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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.
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| The Black Horse, West Lane, Thornton. |
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| The view back down Thornton's valley. |
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| The White Horse, Well Heads. |
Join the field path that angles through the long grasses and between the dry stone walls as the watershed is crossed, landing us above the valley of Denholme Beck and its company as it flows north towards Bingley, giving us another fresh aspect down into Airedale proper, with the bulk of Rombalds Moor beyond, as we more immediately note the path of the GNR's alpine line as it passes through Birk Hill tunnel on its way up to Denholme, as we come up to Morton End farm, and follow the field paths beyond, directing us downhill towards the the deep depression formed by Denholme Clough. Past the switchback path that we traced 8(!) years back, we drop down into the rough upper passage of Denholme Beck, getting tested by the mud on the way down to the idyllic little terrace jammed into the clough at its narrowest point, houses which may have been related to the quarries up here which formed the hamlet of Denholme Clough, which is to be found up by the passage of the A644 Brighouse Road, as we are forced uphill out of the valley by a path that leads from Cragg Lane and through someone's garden to meet the field rise up to the A629 at the top of Smithy Hill. Black Edge Lane is joined and our start over the rough track across the moorland starts, with us having risen to 30+m altitude with having even registered it before climbing further, elevating Soil Hill and Ovenden Moor, with its windfarm, onto the southern horizon, and giving us another fine view over the spread of Bradford, and beyond behind us, before we start to settle onto a long and relatively level section, loitering around 360m up, and forming the Way's summit stretch, far from the Pennine crossing and even the watershed of these hills. The high vista allows us a look of the revealing norther horizon, revealing the crests of Wharfedale's hills as they emerge far away, while more immediately the weather can be observed, looking changeable in a multitude of directions, whilst still looking promising above our passage, tracing the ongoing path and finding just how much moisture is running onto this walled track off the moorland of Black Edge, as we trace our northwest passage on, which reveals Stubden reservoir and the view back to Denholme village to the northeast of us.
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| The view north, over Denholme Beck. |
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| Denholme Clough. |
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| Ascending Black Edge Lane. |
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| The Ovenden Moor windfarm. |
Somewhere along the way of this path, we shift over onto Thornton Moor, and soon enough have Thornton Moor reservoir and the enormous embankment that contains it looming up by the trackside, feeling like it's a solid half mile long as it collects water that drains off the higher grounds above it, while being much wider than it is deep, with the valve tower sat at the southeastern end of the dam, and the run off charging noisily at the northwest, where we also meet Shay Green farm, tucked within the plot of the waterworks and filter beds. Departing Thornton Moor Road, we come upon the path that brought us this way on the Bradford Millennium Way back in 2013, revealing the view over the lower Worth Valley (the branch that doesn't have the actual River Worth in it) as we rise with the track around the edge of Yorkshire Water's property, getting that view down to Leeming Reservoir and Oxenhope which is really one for the scrapbook, and feeling the proximity of the Ovenden Moor windfarm beyond the high Nab End, while the eye is drawn all the way to the far northwest, our ultimate destination on the Way across what we call Bronte Country. Despite it being the only notable path off this hillside, the way down is much less clear than you might expect it to be, soon getting vague amongst the tussocky grass beyond the highest range of walls, and ploughing us on through some horribly damp turf on the bay down one of the many moorland catchwater drains that trail around the contours of this hillside, and then not getting much better as we carry on down, with my boots' leakiness starting to really run counter to my needs as we come down the edge of Stony Hill Clough, to meet the muddy pools below the moorland surfaces. Trace the footpath as it sneaks over the canalized stream as it flows in to the reservoir beyond the trees, before we rise and fall with the fields to cross the footbridge over Nan Scar Beck, before we are forced to test out the mudslide of a path that presses us on at a remove from the south bank of Leeming Resevoir, ahead of finally gaining a hard surface again as we land on Isle Lane, coming down from its pair of farms, and drawing us down to the dam's corner, where Leeming hamlet on the far bank creates it own picturesque idyll.
