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.

Holmes Road and Gasworks Bridge, Sowerby Bridge.

Washer Lane, rising out of the Calder valley.

It's all ginnels and setts up Granny Hill.

Our urban exploration can start here, crossing Warley Road and meeting Dunkirk Lane as it takes us past the pile of Dunkirk Mills before we are lead onto Parkinson Lane, where our lost railway terminus can be located, only three blocks down from the junction, and not immediately obvious to the untested eye, as all that remains is the perimeter wall around the precinct of Halifax St Paul's station and its goods yard, which lasted from 1890 to 1916 as a passenger destination, having never fulfilled the commercial intentions of its parent companies, the L&YR and the GNR, though fright traffic lasted until 1960. The interest really lies to the north, as the amount engineering it needed to delve the railway across western Halifax needs to be seen up close, tracing the alignment as it vanishes beneath the housing beyond the allotment gardens along Vickerman Street, before meeting the iron bridge parapets that flank Hopwood Street, where the ongoing line vanishes through the yard of the McVities Biscuit factory (the third such encountered this year), and a detour that has to be made, around these sites that have been involved in biscuit production for over a century, head in uphill and then north along West Holme Road, below high walls and among later suburban arrivals. Land on Gibbet Street, where we encountered this line around this time last year, its infilled stone bridge leading to an infilled cutting that has so far resisted redevelopment, leaving it as a wild urban scrubland, accessible from the alley behind Ashbourne Grove though the footpath that leads alongside its passage is completely inaccessible due to a crazy weed overgrowth, and concealed debris underfoot, and thus the northbound path has to be picked via the way out of the new closes on the corner of Thrum Hall Lane, just down from where Halifax RLFC used to have its home. Hanson Lane offers us more iron parapets, as the line takes an angled passage below it, threading its path behind the terraces and under the houses that have been built around Ramsgate Street, before passing under Battison Road, and entering the site of Pellon goods yard, which can be observed across another flank of allotment gardens, below the pavements of Dyson Road, largely built over ahead of Pellon station, also encountered among the late season trails of last year.

Halifax St Paul's station site, Parkinson Lane.

Hopwood Lane bridge.

Gibbet Street bridge.

Hanson Lane bridge.

Battison Road bridge.

The only notable vintage buildings around the site might not be railway associated, and the scale of the bridge carrying Pellon Lane over the alignment has been noted already, but we've got some trackbed to explore beyond, as we move out of urban Halifax and into the passage of the Hebble valley, where we can descend to admire the pipe bridge that passes overhead, complete with smoke deflectors still in situ, and a push through the undergrowth and low hanging tree branches gives us an opportunity to peer under the Pellon Road bridge, through a fence coated in Suspiria-worthy quantities of razor wire. A permissive path then takes us northwest, above retaining walls that again indicate the amount of energy expended on this odd little urban branch, in the hope that it might have been the first part of a much larger scheme that never cam to fruition, and more engineering is found as we move on and pass over the Brackenbed Road bridge, over the lane angling down the valley side, and through the roughly dug rock cutting beyond, giving us far more interest to this brief stretch of railway walking than we might have expected to find, notionally within the town's extent. Tree cover comes on again as we meet the end of the line, as we are forced away up a steep path though a chine that is carpeted with beech leaves, with the railway revealing possibly the deepest arch I've ever seen to pass over a mere footpath route, which makes this line seem like even more an amusing folly, which we'll have to regard rather more obliquely for a while as we are drawn out past the Kitten Clough cottages and onto Church Lane, next to the former church school, with our way ahead taking us away from Pellon village and down Doctor Hill. The railway lane can be spotted below as it makes its way through the grounds of Brackenbed Grange, where the missing bridge over the driveway has probably down much to deter the attention of heritage enthusiasts exploring any further, but as we seem to shift into the definitive countryside of the upper Hebble valley, we do have to detour down for a closer look at the bridge over Wood Lane as it rises from the projection of the high embankment on the swing of the railway over the valley, from whence a view up the valley to the really hardcore engineering of the alignment can be taken, making all this feel like a bit of a mild preamble.

Pellon Lane bridge.

Pipe bridge and Road bridge, from the permissive path.

The permissive path, over Brackenbed Road.

The Kitten Clough footpath and bridge.

Wood Lane bridge.

