Glasshoughton to South Milford 28/05/22

9.7 miles, via Junction 32, Holywell Wood, Toll Hill, Townville, Holmfield, Ferrybridge, 

 Brotherton, Fairburn, Monk Fryston substation, and Lumby. 

Back from holidays with 46 miles of a completed trail under my belt, and feeling pretty sanguine about my trip despite the relatively mediocre weather, and as we now stand on the cusp of the High Season, it's time again to dig into the unknown by expanding the walking bubble to the east and south, and seeking out new destinations too, which is where we start with this trip, seeking out the one railway station that sits within the field of experience, passed by at close quarters on two occasions in 2015 but never travelled to or from. Thus we return to where we were spending our early season weekends, taking a leisurely ride out to Glasshougton as we have large but inflexible time window for this trip, alighting at 10.25am having ridden out the long way round from Leeds and aiming ourselves east once we've gotten off the footbridges, immediately away from the shadow of the Xscape complex and the Junction 32 retail park, but wholly in the commercial and post-industrial landscape still as the A639 Colorado Way leads us past the Aspen Way retail park with its stores and fast food outlets as head out to meet the A656 Park Road, taking a left turn to take us on into suburban Castleford. Note that the former bingo hall has been demolished since we came this way in March, as we rise up to the KGV WMC at the corner of old Glass Houghton before taking a easterly turn again with the B6136 Holywell Lane, rising uphill with the views south to Pontefract Park and ahead to the ancient and enduring Holywell Woods before we dig into the landscape of semis, with nothing of any vintage showing up along the rising lane, before coming up to the top of Toll Hill, where the old pub on the corner of the Fryston and Airedale estates is still refitting. It's certainly a bit of a culture shock being in an urban scenario with a lot of traffic, after such time as we had out of it, and I'm sure my lungs were feeling happier in the preceding week than they are presently as we press down out of the town along Sheepwalk Lane, having not seen anything more than a century old once we're out into the fields again, with pylons and the remaining chimneys of Ferrybridge power station punctuating the local horizon beyond the trees as we skirt through the enduring greenbelt below Fryston Park, ahead of meeting the farm hamlet at Holmfield, and passage under the bridges and flyovers of the A1(M), just north of its entanglement with the M62.

Mary Towneley Loop #3 - Holme Chapel to Sandbed 25/05/22

14.4 miles, on the Pennine Bridleway, via Green Clough, Long Causeway, Sheddon Clough,

 Cant Clough Reservoir, Worthsthorne Quarries, Hurstwood Reservoir, Smallshaw Clough, 

  Rams Clough, Gorple Gate, Gorple Stones, Clough Head, Widdop Reservoir, Clough Foot, 

   Lower Gorple Reservoir, Reaps Coppy, Reaps Level, Edge Lane, Land Bridge, 

    Strines Clough, Brown Hill, New Delight, Bow Lane, Blackshaw Head (Cally Hall), 

     Marsh Lane, Naze, Cowbridge Wood, and Jumble Hole. 

Long Distance Trail
means Selfies!
#3 at Holme Chapel

When we travelled out to Calderdale, we brough with us a weather projection that suggested we ought to be having a decent spell in the mid-week, but as the days have borne on, we have gotten much less encouraging forecasts, so that it comes to pass that we have to choose the lesser of two poor days when the third leg comes around, despite having started out with as much flexibility as we thought we could provide, and thus we ride out on Wednesday, a day earlier than intended, wrapped up in all my available waterproofs as the Parental Taxi drops me off at Holme Chapel, en route to Mum’s get together with her Skipton friends at Boundary Mill, Colne. It’s 10.10am when we start up, an hour later than usual in the hope of getting in behind the weather, which is still sending in a persistent drizzle as we rise away from the A646, armed with my trusty indestructible Fuji camera (as my new Lumix isn't getting ruined this early in its lifetime) as we shift up Green Lane, not getting any views of the Calder valley and the scars on its south side as a damp haze bleaches out everything, with a sharp wind blowing in behind us as we rise on a familiar sort of 150m pull, passing up above Green Clough, quitting the old lane and striking across the field paths to encounter workmen digging up the old surface. They’ve certainly got a lovely sort of day for tearing up the turf and laying hard core in its place, just as I have for passing among them, pondering how well my boots might hold up against this damp turf as we come up level with the Coal Clough windfarm, which the clouds appear to be rising above as we take the horse-friendly detour path that avoids a testing passage along the Long Causeway road at the clough head, touching the first of many routes from last year ahead of us striking onto the moors below the obscured Hameldon Ridge, but soon drifting downhill again, into some welcome vegetation around the Sheddon Clough Limestone Hushings. 

