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.

Commercial Street, Halifax.

G Mill, Dean Clough.

Lee Bank Viaduct stub.

We rise up a flight of steps to pass across the dual carriageway, and do not take the option of following the A629 along one of its less scenic passages as another step flight offers the option of more immediate interest as we trace a way up Old Lee Bank, which takes us through the Victorian suburb of Lee Mount, the first bit of terraced growth that marked the spread of urban Halifax to the northwest, and we'll follow its eastern edge as we rise to the view to the hills that separate the Holmfield valley from Shibden Dale, before we descend to the A629's side, past Lee Mount Baptist church. Across the throat of Ovenden Way, leading into the spread of council houses, we go, getting back to the passage of the main road as it leads us into Ovenden, past the long sweep of terraced houses on the declining edge of the valley, and upstream with the road as it gets somewhat leafy beyond the Friendly inn, where the sadly derelict Ovenden Hall is almost obscured from view, and our passage comes upon our 2013 route in search of the lost railway line as we make our way back into the plainly urban landscape at Ovenden Cross and hang a left as Keighley Road strikes northwest. There's a fragment or two of railway history to pluck out still, as the Railway inn is passed on the first corner, while further on, beyond the frontages of what was once the heart of Ovenden Village, along with the old Congregational chapel and the current Moorside Community Primary School (and also the petrol station that's plainly coned-off while getting a delivery to deter panic buyers), we can also spy the passage of the L&YR Halifax High Level Branch as it passed below its now infilled bridge, almost concealed past the Moorside Lodge Club and reminding me that there's still another lost  railway here that has not been properly explored. Council Houses encroach to the left of us as we rise on out of the Holmfield valley, with the once-rural faces of Ovenden crowding most of the right hand side of the lane, up the the cluster around the Queen's Head Tavern, where the fields open up to reveal the next tier of urban Halifax, where the estates of Illingworth sit on the elevated perch to the north, which we'll approach past the corner where the Morrison's store sits, taking the sweeping corner of Wrigley Hill, in the heart of what was the old village, over which St Mary's church looms large.

Old Lee Bank, Lee Mount.

Ovenden Road.

The High Level Line, Keighley Road.

Illingworth village, and Wrigley Hill.

The estate beyond, found on the climb above the terraces and farmsteads on the hillside edge ought to be called Illingworth Moor, it seems, and despite the explosion of the urban landscape up here over the latter half of the 20th century, there's still a lot left of the rural community that once tended this exposed hilltop, with a multitude of farmsteads and cottages still to be found among the council houses, along with the old Wesleyan chapel and its extensive burial ground, which adds some much needed interest to Halifax's northernmost extremity. Across Field Head Lane, we cross into the open fields of Odd Moor, and in short order we pass over the trio of old routes that we've made around here, all travelling west-east over the years, including the Calderdale Way path, as we strike north with the A629, finally travelling one of those trajectories that feels like its been neglected for too long, rising among the blasted fields with Soil Hill to the east of us on the Calder - Aire ridge and the ominous looking weather gathering over Cold Edge to the west, as Halifax is soon lost behind us as we settle with the main road's passage into a landscape of rural outliers. Pass the edges of the uppermost branches of the Hebble Valley as we pass below the wooded estate around Ogden Reservoir, and find a cluster of suburban outliers at Ratten Clough, just south of Ogden hamlet, in the immediate shadow of Soil Hill, where Halifax's reach can be historically concluded as this us where the town's trams once terminated, and we can pass over our hot summer's day trip across this landscape to press on over the watershed ridge, ploughing uphill past the Causeway Foot inn and uphill past the Windmill Court hotel and the Another World outdoor leisure complex, as well as the Ovenden Otters swimming school. We top out at Cockhill Hill, where we pass through a groove dug into the top of the ridge and are greeted with an actual view to the north as we pass into the reach of Airedale, above the fall of the valley of Denholme Beck and among the farms on the eastern peripheries of Thornton Moor, and soon coming down upon the end of Thornton Road, where the A644 makes its peculiar deviation ahead of Denholme Gate, which we'll approach as we come down from on high, with Denholme Clough falling away to the east and the Bronte Way passing over today's path.