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| Thornton Moor Reservoir. |
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| The Worth Valley revealed, from the southwest. |
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| The Catchwater Drain. |
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| Leeming Reservoir. |
Heading down the path below the dam and its runoff channel leads us to our third excursion through the pile up of cottages and farmsteads at Back Leeming, crammed down in the narrow valley above Leeming Water, with Jew Lane rising us sharply beyond the stream crossing, where we shed the BMW route but keep on with the route that previous brought us this way towards Howarth, rising and falling though the trees as they lead us around from the outlying cottages to the former worsted mills at the southernmost edge of Oxenhope, the so called Lower Town. Pass briefly along the B6141 Station Road as it draws into the village, but our route takes us away, among the terraces and old farmsteads that crowd the lowest reach of Yate Lane, which rises us to the east of the main settlement, taking us above the wooded bank and along the field edge among some of the outlying houses, where a view up to the rough valley side at Bentley Hey bank rises, ahead of the reverse view to Nab End appearing to the south, before we slip into the shade of Dark Lane, where come notable crops of bluebells are noted on the way back down. Pop out onto the A6033 Keighley Road by the Sue Ryder Hospice and cross over to head downhill with Harry Lane before the Way directs us through one of the local car parks and down to the side of Bridgehouse Beck, the same watercourse from upstream as it matches the boundary of the Keighley & Worth Valley railway, where a footbridge leads us over to pass over the lines to the north of their carriage shed via the foot crossing, where we can rise up to the staring bench above and take lunch while some of the volunteers play trains with a pair of shunters and some rolling stock. Entertained by that, we rise with the field path beyond, with our guidebook reminding us that we are also in the landscape of The Railway Children, giving us the reminder that Bents farm, at the top of the brow, starred as The Three Chimneys in the 1970 film adaptation, which probably brings as much interest to the Worth Valley as the Bronte's do, territory that we are rapidly approaching as we pass up the driveway to Marsh lane and its suburban semis in the countryside, before we carry on up the lane to Old Oxenhope Hall, and its neighbouring farm, proudly advertising itself as the home of the Holstein Herd.
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| Back Leeming. |
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| Yate Lane, Oxenhope. |
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| Playing trains on the K&WVR, at Oxenhope. |
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| Old Oxenhope Hall. |
Pass through their yard to meet the field path and track that leads beyond, onto the rise that separates the two halves of the Worth Valley, giving us a swarm of flies to contend with as we rise to views from the south, east and north, directing our eyes across to Howarth Brow and Oakworth on their high aspects above the merging branches, as we trace the stone wall that runs below the plots of Field Head farm, itself beneath Penistone Hill, and runs in behind Hole farm, which is concealed from view by a high bank of conifers. The route continues on the way up to Sowdens house, with it's prominently displayed flag and walled garden surrounded by the shadiest bank of trees, where the possibly unique streetlights on a field path are located, before we come down below Balcony farm via the substantially walled paths, which give us our last looks down the Lower Worth before we turn our attention to landing in Haworth itself, joining the flagged path that passes above the village's many overflow car parks and allotment plots as we are drawn to the focus of all the interest in what we call Bronte Country. The path leads us into the yard of St Michael & All Angels church, where the Rev Bronte was served as perpetual curate for 41 years from 1820, and where all members of the Bronte family, aside from Anne, remain interred in the family vault, with all six children and his wife, Maria having predeceased him over the preceding four decades, while on Church Street we can find the village school, where Charlotte taught and held her wedding reception on the occasion of her 1854 marriage to Arthur Bell Nicholls. The main focal point of interest, is the Howarth Parsonage though, where the three sisters wrote seven novels between them in a flurry of activity, far removed from any literary scene, between 1846 and 1853, two of which, Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights (Charlotte's second and Emily's only) are considered genre highlights, and also where, more tragically, Mrs Maria died in 1821, Elizabeth and Maria fils died in infancy in 1825, Emily and Branwell died in 1848, Anne took ill (and subsequently died in Scarborough) in 1849, and Charlotte died in 1855, leaving the Rev Patrick Bronte alone until his death, aged 84, in 1861.
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| The Worth Valley, beyond Haworth Brow and Oakworth. |
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| The Worth valley, looking to Bentley Hey and Nab End. |
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| St Michael & All Angels, Haworth. |
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| Haworth Parsonage. |
There's a lot more to the family history than that, but I'm here for the walking rather than the literary focus, so the details can be found elsewhere, as there's another half of this day's trip to do, setting out along the track that will lead us to the upper branch of the Worth Valley, taking us beyond the apartment blocks called Heathcliffe, and out on to West Lane via a flagged field path, where we can rise beyond the edge of the village, up Cemetery Road along the quarried out northern face of the Penistone Hill country park, in search of a good path to ascend it. We are off piste from The Way out here, but a bit of variation is needed after twice coming this way and not trying to summit this high point at the heart of the Worth Valley, locating an uphill route at the edge of the graveyard, where a heavy dose of dead reckoning is needed to trace the way up the tracks and paths that criss-cross the moorland cap, recognizing the stone books that litter the route of the main trail and soon enough finding a way up to the 314m trig pillar, which gives us a 360 degree panorama around over the moorlands we hope to approach through the year, as well as to where we came from and to where we are yet to travel. Descend to get back to the main track to the west, which is again mostly done with guesswork, and while there are still plenty of route to explore over this upland, the wide track on the north face gives the best views of the way to come, along the upper branches of the Worth and below Keighley moor, taking us down to the quarried out West End plots and down onto the path over to Moorside Lane, which starts off dry enough but soon dampens to soak my boots again, after the last couple of hours of pacing had them dried. That will be the last public road (that actually goes somewhere) that we'll be seeing for the remainder of today, as it's going to be access lanes, farm tracks and footpaths from hereon out, starting with Enfield Side Road as it traces the moorland boundary of The Slack, above the agriculturally viable fields on the declining side of South Dean down to Lower Laithe Reservoir, a good route for any romantics who wish to experience the Bronte Moors at close quarters, notable as being the first populated path we've seen since setting out as we plough on beyond Spring Farm.
