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. 

Charlestown, in Calderdale.

The old Bridleway route, Callis Wood.

Blackshaw Head and Heptonstall.

Stoodley Pike from Rough Head

The view upstream opens up as we track southeastwards, giving us a view beyond the lump of Edge End moor, getting a focus on when we’re staying, concealed down in the valley, while looking up to find Whirlhaw stones and Bridestones Moor directly across the valley from us, as we keep to the decently firm bridleway, meeting the first cyclists on the day as we take the long passage down below the cliff face, finding that the ascending path up is much further around than would be imagined, its pike appearing once again as the Mankinholes mast appears ahead, as does the way to come over Rake End. It’s a way to come before we land there, watching the flank of the southern side of the valley rising up, coming to pass above the suburb of Harvelin Park in its splendid isolation on the high apron, whilst also watching a raptor gliding on the westerly wind in the vicinity of Stoodley Pike, as we follow the long wall around at the cultivatable limit, gradually getting views to the windfarms on the northeastern corner of the Rossendale uplands, and spying the view up the gorge of the uppermost Calder, beyond Todmorden. This track eventually leads us to Mankinholes, first seen in 2012 and last seen in 2020, tracing the former of these routes as we match the Calderdale Way route, up through the cluster of farmsteads and cottages around the Youth Hostel, pacing the laneside up to the old Sunday school to meet the causey that takes us down among the fields to Lumbutts, passing the Top Brink inn at the crest and then diving down the path that’s surely too steep for horses and cyclists as we pass down to the beckside in Lumbutts Clough below the waterwheel tower, and join the rising road that leads between the terraces beyond. 

Calderdale beyond Edge End Moor.

Looking towards Rake End, from London Road.

Raptor action by Stoodley Pike.

Peering up the uppermost Calder gorge.

Mankinholes Youth Hostel.

Lumbutts Waterwheel Tower.

Soon enough we’re tangling with 2020’s path down to Todmorden as well, before we pass above the top of Causeway Wood Road as it drops away, keeping on with Lumbutts Road as it elevates, doing our best to keep out of harm’s way as we rise along this narrow lane, the longest stretch of road usage on this portion of the bridleway, that ends as we split off onto the causey and farm tracks that angles diagonally uphill, away from the Shepherd’s Rest inn, where a significantly weathered milepost, a testament to the vintage of the track, can be found above Shurcrack farm, the last such at the moorland edge. The long climb on this at least Anglo-Saxon dated route up to Rake End gives us our first dalliance with High Moor altitude, landing at over 300m elevation despite having been on the edge of the rough grasses for a long time, carrying us below the broken rocks at the cliff top and up to the angle of the valley, where a rock seat  allows us to observe the weathered formation at Bridestones Moor high above the town, and also look to trains passing on Todmorden viaduct far below, as well as having my first lunch break and meeting our first pony rider on the bridleway trail. Over the Rake End crest, we shift southbound dynamically into the valley of Walsden Water, putting the main body of Calderdale behind us as we start downhill, with Crook Hill Windfarm rising across the valley ahead of us, and the full force of the westerly breeze coming on again as we meet the track coming down from Gaddings Dam and the Basin Stone, following the ancient Salter Rake Gate path as it descends above Walsden village and the three local transport passages, all seen up close on our 2020 arrival, passing below the rising mass of Walsden Moor and across the catchment of the much less torrential than two years ago Birks Clough. 

Lumbutts Road among the high farmsteads.

The ancient milepost above Shurcrack Farm.

The causey rising to Rake End.

Todmorden and company, from Rake End.

Crook Hill windfarm, above Walsden.

Salter Rake Gate, and Birks Clough.

North Hollingworth farm, and the hamlet-let around it marks the limit of our ability to mentally navigate, and we’ll need to follow the guidebook for the Pennine Bridleway beyond, tracing the tracks and steep causey setts that lead downhill, with the early day gloom breaking along the way, coming steeply down to Dean Royd farm, and then passing into Bottomley Clough briefly, before rising to meet its eponymous hamlet, perched at the top of its own causey path, which descends to the valley floor, where the Rochdale Canal is passed over again, by Bottomley Lock. Past the canal terrace, we rise up to the side of the A6033 Rochdale Road, pacing beside it and Walsden Water to the Pegasus crossing, and joining the fenced path beyond that leads immediately uphill again, passing outside of our experience field as we meet the path that rises above Summit tunnel, the oldest of the Trans-Pennine railway routes, with its northernmost vents rising by the steepening and zigzagged path across some very rough going on the western valley side, where we can look down to Riverside Centre sports fields squeezed in at the valley floor, ahead of the beginnings of the canal’s summit pound. It’s a dynamic gorge to pass through, even more so when viewed from above, and it’s another old track, as indicated by another ancient milepost at the top, beside the ancient pre-turnpike road at the top, where a second lunch can be taken, and cyclists observed diving down the descent before we resume south, figuring that the undulations on this high lane must pass over the English watershed at some point, but exactly where isn’t obvious, as we pass below Reddyshore farm and look down to the settlements of Warland and Summit at the valley floor, below the dramatically falling cliffs of the quarried(?) edge of Reddyshore Scout. 

