Pandemic Thoughts: November 2021

The Following is For Reference Only, the 2021 Summary will follow in four weeks' time.

Another month starts with our attention having wandered away from Covid for a while, instead taking interest in the COP26 intergovernmental conference on Climate Change, with a small amount of hope that after nearly two years of health crisis conditions around the globe,  world leaders might actually start to take the existential threat of the climate crisis just as seriously, but despite what feel like weeks of discussions little seems to come out of it, aside from a non-binding agreement to phase out coal usage, which hasn't been signed by the remaining major coal consuming economies. It's a horrible realisation to make, that those who would govern all of us have little real interest in long term planning for the benefit of future generations, setting targets to be met by 2050, long after any of them will have any stake in the future well-being of the world, but we really shouldn't be surprised, as we ought to be aware that as soon as challenges to the enduring problems of contemporary economics are faced, the wagons are circled in an attempt to protect the status quo, and after all this is the 26th such conference on the matter, and all the previous meetings have failed to create binding agreements and actions. So we have one less reason to feel hopeful after all that, and instead reflect on where the Pandemic is leading us as we transition out of the light half of Autumn and into the Dark Season, and despite having a few days of infections spiking above 50,000 per day, a renewed surge in the rate doesn't come to pass, and the familiar sort of numbers continue throughout the month, apparently fired most prominently among family groups, and with the under 12s being the most harshly affected group for the first time, showing that circulation among the un-vaccinated is still the major issue. It can all look like that Covid is becoming socially normalized, and the risk of infection has been allowed to become 'just one of those things' that people catch, with a panel scientists speculating that even in a best-case scenario, it could very plausibly be 2023 before Covid becomes a background disease, among the mix of regular ailments suffered by the general populace, while bad scenarios could have it lasting another five years, with social counter measures and annual booster vaccinations being a regular feature for some time to come.

Low Moor to Shipley 08/11/21

10.4 miles via Moor Top, Wibsey Slack, Wibsey Park, Haycliffe Hill, Low Green, Horton Park, 

 Dirk Hill, Shearbridge, Croft Street, Eastbrook, Stott Hill, Canal Wharf, Canal Road, 

  Bolton Woods, Dumb Mill Place, Crag End, Windhill, and Gallows Bridge. 

We shall not have a glum finale to 2021's walking year, as I'll be spending my end of season / birthday week off work Up Country for a change, which opens up the opportunity to pick up some of the shorter trips that dropped from the schedule, which could have plausibly numbered three thanks to a decent weather projection, but as I've actually got plans of necessary things to do while My Mum visits (taking another chance for her to get away from home for a bit), means that I'll only get in one, which is fine, as I've still got a lost canal to seek and one more railway station in mid-Airedale to visit. So our finale transit of greater Bradford starts at Low Moor at 9.15am under a wash of Autumnal sunshine, marking this out as the only trip of the year in this direction that hasn't started in Kirklees or Calderdale, as we move out to Cleckheaton Road to start as track to the kinda northwest, taking us past the terraced blocks that I'm pretty sure were built to service the former railway shed, rather than the ironworks, noting that it's still solidly industrial here as we press past the eastern perimeter of the Solenis chemical works and the Rhenus Logistics distribution depot, bounded by the ditch containing the river Spen. At the Brighouse Road corner, we pass through the Memorial Gardens and cross Common Road to join Netherlands Avenue, where the rise up towards the watershed ridge starts in earnest, with most our our usual miles of preamble having been shed thanks to a much closer start than usual, and this suburban boulevard lead us up to the crossing of the A649 Huddersfield Road, where we have to ponder if it feels familiar at all (almost forgotten since featuring on 2020's pre-pandemic season opener, it seems) and thence its on uphill, through Bradford's south-facing suburbia on this once-leafy boulevard. Meet Halifax Road, right by the tram tracks, and it's not even 48 hours since we were last passing this way, as we continue our fresh trajectory to the northwest, crossing to St Paul's Avenue to rise on through the suburban band, before meeting a real situation of dueling churches and schools, as St Winifrede's RC establishments occupy sites on both sides of the road as if they were trying to crowd out those of the CofE at St Paul's, the parish church of Wibsey and Buttershaw, urban boroughs which spread out to both sides of us up here. 

Halifax to Frizinghall 06/11/21

13.4 miles, via Old Bank, Stump Cross, Northowram, Stone Chair, Shelf Hall, Shelf, Beck Hill /   Royds Woodside, Buttershaw Mills, Odsal Top, Staygate, Goose Hill, Cutler Heights, Tyersal,      Thornbury, Moorside, Undercliffe / Eccleshill,  Five Lane Ends, Bolton Hall, and Bolton Woods.

As we lapse into the season of GMT and reach the final walking weekend of the year, we again find ourselves travelling out to Halifax, which seems to have quite unintentionally become our late season launching pad, like how Hebden Bridge took a similar status in the middle season, mostly because we've found a few new trajectories and un-traced paths heading out from it during our closing phase of route planning, and we had better get them down now, as we don't have plans to be burning any more trails in this quarter over the next few years. So it's off the Grand Central KGX express again for a 9am start, hoping that the glum weather will hold off a second time as we start out, aware of the lost hour of daylight as we start another trek to the northeast, descending away from the station down to Church Street, passing around the old railway goods yard and past the Ring O' Bells inn and Halifax Minster before passing over the hidden Hebble below Lower Kirkgate as we pass the decaying coal drops and the projections of the lost and contemporary railway viaducts before starting our path out of the valley, up Bank Bottom past the Matalan store on the Clarks Bridge mills site. This leads us up to the bottom of Old Bank, the forgotten old road into the valley which provides a testing ascent on steep and slick cobbles, rising us on through the trees on the Beacon Hill side as we pass above the views over the town, to be regarded for one last time before we head up through the cover of foliage to Beacon Hill Road and the flight of steps up to Godley Branch Road, which leads us to the A58 Godley Road, where the footway is joined again as we pass under Godley Bridge and enter the cutting that digs through the hilltop beyond. It's out third trek along here in this direction over the last two seasons, an odd choice when we still haven't seen Shibden Hall up close, just off our path to the southeast as we cut across Shibden Dale at the roadside, where there's been just enough leaf shedding going on to afford us the approximation of a view upstream into this hidden valley before we arrive at Stump Cross again, passing its inn and tall terraces on the corner before coming past the toll house and join the new turnpike to take us on our way, rising with the A6036 Bradford Road as it elevates us up the valley side, though not quite as sharply as the old road does. 

Halifax to Bradford (again) 30/10/21

10.7 miles, via North Bridge, Haley Hill, Akroydon, Boothtown, Booth Bank, Catherine Slack,

 Shibden Head, Ambler Thorn, Queensbury (Ford, West End), Low Fold, Hole Bottom, 

  Clayton (Bailey Stile, St John's, Town End, Pinnacle, Lidget), Paradise Green, Scholemoor, 

   Lidget Green, Lister Hills, Forster Square, & Exchange.  

Having done the walk over the Aire - Calder transition between Halifax and Bradford last weekend, it would seem to make sense to approach today's excursion as going back the way we came so as to vary things up a bit, but instead we'll be doing a repeat of start and finish points on consecutive weekends because I've had the road walk up the side of the Holmfield valley tagged as an ascent option since I first rode the bus up to Queensbury, and also because we have weather forecast to come on from the southwest all day, and I have no intention at all of walking into the teeth of that over the latter half of our trip. Dampness is already heavy in the air and thick on the ground as we alight in Halifax at 9.30am, seeking another fresh route to the north as we leave the Station compound and head up Horton Street once again, this time making our turn onto Market Street, taking us between the Piece Hall and the Westgate Arcade, and on between the Borough Market and the Woolshops centre, along with making another pass the Duke of Wellington's Regiment memorial before heading out onto Northgate, in the direction of the Broad Street centre and the bus station, which is finally in the grip of a remodelling to replace the 1980s styled pavilions, the last such in the county. Heading towards North Bridge, we turn onto Bowling Dyke to pass below it and the A58 flyovers to meet the crossing over Hebble Brook at the throat of Dean Clough, and tramp the pavements of Old Lane to meet the snicket that was famously photographed by Bill Brandt in 1937, where we'll rise up the steep and slippery cobbles to pass over the old GNR line between North Bridge station and Old Lane tunnel, both hidden by overgrowth in the cutting, and thence up the valley side on more setts to arrive on the side of the A647 Haley Hill, high above the valley side already, below the looming towers blocks on the Range Lane corner. The main road leads us up the valley's periphery, past the perched Lidl store and up to All Souls Haley Hill, the towering and spired pile that might be Sir George Gilbert Scott's crowning achievement in his speciality of Victorian Gothic revival churches, which lies below Ackroyd Park, home to the Bankfield museum and once home to Edward Ackroyd, the local employer and benefactor who developed the industrial suburb of Ackroydon in the 1860s which lies along the side of the rising road, a place to take a proper visual interest in on a nicer day than this one.

Halifax to Bradford 23/10/21

14 miles, via Woolshops, Cross Field, Bull Green, Peoples Park, Gibraltar, Spring Hall, 

 Pellon, Brackenbed, Wheatley, Jumples Crag, Illingworth, Illingworth Moor, Bradshaw, 

  Raggalds, West Scholes, Yews Green, Fall Bottom, Clayton (Town End), Deep Lane, 

   Scholemoor, Lidgett Green, Bradford University campus, & Shearbridge.