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| Penistone Hill Country Park. |
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| The 314m trig pillar, and the way ahead, Penistone Hill. |
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| West End quarries and The Slack. |
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| Enfield Side Road. |
It's a rising path that heads upstream, concealing views behind a high stone wall until we get tangled up with the Bradford Millennium Way (Keighley's premiere walking circuit) again,which leads us past the ruins of Middle Intake farm, while the track keeps going beyond its absent Upper companion, and as we delve closer to the mass of the moorlands, the feel of changeable Pennine weather starts to fill the air, and the heart starts to feel heavy as we decline on a roughening path, as it knows the a climb up the far side of South Dean is still to come in the not too distant future. As the scramble over the rocks to the valley floor approaches, the eye needs to travel upstream to spy Top Withins far above, supposedly a major location inspiration for Wuthering Heights, while our passage over Sladen Beck will be the Bronte bridge, a rebuilt clapper structure, at the heart of the romantic landscape in which Emily liked to walk and write poetry, below the Bronte falls on Lumb Beck, and from this spot, pleasingly quiet on a Monday afternoon, we start uphill again, giving the calves a fierce workout as we are compelled to change valleys by the shortest route possible. That means straight up the side of South Dean through the open fields, and between the many stone walls, across the site of two farmsteads, Virginia and Hill End, that have been completely erased from the landscape, to meet the rough path up through the moorland plots of The Heights, which links us onto the high top of Back Lane, where we won't be making a closer passage to Top Withins via the Pennine Way, instead cresting over the hilltop with it and starting down the north side, making a lot of careful footfalls across the rough plots of Buckley Green. The Worth Valley itself opens out ahead of us, with Ponden reservoir at its middle, below the bulk of Keighley Moor and the ongoing upstream route of the Way, which takes us downhill, to Buckley Green Bottom, where we hairpin away from the BMW route again, and stick with the Pennine Way as it pushes us out beyond the western boundary of our experience field, into previously unseen territory on the driveway down to Buckley House and onto the descending sunken green path beyond, which leads down to Rush Isles farm, as the day's burst of sunshine slips away to be replaced by the sort of chill that we've started to get used to.
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| South Dean and the view to Top Withins. |
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| Bronte Bridge, and Bronte Falls |
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| Meeting the Pennine Way at The Heights. |
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| Ponden Reservoir. |
Glumness thus prevails as we come down the southern edge of the dam of Ponden Reservoir, and we are going to have to accept a view over the rather grey surface to the hamlet on the far side as we pace along the southern shore along a recently tarmacked Ponden Lane, which aims itself towards Ponden Clough, home to the Within The Wood outdoor activity centre, which as attracted the last crowd that we'll be seeing today as we slip uphill towards Ponden Hall, the old farmhouse which was home to the Heaton family, friends of Emily Bronte, and featured in Wuthering Heights as 'Thrushcross Grange'. Beyond the farm buildings, the driveway ambles its way to a high path along the valley side, which allows for some fine views over Ponden Reservoir, stretching back down the river valley, before the hard surface of our track ends as we're directed around the grassy track at the back of Old House farm, before dropping downhill with the Pennine Way departing across the valley to its own path up to Dean Clough on the far side, while the walled track onwards gets pushed away from Whitestones farm, thanks to some legal path redirection, pushing us over stiles and through the fields. A drop down is forced by Whitestone Clough interrupting the landscape, spoiling the feeling of it being a steady uphill from here, as we come down to the stream crossing and then power uphill to the side of Old Snap farm to join the permissive path that draws us along the sharp edge of Silver Hill bank, elevating us up through the rough grass to a lofty view point above Silver Hill farm in the valley below, where we can take our much-needed late afternoon break and before pressing on harder, startling grouse and their still-flightless chicks as we go. Meet the crest on the south side of the river, and the Yorkshire Water approved path directs us steeply downhill, across the high meadow and down into the rough grass which surrounds the upper reaches of the River Worth, across the bank that the old OS maps call Jarnel, before we land in the riverside landscape, which is really damp and muddy after all the rains through the early weeks of this month, not conducive to hurrying up or staying dry as we try to power onwards, soaking the feet again and taking a hard spill into the filth and moisture before we can meet the footbridge that take us onto the north bank.