Illingworth Moor estate and farmsteads.

Odd Moor, and Soil Hill.

Causeway Foot and the rise to Cockhill Hill.

Denholme Gate.

Join another of this year's Calder - Aire trek routes as we pass the Denholme Gate inn, and are compelled to match its path along Halifax Road past the Denholme Business Centre and on to St Paul's church before we take an early lunch break on the bench at the top of Old Lane, where we can spy the old church school in its secluded spot across the road, before we restart downhill with the A629 as it dives sharply downhill to make its passage across the clough of Stubden Beck, with the dam of the reservoir looming upstream, ahead of the switch back towards Denholme Mill. That's as close as we'll be getting to Denholme village for today though as we need to join the B6141 Long Causeway as it makes one of the most horrible left turns off a major road that we've ever encountered and lose our pavement privileges as we strike off for Oxenhope and the Worth Valley, rising to the west of the village before we enter the walled and tree-lined lane around the smart Victorian estate houses beyond, taking great care to negotiate the blind corners on the way up to the Spring Row terrace, before we burst into the open countryside once more, and strike uphill towards our next watershed passage. Regard the Ovenden Moor wind farm and the long dam of Thornton Moor reservoir across the way as we track northwesterly, past the Low Shaw Clough farm complex and passing over the Bradford Millennium Way route as well as we rise to crest in the vicinity of Upper Bradshaw Head farm, where we can glance north to get a view towards Black Moor and Harden Moor, further along the ridge, before we get into a tightly uncomfortable downhill stretch into the Worth Valley, which leads us down to the Leeming Wells Hotel and the Dog & Gun inn, as Leeming Reservoir appears and vanishes ahead of us. The high eastern flank of the valley rises to the south as we negotiate the way down below Whinny Hill to meet the cottage cluster above Leeming Village, where we take the marked turn of the lane lands us with some more safe passage issues, with settlement ribbonning it way along the roadside for maximum scenic potential overlooking the reservoir and the headwaters of the greater Worth valley, before we come down through the village heart of clustered cottages and terraces, which is given an industrial flavour by the bulk of Sike Mill, ahead of the decline below the dam to the south.

Halifax Road and Stubden Clough.

Long Causeway and the rise to the Worth Valley.

Denholme Road enters the Worth Valley.

Leeming village and reservoir.

Regard the embankment as it passes behind us, and meet the edge of Oxenhope by an old chapel and the Lamb inn, where the Denholme Road makes another sharp downhill dive, among the outlying terraces and down into Lowertown, tangling with the Bronte Way again and into the landscape of former mills and the suburban enclaves on the brownfield sites which replaced them along the side of Leeming Beck, which wanders alongside the roads and a nature garden before we strike off past the local Co-op among the local terraces before we pass over the A6033 by the memorial gardens and head on down Station Road. It had been an initial intent for this season to finish walks at all the of the stations on the preserved K&WVR along the course of the year, but scheduling around the Covid situation has prevented that, sadly, so we'll have to cram them all into today's excursion as we make our way downstream, meeting the terminus of the former MR branch at Oxenhope at the same time as the 1pm service's arrival, which means we can watch BR Standard 2MT 78022 do the run around before we take second lunch break in the picnic area, and not feel the need to bail as my legs are still feeling fine. With no continuous rail-side path to follow downstream, we head for Haworth by letting Mill Lane lead us to Moorhouse Lane, where Moorhouse Bridge takes us over Moorhouse Beck and up into Moor House itself, where suburban Oxenhope has swelled up the valley side, almost all the way up to Marsh Lane, where we can progress north, getting in  the expansive views to the east and south before we pass over the Bronte Way for the third and final time on the way to the northern horizon reveal beyond the hamlet-let around Marsh Top farm. Having risen up, it's soon enough time to descend again, as steam engine sounds linger in the air coming up from the concealed line below, as we come down to meet the outermost edges of Haworth, stretched up Sun Street as far as woodlands House, and we could easily settle into its pleasing terraced landscape, but we've railway to trace and that means we need to odd road it a bit, descending down the rough path that leads its gloomy way down to Ivy Bank Terrace, which presents a nice east-facing frontage or twelve on the way down to Bridgehouse Lane where railway and the beck both pass under the one bridge on the B6142.