Having finally done with trips out of the Calder valley last week, the late season centre of gravity seems to have shifted back towards Halifax, just like it did last year, as if it holds an appeal for this point in the annual cycle, and it's also time to approach some mileage that we missed out on a few weeks back and to get onto the untraced trajectory in the county that had meant to be on the slate for the end of 2020, while getting to it finally provides a ride from Bradford on the Grand Central train to London King's Cross too, ticking the Class 180s off the list of unridden traction on West Yorkshire services. We alight in Halifax at 9am, just as the morning sun is rising above the hills to the east, and even though our destination is off to the north-east, our early going will be wholly westwards once we're away from the station and Square Road, picking a route that takes us up the steps that leads to the carpark and main street of the Woolshops centre, then up the old commercial street of the same name to make another encounter with the Duke of Wellington Regiment's memorial, before crossing Market Street to get some wholly variable town centre flavours from our passages up Russell Street and Cheapside. We pass through the banking district again, and taje George Street up to the crossing of the A629 Cow Green, before we join Bull Green taking us out of the town centre and in the direction of the Calderdale roads before we shift onto the rising urban slab by Hopwood Hall, and get a real variation of the urban qualities as we pass under the A58 Burdock Way with Hopwood Lane, passing through the terraces around Royds Mill ahead of the greenery taking over around Peoples Park, the old municipal library and museum and the Crossley Almshouses. Old Halifax sure is a land of contrasts, and unrelenting hills too as we press on west, with the quality of the bands of 19th century development almost seeming to have been plotted randomly, as we pass on over Queen's Road and come up behind the plot of St Paul's station once again, noting its distance from the town but it convenience for the biscuit factories that still operate on both sides of the road, an enduring feature of industry in the landscape of Gibraltar, on these slopes above the Hebble valley, where the King Cross Social Club's sports field needs extensive retaining walls on two sides to keep it level.

Sowerby Bridge to Low Moor 16/10/21

13 miles, via Mearclough, Washer Lane Bottom, Granny Hill, St Paul's, Thrum Hall, Pellon,

 Ovenden Wood, Wheatley (viaduct & tunnel), Page Hill, Forest House, Ovenden Moor estate, 

  Old Lane, Boothtown, Pule Hill, Shibden Dale, Lane Ends, Northowram, Lumbrook Mills, 

   Coley Hall, Norwood Green, Horse Close bridge, Old Hanna Woods, New Road Side, 

    Carr Lane Bottom and Morley Carr.

Going into the final turns of the season, the good news is that I haven't gone lame, and it feels like my hip pains are not going to come on at a pace that will interrupt my concluding stretch of walking for 2021, though the difficulties are still like to be forthcoming, not least from the fact that the residual warmth of the earl Autumn has now passed, and we'll have to hope to keep ourselves from chilling down too much by sticking to some more urban environments as we make our final start out from Calderdale proper, where so much of this year has been spent. Alighting at Sowerby Bridge station at 9.05am, we've got possibly the last of the un-traced Lost Railways of West Yorkshire in our sights, namely the Halifax High Level line, but we're down here in the river valley, and it's up there in the western reaches of the town, and thus we've a lot of ascent to make to get there, which means striking east to get no sight of the valley town at all as Holmes Road and Mearclough Road lead us along the riverside and below the rise of the railway line, passing the remaining fragments of industry still enduring, in order to make our passage over the Calder and the C&HN canal via Sladen Bridges. Rise with Canal Road to the passage over the A6026 Wakefield Road, and then get the climb going in no uncertain terms as we join Washer Lane, passing through the small urban enclave at its Bottom, before we start the sharp rise straight up the valley side, doing the reverse passage along my trans-Pennine trail from 2015 but getting a wholly different sort of perspective thanks to going up rather than down, and being in mid October rather than late July, as we pass into the terraced landscape clinging to the hillside around the Wainhouse Tavern and its eponymous tower. Our path beyond then gets extremely technical as it appears that a right of way has endured right up the hill, despite having been broken by the construction of the old turnpike roads, and being accommodated on slippery runs of cobbles between tight walls and up flights of steps, to really get the burn going as we rise relentlessly, from Darcey Hey Lane and over the A58 Rochdale Road and the A646 Burnley Road to land us upon Granny Hill, apparently level with Norland Moor across the valley, on the southwestern corner of Halifax.

Halifax to Keighley 09/10/21

16.1 miles, via Cross Fields, Dean Clough, Lee Mount, Ovenden, Illingworth, Illingworth Moor, 

 Odd Moor, Ogden, Cockhill Hill, Denholme Gate, Denholme Mill (sorta), Bradshaw Head, 

  Bank Nook, Leeming, Oxenhope (Lowertown & station), Moor House, Haworth, Ebor Mill,

   Mytholmes, Vale Mill, Oakworth station, Harewood Hill, Damems, Grove Mills, Ingrow, 

    Spring Bank, Woodhouse, Walk Mill, and Low Mill.

I've complained about my joint pains, most notably in my right hip, in my year summaries for the last couple of seasons, though it seems to have been tinnitus and a bad case of brain fog that have blighted the last few months, getting in the way of my rest and play (but not work, oddly) with frustrating regularity, but as we meet what should be the last long trip of 2021, the pain I've long endured has suddenly shifted from annoying to troubling, as if my hip joint is suddenly starting to grind on itself, adding another frustrating wrinkle to the late season going. Anyways, we're Airedale bound again as we alight in Halifax, deep in the Hebble valley, after 9.15am, immediately seeking another fresh route across the town centre as we cross to the rise of Horton Street, following to it to its very top and refusing the initial pair of northbound street options, and eventually making the turn onto Commercial Street by the Victoria Theatre, which takes us through the town's banking district, home to the Victorian era home of the Halifax Permanent Building Society, among many others, as well as the town'd outsize GPO too. This landscape persists until Waterhouse Street dumps us on the passage over Broad Street, behind the Town Hall, where our route takes us around the side of the eponymous Plaza betwixt the Vue Cinema and the Premier Inn to seek the way thorough the back streets beyond to take us under the flyovers of the A58 Burdock Way and around the Crib Lane car parks to find the end of Corporation Street to leads us into the former mill landscape of Dean Clough, initially passing the G and K mills before descending down into the company of the many carpet factories at the valley floor. Follow Lee Bridge Road up to the 1904 Cean Clough inn, as the flyover of the A629 shoots its way across the Hebble valley and into the Holmfield branch, and we'll stay with the passage upstream with Lee Bank road for a while, as beyond the mills we can spy the stub of Lee Bank viaduct on the old GNR line projecting out of the greenery on the eastern edge, where it switched sides on its northbound passage beyond Old Lane tunnel, and further up by the recycling centre we can find the retaining walls of the railway on the western side of the valley, upon which the contemporary roadway now sits.

Hebden Bridge to Queensbury 02/10/21

9.9 miles, via Machpelah, Birchcliffe, Chiserley (sorta), Midgley Moor (Collon Flat & 
 Dimmin Dale), Luddenden Dean, Low Bridge, Warley Moor (Height Edge, Sleepy Lowe Flat, 
  & Rocking Stone Flat), Cold Edge, Hunter Hill, Stod Fold, Lower Brockholes, Illingworth,
    Bradshaw, Raggalds, Mountain and Hill Top (abandoned en route to Bradford). 

After ten years of doing this, I really ought to have learned by now to not necessarily trust my weather eye when trying to predict the weather for the Pennines from my regular haunts in greater Leeds, as this past week had me observing all the changeable weather patterns of early Autumn from my vantage point at Seacroft Hospital and figured that a white cloud day projected for Saturday couldn't be more challenging than the passage of sunshine and showers that had covered the five days that preceded it, a display of climate naivete that's completely in keeping with 2021's experience. Our ride out to Hebden Bridge for our fifth and final embarkation of the year has us doubting the weather quality for the day, already grey and drizzly before we're off the train for a start ahead of 9.15am, already happy that we chose to graduate up to a long sleeved jacket before we headed out, and the rain's already coming on as we pass over the Calder and the Rochdale Canal, and make our way across the Burnley Road to the Machpelah terrace and the road towards Keighley, turning northeast as we meet the steep flight of steps that elevates us rapidly up to the raked terraces of Birchcliffe. It'd be a challenging ascent even in warmer temperatures, and as we hit the top, the reach of Marlborough Terrace continues at a similar sort of pitch, as if this town built its urban sprawl without real consideration for how practical it might be as we're elevated high above the combining valleys on the troublingly slick cobbles, passing above the rooftops and looking back to Heptonstall across the way before we join Sandy Gate, shadowing the fall of the Nut Clough as we press on northeasterly, above the tree line and into the rural apron of fields above. It's a slog up this damp tarmac, doing the ascent of the regular 150m of Calderdale ascent and then some as we push away from the clough edge to Lane Ends Lane, getting the fine view of all the amalgamating channels around Hebden Bridge as we press uphill, taking us to the south of Chiserley village, and its nearby companions to the north in Wadsworth and Old Town, almost grazing the settlement as we pass the Hare & Hounds inn by the high lane junction, and join Popples Lane beyond, accessing the farmsteads on the high marginal lands. 

Mytholmroyd to Bingley 25/09/21

15.6 miles, via Dark Lane, Foster Clough Delphs, Churn Milk Joan, Midgeley Moor, 

 Dimmin Dale, Back Clough, Low Brown Knoll. Catchwater Drain, Bare Clough, Parcel Beds, 

  Spa Clough, Warley Moor Reservoir, Nab Water, White Moor, Delf Hill, Sawood, Trough Lane,

   Black Moor, Brow Moor, Hardgate, Barcroft, Lees Moor, Harden Moor, Deep Cliff Hole, 

    St Ives Estate (Heather Park, Peat Dykes, Coppice Pond, Home farm, St Ives House, 

     Cuckoo Nest Wood), Clay Gates, and Myrtle Park. 

