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.

The Peckfield Colliery Memorial, Micklefield.

The green path of Pit Lane.

The Selby Road, approaching Ridge Road.

Field walking to Kippax.

The unending suburban spread of Kippax.

St Mary's, Kippax.

Past the Services social club and the White Swan inn on the Leeds Road corner, we descend again, past Kippax House and downhill with Butt Hill among its Edwardian suburbia as we get a hint of the direction we're intending to travel to the south, before Station Road leads us past the stuccoed council houses on the way down to the leisure centre and the terraced block beyond, before passing over Kippax Beck and rising again, over the Linesway and the site of Kippax railway station, before Berry Lane drags us up into Great Preston, past the sports field and social club, and the New Inn. It's nice to see it in the sunshine after the dampness of a week prior, but we'll not take in too much as our path soon leads us off Whitehouse Cresent and onto Fleakingley Lane, a muddy and forgotten country lane of the type that I like so much, which leads us down, rather lengthily and slipperily down to Fleakingley Bridge and the Leeds Country Way route, which is joined as it crosses Astley Lane and leads us along the stream-side in its wholly unnatural channel around the former St Aiden's opencast pit. We'll enter the RSPB St Aiden's site here, now open to all-comers after so much time in operational limbo, allowing us to legally enter the site this time and enjoy the company of other trekker as we follow the access track that comes below the former hillside coalface at the northern edge of the site, offering a fine view of the wetlands below as we head down to the site of the long lost hamlet of Astley, where a bench provides a tea break spot, ahead of us joining the causeway the bisects the site between the different sections of habitat for aquatic birds. 

Station Road, Kippax.

The New Inn, Great Preston.

Fleakingley Lane.

Above Fleakingley Beck, behind RSPB St Aiden's.

RSPB St Aiden's, the former opencast site.

The central causeway, heading south.

It's a popular spot, with the twitchers and birders, and with the wildlife too, not that avians fall in my wheelhouse at all, and I'm only good for identifying the swarms of black-headed gulls and the racket they make, aside from the regular geese, swans et al, as we make our way down to find that the causeway south to the riverside has been inundated, possibly after recent storms (or due to water management problems that blighted the opencast site since since it flooded catastrophically in the 1980s), causing our path to seek an alternative way out, by heading onto the raised footpath that sends us back to the northwest. It's a fine idea, in theory to get off the site towards Fleet Bridge, but it seems that the path below Astley Lake is also flooded, and thus we're going to have to go almost three-quarters of the way around the site to get out in the direction that I had intended to travel, thus joining the perimeter path as it heads east, around the northern side of the site, crossing over our entry path and carrying on below the gradually wilding coalface, in the direction of the walking dragline, still the most impressive piece of industrial machinery in the county, perched up the hill by the main entrance. We'll short cut to take the causeway south below Bower's Lake, which almost proves a poor choice at that too has overflowed, but only by a matter of inches to be waded across to meet the muddy path beyond, which leads us up to the main outspill sluice at the riverside (which is probably getting overworked), just downstream from Caroline bridge, where we could cross the Aire, but we have a route to regain and thus join the muddy path atop the wholly unnatural embankment that bounds the site to south, constructed when the river was redirected and the canal re-channelled, in the wake of the site's initial flooding decades ago.

The central causeway is flooded.

Tracking the northwestern causeway.

The Fleet Bridge path is flooded.

The Perimeter path, and the Walking Dragline.

The Bower's Lake path is (almost) flooded.

The South Embankment path.

Coming around to the last portion of the circuit, we've been on the site for an hour longer than intended, and it would be plausible to investigate the causeway's flooding from the south, but we're on a tight schedule against the trains and season from here, so we need to get a move on, having done way more off-roading that we'd intended as we rise away, across the wide and placid Aire via Shan House bridge, finally landing on the south bank on the edge of Methley (or Mickletown) where the gap between the two villages has been blurred by increasing suburbanisation, but we'll call it the former as the old 'North' railway station on the Midland line is just west of here. We need to take a close look at it from the level crossing before our increasingly snaking route strikes east again, getting back on track along Station Road behind the new closes of Lego houses and around the site of Methley Savile colliery, before entering Mickletown, by its own miners memorial tablet, making our way along its historic Main Street to the corner by the Baptist chapel and the Commercial inn, before taking a turn south to put a stop to our wandering to pass out of the village with Pinfold Lane past the council houses, the primary school and along the long run of oddly located early 20th century townhouses. Beyond the playing fields, we find ourselves in the flat fields that inhabit this nab of low land between the Aire and Calder, with the footway leading us down to the side of the A639 Barnsdale Road, where we follow the traffic as it draws us down towards Castleford, noting the well-placed Dunford House from the Green Lane corner before we rise to pass over the Calder at Methley Bridge, while noting just how much floodwater has been retained in the riverside pounds in the wake of storms Dudley and Franklin, before we pass the neighbouring boatyard and farm on this corner that we've seen so many times.

The River Aire at Shan House Bridge.

Methley (North) station house.

Main Street, Mickletown.

Pinfold Lane, Mickletown.

Barnsdale Road.

The River Calder at Methley Bridge

Stick to the side of the A639 as it rises south, not heading into the town on this occasion as we can surely still make our destination, rising over the railway and noting the new footbridge on the greenway route just off to the west, soon to be visited, as we rise through the council houses and over the rail path atop Lumley Hill before we come around to the Willowbridge Road corner, where the A655 will direct us southwest, between playing fields and industrial units, before we meet the entrance to Diggerworld, advertising itself as Yorkshire's best day out, which is surely true if your'e six years old and me. Past the fields of Castelford RUFC, we meet the Whitwood Common Lane corner, where the Mexboro Arms and Rising Sun inns make an interestingly contrasting pair of pubs, ahead of the singularly styled Whitwood Terrace which surely has a fascinating history attached to it , with the road beyond leading us into the tangle of lanes and factory units around Junction 31 on the M62, which we pass under before we meet the upper end of Normanton at Hopetown, with the town's terraces crowding the roadside as we rise uphill gradually, with the late afternoon sunshine in our eyes. It's a long drag up the pavements of Castleford Road before we can approach the finish line, passing Haw Hill Park and the public library before the final push to the crest by the Black Swan inn, where we split off downhill, past the district council offices and the baptist chapel on High Street, before King Edward Street drops us off the hilltop, and Lower Station Road has to be located, hidden by the Lidl on Altofts Road, and Normanton station can be checked off as our first arrival in the Five Towns for 2022, at 3.50pm, just ahead of the trains away, to be caught from the massive platform, once the over-long footbridge has been negotiated.

The extending Castleford - Wakefield greenway.

Diggerland.

Whitwood Terrace, Whitwood Common

Castleford Road, Hopetown.

Castleford Road, Haw Hill.

High Street, Normanton

NB: Additionally, I'm happy to report that my Panasonic Lumix is still working, though my initial prognosis as to its condition has proved correct, it's telephoto lens function is completely screwed, and its motor grinds in a way that sounds painful as it turns on and off, and indeed it can only auto-focus when pointed downwards, and its battery life is markedly worse than it was before, but it still takes pictures good enough to be used here, and if it does suddenly flakeout on me, I have also discovered that my Fuji Finepix, untouched in four years, also still works, and will be usable in an emergency situation, if it were so needed. 

5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 5327.6 miles

2022 Total: 42.9 miles

Up Country Total: 4864.6 miles

Solo Total: 4996 miles

5,000 in my 40s Total: 3921.4 miles

Next Up: A Bonus Trip to complete last week's missing miles, with 5,000 solo imminent!