Mary Towneley Loop #2 - Broadley to Holme Chapel 23/05/22

14.8 miles, on the Pennine Bridleway, via Healey Dell, Spring Mill reservoir, Broadley Fold &   Prickshaw, Rooley Moor (Bottom of Rooley Moor, Warm Slack Hill, Pike Brow, Top of Pike,   

  Bagden Hillocks, Hamer Hill, Top of Leach) Cragg Quarry, Black Hill, Cowpe Bottom, 

   Hugh Mill, Waterfoot, Booth Fold, Edgeside, Shaw Clough, Lumb, Peers Clough, Red Moss,

    Bent Hill Rough, Deerplay Moor, Easden Clough, Stone House Fold, and Holme Station.

Long Distance Trail
means Selfies!
#2 at Broadley

Having had the main excursion of our Sunday rest day be a jaunt over to Ramsbottom to have a Sunday dinner date with My Sister and My Nieces at the Eagle & Child, when the time comes to approach the second leg of the Mary Townley Loop, My Mum has gotten much more comfortable with the tootle over the high road into Rossendale, making the main concern for Monday morning being getting around the rush hour, and school run, traffic in Todmorden, as we need to get a good start on the day as we could be facing down a tight weather window, as we’re deeply uncertain about what the capricious local weather could bring. As it is, we alight at 9.15am again, by the sandwich stand in Broadley, and set off purposefully down into Healey Dell nature reserve to meet the upstream path alongside the river Spodden taking us as far as the bridle bridge before joining the downstream path on part of the lost L&YR Rochdale – Bacup line, which is paced until we’re split off up by the beck and tramway that once led to Spring Mill, now lost to suburban redevelopment at the south end of Whitworth, but still naming the adjacent reservoir, which looms over the valley as we start the press up it west side. Gloom already hangs in the air as we slip back into Rochdale district and come up though the farm hamlets of Broadley Fold and Prickshaw, close enough together to not really warrant separate identities, with Knacks Lane drawing us up among further farmsteads, pressing southward before a sharp turn takes us into the quarry delves as the Bottom of Rooley Moor, directing us towards the nab end of the moorland at Hunger Hill before another sharp right turn pushes us onto the old road over Rooley Moor, where our long ascent northwesterly begins in earnest, with the tower blocks of Rochdale town centre directly behind us. 

Mary Towneley Loop #1 - Sandbed to Broadley 21/05/22

15.8 miles, on the Pennine Bridleway, via Callis Bridge, Callis Wood, Edge End Plantation, 

 Rough Head, London Road, Mankinholes, Lumbutts, Hey head Green, Rake End, 

  Salter Rake Gate, North Hollingworth, Bottomley, Summit Tunnel, Reddyshore Scout, 

   Owler Clough, Higher Calderbrook, Grimes, Turn Slack Clough, High Lee Slack, 

    Hills Clough, Watergrove Reservoir, Higher Slack Brook, Long Shoot Clough, Brown Hill, 

     Lobden golf course, Rushy Hill, Hopwood Hall, and Hindle Pastures.

Long Distance Trail
means Selfies!
#1 at Sandbed.