Only a few days into it and it already looks like the Autumn of 2021 is going to be throwing us weather that is just as inconsistent and unpredictable as the alleged Summer did, as gloom comes on when a white cloud day was projected for its first Saturday, much more mediocre than the forecast would suggest, which is a real shame as we need a few more good walking days before the inevitable fade of the season as we've three more trips over the Calderdale - Airedale moors to get in, and some residual warmth and no rain would be most welcome for them, thank you very much. The promise of the morning seen in Morley has already passed as we arrive in Calderdale, alighting the train at Mytholmroyd at 9.10am, as a wall of low white cloud is slowly drifting downstream from the west, looking to obscure everything from view as we aim a new trajectory out of the village, directly north, which means that early paces will match those taken before as New Road leads us beyond St Michael's church and over the Calder to Burnley Road, where the A646 is crossed ahead of us joining Midgley Road by the Russel Dean store. Uphill we immediately press over the Rochdale Canal, past the Clog Mill and the local school on its perch ahead of the lane starting to trace the descending wooded clough, finally getting off the road as we meet Dark Lane, which could be mistaken for a driveway to some high cottages before is starts its own snaking path uphill between high walls, giving us some elevation that ought to give us some grand views backwards, but the world seems to be ending to the west, as greyness bleaches out the horizon with the cloud hanging heavy at moorland altitude. A lightly teeming rain also falls, ensuring that the going underfoot is damp, saturating my trews in the long grass as we find our way onto the higher and rougher Stony Lane path, shadowing the fall of Foster Clough as we elevate ourselves above the valley, already wondering if it was wise to come out on a day like this, as we'll be at altitude for the full run to distant Airedale, as while Cragg Vale can be clearly defined on the horizon behind us, the moorland tops to both sides of it linger below a deepening pall of distinctly unfriendly cloud cover, below 400m, which gives me every reason to pause.

Colne to Keighley 18/09/21

Burnley Manchester Road to Burnley Central: 1.2 miles, via Centenary Way and St Peter's.

It feels like we've been waiting for the entirety of Summer for Summer to arrive, and now it actually feel like it's arrived, it's already done, as are my Jollies, thus starting out from Morley again as we return to the long trips on the train, looking to complete this three legged excursion around the western edge of the expanded field of experience in the East Lancs valley, heading out with my left foot's sole stuck together with one off-brand Compeed plaster and knowing that even with a 7am start from home, it's going to be a three hour trip to the starting line. As is familiar by now, the connection options in Burnley are awful, and thus to make best use of a wasted hour, it's best to alight at Manchester Road station and walk across the town again, alighting at 8.50am to find that the way up to the A682 is indeed a challenge, rising up the long allegedly level access ramp which adds minutes to any westbound connection, before we set a course around the east end of the town, hitting Centenary Way beyond the traffic island to head over the flyover that we passed under last time out, looking west to the town and its Town Hall, framed by Pendle Hill as we also pass over the canal. Looking east, the best, and indeed only, views to Boulsworth Hill and the Hameldon Ridge can be had over the roofs of Tesco and the bowling alley, ahead of the descent down to pass behind the police station and courts complex, before we come up to the eastern end of St James's Street, in the shadow of The Culvert and its embankment, and carry on up Church Street, passing below the high rising St Peter's Centre, the only tall building in the entire town, located in a loop of the River Brun, across the way from the closest batch of enduring terraces and townhouses in the town, around the bottom of Ormerod Street. Past the oldest schools in the town, we meet Burnley's parish church, St Peter's, located in it's yard in another twist of the Brun, and looking to celebrate 900 years of its recorded establishment in 2022, giving some ancient history to a town that doesn't suggest much before the 19th century, passed around as we join School Lane, passing below the old Grammar School on the way up to Active Way, which is crossed as we seek the alternate path to Burnley Central station, between the Anchor and Prestige retail parks which hasn't been cut off due to the dereliction of the Adelphi hotel, landing at 9.20am, meaning the last train trip of the morning will only require a half hour wait, and then we can lead you into the day's scheduled programming...

Todmorden to Colne (low route) 15/09/21

15.3 miles, Patmos, Lydgate, Vale, Cornholme, Portsmouth, Ratten Clough, Copy Pit,

 Holme Chapel, Cliviger, Walk Mill, Townley Park, Burnely Wood, Burnley, Danehouse, 

  Reedley, Brierfield, Whitefield, Nelson, White Walls, Primet Bridge, and Boundary Mill.

Four days into our week away, and it's already apparent that deciding to dump my original walking plans has proven to be an excellent idea, as taking time out for rest and relaxation has been a much better idea that trying to pound out the miles for three days of the week, which has resulted in giving us time for two trips for dinner out (Sunday Roast at the Shoulder of Mutton, and Tuesday night date with My Calderdale friends in The Old Gate), plus lunch with My Sister on a flying visit from Bolton and another visit due from My Mum's frinds in Skipton due for Thursday. Thus we are feeling like walking plans are being fitted in around the social calls, and only having one midweek trip on the slate, makes that a whole lot easier, again not needing access to the Parental Taxi to get to my starting line in Todmorden, riding the #592 bus to land at the bus stand at 9.15am under the viaduct on Burnley Road, with the A646 being our way ahead, the main trajectory that we'll be taking out of West Yorkshire to seal another long boundary extension onto our field of walking experience as we travel to visit all the end points of our recent trips across the hills to the East Lancs valley. With our destination being the exact same one that we last travelled towards from here, we'll match that route for the first steps, through Patmos (or Cobden) as we head out of town past Aldi, the Todmorden Community College and the cricket field on the main road before that route peels off north and we continue on a steady northwesterly, on the wrong side of the road to get any decent views across Centre Vale Park, going by the House That Jack Built, also passing the Hare & Hounds inn from Sunday's trip before heading on into the narrowing upper Calder valley. Beyond the grounds of Todmorden High school, we meet the bottom of Stoney Royd Road, our limit of experience on the Burnley Road since the Calderdale Way brought us this far in 2012, and thus everything will be new from here as habitation quits the steeply wooded south side of the road and a council estate lurks in the last spot to the west of the town where one could have been accommodated, where the views north head right up the valley side to Orchan Rocks and around to Whirlaw Stones, lurking high above the town.

Hebden Bridge to Todmorden 12/09/21

10.1 miles, via Hebble End, Calder Holmes Park, Machpelah, Mytholm, Colden Clough, 

 Hudson Mill, New Delight, Strines, Land, Clough, Moor Lane, Duke's Cut, Pole Hill, 

  Bride Stones Moor, Great Bride Stones, Fast End, Orchan Rocks, Well Wood, Hartley Wood, 

   Cross Lee, and Centre Vale Park.

It's been such a rough summer for keeping up with my planned walking schedule, that even before we got to my Late Season break away, I'd already decided to junk my plans for the week away, putting the Mary Townley Loop of the Pennine Bridleway onto the list of things to do in a future walking season, as what I really need right now is to feel like I'm getting to catch up on the excursions delayed because of the three weekends lost from this past month, especially as trips to the far side on the Pennies are going to start getting tenuous once the days start shortening. So I travel away with My Mum, as we seize the first real opportunity that we've been given to travel away from home for a while since this age of Covid descended on us, not getting to far away from home as we ride out to Hebden Bridge on Friday evening, landing us in a convenient place to be nearby to family and friends in the hereabouts, and taking a let in an Airbnb house, a classic Calderdale Under-Over, owned by a Norwegian family and used as their hytte, in as handy a location in the town centre as could be desired. Walking lands on the schedule come Sunday morning, avoiding the crowds of Happy Valley Pride weekend as we rise for a 9am start, descending from our base to the end of market Street to do a bit of a tour of the unseen paths of Hebden Bridge before we get going properly, walking up past the Co-op to the Hebble End bridges to join the canal path eastwards for a few terraces before dropping down Fountain Street to cross back over the Calder via the footbridge, then sidling along Central Street to cross the footbridge over Hebden Water that links the I&N school with Riverside Juniors on Holme Street. Passing the Post Office and the Trades Club, we rise to pass over the canal again at Bridge 17 and take our path through Calder Holmes park, and rise to Station Road, to be as close to the station as possible before we pick up the route that we'd had on the slate for August Bank Holiday Monday, which takes us over the canal for the third and final time, and onto the A646 as we can then follow the New Road - West Gate - Market Street alignment across the heart of town, long before the revellers and day-trippers get going, allowing us to quietly examine the town ahead of the throng. 

Hebden Bridge to Nelson 04/09/21

15.2 miles, via Calder Holme Park, Wood End, Lee Mills Bridge, Midgehole, Shackleton, 

 Walshaw, New Laithe Moor, Alcomden Bridge, Greave Pasture, Greave Clough, The Sod, 

  Hey Slacks, Boulsworth Hill (Lad Law & Abbott Stone), Bedding Hill Moor, Will Moor, 

   Deerstones Moor, Upper & Lower Coldwell reservoirs, Walton's Monument, Castercliff, 

    Marsden Park, and Netherfield. 

August Bank Holiday Monday also gets dropped from my walking schedule, not solely because of the mediocre weather, but due to the fact of being laid up in bed for 10 hours of Sunday with an absolute bastard of a headache behind my eyes, as if all the experience of the preceding day out overwhelmed me completely, completely blowing the already busted flush that was August 2021, and so as we head into the final third of this year, we have to start looking to force in the walking long walking days on the High Moors, regardless of the conditions, just to get them paced before the days get too short. That's where we find ourselves as September starts, alighting at Hebden Bridge at 8.15am, and setting out northbound, trying to find footfalls that haven't been made through this town already, which means passing through Calder Holmes park on the north side path and rising over the canal via the bridge into the formal garden by the Picture house, and thence crossing the A646 New Road to head up Bridge Gate, where the marketeers are already breakfasting in the many cafes and our path takes us over Hebden Water via St George's Bridge, the 1510 packhorse bridge that's one of the most enduring structures in the valley. Take a left onto Hanging Royd Lane, behind the town hall complex to trek on among the terraces and factory units that occupy the only significant area of flat ground in the town, which leads us up to another crossing of Hebden Water via the Victoria Road bridge, and another twisting turn or two among th terraced streets that start to stack up on the hillside, feeling puzzled that a riverside path in the town does not exist, only located at the end of Spring Grove where the Foster Mill packhorse bridge leads us across again and into the green passage upstream. The local cricket field is hidden in this riverside glade, as are some allotment gardens and the village bowling club, all crammed onto whatever flat ground they can find upstream from the town, alongside the river that churns away over the riffles and pools that have been contained by built-up walls along both banks, clearly trying to manage the flow of the many valleys that feed water into this single channel and into the Calder, a feat to be admired as we we move our way up to the Lee Mill bridge, where a suburban enclave has been developed on the mill site.

