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.

Dewsbury & D.R.C. Walk #1: Dewsbury to Birstall 02/04/21

9.1 miles, via Eastborough, Crackenedge, Hanging Heaton, Croft House, Soothill Wood, 

 Howley Hall, Howley Park, Cliff Wood, Birkby Brow Wood, Howden Clough, Copley Hill,

  Birstall Fields, Fieldhead, and Oakwell Hall Country Park.

Long Distance Trail
means Selfies!
#1 at Dewsbury Minster

With the 'Stay Local' lockdown restriction ending on 29th March, we are now officially released to cautiously approach the idea of walking further away from home again in 2021, and with a promising-looking long Easter weekend coming up, it's the perfect time to pull the Dewsbury & District Ramblers Centenary Walk off the To-Do list, as I've had the route guide on my shelf for years and it sat as a plausible fall-back route for last Summer until I decided to go full bore into the Pennines, so its moment is now, easily dividing into three legs that are only modestly long, and with none more than a straightforward ride away from Morley either. Good Friday morning thus has us up, but not with the lark, to ride a still under-populated TPE service down to Dewbury station, to alight at 10.05am, and making our way to the start line via the western side of the town, across the A638 Ring Road and down Wellington Street, by the Dewsbury Reporter flatiron building and the Elim Chapel, across Daisy Hill and down Southgate to the bus station on South Street, before spilling out of Church Street and across the A638 again to the official beginning of the trail at Dewsbury Minster, the ancient church of this parish. Away we go then, anti-clockwise on the trail, along the side of the ring road, eastwards below the looming Town Hall, past the Sports Centre, Job Centre and Bingo Hall complex, and the Matalan dominated retail park, all located on the former goods yards of the L&YR and the GNR, all completely scrubbed from the landscape aside from the name of Railway Street bisecting the two sites, as we rise up to cross the foot of  Wakefield Road and carry on up the side of Old Bank Road to trace the Kirklees Way route on paths seen seven seasons ago. Up the toe of this hill we travel, along the wooded Hollinroyd Road, above the terraces of Eastborough before Sugar Lane drops us onto the A653 Leeds Road by the Crown Inn, with the way leading us on into Caulms Wood park, where we infamously lost the trail in 2014, but this time we are prepped, and find the correct route from the main path across this lofty green space over the town, as we meet the circular arboreal feature at its heart where we are led up into the eponymous woodland.