Late May means Spring Jollies time, and my first opportunity to get away from home at this time of year since 2019, and as we don’t have an obvious holiday locale that fits in with the year’s field of interest, and thusly we look to what we’d been hoping to do before a global pandemic got in the way, and that’s why we’re setting course for Calderdale with the plan we hatched for Spring 2020 (also carried in Summer 2021, but then put on reserve again, because reasons), namely the Mary Towneley Loop on the Pennine Bridleway, 47 miles over the fields, moors and valleys of the three river catchments on the West Yorkshire - Lancashire border. Taking a cottage with My Mum on the hillside above the A646 Halifax Road puts us in a good location for the initial start line, where the parental taxi won’t be needed as we’re only a few bus stops west of Sandbed, where the #590 service can be ridden for a 9.15am start, at the point where the Pennine Way and Bridleway tangle up passing across the valley, and we immediately strike south at Callis Bridge, passing over the river Calder and the Rochdale canal, and hit the rising path that leads up to Callis Wood, giving us a fine view over Charelstown before we disappear into the trees, switching back with the hard track and also wandering off of it as we elevate. Before we can reach the high apron of fields above the valley, we drop down to pass over Beaumont Clough bridge and then rise along the perimeter of Edge End plantation to reach the track that leads across the open plots of Rough Head, directing us towards Stoodley Pike on its high perch, while Blackshaw Head and Heptonstall appear on our reverse horizon, and the bridleway endeavours to keep us low-ish as we come around to Kinshaw Lane, taking us by Swillington farm and onto the passage of London Road, 100m below the high monument. 

Sandal to Elsecar 14/05/22

15.2 miles, via Woodthorpe, Gallows Hill, Chevet Park, Bleakley Bridge, 

 Notton (Grange), Windmill Hill, Royston, Kirk Cross, Carlton, Fish Dam, 

  Monk Bretton, Old Mill, Harborough Hill, Barnsley, Worsborough Common, 

   Mount Vernon, Darley Cliff, Worsborough Dale, Lower Lewden, Dovecliffe Wood,

    Blacker Hill, Platts Common, and Hoyland.

One third of the way into my 2022 walking year, I think we can draw the impression that we are doing rather well so far, sitting on the cusp of getting 200 miles down before we’ve gotten to my Spring Jollies week, which we’ve only managed to do once over my preceding 10 seasons on the trail, and that’s a good place to be as we continue our probing into South Yorkshire, finally getting a day that promises a lot of Spring sunshine that we haven’t seen much of over the last month, though we are still dressing for potential coolness as we ride out early, to our jump off point, one station south of Wakefield. Alight at Sandal & Agbrigg at 9.10am, my earliest start of the year incidentally, and our course is set along Agbrigg Road to the side of the A61 Barnsley Road to track south through Sandal Magna on a familiar pavement, past St Thomas a Beckett RC school, the parish church of St Helen’s, and on to the rise past Sandal Hall, elevating us up past the Castle inn and the Sandal Castle school to meet the view that neatly frames Woolley Edge, or at least the northern end of it, as the road dives away and we take a left turn onto Chevet Lane by the Three Houses inn. Wandering with the B6132 into the leafy suburbia of Woodthorpe still has us on a pre-used footway, from our very first trip in these parts, though we’re not heading towards Walton today, instead keeping to the southerly tack and passing the Bishop of Wakefield’s residence at Woodthorpe Hall as we pass out of the city and lose our pavement as we slip into the fields over the top of Gallows Hill, notable for its microwave mast and the passage of the Wakefield Way over its crest, and then it's on down the far side between high walls and hedges among the rapeseed fields, taking care to avoid the traffic as the concealed corners come on. We are led down to the Common Lane corner, and meet the lodge house at Chevet Gates, at the top end of Chevet Park, one of the major lost estates of the county, with the boundary wall forming our companion as we trace its eastern edge on a renewed pavement, high enough to not be peer over-able, with dense tree cover abounding, with the driveway by the non-vintage house being noted ahead of us hitting another crest on the lane, pushing us south to another horizon reveal that doesn’t do much for my ability to place our location, as an indistinct horizon and the total absence of any settlements in the vicinity is deeply confusing. 