Todmorden to Colne 28/08/21

16.7 miles, via Cobden, Willow Bank, Hole Bottom. Whirlaw Stones, Stony Lane, 

 Mount Cross, Stiperden Bank, Stiperden Slack, Hoof Stones Height, Black Hameldon, 

  Hare Stones Hill, Gorple Gate, Clough Head, The Brinks, Flaught Hill Tom Groove, 

   Hey Slack Clough, Boulsworth Hill (Lad Law, Weather Stones, Little Chair Stones, 

    Little Saucer Stones, & Great Saucer Stones), Pot Brinks Moor, The forest of Trawden, 

     Hollin Hall, Trawden, Winewall, Cotton Tree, and Colne Field.

Another August weekend proves to be unusable thanks to another bout of unseasonably awful weather, which at least allows me a clear couple of days to be domestically sociable as My Mum travels Up Country on a flying visit, though it frustratingly denies me the opportunity to abuse my Parental Taxi privileges while I continue to tilt at the passage over the northwestern hills of West Yorkshire, so enforced rest comes on as I quietly curse out what has been easily my most disappointing Summer so far, at least until the long Bank Holiday break turns out to be the first warm one in six. Thus we get back to early starts on our trailing, and alight at Todmorden station at 8.20am, arriving in the upper reaches of the Calder Valley under the brightest of skies, a sight which we've really missed and will enjoy all day as we start out descending, down Station Approach and finding the shortcut path that I knew existed beneath Todmorden viaduct, taking us down to the A646 Burnley Road by the bus station and the new branch of Aldi, turning up the valley to follow the road into the quarter of town, nominally Cobden (or Patmos) that we haven't seen too much of previously. Past the shopping parades and Todmorden Community College, we get a frontage of townhouses along the main road, and we manage to distract ourselves from out intended route out of the valley by missing our northward turn as we traipse past the cricket field, crossing by the lodge house of Centre Vale park and rising into the landscape of post-industry and terraces, up West Street and Blind Lane to get back on track with Victoria Road, taking us under the railway as it rises up the Copy Pit line, and get our ascent really going as we hit Meadow Bottom Road. Rising up the clough of Willow Bank with short terraces flanking the road, we soon land by the site of Todmorden Laundry, with one cottage using its former chimney as a turret house of sorts, beyond which the lane starts a twisty path up hill, passing around the cottages and farmstead that have been dug into the rising hillside, and getting some early shade as we elevate up towards Hole Bottom, giving us some respite from the breath-testing ascent before we tangle up with the Calderdale Way path as it takes its turn up through the trees.

Mytholmroyd to Brierfield 14/08/21

15.2 miles, via Hawks Clough, Crow Nest Woods, Hebden Bridge (Fairfield & Hebble End), 

 Heptonstall, Slack, Clough Hole, High Greenwood, Black Dean Bridge, Clough Foot, 

  Widdop Reservoir, Great Edge Bottom, Tom Groove, Rapes Clough, Thursden New Bridge, 

   Broad Bank, Holt Hill, Lane Bottom, Haggate, Marsden Height and Catlow Row.

The first weekend of August is lost due to neither day being able to present a viably large window of decent weather for trekking over the Pennines, with rain particularly blighting the latter half of the Saturday, and thus our disappointing Summer continues with us being almost halfway through the month before we can get out again, full of intent to seek out the way to the only road that could honestly be described as a mountain pass in West Yorkshire, over the top of the northwestern high lands and into the East Lancs valley once more. We'll start this trip from Mytholmroyd, just so we are varying up our start lines and putting down a bit of distance before we are compelled onto the uphill lane, alighting at 9.10am and setting a course westwards along the floor of the Calder Valley, seeking a path that makes the most interesting possible passage along the straight mile of the railway line, which means descending to Cragg Road and cross Cragg Brook via the footbridge in the shadow of the viaduct that leads us over to the flats of Elphaborough Court, which are passed among to join Thrush Hill Road, where we pass under the narrow tunnel to the north side. Thence left, down behind the housing block on Erringden Road to meet the first footbridge, which elevates us over to the south side again, leading us into the Nest Estate, with its enduring 1940s vintage prefabs, and its path through the central close before we turn to the railway once again, passing over the stone Paddy Bridge, which doubles as a farm access route, which lead us back to the suburban edge of Caldene Avenue at Hawks Clough, where another turn takes us over the rails for a third time, over the footbridge leading to the Great and Little Stubb farms. Pass among them before another farm track drops us down, taking us under the railway via the Stubbs lane underbridge before we meet a rough path that shadows the railway west, through the trees and above the industrial enclave at Calder Brook before we meet Carr Lane and pass over the railway for the final time in this quarter, settling us onto the track of Crow Nest Road, which leads us below the steep ban of woodland at a short remove from the railway's side, where morning sun teases us with an appearance above the canopy before we meet the outlying houses that sit beyond the site of what used to be Hebden Bridge's gasworks, just a step or twelve east of the end of Wood Top Road and the railway station.

Hebden Bridge to Burnley 31/07/21

14.7 miles, via Calder Holmes Park, Hebble End, Mytholm, Rawtonstall Bank, Pry Hill, 

 Blackshaw Head, Well Hill, Pole Hill, Hawk Stones, Stiperden Bank & Bar, Coal Clough 

  Wind Farm, Long Causeway, Mosley Height, Mere Clough, Red Lees, Brunshaw, Turf Moor,

   Burnley Town Centre, Sandygate, Barracks, Central & Manchester Road stations.

As we find ourselves on the cusp of August, you might have the hope that we have something like a Summer climate in the air, but we're not seeing anything of the sort as we approach the high season objectives around the moors to the northwest of Calderdale and over the English Watershed into East Lancashire, instead of sunshine and warmth,we've got a cool and white cloud-y sort of day to face, hopeful that the proximity to the Pennines is not going to bring the rain at altitude as we join the old road out of the Calder valley for a proper trek into the unknown. We're not up with the lark today, instead riding out to Hebden Bridge for a 9.15am start, in the hope that predicted rain on the far side of the Pennines might have blown itself out by the time we get there, aiming ourselves towards the high roads by keeping low initially, departing the station to make a passage through Calder Holmes park, where its gloomy and early enough to only have dog walkers for company as we track its paths over to the side of the Rochdale Canal, where we cross Bridge 17 to follow the towpath west, past Blackpit Lock and over the Calder aqueduct. There's light drizzle in the air as we make our way along the back of the factories and terraces of Hebble End that are squeezed onto the narrow island between the river and the canal, keeping to the path until we meet the site of Calder Mills, where we split off to Robertshaw Road, taking us over to the other end of the ranked terraces in this space to follow Stubbing Holme Road as it follows the channel of the Calder, markedly narrower here as it flows down from its confluence with Colden Clough, where a footbridge takes us to the north side again, and up alongside the interceding stream channel. This leads us up to Bank Foot Bridge, where we land towards the western end of town, crossing over the A646 King Street to get on our route properly, starting our ascent of Church Lane as it passes behind the old folks home complex and into the district of Mytholm, passing the church of St James, which confirms itself as Hebden Bridge's parish church, on the closest plot of level ground large enough to accommodate it, as well as passing the local school and starting our climb in earnest as Bank Terrace and Glen View Road start their steep, twisting course uphill between the terraces and semis that cling onto this hillside, among the rising woodlands.

Sowerby Bridge to Todmorden 24/07/21

16.8 miles, via, Sowerby, Wood Bottom, Luddenden Foot, Luddenden, Oats Royds Mill, Booth,

 Luddenden Dean, Dry Carr - Slack, Clough Hole, Garnett Edge, Midgeley Moor, Back Clough,

  Low Brown Knoll, High Brown Knoll, Flaight Hill, Robin Delph Flat, Gib Slack, Crimsworth

   Dean, Lumb Bridge, Shackleton Knoll, Rowshaw, Walshaw, Rowshaw Clough, Hebden Dale,

    Gibson Mill, Gibson Wood, Knoll Top, Colden, Colden School, Blackshaw Head, Hippins 

     Clough, Great Rock, Great House Clough, Cross Stone, and Priestwell. 

Having been NIW and Down Country for the week, travelling without walking plans and ending up doing a whole mess of not much as we endured a blast heatwave conditions, we return to the North Country feeling like we ought to get back on the trail as things cool down and gloom over again, as some more mileage needs to be put down among Calderdale's hills and valleys while it's not raining, not least because July needs to be redeemed after that damp spell got it going on completely the wrong foot, and having had too much enforced R'n'R. With a lot of miles planned, we travel early, to alight at Sowerby Bridge at 8.05am, under skies that look like they'll be keeping the sunshine at bay all day, as we start off with the morning chill still hanging heavy as we decline down Station Road, past the builders yard in the coal drops, and the old police station, down to the crossing of the mouth of the Ryburn as it flows under the railway to merge into the Calder, taking a left as we meet the A58 and crossing over West Street by the Sowerby Bridge flat iron to start the ascent to Sowerby village. We're coming this way as the options for low down and westbound routes up the Calder Valley are rather thin on the ground, and so we rise sharply with Quarry Hill, passing the Royal Oak inn and St George's church on the sharp rise up to Fore Lane, which skirts us around White Windows house, and St Peter's Avenue pushes us between the suburban and council estates on the hilltop, giving us a view over the lower Ryburn valley towards Norland Moor,for a change, before we pass the grounds of Ryburn Valley High School, with its old schoolhouse almost concealed in plain sight at the roadside. Arrive at the site of the Victorian village school, across the way from St Peter's church, which shares some of the neo-Classical vintage of its companion downhill, and pass through the old heart of Sowerby village by the shopping parade and the Old Hall, before the turn northwards and downhill comes by the Church Stile inn, taking us down Pinfold Lane as it clings on to the high edge of the Calder Valley, which opens out ahead of us, drawing our attention across the way towards Luddenden Dean, our first target for the day, as it merges in between the high hillsides, west of Halifax and below Midgeley Moor.

