Alone Beneath The Sky: 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.

The upstream Calder at Fountain Street bridge.

The Picture House, New Road, Hebden Bridge.

Having already sealed the early loop of today and crossed two prior 2021 paths through the town, we rise with Bridge Lanes to the bottom of Heptonstall Bank and the Fox & Goose inn, crossing another before we come to the passage over Bank Foot Bridge and our tangling up with our westwards trek route as we join Church Lane, taking us up through Mytholm and past St James church as we set our sights on a passage up Colden Clough, initially following the steep rise of bank terrace beofre we split off onto a wooded bridleway of our own, to be followed up the west and south side of the valley. Tree cover rapidly takes over as we rise, with the presence of the town soon lost, aside from the estate along Eaves Avenue at the valley floor having culverted the beck to pass below its sole playing field and open green space, and once that's behind us, the rough track hits a consistent rise under the canopy, looking like it's another of those lanes that the modern world couldn't find a use for, as once past Crowther Terrace, there's no more secluded habitation to be seen beyond these woods, aside from the Lumb Bank farmstead perched high on the opposite bank below Heptonstall. At the division of the path, where Hudson Mill Road rises away from Colden Road, we take the upper lane, which elevates us above the sites of the Lower and Higher Lumb Mills, whose chimneys still rise from the valley floor at the point where the valley swings westwards, with our view beyond the tree tops finally giving us a look to the north side of the woods on the far bank, while the pitch of our rise eases some, revealing some quarry workings as we finally start to pass above the woodlands. That means we're soon upon the routes of the Pennine Way and Calderdale Way as they both dive across this track to pass over Colden Clough at Hebble Hole, and we can look uphill to snag our proximity to Colden hamlet on the elevation to the north, before we tangle with the Pennine Bridleway as we continue upstream, with the fields opening out above the valley, passing below the equestrian enclosures of the farms on this bank and above the remaining buildings of Hudson Mill crammed in at the valley bottom, ahead of us running on to meet the camp site on the corner of New Shaw Road.

St James's Mytholm, Hebden Bridge parish church.

Colden Road, Colden Clough.

Lower Lumb Mill, Colden Clough.

Upper Colden Clough, Hudson Hill Road.

Landing on our previous route across this high end of the catchment of Colden Clough, we drop down past the New Delight inn, and the former site of Jack Bridge mill, while also looking up the hillside to find that Colden School is actually nowhere near as remote from the Calder valley as it felt on our first visit this way, while our track finally finds us alongside the stream of the valley for a while as it wends its way down among much less steep hills, following the bridleway as it rises up to the Lower and Higher Strines farms, before keeping on uphill towards Field Head. On the map it looks like we have a clear route up the valley on good tracks, but quite a bit of it turns out to be lesser footpaths, like the field walk and the passage through the woodland arboretum around the Land Farm Gardens, while the Dark Lane passage beyond feels like a dankly overgrown groove of a track that doesn't see many footfalls, and the passage down to the Clough farmstead and cottages needs an element of informed guesswork to be correctly followed and not get caught up in the rising farm tracks that appear to offer a clearer alternative. It's a firm and clear track from here though, rising us up around Top o' th' Hill farm and giving us our last look down the valley of Colden Clough in the direction of our start point, and to the masts on the hills beyond, before we take the turn onto Moor Lane, elevating us above the Lower Ear Lees farmstead and giving us a clear sight line over the upper valley, to the back of Hanging Stone Hill and the route of the Pennine Bridleway, where voices and brays can be heard travelling on the breeze before the sight of the horses and riders can be made, around a mile distant. We're really skirting the edge of the plausibly agricultural fields as we trace this track, below the barely seen Slade and Greenland farms, and looking across to the Popples Close and Hoar Side farms further up the valley, which are both concealed by purposefully planted banks of trees as if to conceal themselves from the fact that the moorland butts right up to their field enclosures, coming down directly from the Pennine watershed, while Higher Heath on this side looks like it toughing it out, relatively speaking, by being completely exposed to the elements.

Strines bridge and the upper valley.

Dark Lane.

Downstream view from Top o' th' Hill.

Moor Lane and the high valley.