Passing the 17th century Long Can Hall, now an inn, we meet the Ovenden Wood suburb, developed on the brownfield site of what was once the Webster's Brewery complex, Halifax's premier brewer for almost 150 years until the site's closure in 1996, now almost completely replaced by residential accommodation in a style that doesn't jibe with the landscape, with only the vast Maltings building remaining, listed and in use as a college an community centre, adjacent to the goods yard that sent Webster's beers nationwide for much of the railway's lifetime. A roadway leaves the brewery site, and twists down through the woods on the way down to the valley floor, taking us below the long length of Wheatley viaduct as it projects its 200 yards across the valley, sitting mostly concealed by trees that haven't shed their leaves yet, and indeed a canopy of greenery gives us a completely different aspect to the one we had coming this way 8 years ago, and we follow the railway's line as we rise up the far side on the valley, shadowing the embankment side as we follow the damp and rock path of Green lane uphill. As the railway alignment meets the same level as the path, we can slip into the cutting for a stretch to sneak up on Wheatley tunnel, digging its path through the slab of land between the main branches of the Hebble for over 800 yards, and it's not secured as we approach with the open doors revealing a lot of darkness beyond, thanks to its eastern end being sealed and infilled, but it's another major feautre to tick off the relic list as we return to our path, rising up to the Flying Pig in and Crag Lane, and the setting off over Page Hill, via its lane, which offers an aspect or twelve over the path we've blazed up the valley. We are slipping back into suburban Halifax on this hilltop, but before we set our path away from the railway line, we have one last feature to seek, by tracking north up Cousin Lane, past the Forest Cottage centre and the grounds of various schools to find the tunnel vent, opposite Forest House and enclosed by fences on the edge of the council housing estate, a relic that you'd only acknowledge if you knew what you were looking at, as its rectangular brick structure, lost in a sea of weeds, offers no sense of industrial romance whatsoever.

Webster's Maltings, Ovenden Wood.

Wheatley Viaduct.

Wheatley Tunnel.

Railway in the Hebble Valley, from Page Hill.

Wheatley Tunnel Vent, Cousin Lane.

Our generally northbound stretch along the railway's path can now be abandoned, and our walk can now head broadly eastbound, back tracking down to St Malachy's RC church and joining Ovenden Way as it cuts a broad dual-carriageway width path across the Ovenden Moor estate, again illustrating how suburban Halifax burst out from the river valleys and over the neighbouring hills in the mid twentieth century, with the wide boulevard giving us a clear sense of future direction as we head down into the Holmfield valley, with its eastern flank rising on the horizon. We are lead down to the A629 Ovenden Road and get back to tangling with some more historical lanes as we crossover to head down Broad Tree Road, which takes us over the lost GNR line via its angled plate girder bridge, and I had speculated on seeking the also unseen Lee Bank tunnel, as its north portal still endures, but I'm not fancying trying to descend into the cutting below in today's underfoot conditions, and this we continue en route, down to the Holmfield valley floor, to cross Old Lane and start the sudden and sharp rise up its eastern side. There's going to be quite a bit of up and down in the latter phase of today, so at least I'm prepped for it as we press the pavement of Mill Lane uphill, through the industrial band and up to the edge of Boothtown, which itself straddles the A647 midway up the hillside, while not offering the most straightforward way across the Boothtown Road, among its old mills and terraces at the urban limit of the town in this direction, which we start to depart as we join the pavement up the steep and cobbled Ploughcroft Lane, which presses up among the cottages and farmsteads on the rise to Pule Hill, giving us another fine reveal of the Halifax landscape as we go. Soon enough crest, on the Old Bradford Road, passing between the dry ski slope and the Swimrite Leisure Pool (our third swimming school at altitude for the year, if you've been making notes), and then it's immediately downhill again, joining Lee Lane as it dives down into Shibden Dale, passing the cluster of cottages that surely have some of the finest views in the borough, clinging to the high valley side, above the steeply falling cobbled lane which is barely friendly to walk on, but still seems to attract motor traffic that Sat-Nav really ought to have discouraged from coming this way.

Ovenden Way, Ovenden Moor.

Broad Tree Road bridge (again).

Boothtown from Mill Lane.

Halifax from Ploughcroft Lane.

Shibden Dale from Lee Lane.

Past the scariest hairpin, by the driveway entrance to Scout Hall, we find a secluded bench, ideal for lunch break so we can charge up for the path to come, which is resumed away from the setts and onto a friendlier surface past Hollyleigh house, taking us down towards the valley floor through the shade of trees on its western side and bottoming out at Lee lane bridge on Shibden Brook, still looking as red as, and tracking downstream until we meet the Shibden Mill inn, just out of sight beyond the gathering wedding party, and then turn uphill again at another challenging pitch. Climbing the pavement of Blake Hill and taking a gander downstream across the fields reveals the hamlet stretched out around Salterlee school, as the lane sweeps us uphill past the Springfield House and Blake Hill farmsteads on the way up to the crossroads at Lane Ends, passing onto the ascent of Howes Lane, below the terrace where I'm disappointed to not be able to identify the cottage named 'The Fall' before we rise further, passing above Sprigs house to the expansive view over Shibden Dale, initially downstream toward Beacon Hill and Claremount, and then upsteram to Scout Hall. Turn out of the valley by the reclaimed quarry atop Northowram Hill and follow the tightly narrowing lane as it passes down towards the next village along, taking us through the open fields at the very edge of the dynamic landscape at the limit of middle Calderdale before we slip into Northowram, among the rural terraces and farmsteads that have gradually been subsumed by this expanding suburban settlement on its own hillside, having sat beyond our gaze for so long before our paths just kept on coming this way in 2021. There's 17th century vintage to be found on Tetley Lane as it brings us down to Town Gate and Lydgate, which leads us past the old village school and club, at what feels like the old heart of the settlement, before we cut across to the A647 Bradford Road by the 22 The Square restaurant, where a crossing is a lot harder to make than it ought to be thanks to the traffic settling into a sort of motorised Mexican standoff, before we can follow the pavement of Westercroft Lane out to the east, through the suburban band and into the fields, around the Northowram cricket ground.