Northowram to Mytholmroyd 17/07/21

15 miles, via Lands Head, Upper Shibden Dale, Shibden Head, Ambler Thorn, Raggalds, 

 Soil Hill, Ogden, Ogden Reservoir, Ovenden Moor, Cold Edge, Withins Head, Hunter Hill,

  Wainstalls, Reap Hirst, Peel House, Luddenden, Roebuck Wood, Luddenden Foot, 

   Calder Valley Greenway, and Brearley.

After two consecutive weekends of garbage weather, shedding my walking plans on principle, coupled to the intent to travel away Down Country, seems like a rather foolish course of action once a veritable heatwave washes across the country, offering the hours of sunshine that we'd desired for a scenic walk, albeit attached to a temperature spike that you could probably do without, meaning that the trail is rejoined with hope that the month of July might be redeemed, while dressed in my light summer gear that hasn't been out in three years and loaded with liquids for what could be a very testing day indeed. This time busing out to Northowram goes without a hitch and it's already hot as our feet touch the ground opposite the surgery and across from the end of Hall Lane at 9.35am, so we already know that it's not going to be a rapid sort of day, which means a slightly more leisurely pace will allow a chance to properly see the landscape that we hurried through two weeks ago, seeing how suburbia has butted up to and penetrated the grounds of Northowram Hall, which still hides in there behind the wall and the trees, and how much of the associated estate has endured outside the boundary. Further on, we enter the landscape of fields and farmsteads scattered on the high land that Shibden Dale digs into, with Marsh Hall being by far the most impressive, with its apparent 17th century stylings and vintage, while Land Head almost form the heart of a rural mini-hamlet among the undulations and hillocks that rise around the concealed valley which remains our point of focal interest, to be found down Cave Hill where the view from the Brow Lane corner is as marked a contrast as you could want as the sunshine blazes down. Our traversal is thus resumed, as Blake Hill End Road traces the eastern branch of the valley, past Bleak Hill End farm, before turning back along the valley side with Paddock Road, past its eponymous farm and the only suburban house with an aspirant view in the area, before we join the track of Addersgate Lane, wending its way down the hillside past the farmsteads perched on the dale's brow, passing by Plough Royds, Woodcock and Adders Gate and getting quite the most superlative views of  downstream Shibden Dale, as we go.

Rumination: What is This? I Don't Even... 10/07/21

The Following is For Reference Only.

Every walking year seems to hit a point where my walking resolve starts to crumble, either from internal factors like mental or physical fatigue, or from external reasons like terrible weather, and we've definitely met the latter on those in 2021, but at quite the most unexpected time of year, as while early July can offer have weather that settles into roasting hot or markedly changeable, we have not seen consecutive weekends of awful weather in all of my walking years, having to go back to the infamously recalled year of 2007 with its latter half of constant rain and greyness for something comparable. Weather projections for this walking day had suggested we were due a day of sunshine and showers, that hard to read forecast that could bring weather that is sunny or damp, but when we rose in Morley we were greeted with fog, hanging low on the ground and not having been predicted to occur at any point in the week, which you wouldn't expect to endure at this time of year, so the walking resolve was steeled to go out and make the best of the mediocre conditions. The mental resolution for the day then started getting its beating right at the outset as we set out to hop on the #425 bus at Morley Town Hall, only to find it inexplicably cancelled and thus a half hour wait had to pass until the next service was due, putting me behind schedule and adding to the frustration that comes with a long enough wait of 20+ minutes for the #681 service at Bradford bus station, where it's painfully visible that the persistent damp gloom has not lifted even as we roll past 9.20am. The Halifax via Shelf bus is boarded, to ride us back up onto the Calder - Aire upland, and there's no sign of any improvement coming in the air, and indeed things look like they're worsening as we roll up at Odsal Top, as the skies darken and a sudden downpour comes on as we ride through Shelf, giving me an impromptu dousing as it runs in through the open bus window, and as we approach Northowram, conditions outside look no better than they did when I quit the path a week ago, and I stay firmly in my seat as my stop comes and goes a 10am, only moving on as we roll into the Halifax bus station terminus.

Brighouse to Northowram 03/07/21

6 miles, via Owler Ings, Brookfoot, Slead Syke Wood bottom, Sutcliffe Wood bottom, 

 Hipperholme Mill, Mytholme bridge, Shibden Hall Park (Mereside), Stump Cross, Salterlee, 

  Lane Ends, and Shibden Dale Brow. 

You can probably guess from the headline that this was not a walking trip that went as planned, and I should also have known that I was flick fate on the nose when I thought that I could take on the challenge posed by a day of constant Summer rain, but sometimes it seems that I really think I know better and that the weather conditions can easily be overcome even when taking on a trip from the banks of the Calder up to the watershed ridge and back down again, taking a long route around Halifax and taking in some of the Calderdale terrain missed on my long trips northbound. So, this object lesson in watching things come unstuck starts at Brighouse station at 8.50am, already dressed against the weather that doesn't take much time to come on as we take a snaking route across the town to the northwest, heading to Brighouse bridge via Gooder Lane and Cliffe Road, and then approaching the Navigation channel and  Anchor Bridge via the stub of Bridge Street, before we head out of town via Owler Ings Road and Bank Street, varying it us just so things can be kept interesting as we match old trajectories. There's already a persistent light drizzle in the air as we rise up to the side of the A6025 Elland Road, again, where we'll carry on northwesterly through the tree lined bank above the canal and the Calder on the way down to Brookfoot, by no means an original route choice but the only practical way to get to this low corner of the town, with its terraces stacked on the hillside above, its old Co-op store now occupied by a funeral director and the Red Rooster inn looking likes its back in business after seeming to have had regular occasions of being permanently shut. Our new route starts here, not up through the Brookfoot Business Park on the site of the old dye works, despite it offering a hard surface to walk on, instead joining the rough path at the side of Red Beck, which forms the valley that we're intending to traverse, possibly the most concealed of all the branches of the Calder, with our initial steps being taken up to the edge of the woodland and fields above the stream, pressing on past the industrial plant, with the vegetation having been very recently cut back so we're not getting an additional soaking from below as we rise on, up the dirt track to meet Wood Bottom Road.

Sandbed to Cowling 26/06/21

16.3 miles, on The Pennine Way, via Marsh Wood, Pry Hill, Hebble Hole, Colden, 

 Hot Stones Hill, Green Hill, Clough Head Hill, Reaps Level, Graining Water, Clough Foot, 

  Walshaw Dean Lower & Middle reservoirs, Withins Height - Dick Delf, Top Withins, 

   The Height, Buckley Green, Ponden Reservoir, Dean Clough, Crag Top, Thornton Hill, 

    Oakworth Moor, The Sea, Cat Stone Hill, Ickornshaw Moor, High End Lowe, 

     Dean Hole Clough, Lumb Head, Green Hill, and Ickornshaw. 

Summer lands, in theory, but June fails to continue to flame as we aim our our most ambitious tilt at the lands between the Calder and the Aire, approaching an unbroken stretch of the Pennine Way, that most notable of long distance paths that I keep blathering on about never wanting to do in its entirety, located only a short way west of where we were last weekend, but those extra couple of miles upstream from Hebden Bridge requiring an earlier start and some inconvenient early morning busing to get us to the start of the trail and the time window we need for so, so much off-roading. So it's off the #592 bus at 9am, by the Sandbed terrace, on the side of the A646 Halifax Road, deep in the wooded cleft of Calderdale, by the Callis Bridge weirs and at the point where the Pennine Way and Bridleway both drop in from the south, immediately joining the former of these as it starts north, under the railway and past Lacy House, at the eastern end of the Underbank hamlet-let, and sending us directly up a stone causey at an angle that makes you glad that we haven't got wetness underfoot as height is rapidly gained away from the river. Altitude gains us views back, landing Stoodley Pike and its moorlands on our reverse horizon as we land amongst the perched cottages and farmsteads of Higher Underbank, following our path west before it switches back beyond, past the concealed former chapel and its graveyard, and onto the path directing us northeasterly into Marsh Wood, giving us a gentler ascent up the steep sides of the Calder valley than we are accustomed to, letting the locality of Charlestown and Eastwood recede behind us as we rise up through the ferns and birch, only getting steep as we rise up aside Dale Clough. It looks like it has an old hydro plant built above the cascade, which we pass on our way up through a knot of inconvenient vegetation to meet the cottage cluster above, the last one crammed in on the angled valley side as above lies open fields, met once we're past the Long Hey Top terrace and a passage along the track of Winter's Lane, with a clear way ahead through the long grass, angling us between the Popples and Scammerton Farmsteads, and passing through the wild garden of the latter on our way up to Badger Lane, one of the unexplored high roads in this quarter, and on up to the crest of the Pry Hill ridge, our first summit of the day.

Hebden Bridge to Keighley 19/06/21

12.4 miles, via Nutclough, Wood End, Spring Wood, Pecket Well, Duck Hill, Small Shaw Hill, 

 Robin Delph Flat, Bedlam Hill, Leaning Grooves, Cock Hill, Lord's Allotment, Dike Nook,

  Oxenhope Cemetery, West Croft Head, Oxenhope (Upper Town), Royd House Mill, 

   Haworth Brow, Lees, Cross Roads, Whins Wood, Hermit Hole, Ingrow, and Low Mill. 

