Alone Beneath The Sky: 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.

Footbridge Fun at East Garforth station.

St Mary's church, Garforth.

Terraced and Suburban West Garforth.

Meeting the A642, by the Selby Road island.

The rising A642 towards Mount Pleasant.

St Mary's church, Swillington

The council house line the road all the way down to the north lodge of Swillington Hall, the estate fields of which will then keep us company all the way down the long drag of the descent down to the west lodge and the Bridge Farm hotel, ahead of us crossing over the swelling River Aire at Swillington Bridge, and passing over the valley floor, downstream from Leeds' waste tips, coming over the Aire & Calder Navigation, and rising up into Woodlesford, passing under the railway bridge just ahead of teabreak times. Revived, we press on with Aberford Road, passing under the shadow of Eshald Hall, and moving on through this railway suburb/village, past old cinema and Co-op, and the Midland Hotel and apparently undermined terrace, before making the transition into Oulton, somewhere around the Memorial garden and the Old Masons Arms, taking a turn down the section of the downgraded A642 to pass over Croft Bridge on Oulton Beck, by the New Mason Arms, while the spire of St John's church lingers on our horizon, ahead of landing on the A639 Leeds Road. Untangling with this, beyond the traffic island by the Toby Carvery and the Rothwell(!) leisure centre the rise of the lane resumes, heading out of the suburban edge of the village, terminating around Oulton Farm, and then hugging the perimeter of the Oulton Hall park before landing in the high fields by Royds Green school, around about where we meet the water-shedding ridge between the Aire and the Calder, transitioning over somewhere around the Iveridge Hall health club, ahead of coming down to pass over the M62 via the Junction 30 traffic island.

Tracing the Swillington Hall Boundary.

The swelling Aire at Swillington Bridge.

The Midland Hotel, Woodlesford.

The New Masons Arms, Oulton.

Oulton Farm.

Transitioning over the Aire - Calder watershed, Royds Green.

Wakefield district lies beyond, and barely past the B6135 junction, expanded to dual carriageway width, we run into the outer edge of the greater city itself, as the Moorhouse estate sits beyond its uppermost acknowledged extremity, where a bit of mental gymnastics are needed to locate ourselves, before we cross over the path of the Methey Joint Line again, just east the former Stanley station (at Lake Lock), from where we can get a look down to the meandering Calder, south of Bottom Boat and already in our locality. Greater Stanley has developed a vantage point to overlook the river, regularly observable between the Zion chapel and the Thatched House inn (which isn't thatched), before we switch sides to note that St Peter's church is very obviously missing from the middle of its churchyard, ahead of the A642 diving downhill to meet the more colliery-related part of the village, passing among the vinatge estate houses and terraces and over the Nagger Lines, and around the Stanley Marsh nature reserve on the Victoria Pit site, as well as Normanton Golf Club. Beyond Ferry Lanes and the Graziers inn, we can feel like Wakefield proper has arrived, confirmed as we meet the northern edges of the City Fields development, where the Road divides suddenly and we have to force ourselves uphill, past the derelict British Oak and around the bluff on which Stanley Hall sits, tangling with more new junctions on the A6194 before Pinderfields Hospital takes over the entire western side of the road, distracting attention away from the ancient Clark Hall and focusing it on the old Lunatic Asylum buildings, still in situ to the south of the new hospital facility, revealed behind the foliage-free shroud of trees.

Greater Wakefield arrives at the Moorhouse estate.

Stanley station (former) on the Methley Joint Line.

Suburban Stanley, and the missing St Paul's church.

The Long Terrace, Stanley Marsh.

The climb to The British Oak, near Stanley Hall.

The former Lunatic Asylum, Pinderfields Hospital.

Wakefield city's towers and spires are revealed beyond, but we'll be giving them a wide berth as we keep to the western edge of the Eastmoor estate and split off the A642 as Stanley Road takes a path past a trio of pubs, the Fox & Grapes, The Albion and the Butcher's Arms before propelling us down a terraced tube and sending us down Peterson Road, between St Andrew's church and its old vicarage, and through the borough of Primrose Hill before dropping out onto the A61 island at the bottom of Kirkgate, on the same side of the road as the West Yorkshire History Centre. Pass under the railway, west of Kirkgate station, as our route is continuing to the south, as the roads tangle and we pass over the Doancaster Road bridge, with the Calder noisily charging over the weir below, before pass The Hepworth and getting untangled from the Barnsley Road as the A639 Doncaster Road lifts us over the first channel of the Calder & Hebble Navigation at Fall Ings, before drawing us on into the southern city, with the waxing gibbous moon already high in the eastern sky, before we finally split off the main roads, by the second council house crescent we've seen today. Sugar Lane rises as we are led along the side of Wakefield cemetery, which becomes something of a veritable necropolis as it grows to fill both sides of the road, ahead of the allotment gardens and our arrival on Belle Vue Road, in Agbrigg (or Sandal Common, if old maps are preferred), landing us on Agbrigg Road by the old Duke Of York inn, where one final corner is negotiated to bring us up to Wakefield's southern suburban station, Sandal & Agbrigg, where we rise up to the platform, easily ahead of its two stopping trains' arrivals (only 18 minutes apart!) at 1.45pm.