Micklefield to Normanton 26/02/22

14.5 miles, via New Micklefield, Peckfield Common, Kippax, Great Preston, 

 Fleakingley Bridge, RSPB St Aiden's, Methley (north), Mickletown, Windmill Moor,

  Methley Bridge, Lumley Hill, Whitwood Common, Hopetown, and Haw Hill. 

Only three rounds in, it feels like 2022 has gotten off to a bit of a slow start, but as I've got some spare days of annual leave to burn, we can hope to get back on track by pushing the walking agenda through a couple of long weekends, while incidentally landing on the last Saturday that hasn't had its date available to walk since I first set out in 2012, and it's with those thoughts ringing in my head that we return to the Leeds - Hull line for another jump off, at Micklefield (where I've never actually finished a trek) alighting at an inconveniently late 10.35am, thanks to losing a train connection along the way. Aiming for the Five Towns once again, our path takes us from the Old Great North Road, southwesterly, away from the mining settlement of New Micklefield, along Pit Lane, where the new suburbia continues to develop, past the memorial to the miners of Peckfield Colliery, and its overgrown site beyond, and down the rural lane to the cluster of cottages associated to the nearby Peckfield farm, before we are sent onto the green bridleway though the level fields of Peckfield Common, and around the landfill site which is gradually consuming the former quarry below the village. There's a feeling of altitude to be gained under the morning sun as the farm tracks beyond lead us down to the A63, just west of Warren House farm, where we join the footway to trace its side east for a distance, leading us over the 'Roman' Ridge Road, the A656, and past the Peckfield farm produce store before hanging a left turn onto the bridleway by Limekiln farm, which takes us south, past the Goodcomb Place cottages and in site of the old Ledston Luck pithead on the way over to Kippax, which looks like its suburban spread has continued to the north since we were last here. A footpath squeezes us in, past the new development and the earlier arrival, downhill across Sandgate Drive and between many back gardens before we are spilled out onto Gibson Lane, where we rise up past the allotment gardens and Ash Tree primary school before taking a right turn onto the footpath that leads past the school playing fields on the way over the graveyards that surround St Mary's church at the top of Manor Garth Hill, passing directly through the churchyard before descending Church Lane beyond.

Cross Gates to Allerton Bywater 19/02/22

6.3 miles, via Austhorpe, Colton Common, Swillington Common, Mount Pleasant, 

 Goody Cross, Great Preston, Hollinhurst and Wood End (Allerton Ings, 

  Castleford (Bridge), Glass Houghton, Pontefract Park, and Tanshelf). 

As we alight on Saturday walking for 2022, already two weeks overdue incidentally, we find ourselves in the wake of a couple of North Atlantic storms, Eunice and the already forgotten Dudley, which gave the UK a proper battering over the preceding days, but as the weekend landed, a strange sort of calmness seems to have settled in, making the day seem far more approachable that might have been expected, and that's the mood we'll take with us as we set course for the first of a bunch of visits to the so-called Five Towns of the county's eastern quarter, riding out to Cross Gates for a start after 10am. We rise from the brick-clad bowl of the railway station to Station Road and set off to the southeast as the A6120 Ring Road Halton makes its course out of the bottom right corner of Leeds, penetrating its way between the housing estates of Austhorpe and Whitkirk on a generally uphill track, passing the LDS church before landing on the Selby Road traffic island and starting the push out of the city past the retail park at Colton Common and the tangle of traffic at the interchange at the top of Bullerthorpe Road. Approaching the M1, the Thorpe Park development is passed, still expanding its commercial developments all the way up to Manston and Penda's fields as the spread of the city eastwards continues, coupled to the building of the new eastern relief road, which are left in our wake as we pass around Junction 46 and over the motorway to find countryside beyond, with the A63 taking us past warren House farm and into the last hamlet of the greater city at Swillington Common, with the Providence Place terraces still forming some curious outliers before passage across the Selby Road dual carriageway proposes its own set of problems. Split off the main road to rise southwards with Swillington Lane, where the very last suburban ribbon follows as uphill, all east facing with back gardens to absorb the afternoon sunshine, which we aren't seeing any of as we come up to the Leeds Lane corner where we shift easterly, finding plenty of evidence of the recent rainfalls in the road and fields as we look north to the spread of Garforth, cresting over the early day's summit among the fields and hedgerows on the way over to the A642 Wakefield Road.