Lee Lane descending into Shibden Dale.

Blake Hill ascending out of Shibden Dale.

Lower Shibden Dale from Howes Lane.

Howes Lane enters Northowram.

Lydgate, Northowram.

We're definitely settling back into the early season landscape as we head out this way, with Coley church rising on the immediate horizon, and we sidle down towards the Lumbrook Mills and transport distribution depot to be found at the very head of the depression of Jum Hole, ahead of the passage across the A644 Denholme Gate at Lane Ends, where our ongoing path is to be found passing between the pair of roadside terraces and heading into an overgrown and walled in path towards the churchyard on the hilltop, and as of to break the monotony of this grey day, we get our first sunburst as we go. Rise to meet the church of St John, the parish church which has no obvious village around it, and it pretty well removed from its nearest catchment, which we'll discover firsthand as we follow the dirt track of Coley Hall Lane eastwards, which soon settles in between walls and high hedges which, along with the tree cover, rob us of any sense of contextual location as we move on past Coley Hall itself, which barely has a hamlet formed around as it mostly conceals itself behind high walls, which I surely look completely normal trying to take pictures over. Beyond Coley Croft farm, its another enclosed and downhill run to meet Shutts Lane, encountering come vintage Covid-19 restriction notices on the corner by Shutts farm which almost seem quaint after all these months of fluctuating pandemic conditions, and it's another lane that offers no clear sight line into our surrounding landscape, somewhere north of Hipperholme and Lightciffe as we slip downhill again, meeting some smart house ahead of Stockhill Bridge, where we can cross over Coley Beck in the midst of its little wooded glade, ahead of the climb to the next village along. The expense of the houses can only mean we are arriving in Norwood Green once again, and it's a pretty steep climb up among these villas to meet it, where a look back can reveal Bottom Hall Beck viaduct on the Halifax - Bradford line peeking out above the tree line, before we ascend to another hill-crest top, the sixth of the day, I think, as we arrive in the village proper, passing around the old village school and clock tower once again, while mentally seeking our our left turn, beyond the former congregational chapel and CofE chapel of ease, but ahead of the Old White Beare inn, located by the council house terrace on Watford Avenue.

Coley church from afar, Westercroft Road.

St John's Coley, up close.

Coley Call Lane.

Stockhill Bridge.

Village Street, Norwood Green.

Sowden Lane is our next green lane that sneaks through the fields without offering us a clear sense of where we are, with only the spire of Wyke parish church rising distinctively before we start the steep and rather muddy descent into the woods, sharply angling itself into a popular outdoor location at last as we meet Horse Close bridge on Royd Hall beck midway up the Judy woods et al forest, which we'll traverse a way across by travelling up High Fearnley Road, sharply initially and then evening out along the perimeters of Low Wood and Old Hanna Wood. Emerge into the fields beyond, rising high enough to get a distant horizon to look at across Kirklees and Calderdale, now that we've arrived back in Bradford district, north of Wyke and tracking east past the Woodside and High Fearnley farmsteads, and re-entering the urban landscape by the Hedge Nook terraces, and behind the Appleton Academy, soon enough crossing the A641 Woodside Road, and tangle up with paths from 2017 and 2019 as we head into the last stretch of the day, through New Road Side, which has a name that oddly predates the arrival of the New Road in the area. Meet the B6379, the old Huddersfield Road and track it up to the road division by The Crown and The Junction inns, where we slip away down Storr Hill, out of greater Wyke and over the seventh and final hill crest of the day as we land in the upper Spen valley, tracking north-ish and finding that there's a lot more settlement in the area that predates the industrial expansion of Low Moor, reaching down to Carr Lane Bottom and up the far side to Morley Carr, augmented by the swelling of suburban Bradford around the ironworks site that became on of the most significant industrial sites in the county during the 19th century. We'll not be passing that, as it sits just off the path to the northwest, as we join New Works Road and head through the wholly industrial landscape that is dominated by the vast Solensis chemicals plant, which fills the air with a petrochemical sort of aroma that you could be sure is taking years of your life, despite it being the weekend, and its tanks and pipework just keep on going as we work our way around to the urban enclave by the Cleckheaton Road, which we've seen many times, usually when departing Low Moor station, which we'll approach in the afternoon sunshine, wrapping the day at a very pleasing 2.50pm, having really done the Calder branches rollercoaster over the course of the day.

High Fearnley Road, Judy woods.

The Kirklees Calderdale horizon, with Wyke church.

The Crown and the Junction, New Road Side.

The chemical plant, New Works Road.

The Low Moor sign restored, Low Moor station.

5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 5236.2 miles

2021 Total: 494.1 miles

Up Country Total: 4773.2 miles

Solo Total: 4904.6 miles

5,000 in my 40s Total: 3834 miles

Next Up: The Big City Trails await, with 500 miles on 2021 on the horizon!