Lowtown, Oxenhope.

Oxenhope station.

Marsh Lane and the downstream Worth valley.

Ivy Bank Lane, Haworth.

The real interest is to be found in site of Haworth goods yard, however, as it's now home to the K&WVR's engine shed and workshops complex, where LMS 41241 and BR 37075 sit outdoors awaiting service use, and stalwart 43924 sits indoors after its boiler ticket expired, but even more engaging is watching some active shunting happening, best observed from the Haworth Co-op car park, as a Class 08 tugs L&YR 957 (in 'Railway Children' green) and our old friend TVR 85 from the workshops to reveal the line's new 144 Pacer unit within, as its restoration to service condition nears completion. Too much time could be burned watching these goings on, and I honestly wonder if the Co-op staff are cool with the trainspotters, a thought to be pondered as we press on, along Station Road to Haworth station, our only point of prior conclusion along the line, some 8 years back, where the beck passes under the road twice as we move on again, following Mill Hey as it rises between the terraced runs up to old Methodist Chapel and our downstream route resumes away from the main roads, heading down Ebor Lane to Ebor mill, which is in the grip of a complete residential makeover. Our intended route beside the railway and beck is closed to to bridge repairs, but an alternative presents itself straightforwardly as we rise up the valley side to the mostly terraced suburb of Mytholmes, where we join Mytholmes Lane, which rapidly degenerates into a dirt track as it descends into the woods above Mytholmes tunnel, before coming down to pass over the throat of Brideghouse Beck and the equestrian enclosure and terrace at Vale Fold, where the road improves again, directing us to Vale Mill, which straddles both the lane and the River Worth. Apparently, its one of 15 in the greater Worth Valley area which served the railway line, which are now alongside again, passing its high retaining walls and cottages as we rise up to the level crossing ahead of Oakworth station, where we are compelled to wait for D0226 to charge past with some vintage carriages in tow, before we can briefly explore this most picturesque of preserved station, made famous from it feature role in The Railway Children, ahead of rising up the lane towards its village, some way up the hill, noting the colourful painted stones from the 2020 lockdown era, in the adjacent walls as we rise up Station Road.

L&YR 957 and TVR85 at Haworth Shed.

Haworth Station.

Ebor Mills.

Vale Mills.

Oakworth Station.

Break away from the main roads again  to continue down stream, tracing the farm track of East Royd Lane as it leads us to the farm cluster perched on the brow of the valley, passing between New House and Cackleshaw before we head into the fields for a plough over the damp turf on the way up to a blind summit ahead of Harewood Hill, getting some fine views over to Cross Roads and Lees Moor on the eastern side, and back upstream to Haworth and Penistone Hill before we pass into another farm hamlet on the very edge of greater Keighley. Suburban lanes lie beyond, butting the best of 1980s(?) vintage urban development up to the edge of the apparently threatened countryside, as Goose Cote and Damems Lane take us down past the mostly concealed hamlet that named the latter, ahead of us meeting a very rough surface that drops us down the valley side once more to lead us onto the cobbled track that heads down to the valley bottom where we can find Damems station, famous as the smallest on the entire British standard gauge network, which still has more buildings than many contemporary town stations. Pass over the tiny level crossing, and then the River Worth by Damems mills, and head downstream along Damems Lane, a muddy and horribly churned up track under the shade of the trees at the riverside, where a better path is sought, and found, to follow the riverbank as it twists its way down towards the Grove Mills site, where a lot of recent urban development has gone on to create a suburban enclave of affordable-type housing, with all the benefits of sight to the K&WVR as it passes by, alongdie Grove Mill Drive and under Ingrow Tunnel. We thus pass out onto the A629 Halifax Road, by the Worth Valley and Great Northern inns, a regular point of path convergence in these parts, where we can make a detour to tag Ingrow (West) station, previously visited on our travels in 2017 and noted as the home of the former Earby station buildings, and home to the Ingrow Loco depot and the Vintage Carriages Trust too, where the keen railway enthusiast can have a proper bash and poke around we can pause for final lunch break, neatly coinciding with 78022 emerging from the tunnel to arrive in the station on another northbound service.