Garforth to Sandal 09/02/22

12.1 miles, via East Garforth, Church Garforth, West Garforth, Mount Pleasant, 
 Swillington, Swillington Hall, Swilington Bridge, Woodlesford, Oulton, Royds Green, 

  Moorhouse, Stanley, Stanley Marsh, Stanley Hall, Pinderfields, Eastmoor, 

   Primrose Hill, Wakefield Bridge, Fall Ings, and Agbrigg.

If we're still doing midweek walking, that must mean that my original NIW week planning didn't come together, as I've been forced out of the weekends by the rotten February weather, and my intent to be elsewhere got rearranged by having My Mum come to visit instead, but despite that, the sun seems to want to shine on our parade as we continue building the framework to hang 2022's season upon, this time riding out to Garforth for a 9.35am start alighting at East Garforth, as all the stations on this line to Selby ought to be used this year. Once off the overly long footbridge, our way starts west along Green Lane, noting that suburbanisation has claimed all of the upper end of the old railway line down to Castleford, before Ninelands Lane is passed over by The Podger, and Church Lane is met to lead us through the old settlement of Church Garforth, with St Mary's looming over it, which in turn leads us to the bottom of Main Street, where the shopping drag is transited to land on Barley Hill Road, passing among the colliery terraces of the village before meeting the tennis courts and bowling greens. Turn abruptly into the suburbia of West Garforth with Poplar Avenue, and snake among the undulating plots of semis and bungalows via Kingsway, Westbourne Grove and Ringway in order to be propelled out onto the A642 Wakefield Road, just north of the traffic island in order to take this transport artery all the way to its namesake source, which means matching previously seen footways as we start over the A63 and head uphill to the south, past the Holiday inn and the Royal Mail office and into the fields beyond. It's a fine rise, with the sunshine illuminating the spread of Garforth behind us, the rise of the hills around Kippax to the east, and a sole look towards East Leeds before hit the rise up to the road crest by Mount Pleasant farm by the crest, the only feature of not up here aside from the picnic area and the quarry, where the Leeds Country Way almost got us lost, ahead of a switch of pavements and us running into Swillington village, past the polymer factory, the crescent of colliery vintage houses and the partly blackened St Mary's parish church on the corner.

Leeds to Wakefield 07/02/22

10 miles, via Camp Field, Pottery Field, Hunslet, Hunslet Carr, Belle Isle, 

 Sharp House, Robin Hood, Lofthouse, Lofthouse Hill, Lofthouse Gate, 

  Outwood, Newton Lane End, Newton Hill, St John's, and Kirkgate. 

Brevity is the theoretical theme for the blog as we move into Season #11, keeping the writing abbreviated as we move through and beyond the southeastern quarter of West Yorkshire, starting out by giving the year a framework to be hung upon, starting with s god handful of road treks, starting by travelling from Leeds to Wakefield via a novel route, alighting onto an almost pleasant Winter morning and leaving the railway station at 9.35am, out of the south entrance and making a way our via the brick  arched vault of Dark Neville Street, which has somehow never featured before. From Neville Street, it's over the Aire via Victoria Bridge and on down Victoria Road,along the edge of the Holbeck Urban Village and the historical Camp Field, Making a way around the traffic islands above the M621 and heading over the top of Dewsbury Road, to join Jack Lane, passing over the old railways and the locomotive works of Hunslet at Pottery Field to meet the A61 South Accommodation Road, which is crossed as we meet the suburbs of modern Hunslet. The Oval is followed, between Morrisons and the local playing fields, to meet the sentinel spire of St Mary's church, where Balm Road is joined, taking us over the railway by the freightliner depot and uphill through Hunslet Carr, meeting the Bile Beans sign ahead of passage under the M621 and starting the climb of Belle Isle Road, rising with the wide boulevard through the vintage council estate and passing across the middle of the Circus as we go. The city view retreats behind us as we rise up the long lane to land at the same latitude as the Middleton estate, passing over the end of the local Ring Road as Throstle Nest Road and Sharp Lane take us into the suburban band beyond, forming the outer edge of the city, before briefly passing into the countryside to pass over the M1, before we land on the edge of Robin Hood, where the A61 Leeds Road is met, to continue due south.