With one 5,000 mile target passed, we're soon enough back on the trail to get to the next one, and back where I'd intended to be in my schedule before May caused everything to get shaken up, carrying on a lot further down Calderdale to carry on with my tilts from Calder to Aire, leaving two railway stations and three branch valleys in our wake, which will have to be returned to as the high season progresses, but for now, as close to the longest day as we can get, we return to the moors, and the highest viable road in the quarter, hopeful that it's not too dangerous to attempt to walk. We'll get back to the 12 miles of the valley that we've skipped before we're too deep into Summer, but for the last weekend of Spring we'll alight at Hebden Bridge at 9.15am, with skies looking like June isn't going to be as flaming as it was couple of weeks back as we start out, down Station Road and across the Calder and the Navigation as we rise up to the A646 Burnley Road and pace it west, before peeling away by the Machpelah terrace to rise above the town along Commercial Road, with the A6033 being our route of choice all the way to the Worth Valley. So the rise starts as soon as we're past the market place and the White Lion inn, taking a gentler ascent than we experienced on our last passage out of the valley from here, but still rising rapidly, up the eastern side of the Hebden Water valley, soon rising us above the channel of the river that is far wider than might be expected, tracing the footway of the road as it sits on a ledge between high retaining walls above and below on the elevation up to Nutclough, where we find ourselves among the tall terraces familiar to the area, and passing around the Nut Clough Mills and its own curved feature terrace. Keighley Road rises past the Nutclough Inn, and the terraces continue up the hillside, either clinging to the narrow plots by the roadside or reaching down into the valley as the town recedes behind us, before we find the plots of later suburban growth, which allows for views and gardens at hugely inconvenient angles, before we pass the old Co-op store on  the Lee Mill Road Corner, and the split off to the 'low' road up the valley as Midgehole Road drops away, and we reach the top of the town, with the footway leaving the road far earlier than expected.

Brighouse to Bingley 12/06/21

14.8 miles, via Lane Head, Slead Syke, Hove Edge, Broad Oak, Hipperholme, 

 Common Wood Head, Jum Hole, Lane Ends, Stone Chair, Cock Hill, Hunger Hill, 

  Queensbury, Hill Top, Fox Hill, Mountain, Raggalds, Keelham, Denholme Clough, 

   Denholme Gate, Denholme Mills, Denholme, Lodge Gate, Doctor's Bridge, 

    Manywells Height, Cullingworth Gate, Cullingworth, Cow House bridge, Hill End, 

     Harden, Low Park, Birkey Bank Wood, Holme House Wood, and Ireland bridge. 

I'd hoped that the passing of my 5,000th mile in the walking career would be marked somewhere dramatic, in a landscape worthy of the achievement, but the location I'd had in mind for a while would involve a long trip away, and right now I'm still not in the mood to cram myself onto a Dales-bound train with all the others who've grown to love the great outdoors during these pandemic times, and thus we'll save that idea for another day, as I've still got three more 5,000 mile targets to hopefully attain before we get to turning 50, still three years distant from now. Thus we ride to Brighouse, as our westward progress up the Calder valley continues for another start new start line as we aim our routes towards the Aire still, alighting at 8.55am under gloomy skies, some 40 minutes ahead of the day's sunshine, and we're short of original route to take when heading north, over the River Calder via the A641 bridge, between the climbing walls on the mill and flour silo on Mill Royd Street, and over the Calder & Hebble Navigation via Anchor Bridge, beyond the western end of the town and joining the tangle of the main roads as we rise to the island at the end of Ludenscheid Link. The new path thus starts as we rise with the A644 Halifax Road, rising through the villa district of the town, with the Brighouse Library and Art Gallery sitting in the midst of the smart houses, as does the ambulance station, and the Success Chinese takeaway, which is a nice auger for the day's progress, with our northwesterly trajectory taking us beyond the terraced district of town, to the south of Lane Head Rec, and on into the swelling suburbia, which has grown around the urban hamlet of Slead Syke and the associated big houses concealed in their grounds. Uphill all the way feels like it's going to be the order of the day as we rise past the Charles Kershaw nurseries, as the suburban front falls away from the west side of the road, as we draw up close to the valley edge above the passage of Red Beck below, while the road still manages to roll some as we meet the urban village at the top of Brighouse, Hove Edge, where we are flashed a view of the ridge passage to come to the north, ahead of passing St Chad's church and the Dusty Miller inn, all dressed up to mark the arrival of the Euro 2020 tournament, a year behind schedule but still feeling like its come too early.

Mirfield to Saltaire 05/06/21

17.3 miles, via East Thorpe, Littlemoor, Knowl, Moorlands, Moor Top, Hartshead, 

 Beggarington, Hartshead Common, Walton Cross, Hightown, Hartshead Moor Side, 

  Hartshead Moor Top, Scholes, Wyke, Judy Woods, Royds Hall Great Wood, Shelf, 

   Buttershaw, Horton Bank Top, Horton Bank Country Park, Clayton, Leaventhorpe, 

    School Green, Allerton Lanes, Allerton Hill Top, Chellow Dean, Chellow Heights, 

     Chellow Grange, Brantwood, Noon Nick, New Brighton, and Nab Wood. 

June arrives to bring us the big push to my first 5,000 mile target, not attainable today, but within spitting distance after the mileage put down in May, and after all those chilly days that blighted the first half of Spring, it genuinely looks like we've come around to the complete opposite in terms of weather conditions, actually promising us the potential of a Flaming June for the first time in my walking career, bringing us early heat even as we travel out to the Calder valley to get back on the trail, for the trip that got bumped from the schedule by all that rain that already feels like a distant memory. It' s after 9.10am when we alight at Mirfield, with a long day ahead of us, so getting moving under the bright spring sunshine is the immediate priority, down Back Station Road by the Ledgard Bridge and South Brook mills developments, and under the western end of the station plinth via Northgate, taking us over the end of the C&H Navigation's Mirfield Cut by the flood lock, up the Calder riverside from Mirfield weir and down from the bridge pier without a crossing, and up past St Paul's church East Thorpe, and Fold Head mills, to meet Huddersfield Road, which we track west to Ings Grove Park. Cross the A644 to join Doctor Lane and Nettleton Road, taking us behind the Railway inn, under the absent viaduct and around the Battyeford good yard site, also noting the railway cottages of Littlemoor before we join the council estate cum suburban lane that rises uphill to the urban hamlet of Knowl, which convinces me further that Mirfield is really a bunch of small settlements that have been smooshed into a larger one, as we track past the terraces and Co-op on Nab Lane before hitting the rise of Heathfield, bringing us more suburbia on the rise up to the footpath of Fox Roy Lane, beside the playing fields. Land on Kitson Hill Road, and get the reverse view of the middle Calder before rising on, with Slipper Lane taking us between the old houses of Moorlands and the Mirfield Free Grammar school, before we reach the urban limit of town and the stub of the high-hedged rural lane beyond, which offers our first view of the Calderdale - Colne Valley division to the south west as well as unwelcome warehouse development on the side of the A62 Leeds Road, which is crossed as the lane stub continues up to Moor Top, to meet the B6119 Far Common Road. 

Halifax to Apperley Bridge 29/05/21

12.7 miles, via North Bridge, Claremount, Stump Cross, Northowram, Stone Cross, 

 Shelf Hall, Shelf, Beck Hill, Buttershaw, Wibsey Park, Wibsey, Brown Royd Hill, 

  Little Horton (Chapel Green, Holme Top, & Little Horton Green), Bradford city centre, 

   Wapping, Park End, Undercliffe, Eccleshill, Greengates and Dyehouse Fold. 

Out with the old Boots #7,
and in with the new Boots #8!

As my Spring Jollies at Home week ends, but my Ten Day Weekend concludes, there are some feelings of frustration to be had as we shift back into the regular scope of walking from home, firstly, is that fact that the 20+ miles of walking time lost due to horrid weather conditions over two days at the start of the month have resulted in my missing the opportunity to breach my first 5,000 mile target of my walking career this weekend, standing at only 33 miles distant as we open out today, meaning the chance to gather the family, or at least have Mum stick around at mine for another day, to force a celebration of sorts, is gone. Equally annoying is the fact that Pair of Boots #7 have given up the ghost quite spectacularly, with the extensive gluing applied to their uppers in the late portion of last year having failed to prevent their demise in the face of the all the mud and wetness that they have encountered since being revived a month ago, when I'd hoped that they too would see me past 5,000 miles, and thus Boots #8 has to be purchased, going back to the suede and mesh styles of my initial pairs, after encountering the poor wear of the uppers on Mountain Warehouse's all leather styles, as well as being put off by their suddenly increased cost. I've no idea at all if these Storm boots will endure like their 5,000 mile sole guarantee suggests they ought, or whether I'll have bust them up by the end of 2022, but they're £40 less expensive than a like-for-like replacement and are going to need a breaking in walk as my feet have gotten used to rigid uppers and heavier soles over the last few years, and thus we'll have to adapt our walking plans around the risk of blistering or other foot trauma, meaning urban walking is the order of the day, allowing us a more limited route mileage and multiple opportunities to bolt from the trail, if needs be.

Bronte Way #3: Wycoller to Gawthorpe Hall 27/05/21

15.8 miles, via Turnhole Clough, Saucer Hill Clough, Boulsworth Dyke, Will Moor, 

 Thursden Wood, Thursden Brook, Park Wood, Pike Lowe, Holden Clough, 

  Swinden Reservoirs, Lee Green Reservoir, Swinden Water, Houghton Hagg Wood, 

   Brun Valley Country Park, Bank Hall  Park, Leeds & Liverpool Canal (Burnley), 

    Reedley, New in Pendle bridge, Spurn Clough, Moor Isles Clough, Pendle Hall bridge, 

     Ightenhill, Habergham, and Pit Plantation. 

