Halifax to Frizinghall 06/11/21

13.4 miles, via Old Bank, Stump Cross, Northowram, Stone Chair, Shelf Hall, Shelf, Beck Hill /   Royds Woodside, Buttershaw Mills, Odsal Top, Staygate, Goose Hill, Cutler Heights, Tyersal,      Thornbury, Moorside, Undercliffe / Eccleshill,  Five Lane Ends, Bolton Hall, and Bolton Woods.

As we lapse into the season of GMT and reach the final walking weekend of the year, we again find ourselves travelling out to Halifax, which seems to have quite unintentionally become our late season launching pad, like how Hebden Bridge took a similar status in the middle season, mostly because we've found a few new trajectories and un-traced paths heading out from it during our closing phase of route planning, and we had better get them down now, as we don't have plans to be burning any more trails in this quarter over the next few years. So it's off the Grand Central KGX express again for a 9am start, hoping that the glum weather will hold off a second time as we start out, aware of the lost hour of daylight as we start another trek to the northeast, descending away from the station down to Church Street, passing around the old railway goods yard and past the Ring O' Bells inn and Halifax Minster before passing over the hidden Hebble below Lower Kirkgate as we pass the decaying coal drops and the projections of the lost and contemporary railway viaducts before starting our path out of the valley, up Bank Bottom past the Matalan store on the Clarks Bridge mills site. This leads us up to the bottom of Old Bank, the forgotten old road into the valley which provides a testing ascent on steep and slick cobbles, rising us on through the trees on the Beacon Hill side as we pass above the views over the town, to be regarded for one last time before we head up through the cover of foliage to Beacon Hill Road and the flight of steps up to Godley Branch Road, which leads us to the A58 Godley Road, where the footway is joined again as we pass under Godley Bridge and enter the cutting that digs through the hilltop beyond. It's out third trek along here in this direction over the last two seasons, an odd choice when we still haven't seen Shibden Hall up close, just off our path to the southeast as we cut across Shibden Dale at the roadside, where there's been just enough leaf shedding going on to afford us the approximation of a view upstream into this hidden valley before we arrive at Stump Cross again, passing its inn and tall terraces on the corner before coming past the toll house and join the new turnpike to take us on our way, rising with the A6036 Bradford Road as it elevates us up the valley side, though not quite as sharply as the old road does. 

Halifax Minster and the Ring O' Bells inn.

Halifax from Old Bank.

Shibden Dale from Godley Road.

That doesn't mean that it's not an ascent to get the heart rate going, as we rise above the rooftops of the houses on Leeds Road and enjoy the view back to Shibden Hall Park, before we need to keep alert to pass around the sharp corner where the road squeezes around the rock face above and valley fall below before arriving below the remote suburban stragglers of Northowram, with terraces and semis perched over the view into the cleft of Jum Hole, proving that it's not quite a hidden valley, and also downstream along the passage of Red Beck to the southeast. It's certainly a fun mix of fields and woodlands to take in along what had been projected as an urban walk, keeping us company along the roadside as it kinks past a factory perched on another corner and leads us up to the bottom edge of Northowram proper, or where it spread to meet the new Bradford Road, still providing a bit of vintage interest around St Matthew's, the parish church with its separate tower in the campanile style, found just shy of the 22 The Square Italian restaurant, on the corner that we crossed when we last passed this way, ahead of the suburban reach at the east side of the village. At the top of the village we meet the 22 Bar & Smokehouse, which suggest a chain link of sorts between these eateries in former pubs, and then we're into the green space that separates greater Halifax from Greater Bradford, with the signage welcoming us to Stone Chair long before we get there, and a look back offers little to see among the wrinkles of Calderdale as it retreats from view behind us, thanks to a wash of low cloud, and the urban trek settles in as we come up into the suburban band again, ahead of the A644 island where the car dealership on the corner now has a tenant in place. Across the Brighouse & Denholme Gate Road we end the initial climbs of the day and settle into the more level going across the headwaters of the streams that flow down into Wyke Beck, crossing the Bronte Way route and passing the long terrace across from Shelf Hall Park, where the lodge of the lost house still endures, with the village hall now residing on its site, and coming up to the corner by the Bottomleys Arms inn, where we'll merge in with the prior trip we made from Halifax across Bradford, but keeping to the south side of the road this time, passing the Millcourt school in its old mill site as we go.

Jum Hole, from Bradford Road.

St Matthew's, Northowram Parish Church.

The green space between greater Halifax and greater Bradford.

Shelf Hall Gateway, and Shelf village hall.