Wakefield to Wombwell 07/05/22

16.6 miles, via New Brighton, Thornes Park, Thornes, Calder Island, Pugneys Country Park,

 Stand Bridge, Kettlethorpe, Pledwick, Slack, Chapelthorpe, Hall Green, Woolley Moor, 

  Woolley, Woolley Edge, Windhill, Staincross, Athersley & New Lodge, Monk Bretton, 

   Cliffe Bridge, Cundy Cross, Monk Bretton Priory, Grange Bridge, Stairfoot, Aldham Junction,

    Bradberry Balk, and Wombwell Main.

Having taken the entire May Day weekend off from the trail, and using two-thirds of it for some important social interactions, we look to my favourite month of the walking year to get the mileage going again, and we need to get going beyond our established boundaries as we press into the High Season, pushing outside the bubble of walking experience and seeking new destinations in the south and east, indeed we’ve already got a list of 24 potential targets to aim at, so we need to get a move on if we’re going to get deep into that plan across the length of the summer. We thus start our new seasonal escapdes from Wakefield Westgate station at 9.35am, descending Mulberry Way behind the Arts Centre to Westgate itself, passing under the railway bridge as we strike westwards, south of the prison complex and on to the side of Ings Beck in its roadside channel before crossing to Lawfield Lane by its prominent chapel and passing the local primary school and the residential cluster of New Brighton before we meet Thornes (et al) Park, joining the path that rises across its centre, shadowing the access road to the campus of Wakefield college, and west of the Lowes Hill motte. Crest over the top of the parkland and descend the tree lined promenade route down between the playing field and mini golf course to exit onto Thornes Lane by the tennis courts and lodge café, following our route from a few weeks back as we head east and pass under the Denby Dale Road bridge again, and then keep on with the A636 as it strikes south, through the industrial commercial band that fills the space down to the Calder & Hebble Navigation, and Calder Island, before we pass over the river Calder itself and carry on down that illusory ribbon of houses that seemingly extends the city into the fields beyond. At the Swan & Cygnet traffic island, we split off to join the ahistoric A6186 Asdale road as it passes around the western edge of Pugneys Country Park, with its vast boating lake and miniature railway, offering views across to Sandal castle on its hill as we find ourselves among open fields and hawthorn hedges, despite still being within the greater city as we come around to the Asda store at Stand Bridge, and find ourselves tangling with the Wakefield Wheel cycling route as it splits off onto St George's Walk, by the Roman Catholic church of St Peter & St Paul. 

Rumination: Collapsing the Bubble

The Following is For Reference Only.

Pandemic Thoughts - April 2022 

More than 25 months on from the World Health Organization declaring a global pandemic, we cannot really allow ourselves to think that it’s over, as there’s been no further declaration made as such, but the reality of the situation is that the spread of Covid-19 and the risks that it poses have fallen far down the list of issues and anxieties in the modern world, to be replaced by a burgeoning global economic crisis and an open conflict in Europe that shows no signs of abating, while the behaviours of so many are such as like the health crisis is now far from their minds. I’ll finally put myself into that bracket, after reserving judgement for so long, taking the opportunities presented to me during April 2022 to collapse my imposed bubble of isolation from general socialising that we maintained throughout the months, covering the first and second waves of Coronavirus infections of 2020, and through the spread of the Delta and Omicron variants in 2021, having somehow come out of the other end without having become unwell, and ready to face the hopefully diminished risks in person, now that covid can be largely regarded as an infection that would be unpleasant to get, rather than a matter of life and death. So, naturally, it’s with my Good Friends in Calderdale that I make my breakout, after they were so good to me after the last two years, twice making an excursion over the Pennines for evenings out in Manchester, not exactly hitting the town hard, but going into a crowded venue for the first time since Christmas 2019, on both occasions braving the throng in ‘Society’ on Barbirolli Square to get in the beer 'n' burgers, as the mix of Vocation Ales and Slap & Pickle’s creations are worthy of the trip in their own right (despite having closer and more convenient outlets in Hebden Bridge and Leeds).