Long Distance Trail means Selfies!
#3 at Wycoller Country Park

Two rest days are taken from the trail in the midweek period of 2021's Spring Jollies at Home, to allow time for other activities like shopping, spring cleaning and generally getting our house in order before The Way is rejoined at its most awkward extremity, but not putting Mum too far out of the way on another day out for her while performing Parental Taxi duties, dropping us off at 9.50am under much brighter conditions than we saw three days back above Wycoller's valley, at the country Park's Haworth Road car park, where we can both regard The Atom in a much more positive light than we did on Monday, as sunshine really elevates the views from the Panopticon. Looking forward to a whole day of walking into the previously unknown in Lancashire, our first in a long while, The Way needs to be returned to by the descending path down to the hamlet, giving us restored views over Pendle Hill and its borough downstream as we return to Wycoller Hall's ruins where we can poke around the remains of this late 16th century hall, dismantled in the early 19th century, meaning we have the same sort of edifice to regard as Charlotte Bronte supposedly did, as we wander among its rooms and around to the aisled barn, and that's going to be about it for the Bronte connections as The Way seems to have fallen like the Hadrian's Wall Path, having crammed most of its points of interest into its middle portion. We'll need to trip around the hamlet before we go, tracing the track to its northwestern end by Lowlands Farm, and the pricey new cottages that have been added in here, then coming back up the main street, crossing over the beck as we go and quietly marveling at how expensive and Cotswolds-ish it all feels, ahead of us meeting the Packhorse and Clapper bridges again and heading on upstream along the metaled path on the southern bank, through some willow tunnels and across a small wetland reserve as the settlement falls away behind us. 

Bronte Way #2: Thornton to Wycoller 24/05/21

16 miles, via Thornton Cemetery, Well Heads, Denholme Clough, Black Edge, Thornton Moor, 

 Stony Hill Clough, Leeming Reservoir, Back Leeming, Oxenhope (Lower Town), 

  Old Oxenhope hall, Haworth, Penistone Hill, The Slack, Bronte Bridge, The Height, 

   Buckley Green, Ponden Reservoir & Hall,  Whitestone Clough, Silver Hill Bank, Jarnel,

    Watersheddles Reservoir, Cross Bent, Smithy Clough, and The Atom.

Long Distance Trail means Selfies!
#2 at Bronte House, Thornton.

For leg #2 of this trip across a Chunk of West Yorkshire's literary history, I've got my Parental Taxi in attendance, so there's no need to make the frustratingly long bus ride via Bradford Interchange to get out to Thornton, as Mum can drive me out here, getting in behind the rush hour traffic, and not putting her out of her way at all as she can continue on to visit friends of hers in Skipton without having to put much more than a dozen miles on the round trip from Morley along the way of acting as my shuttle, like she would normally have done if we were having normal Spring Jollies. So alight on Thornton Road at 9.45am, and scurry back up Ball Street to mick up the trail once again at the Bronte House, where Rev. Bronte recalled as having spent the happiest years of his life (mainly because all the members of his family were alive whilst residing there), before we set off with the trail up Market Street, taking in more of this pleasingly rural vintage village, as we roll up to the Black Horse inn on the West Lane corner and rise up to meet the suburban spread of the village above, taking us past the Thornton Mill redevelopment and up to the chapel and Sunday school on the James Street Corner. Cross here and rise to the path on Reservoir View, the last terrace in the village at this altitude, and enter the equestrian fields and meadow beyond, perched up the valley side above the tapering west end of the village, affording come fine views up and down the valley, as well as to Thornton viaduct as it descibes it less than straightforwards passage up from the south, before we enter Thornton cemetery and trace its wide promenade path across its width, between the raked terraces of graves up and down the hillside. A rough track and field path guide us on, from Bottom of the Row farm, and up to Close Head farm, as we look down to the passge of Well Heads tunnel, its portal hidden in the wooded pit below, and still no closer to being revived than int was in 2013, and we'll start on that year's route again as we rise up to Well Heads hamlet, with its stone terraces stretching down from the White Horse inn, atop the rather blasted feeling ridge that rises between Thornton's valley and the next one over to the north.

Bronte Way #1: Birstall to Thornton 22/05/21

15.8 miles, via Nova, Oakwell Hall, Gomersal, Little Gomersal, Rawfolds, Hightown, 

 Upper House, Sepulchre Hill, Hartshead, Willow Valley Golf Course, Ox Pit, Birkhouse, 

  Bailiff Bridge, Norwood Green, North Wood, Shelf Hall, Coal Pits Hill, Low House, 

   Clayton Heights, Sheep Hill, Clayton, Fall Bottom, and Thornton Hall.

Long Distance Trail means Selfies!
#1 at Oakwell Hall.

Even with the ever changing landscape of this ongoing Covid pandemic, having Spring Jollies away from home in 2021 never quite seemed like a plausible idea, even from the perspective of several months back, but having a break of some kind, attached to long- distance and cross-country trail, accessible from Morley seemed like it would work, allowing us to start out from home and allow My Mum an extended break away from Leicester, while usefully utilizing her as my Parental Taxi service as we made our Trans-Pennine traversal, along the path of the Bronte Way. It's a trail we've had on our radar for a while, along with the route guide on my shelf, but didn't seek to approach as its early going traces a few too many previously seen trails, which is no longer an issue after the last year of regularly retracing steps both locally and further afield, and the fact that the back half isn't really remote enough to warrant a holiday away, but sits at a desperately awkward collection of locations if it were to be traced wholly under my own steam, and issue which our keen planning has already overcome. The name also links it to the lives of the Bronte Sisters, and the wider family, to hopefully illustrate that there was more to their short lives as novelists and writers at the parsonage at Haworth than might be otherwise known, a history which I knew little of until picking up another book, with walks, that placed their personal histories all over the North Country, though I'm not going to start with their actual literature, as that's really not my bag (aside from knowing that Heathcliff and Mr Rochester are garbage fictional heroes, essentially, and that the eminently ridiculous Kate Bush song 'Wuthering Heights' has virtually replaced the original novel in my mental landscape). Enough of my ignorance though, as that's never a good light to stand beneath, there's walking to be done...

Ravensthorpe to Bradford 15/05/21

12.7 miles, via the Greenwood Cut, the Calder Valley Greenway, Northorpe, Crossley, 

 Finching Dike, Norristhorpe, Liversedge Hall, Lands Beck, Hightown, West End, Scholes, 

  Stubs Beck, Oakenshaw, Victoria Park, Toad Holes Beck nature reserve, Woodhouse Hill, 

   Staygate, West Bowling, Ripleyville and Broomfields. 

It's immensely frustrating to lose a weekend's walking in May, especially when it's due to foul weather, with a double-raindrop sort of day completely blanketing Saturday, and brain fog coming on to completely discourage me from the idea of aiming at 16+ miles on a Sunday, or any other distance for that matter thanks to the issues with Sunday train services hereabouts, and thus hopes for a tilt at my first 5,000 career walked miles target before the end of the month fade from view, having just entered the final 100 miles on our last excursion out. It's already looking like this might be the worst May of all my walking years so far, barely able to string two nice, or even warm, days together, and I'm immediately feeling anxious that we might be looking at 2021 turning into a repeat of a garbage year like 2007, when it rained from June right through to its conclusion, as we ride the train out to Ravensthorpe, to alight at 9.10am under glum skies and a persistent light drizzle, taking in our spartan surroundings for plausibly our last visit to the station on its current site before we set off properly. The day's plan is to make my second trip from Calder to Aire via the city of Bradford, and our initial steps take  us out over the former river, and onto the north bank if it, having finally located the accessible path that slips down a cobbled hairpin slope to find the way upstream that I completely failed to locate when tracing the length of the C&H Navigation in 2012, and as we pace along the riverside, below Ravensthorpe's industrial band, it's clear that someone has recently been down here to keep the grassy track mown, keeping the damp leaves from soaking my legs in the early going. It's positively damp with atmosphere down here, with the path coming around to Greenwood Lock, at the start of the Navigation's Greenwood Cut, slicing off a corner of the river above Shepley Weir, forming another quite green strip along the waterway that conceals the industrial buildings on both sides as it lead us up to and under the Low Mill bridge and flood lock, and on around the long curve of the sweeping Calder before we rise away to join the side of the A644 by the sole riverside house in the area. 

Batley to Baildon 01/05/21

17 miles, via Healey, The Crofts, Heckmondwike, Littletown, Lane Ends, Gomersal, Birdacre, 

 Field Head, Lodge Beck, Hunsworth (sorta), Chatts Wood, Woodlands, Mill Carr Hill, Bierley,

  Goose Hill, Bowling Park, East Bowling, New Leeds, Barkerend, Beech Grove, Undercliffe, 

   Bolton Outlanes, Five Lane Ends, High Field, Idle, Thackley, and Buck Mill Bridge. 

It's taken a while to get here, but our arrival in May finally has it feeling like we are safe to declare 'Serious Business' on the year, as we're three weeks out from my second Covid vaccine dose and this country is now equally far out of its tightened lockdown restrictions which means our local bubble can be escaped and the season pushed further afield, not that I've got a mass of pre-prepared routes readied, as my cautious nature knows how these pandemic conditions have played out already and where the best laid plans often end up. Thus we look to travelling from the Calder valley to the Aire valley, by as many paths as we can find, as it's the major trajectory across West Yorkshire that we've been ignoring for the longest, and our first of these has us alighting at Batley, at a remove from the actual Calder because Dewsbury lacks obvious fresh routes north, for a 9am start, with a generally westwards path to initially trace, downhill along Station Road among the proud Victorian warehouses, and across Mill Lane and Bradford Road with a surprising amount of ease. The rise out of the valley of Batley Beck then starts as we hit Hick Lane, rising up below the imposing former Methodist chapel and then taking a turn away from the town's main street by the Union Rooms to follow Wellington Street as it passes its eponymous pub and a whole lot of not much else, until we meet the old public baths and technical school, across the way from the Fox's Biscuits factory, which along with the Variety Club is one of the main reasons for the town's national profile, The Pleasures of Batley indeed. It's uphill still beyond there, up to the Healey Lane corner and on along the path previously traveled past Jessop park and into the landscape of suburbia that has crept up the hillside, passing through the estate ahead of taking the turn off West Park Road to follow the old road alignment as it wanders into the concealed village of Healey, where some of its rustic flavour still endure around the George Inn and its own version of Healey Mills, just like it namesake down by the Calder to the southeast of here. 