So into Shelf we pass again, getting a better look at the Wade House community centre in the old school house and the BBW Business Centre in its prominently towered building, across the way from the Duke Willam in and the rise up Witchfield Hill to the freshly dolled up Memorial garden, where we'll pass on between the roughly rustic terraces and those low rise bungalow parades that seem to only be found in greater Bradford, before we meet the end of the matched route from May, splitting off once past the Baptist chapel and the Shoulder of Mutton inn. Before we head off along the new Carr House Road, we'll pause to admire another gable wall sized ghost sign on the end of the local takeaway, before we get the view to the south briefly opening up, to advertise the proximity of the woodlands along the fall of Blackshaw Beck, familiar from our early season burn up here, which brought us up past the Prince of Orange inn and Shelf parish church, with our route continuing beyond, past the Lidl store and over the boundary that takes us out of Calderdale district and into the city of Bradford, rising with the lane up to the pre-urban settlement of Beck Hill. It arranges itself around its tavern, the Furnace Inn, in a way that suggests a vintage that pre-dates the arrival of this road, which now carries most of the southwesterly traffic in this city, skirting above the Royds Woodside estate that sits on the declining fields to the south, away from the vast pile of Buttershaw mill that endures on the rising side of the road, beyond the Tesco superstore, around which pre-industrial and post-industrial south Bradford has grown, with rustic terraces surrounding the Barley Mow inn and the late Victorian town having grown beyond, up to the former pub in the faux coaching inn style. A wide suburban boulevard is formed by Halifax Road beyond, adding more leafiness than seems really necessary to a suburban land that only has occupation on its upper side, with parkland falling away below, where Bradford Park Avenue FC endure incidentally, ahead of getting a reveal of the reason for the excessive width as we pass over Netherlands Avenue, as tram tracks are revealed in the verge, as this passage from Odsal Top was dual use in the increasingly distant past, now mostly looking like a spot that traffic mostly passes at a hurry up between the neighbouring estates, as do we, only really here because the 682 bus ride brought us this way multiple times back in May.

The BBW Business Centre, Shelf.

The Ghost-Signed Gable, Carr House Road.

Buttershaw Mills, Beck Hill.

The lost Tram Tracks, Halifax Road.

The roundabout at the tops of the Huddersfield and Manchester Roads has us back in a familiar corner of this city, and also upon the Aire-Calder watershed again once we've traversed a way across the A641 via the subways and footbridge to land us on the side of Rooley Avenue that we haven't walked before below the disused Richard Dunn Sports Centre, which just cries out for a reuse to retain this landmark on the horizon, and across the way from Odsal stadium, pacing this familiar passage on the south Bradford ridge because there's a real lack of alternatives up here. Cross over by Pearls tearoom and patisserie, ahead of the Staygate island, at the head of the M606, which we'll pass over as we come around to join the side of the A6177 ring road beyond, again matching paths already seen as we pass above the vast site of the M&S distribution depot, at the top of the industrial park that's also home to the LocalIQ group, publishers of many local papers, who have the ancient New Hall farm on their site, still enduring as a 17th century outlier amongst the urban spread, that the casual passer by might not notice. Stick to the Rooley Lane ring road as it leads us past the headquarters of the Yorkshire Building Society, occupying two large buildings on the rise above Bowling cemetery, while we skirt around the top of the Bierley estates, passing a bit too early for dinner at the Toby Carvery, and noting another old farmstead tied up in the suburban landscape before we arrive by St John the Evangelist Bierley, the finest English Baroque-esque church in the county, which definitely shows an accent or two that suggests the look of Hawksmoor's St Alfege Greenwich, to my eyes at least. The churchyard offers us a spot to sit, which we'll seize to take our lunch break, pizza-ing it up for the last time this year in the shadow of the lychgate, before we tangle again with early season paths by crossing Bierley Lane, and at least two other ventures about the city as we come around the traffic island across the way from the ASDA store, and wandering on up towards Goose Hill as the sunshine breaks through, to hopefully provide a brighter sort of look at east Bradford than we had across the south, ahead of the transition over the A650 via subways and footbridge again.

The Richard Dunn Sports Centre (former), Odsal Top.

New Hall farm (former), Rooley Lane.

St John's, Bierley.

Goose Hill Methodist Chapel.

It's actually surprising how quickly we've gotten to this point, as we've been motoring ever since we got onto the higher roadside, which we'll hopefully continue as we shift off the ring road and the watershed ridge, instead moving onto eastern Bradford's high lands along Cutler Heights Lane, where spotting the vintage outliers among the industrial band can be a bit of sport to be had, while also spying another excellent pair of ghost signs on the old terrace, across the road from the Morrisons Produce depot, proof that the company still retains its local ties. We'll be shadowing the old GNR Ardsley – Laisterdyke line along here, which is spottable behind the factories and below our pavement as we cross Holme Wood Road, ahead of our procession across this hidden urban ridge, which briefly offers sight of the drops away on both sides while also offering an entertaining mix of urban vintages at what was once the city's periphery, and I'll make sure to not the 1632 dated farmhouse up here, which is older than many of the 17th century farms to be found around this county, hidden in the landscape ahead of Tyersal Lane. Move on past the blocks of blackened terraces and the long curved crescent of council houses beyond, retracing another cross city path that show that Bradford might not be as big as you think it ought to be as we note the industry swapping sides on the roads as we come down past Tyersal FC's fields and The Gap cafe, before we get tangled up with Laisterdyke junction, passing over the infilled bridge and the housing block built beyond it, before crossing over the contemporary railway, and looking east to the remnants of the old line heading north to Shipley. Here, we'll strike off Dick Lane and make our way north on a trajectory that almost offers itself to the urban trekker, as Lower Rushton Road directs a path between its terraces, past the Croft Hall and up through Bradford's contemporary urban idiom to the A647 Leeds Road, where we cross via a frustrating detour, to continue our route up Rushton Road, which takes us past the New Virginia inn (or the Virginia Tavern, or The Ginny, as it offers us all three names) and through the golden stone terraces that looks good in the nice low sunshine, as we are projected on to the Leeds Old Road. 