The upstream Worth valley, from Harewood Hill.

Damems station.

The Worth riverside at Grove Mills.

Ingrow station.

We get into the final stretch of the day by rising up Haincliffe Road, taking us over the alignment of lost GNR lines, south of the site of Ingrow (East) station, before we settle in to the east of it by gradually rising up to Hainworth Wood Road, behind the terraces of Spring Bank and through the playground and playing fields ahead of the enclave of Woodhouse, finally getting ourselves tangled with the 2013 route that was plotted to take in all of the GNR line between Halifax and Keighley (which proved to be 20 miles long and needed two excursions to complete it), seen again as we pass down Woodhouse Lane. Over the K&WVR line we also pass, before we spy the Timothy Taylor's brewery, and then head downhill to meet the riverside again, landing on a tight path that is squeezed in on its eastern side, containing us quite closely under the tree canopy and offering no obvious way across the fields to see the junction where the GNR & MR lines merged (or split) or a way to seek out Parks Wood tunnel, still unseen somewhere to the northeast of here, and as we pass behind the Walk Mills site and away from the Worth, we can hear, and then see 78022 charge south, Oxenhope-bound. We are jammed in between the high walls of the mill site and the railway embankment for most of the way down to The Walk, the mill driveway, which leads us onto Park Lane, below the railway bridge, where our route seems to want to pass among the old railways a bunch as we go under the MR Line, over the GNR line via the footbridge on the approach to its goods yard, before diving under the MR Line again, and squeezing us into another narrow path below the railway's retaining walls and the back of the goods yard complex, still in commercial use, ahead of being expelled out onto Low Mill Lane. There's no train action to be seen this time, running into or out of Keighley station as we pass up below the GNR goods shed and the long frontage of Low Mill itself, also passing over the River Worth for the last time as we rise up to the south of the contemporary railway stations before we land on the A6035 Bradford Road, and make the last turn of the day to wrap the trip at just after 4.05pm, not with enough time to visit the K&WVR platforms, but intensely happy to have gotten the last log trail into Airedale done while keeping body and feet dry for the entire duration.

The GNR Line, Woodhouse Road.

The Worth Riverside, above Walk Mill.

The enclosed path to Low Mill Lane.

Low Mill, and Keighley station.

Post Script: It's also worth noting that we gone done at a pretty decent speed, markedly quicker than the last two excursions with all their dampness problems, and despite  the issues with my dubious-feeling hip that had flared up recently, indeed it's strange to find that my joint hurts a lot less when I'm pounding out a 16 mile trip over 7 hours than it does when I'm at rest, both at home and at work, and thus I get the feeling that this is a thing that I'm going to have to be keeping a close eye on from now on, measuring the unusual feeling of deep and consistent joint pain against the regular nags of strained and overworked muscles and tendons that we've gotten used to over the last decade on the trails.

5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 5223.2 miles

2021 Total: 485.1 miles
Up Country Total: 4760.2 miles
Solo Total: 4891.6 miles
5,000 in my 40s Total: 3821 miles

Next Up: Seeking out Halifax's Lost Railway, and the hills and valleys beyond.