There's a proper climb to come, as Low Ling Gate propels us uphill to the southwest sending us up towards a path that sits at a steady 400+m altitude, which means as we go up the Heptonstall Moor ridge drops down and the hills beyond gradually rise, with Boulsworth arriving first and its company soon following it, which gives us a remote look up Greaves Clough as it reaches northwards, and to high hills rising beyond the Gorple and Widdop Cloughs, clearly Pendle Hill beyond the former bu the latter offers a profiles that really looks like Ingleborough, which is surely too far away to resolve that crisply. As we start to err more southerly, the whole of the Black Hameldon ridge rises in the west, giving the look across it that we really ought to have had before we traversed it, looking across the High House farmstead which is the most elevated and enduring one in the valley, beyond which the eye is drawn up Noah Dale Clough as it flows down directly from Hoof Stones Height, revealing the disused dam in the headwaters and the ruined farmsteads below that are beyond the dreams of even the most determined fixer-uppers. It's that way we'll probably pass the next time we assail these hills, taking the track over Moorcock Hill, which we've been passing around without getting a sight of it at all, often hidden as Greenland Road settles into a groove below high walls and Duke's Cut gradually rises onto the high rib that attaches it to the hills to the west, revealing the upper Calderdale horizon once again, looking towards Stoodley Pike and Blackstone Edge, viewed from afar, and coming around above the Earnshaw Hole farmstead, hidden in the lea to the east. Ahead lies the plantation on Pole Hill, with the prominent mast sat beside it, and we're up around 420+m up once we get enough of an altitude boost to place Moorcock Hill into the landscape behind us, though by now we're up close to spy the most alien arrival on the local landscape, the VOR array, which really makes it look like the Martians have landed in Calderdale, while actually guiding aircraft on their flight paths across these hills, concealed from view from the nearby passage of Kebs Road and the Long Causeway, which lies mere metres away, rising out of the valley, down the hillside.

Boulsworth Hill and Company rise beyond the high valley.

The Black Hameldon ridge.

The Calderdale horizon beyond Earnshaw Hole farm.

The Pole Moor VOR and mast.

That last hour might represent the focus the last of the new vistas to be found in Calderdale, not seen in any of the previous seasons of my travelling, but as we crest above the upper valley once more, our focus point of the trek lies ahead of us, which is Bridestones Moor and the Bride Stones (the word spacing seems to be inconsistently applied) and getting towards them means finding the footpath directly down to Eastwood Road, and which side of the fence across the rough plots and pasture it lies isn't immediately obvious, though both lead to the same exit gate on the road up from Great Rock. After the opening of the day having had the paths to myself, we land on a popular spot again as we join the rough path over the turf to get to the stones themselves the best preserved cluster of wind-carved gritstone outcrops in West Yorkshire, which lack the accessibility of Brimham Rocks and have only been vaguely visited by myself once in all many local years, back in 2008 with My Sister and her family, so it's good the see that the most impressive of the stones is the first we meet, the Bottle Neck, perched on its narrow stump front of its round edged company. The Great Bride Stones lie ahead, and the temptation is to take the high path directly up to the summit, but it's better to walk below to see how they loom over the high valley side, looking much less smoothly weathered by the weather, like roughly hewn Rapa Nui statues from a number of angles, and appearing the have been felled by natural forces in places, a fine place to learn to do bouldering, especially if you wish to approach the 425m trip pillar from a more exciting angle than by passing away among the stones. Despite being north of Todmorden, there's no direct line of sight down to the town at the meeting of the valleys below, as the rise of Whirlaw stones obscures the view down, and the field to the west is littered with boulders, scattered by gravity or aborted quarrying attempts, and we'll pause up her for lunch, admiring the views around, over the uppermost Calder valley and further afield, while plotting an on going route below the stones, a route which starts out below the anvil topped rock and its company at the lowest extremity of the main field of the outcrops, which swing northwest around the contour from here.

Bridestone Moor from Eastwood Road.

Approaching the Bride Stones from the east.

The Bottle Neck stone and its company.

Great Bride Stones.

The upper Calder and the stones from the summit.

