Morley, showing up so much of the distant Pennine horizon that we failed to see on Saturday, giving us a fine view across the fields and hills, towards the landscape from the Colne to the Calder, which I can now feel like I identify with some certainty having traversed most of the high points that I can see, from Black Hill to Great Manshead, over the last two years, which gives me the strongest feeling of intimacy with the local landscape, one of honestly the best rewards that comes with walking.

Hammering it up Carlinghow Hill.

Heading Down to Howden Beck.

Hammering it up Scotchman Lane.

Looking Back to the Colne - Calder Horizon.

The lane reaches it height by the outlying terraces on the edges of Howley Park and we can slide back into Morley by passing over the M62, and rising through the suburban band up to the flanking terraces ahead of the Halfway House on the A650 corner, where it would be easy to head back into town via Fountain Street, but my wandering mind has me taking an unnecessary detour down the side of Bruntcliffe Road to seek the path that leads down a hidden ginnel into the remotest corner of the Elvaston estate. There's no reason at all to want to pace among the Lego houses on Chalner Avenue and Hawley Way, before tracing a away around the field at the estate's centre, and out again via the transition of urban vintages on Watson Street, other than satisfying my curiosity for where certain local roads and paths lead, as if wanderlust can be fed when absurdly close to home, and we land on Fountain Street midway along, just shy of the Morley Academy, which we pass before we approach the traffic island by the Fountain Centre and the Morley Top goods shed. Turn onto Corporation Street by the RC church of St Francis of Assisi and head along past the fire station, the police station and the health centre, before turning onto Queeensway, which amazingly hasn't dropped onto a local trail in ages, and head down past Morrisons on the one side and the Leisure Centre and Scatcherd Park, wondering why the latter is so quiet until I remember that its actually a Wednesday lunchtime, and then we come around to Queen Street and the rapid descent by Coffin Corner and the War Memorial, on your actual Armistice Day. The last steps of the loop take us up Dawson Hill between Scarth Gardens and the Mumbai Village restaurant, before cresting on the leaf-choked lane for the view over Morley Bottoms (where the bar culture is actually expanding!) before we roll down to Brunswick Street  and the final footfalls to Morley Hole to wrap the day and the year at 1pm, having given my life-expired E288 map its last hurrah after two previous retirements, and marking an annual mileage total that seemed totally impossible if regarded from back in March, while concluding that if we are going to have to remain in Lockdown for the rest of the month, it matters not to me as I'm ready for a 12 week hiatus and a Dark Season of relative hibernation, indeed I feel like I've earned it.

Returning to Morley via Scotchman Lane.

Watson Street, Morley, just because...

Morley Leisure Centre.

Returning to Morley Hole for the last time in 2020.

5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 4742.1 miles

2020 Total: 475.6 miles

Up Country Total: 4279.1 miles

Solo Total: 4415.5 miles

5,000 in my 40s Total: 3335.9 miles

Next Up: So, what else has gone on in Lockdown November?