Mirfield to Ravensthorpe via Cleckheaton 24/04/21

14.5 miles, via Calder View, Battyeford, Littlemoor, New Scarboro, East Thorpe, 

 Castle Hall Hill, Northorpe, Ponderosa Zoo,  Heckmondwike (Cuttings & Spen), 

  Liversedge (Spen), Royds Park, Cleckheaton (Spen), Manns Dam viaduct, 

   Cleckheaton (Central), Liversedge (Central), Heckmondwike (Central & Junction), 

    Carr Lane, and Dewsbury Country Park. 

With Spring feeling like it might have finally Sprung, more than two weeks later than usual, but ahead of having had long enough for my second vaccine dose to work its full effect, we aim to keep things kinda local before we look to start expanding the walking field much wider as we march on into May,  and as this tenth season has seen us retracing some old routes among my continued explorations, that seems like a good theme to continue as we aim to revisit the lost railway lines of the Spen Valley, first seen in the early days of 2012. So, to Mirfield we return, with another wandering route planned ahead of us, alighting just ahead of 9.15am, with the early morning chill still in force as we head off west along Back Station Road below the long brick retaining walls of the station plinth and past the looming bulk of Ledgard Mills, before we head across the Calder to its south bank via Ledgard Bridge, to graze the corner of Lower Hopton and pass back under the railway with its many arches above Chadwick Fold Lane, around the Butt End Mill site and the Hopton Cottage residential home. This leads us into the Calder View housing development still on a counter-intuitive route westwards, but my reason to be here among these still blooming lego houses is because we are on the site of the L&YR Mirfield engine shed, which operated from 1885 to 1967, of which nought remains aside from the access bridge across the modern railway, which itself will be soon removed with the expansion and widening of the lines through Mirfield so that's one to snare a look at before it's day is done. Through the brownfield site development and away across the flood plain that's sensibly being laid out as a riverside garden, to get us on track for our exploration of the bulk of the L&NWR's Leeds New Line, landing on the path on the south bank of the Calder to progress west once more, soon meeting the arched remains of the northern side of Battyeford viaduct ahead of the embankment on the far bank, ahead of the high abutment on the south side, east of Heaton Lodge junction where the projecting iron girder span passed over the river at an acute skew. 

Mytholmroyd Bubble Walk #6 17/04/21

5 miles, from Cragg Road, via Hoo Hole, Dauber Bridge, Clough Foot, Birks Hall, 

 Sutcliffe Wood, Hollin Hey Wood & Bank, Stake Lane, Windle Hill, Nab End Quarry, 

  Miry Lane, Stake Lane, Long Lane, and Hoo Hole. 

Post-Easter holidays, and Post second Covid vaccine dose, seems like a good spot in the year to return to my Support Bubble in Calderdale, which isn't point that we would've imagined being in at this point in the season when we last convened to flush 2020 away, more than three months ago, but with Spring resolutely refusing to be sprung, a sociable get together with my good friends IH & AK seem like a good option for a couple of evenings, to get in the necessary drinks and dinners while bracketing another bubble walk, while otherwise taking it easy before the year starts to get serious again. For them that means getting psyched up for trying to bring a school year to a satisfactory conclusion in only three months, while also organizing an examination regime on the top of it, so it's natural enough that landing with them on the Friday evening disappears into a quantity of red meat and wine, ahead of us all feeling the need to sleep off the effects, and thus Saturday morning means a late rise, and no option for getting out until after lunchtime, and there's no trouble with that as there's still plenty of fat to be chewed between us, and another day of early chill to be cleared before we head out. So it's away from our base on Cragg Road at 1.25pm, as getting out of doors in the British countryside seems to be a better way of patriotically expressing ourselves than staying in to watch the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral, and we've a new location to visit a short distance from Mytholmroyd, unseen by my local friends despite having been resident for nearly 15 years, though it's proximity is offset by the altitude away to the southwest, and thus we have to take a long circuitous route to get to it, pushing away on the trajectory out of town to the south, to gain height gradually as we pass up Cragg Vale. Thus we head past Royds Ices, Hoo Hole Mill, and into the countryside, over Dauber Bridge and uphill, getting a good view of the passage of Cragg Brook through the still leafless trees, before passing around the caravan site that has already filled to available capacity with visitors and below the bowl of Broadhead Clough, and rising on beyond the Clough Foot farms and into the dramatic lower stretch of the valley, which still seems short of Spring colour until we meet the Cragg Vale community gardens with its riot of still ripe Daffodils, where we split off from the roadside.

Dewsbury & D.R.C. Walk #3: Mirfield to Dewsbury 10/04/21

11.7 miles, via Hopton Bottom, Briery Bank, Whitley Wood, Whitley Lower, Briestfield, 

 Dimpledale, Thornhill Edge, Edge End, Rectory Park, Mill Bank, C&H Navigation, 

  Healey Mills, Pildacre Fields, D&O Greenway, Earlsheaton Common, and Sands Lane. 

Long Distance Trail
means Selfies!
#3 at Mirfield Station.

I'd have loved to have gotten this whole trail down within the Easter weekend, and a different vintage of myself would have eagerly been out there on the Monday, but my contemporary vintage is starting to feel the need to not push things so hard, and thus time is taken out to do other necessary things and the D&DRCW has to wait its turn in the schedule, dropping in on the last quiet weekend before the National Lockdown restrictions see their next significant easing, and also ahead of myself getting my second dose of the Covid vaccine to hopefully ease my mind ahead of the renewal of the crowds. We also have a nice day promised by the forecasts as we ride back out to Mirfield for a jump off ahead of 9.15am, rejoining the circuit path below the deep Station Road overbridge, heading south on Hopton New Road between the open fields and the large plots of allotments to approach the crossing of the Calder at Hopton Bridge, all the way feeling that the dense bank of cloud lingering to the south of the river was not something projected to happen today, before our path takes us a little way east along Granny Lane before slipping onto a path that takes us along between the back gardens, both old and new, of the suburban enclave of Hopton Bottom. Enter the fields as the path skirts the looming woodlands of Briery Bank, tracing the boundary before heading across to Valance Beck, which is crossed before we hit the sharp rise beyond, seeing naught but gloom ahead of us the the southwest, with the blue skies receding to the north as we look back over New Hall farm and woods to Mirfield and greater Dewsbury, and expanding the horizon northwards before we crest and field walk downhill again. A track is joined, skirting around Royds House farm in its own little glade, as we are lead downwards to pass over Liley Clough and then rise among more foliage free trees, to meet the track up from Hopton Mills, passing below Brier Knowl farm perched above, a lane which we traced southwesterly a good few seasons back, and those steps are retraced down towards the cottage cluster at Whitley Wood Bottom, whilst we aim a new track southeastwards, on one of those rare trajectories that has been distinctly absent on all our previous local travels.

Dewsbury & D.R.C. Walk #2: Birstall to Mirfield 03/04/21

9.3 miles, via Monk Ings, Gomersal, Spen Upper, Nibshaw Lane playing fields, 

 Little Gomersall, Royds Park, Rawfolds Mills, Jo Cox community woodland, Hightown, 

  Upper House, Sepulchre Hill, Hartshead, Dockentail Wood, Hartshead Hall Wood, 

   Bracken Hill, Battyeford, Heaton Lodge Junction, and Lower Hopton.

Long Distance Trail
means Selfies! #2 at
Bradford Road, Birstall.

Straight back onto the trail come Saturday morning, riding the #200 bus back to Birstall with some frustration that the Easter Weekend can't bring on some of the warmth that we had at the start of the past week, and gloom greets us as we alight on Kirkgate ahead of 10.30am, rapidly getting back to the D&DRCW path at the point of crossing Bradford Road, and ascending the suburban spur of Monk Ings and rising steadily eastwards out of the valley that encompasses Birstall, and Batley, across the open plots of Monk Ings Fields, aiming us up on the ridge on which Gomersal sits without ever feeling the burn of the ascent despite the altitude gain. Meeting the concealed and snaking path that leads into the close of Scott Lane, which sends us out onto the A651 Oxford Road at the cultural heart(?) of Gomersal village, where we can take in Grove chapel, the old primary school, Red House and the Public Hall before we slip away down Grove Lane, an historic feeling side street to take us to the West End inn and Latham Lane, where we can wave at the #200 bus as it passes on its return trip to Leeds, before we process up the side of the suburban edge of the village to the ancient Methodist chapel, with its boldly convex frontage Then take a left onto Ferrand Lane, heading us off the high ridge towards the Spen valley, recalling came this way many moons ago, down the rough track to find that the path towards Gomersal tunnel through the Fanwood Activity Centre had vanished, and the path up to Cliffe Lane still has you feeling somewhat unwelcome as you are squeezed up a narrow passage past Throstle Nest farm, landing by Gomersal's western edge again as we track southbound, joining Fusden Lane as it traces away around the grounds of Firdene House, which makes its own sort of bold statement. Arrive on the A643 Spen Lane, at the top of its ascent from Upper Spen (or Spen Upper), and we cross to finally get onto some off-road walking, dropping away on an enclosed and grassy track for a short while before we are led up steps to the Nibshaw Lane playing fields, where we head straight across the football pitches, thankfully not interrupting anyone's game to land on it parent road, on the fringe of the council estate that indicates that we are still in the vicinity of Gomersal, which turns out to be much larger than expected, and as we track on southerly, a westwards look into the Spen valley locates us on a latitude with Cleckheaton and Scholes, finally landing at a significant remove from 2021's local bubble.