The Ghost-Signed Gable, Cutler Heights.

Tree House farm (1632), Cutler Heights.

The infilled bridge, Laisterdyke Junction.

The Ginney (et al), Rushton Road.

Cross upwind from the Aldi store and St Margaret's church in the modern style, while noting that we are getting our self a fresh bunch of perspectives on this city as we make a way across all the routes we blazed out here since 2014, and we find ourselves at the definite limit of the old city as we progress, with the terraces dropping from the landscape to be replaced by council houses of multiple vintages at the western edge of Thornbury's estates, as we move on to meet Leeds Road, albeit not the one that we crossed a mile or so back. It's a mystery that we postulated when travelling this way back in 2017, I'm sure, as we head uphill to cross Fagley Road and pass through the terraced borough of Moorside, before passing again through the pebble-dashed semis that sit along the unusually wide road that takes us above Bradford's industrial museum in the depression to the east, over which we can look to our first hints of Airedale, the lower portion below Calverley and Horsforth, before the road rises us up towards Harrogate Road, where 2021's first trans-Bradford route from Halifax brought us. The path of Leeds Road beyond get you wondering if you are passing through Undercliffe or Eccleshill, or managing to somehow sneak entirely between the two as suburbia takes over the landscape wholly, though there's come vintage gateposts to spot as we make our way past the Manor House inn, which is suggestive of the landscape's prehistory, and there's gloom coming on as we rise up to the end  of Leeds Road, crossing over Underclifffe Road by the Eccleshill Library, to land on the side of Bolton Road, where the suggestion of rain comes on over Bradford's northern valley. Still tracking north, we join Norman Avenue as it forms an extremely modest dual carriageway through an average sort of suburban estate, as if they were trying to create a boulevard with miniature circuses along its path when the original developers laid it out, which isn't entirely successful, but certainly gains points for an effort at creativity in mid 20th century development, which can be regarded with curiosity as we follow its rise and fall over the hillside to meet Norman Lane.

Among Thornbury's estates, Upper Rushton Road.

Hints of Airedale, and Bradford Industrial Museum, from Leeds Road.

The Manor House, Leeds Road, Undercliffe (?).

Norman Avenue, Eccleshill (?).

Cross over by St Francis's RC church and former cinema, and realize that we're matching a lot of our route from early November 2017 as we head west and rock up at the Five Lane Ends roundabout, making our fourth traversal around part of it, but unlocking the achievement of having walked across all six of its corners as we pass onto Wrose Road, just as the rain comes on in rapid and heavy bursts, interspersed with sunshine that might make you think it's only passing, as we pass St Cuthbert's church and a rainbow drops onto the northern horizon above Idle Hill and its surrounding of high suburbia. We turn to Livingstone Road by the Bolton Villas Family church at the Victorian vintage corner of the Bolton Hall estate, among the swathes of more recent suburban swell before turning onto Bolton Hall Road, which itself leads down into a very new residential development, with the old road alignment having been reduced to a mere dirt track as it starts the descent down into the Bradford beck valley, shadowing the edge of the Bolton Woods quarries that have long scarred this hillside, before we gain the road surface again, blocked off from below as if to discourage passing traffic. We descend into Bolton Woods itself, taking the slick and steep pavements down into the landscape of terraces that surrounds the Bolton Woods wool combing shed and the local social club, with Manningham Mills rising on the hillside across the valley, while the moisture in the air gives the whole landscape a surreal sort of sepia-toned vibe, which distracts us from how wet we've gotten in short order, as we squelch our way down the valley side to meet Livingstone Road again, it's lower half now isolated by all those decades of quarrying in between. Pass the local War Memorial and bottom out in the valley as we meet Gaisby Lane, with the rain absolutely howling down as we cross over the bridge of the lost Bradford Canal, still not traced on foot since we first encountered it four seasons back, and from here it's suddenly not far to the finish line, as we match 2017's footfalls for the umpteeenth time as we cross Valley Road by the garden centre and rise up the slope that leads us up to the bridge over the railway between the off-set platforms of Frizinghall station, to descend to the Leeds-bound northern platform with the day done unusually quickly at 1.45pm, which is fine as a through dry-out is now needed, ahead of us refocusing for the season finale.

Wrose Road, Five Lane Ends.

Bolton Hall Road (upper).

Bolton Hall Road (lower), Bolton Woods.

The Bradford Canal bridge, Gaisby Lane.

5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 5274.3 miles

2021 Total: 532.2 miles

Up Country Total: 4811.3 miles
Solo Total: 4942.7 miles
5,000 in my 40s Total: 3872.1 miles

Next Up: Season Finale traversing The Big City again, in search of a Lost Canal.