Great Bride Stones from the west.

The Anvil stone, and its company.

I can't be too sure if this is as far was came up here on our visit thirteen years back, or whether we carried my nieces only as high as the Golden Stones, a little way downhill, on our previous visit, so a dose of puzzlement settles on the brain as we track above Bridestones farm and make our way along the western reach of the stones, evidently the less visited area judging by the vaguer trods across the moorland turf, but the stone of Fast End are just as rewarding a visit, displaying all the fascinating forms that so many years of weathering. We can also be pretty certain that we haven't seen all the formations that there are to see up here, and a longer visit window and some nicer weather would really aid the aspects as the day starts to look pretty glum once we hit the path that heads down the hill, past Rough farm and Orchan House, which gives us a view up that shows only a portion of the rocky outcrops on the high valley side, reallly understating the sheer extent of the formations on Bridestones Moor as we press down to cross the Stony Lane track and then get into the really steep going on the descent. It's unrelenting down past the Higher and Lower Hartley farms, giving us an expansive downstream view of the Calder valley and placing Orchan Rocks ahead of us, another prominent rock outcrop which has a completely different character from those above, looking sharp edged and barely weathered, probably broken by freezing ice rather than man, and actually better presented when viewed from further away as our slip down into the uppermost Calder valley continues, meeting the bridleway above Jumps farm and passing below what feels like the wild limit of the valley side. The hard track of Jumps Lane is joined below, sliding its way down above the edge of Hudson Clough beneath the cover of trees, giving us a good view down to Lydgate (or Robinwood) viaduct on the Copy Pit line, before the railway vanishes under our path as it enters Kitson Wood tunnel and our route takes a sharply hair-pinned route down through Well Wood, before we land back into an urban sort of landscape, at Harley Wood, the outermost reach of Todmorden, where we take a sharp turn to push east to the finish line, down Church Hill, where only the vicarage remains from the former complex of All Saints and its school, now lost to a suburban enclave.

Bridestones Moor from the west

Fast End, the less regarded end of the moor.

Echoes of the Rapa Nui, Fast End.

Fast End from Rough Lane.

Fast End and Bride Stones, from Stony Lane.

Orchan Rocks.

Jumps Lane.

We'll stay with path above the valley floor for a while longer, finding the footpath down behind Stoney Royd House and emerging on its lane under he vast sounding arch that carries the railway overhead, and alignment that we will follow as we rise across the fields to the footbridge over the railway cutting, that leads into the actual edge of Todmorden at Cross Lee, where we find ourselves retracing more steps from 2008 as we drop down by the side of Copy Pit line to follow Mark Lane and Cowhurst Avenue, below the ranks of council houses that reach up the northern valley side. Soon we find the flight of steps which lead us under the railway, via the Ashenhurst Road bridge, which brings us down to the valley bottom, landing among the newly developed houses and having shed a whole lot of height on the way down from the top of Bridestones Moor, and pass around the front of the Hare & Hounds inn, taking us down to Burnley Road via Hunters Lane, where we can cross the A646 to enter Centre Vale park, passing over the ditch that is the river Calder heree to drift ourselves ourselves up the south side of the valley. It's parkland of many characters, having an expanse of playing fields at its heart, and having been the grounds of Centre Vale house, it still has formal gardens, with the foundations of the house still in situ, with its coach yard still intact behind it, and we can also find the statue of noted 19th century Radical politician and local man John Fielden, before we find our way onto the woodland path at the southern edge , needing a good dose of dead reckoning to not wander too far from our intended path and to correctly locate ourselves behind Christ Church and its yard at the eastern end, That lands us on Well Lane, among the raked terraces perched on the nab end of the hill between the merging Calder and Walsden water valleys, and having got up we need to head down again, taking careful footfalls down the long flight of the Ridge Steps, to Ridge Road and the passage under the end of Todmorden viaduct and passing as closed the station as we can justify before we drop down to Burnley Road again to pass the Town Hall and market place, to land us at the town bus station, of sorts, to wrap at 1.50pm, minutes ahead of the #590 service as there's really no need to abuse Parental Taxi privileges for such a short trip back, despite us being on holiday.