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.

Ring Road Halton, between Austhorpe and Whitkirk.

Colton Common.

The M1 beyond Thorpe Park.

Providence Place, Swillington Common.

Stray Suburbia on Swillinton Lane.

Garforth from Leeds Lane.

Mount Pleasant is looking a whole lot gloomier than it did ten days ago, and as we shift onto Whitehouse Lane, by the picnic area and the Leeds Country Way path, the ominous cloudiness shifts into a persistent drizzle, with suggestions of worse coming from the south as we drop and rise with the road, which the local motorists treat as a rat run in ways not suited to its unclassified status, so its straightness at least maintains us a good sight line as we we come up to the tiny hamlet at Goody Cross, on the junction of the road down to Little Preston. A footway of sorts persists beyond, with the hedges providing some shelter from the rain as it comes on harder, and from the traffic as it comes downhill at a pace from Great Preston, where the top of the odd suburban ribbon that reaches along the north bank of the River Aire is met, at quite a height and a distant remove up here, below the wooded top of Preston Hill, where a bus shelter arrives in time to give us a spot to take a brew and ponder our progress as the rain pounds down harder before we descend down towards the old village corner, on the junction of the road down to Kippax. Pass the old church and village hall, St Aiden's naturally, and follow Preston Lane down past the War Memorial, garden centre and primary school before we meet the satellite settlement of Hollinhurst, built to house miners who worked the old Allerton Main deep collieries, itself suburbanly swollen, which in turn transitions into the Wood End estates, developed along with the St Aiden's opencast site, and now forming a large estate at a considerable remove from the nearest towns, below the KE7 WMC and the former railway branch line that now links up to the Linesway as it reaches eastwards. 

Whitehouse Lane.

Goody Cross.

Great Preston.

St Aiden's church, and Preston Lane.

The Colliery Terraces, Hollinhurst.

The Wood End estate

We've dropped to riverside level as we meet the fields and flooded gravel pits to the south of Leeds Road, as we make our way towards Allerton Bywater, which looms ahead through the now torrential rain, which is now threatening to saturate my good self, thanks to not being adequately waterproofed, as we pass the village schools, new and old, and the terraced triangle ahead of the parish church of St Mary the Less and the war memorial, where my camera gives up having gotten waterlogged again, and the day looks like it's going to have to be abbreviated. We shall press on a little further, past the tops of the riverside facing terraces and the new housing developments on site of Allerton Bywater colliery and its railway yards, and on to the small clump of terraces which associated with Ledstone station, getting as far as the Letchmire Pastures nature reserve and the High Moor Road corner, our previous point of contact in this quarter, just shy of the A656 and the drag down to Castleford, which we won't be following as the weather turns to a thick and wet snowfall, heavy enough to start settling, meaning that quitting becomes the wise option at 12.30pm. ~~~ Fortunately, the #166 bus comes this way, with the Arriva Sapphire providing a heated ride away, on a circuitous dawdle back to Leeds via Kippax and Garforth, slowed by the unexpected snowfall causing all sorts of traffic shenanigans, while I ponder whether my Lumix might finally have taken one dose too many, as it still manages to return to life, but its lens makes ugly sounds as it switches on and off, and has all sorts of trouble focusing (even after we've gotten home and given it a good drying with silica gel), which means we might have to get ourselves a new toy to play with before we get back to the 4+ miles towards Pontefract, missing from today's trek.

The terraced triangle, Allerton Bywater.

St Mary the Less, Allerton Bywater.

5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 5313.1 miles
2022 Total: 28.4 miles

Up Country Total: 4850.1 miles

Solo Total: 4981.5 miles

5,000 in my 40s Total: 3906.9 miles

Next Up: None of the Five Towns down, There's still Five to go, I guess.