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| Ponden Hall. |
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| The path to Whitestones Farm. |
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| Silver Hill farm, and Dean Clough, from Silver Hill bank. |
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| The River Worth, at Jarnel. |
The valley tightens as we march on, never consistently permitting us a damp or even surface, drift up close to and away from the fast running stream and regularly obscuring the views forwards with walls, stray foliage and wrinkles in the high banks, making it feel like it's going to be an awfully long way to the top, as each rise is followed by a drop and the going just isn't kind on the legs, so you can at least feel content that the actual route finding is never in doubt as there's only one way to go from here, with the main road up the valley mere meters away, above the clough. The last wall reveals both the dam of Watersheddles reservoir, and the boundary stone which welcomes us to the county of Lancashire, some way east of the actual watershed, and the last rise away from the young Worth takes us up to the north side of the embankment, around the end of the runoff channel and across from the valve tower to meet the path on the northern shore, crammed in next to the passage of Two Laws Road as it dives over the depression on the Pennine ridge between Wolf Stones and Combe Hill on the Keighley Moor side, and the Crow Hill upland on the northern edge of the Boulsworth Hill massif. Away from the top of the reservoir we meet the watershed plateau, traversing some very rough ground to meet the lateral pathway onto Walshaw & Lancashire moors, where a fire engine is in attendance, but surely not finding any fires today, ahead of us finally landing on a path with a decent surface over the watershed itself at Cross Bent, where a depression forms giving us no horizon to east or west as we progress on a hard, dry track before passing over a stream flowing in our direction of travel at long last, and rise to the view that fully reveals Pendle Hill on the western horizon. All that distanced travelled to still find ourselves still not too far away from home is the thought as we land on a hard farm track surface, sweeping us downhill into Smithy Clough tracing the stream downhill as it flows amongst remnants of quarrying or mining that have left their signature grassy knolls all over this upper valley, following the track that seems to have attracted off-road cyclists too, which makes a lot more sense once we rise to meet the junction with the Pennine Bridleway, rising from the moorland edge to the south and mixing it up with our route for the final push downstream.
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| The uppermost Worth, and Watersheddles dam. |
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| Watersheddles Reservoir. |
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| Cross Bent, the watershed plateau. |
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| Smithy Clough |
Away from the dramatic moorland edges as they start to retreat behind us and down the rough track that we share with the PBW, soon to be hidden from view by a bank of burgeoning trees in tubes, taking us down to and alongside the fast-running stream in its deep cleft and running around the back of Parson Lee farm, the first habitation on our trail in a good while, with the road beyond hugging the bank of Smithy Clough's stream and switching sides on it multiple times among its tree-lined passage without making much of a fuss about it. Sight of our finish line up the hillside is gained, reminding us that this is another day that will end with an ascent, as we come down to the point where the Bronte Way hairpins away on its final leg break southbound, but we've got one last point of interest to discover along this trajectory, and we continue downstream, noting the ford and extremely ancient, like Iron Age vintage, Clam bridge constructed from a single angled slab of Gritstone over the water and continue to approach Wycoller beyond the Copy House footbridge and the picnic area. Spy the toilets block and the Aisled Barn, at the heart of the local country park, with the extensive ruins of Wycoller Hall lying beyond, apparently an inspiration for 'Ferndean Manor' in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre (there had to be a reason for us to be here), and they need a closer look, as do the ancient clapper and arched packhorse bridges, with the remaining hamlet itself lying beyond, but we're behind schedule with a climb to come, so it's uphill to the north we head, hoping that the path approached, lined by trees and a fence of vertical stone is the right one. The view over Pendle Borough to the west deserves some nicer weather too, and as soon as a path to The Atom is spied, we'll cut onto it, despite it bringing us across the fields to approach it from the steepest angle below, making the last climb of the day very slow as we rise to the panopticon, a concrete dome filled with viewing holes to form a place to artistically contemplate the landscape, a feature to delight if the weather were brighter, and a place linger if I wasn't 25 minutes over schedule, but no matter, as the Parental Taxi awaits me patiently, as I roll up at 4.40pm, to find that Mum has enjoyed her day out, with old friends and far from home for the first time in nine months, just as much as I have mine.
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| Descending with the Pennine Bridleway. |
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| First sight of the finish line, above Wycoller. |
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| The ruins of Wycoller Hall. |
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| The Steepest possible route to The Atom |
To Be Concluded...
5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 4951 miles
2021 Total: 208.9 miles
Up Country Total: 4488 miles
Solo Total: 4619.4 miles
5,000 in my 40s Total: 3548.8 miles
Next Up: Across the Forest of Trawden and down the East Lancs Valley!
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