The Walsden water valley, around Bottomley.

Descending the Bottomley old road.

Bridleway by the A6033.

The asent among the vents of Summit tunnel.

The ancient milepost above the valley, looking north.

Above Reddyshore Scout, and the Summit pound.

Beyond Owler Clough we pass into Lancashire and with the western Pennine flank around Blackstone Edge ahead of us, we follow the old road down to the original turnpike, passing between another pair of tunnel vents as we join Calderbrook Road, where a passage update is sent to My Mum, and our route rises away from the main southbound Pennine Bridleway path, as the loop heads towards a rare dirt track that leads into the back of Calderbrook village, just across the way from Summit, passing among cottages scattered around the obvious remnants of piles of quarry spoil. Take a turn by Calderbrook House, and the rough track shifts us westwards rising above the spire of St James’s church and the fishing dams in the side valley that we’re entering, following the undulating track and soon losing context of our location, north of Littleborough as Blackbrow Hill obscures the view, as we rise on along the southern periphery of the Rossendale uplands up to Grimes farmstead, the last such to be seen on this portion route, ahead of a renewed reveal across Greater Manchester, putting its city’s towers onto the middle distance horizon. The path soon drifts us back into the moorland fringe, with its sharply rising grassy slopes punctuating the horizon around the fall of Turn Slack Clough, with Stansfield Hill and Ratcliffe Hill obscuring the southern horizon, also noting the remains of lost farmsteads along the track as if the marginal quality of the land and the lure of industry in the towns beyond did so much to leave this landscape desolate, and I’m really glad to have a guidebook to lead me here, as the many turns of the bridleway route could make this landscape very confusing, even with the numerous PBW waymarkers. 

The tunnel vent by the division point on the Pennine Bridleway.

Upper Calderbrook.

The Calderbrook angling lakes.

Into the moorland fringe beyond Grimes farm.

Ratcliffe Hill above Turn Slack Clough

Waymarkers guide us below the Stone Pits hills.

At the southern apex below the hillside of Higher & Lower Stone Pits, we can see a brief reveal of the eastern Cheshire hills to the south, with signage placing us above Shore village, just west of Smithy Bridge, while also spying the Crook Hill windfarm rising again directly behind us, before we turn back in towards the moors, shifting north again, with East Hill obscuring the view and Hill Clough leading us along the side of a very long and drab stone wall, that eventually drops us into the natural amphitheatre of the catchment above Watergrove Reservoir. From the impacted stone track down, we can look across both Rochdale on the near horizon, and Manchester and Salford further afield, as well as across the full width of Cheshire, revealing the Jodrell Bank radio telescope at its heart, before we come down through the ‘Life for a Life’ memorial woodland and land by the reservoir shore, keeping a good step away from the edge as we enjoy the briefest of encounters with the major water cistern for the local towns, before we are turned north again, following Ramsdale Road as it heads up past the Little Town and Stewards Barns farmstead ruins, leading us into the Watergrove valley again. Our route to the west seems obvious, but we’ve a clough traverse to do before we can get there, dropping sharply into the depression formed by the red-hued Higher Slack Brook, also passing among Rotary wood before we rise up the other side and strike across the moor, on a vague sort of grassy track for the first time on the trail, approaching the bulk of Middle Hill and Brown Wardle Hill, to meet a better sort of track, which once served the farmsteads on the springline on this side of the valley, now all found in ruins as we progress south, having become unviable in the not too distant past. 

The Long Wall up Hill Clough.

Watergrove Reservoir and the Greater Manchester horizon.

Watergrove Reservoir, up close.

Ramsden Road leading to Middle Hill and Brown Wardle Hills.

Completing the traversal of Higher Slack Brook.

Middle Hill farm ruins.

Having promised a finish within an hour when checking in with Mum, the level press alongside the reservoir feeder channel starts to feel like a bit of a slog, especially as our reverse and southerly horizons haven’t changed all that much, though King Hill and Rushy Hill arriving ahead of us makes it clear that we are approaching the end of the ridge on this valley side, and as the path gives us an interesting link or two, we get a reveal of the Spodden valley to our west, with Whitworth parish church peeking above its settlement town and the mass of Rooley Moor rising beyond, teasing the early going of the next leg. Our track keeps on south, rising over Lobden Golf Course and revealing Whitworth itself and the Cown and Spring Mill reservoirs in the valley above and below it, as we’re drawn around Rushy Hill and the farmsteads that have endured on its slopes, where a direct view ahead reveals Fiddlers Ferry power station way off to the west, before we start the come down, still above Rochdale with the spire of Christ Church Middle Healey ahead, as we descend on the rough track, finding Hopwood Hall farmstead walled off against the elements, just above the moorland limit. We need to cut into the Spodden valley, and Rossendale district, from here, and that means tacking west a bit and then rising through the old quarry remnants to its north, uphill on an unusually bad track, rather dam and muddy, before we can land on the hard road surfaces at Broadley, having our bridleway trek ending in wholly urban setting as we drop downhill among the suburbs clinging to the valley side, just as much in Healey and Tonacliffe as we are in Broadley as Highgate Lane leads sharply down to the old turnpike road, before Oakenshaw Avenue drops us onto the A671 Market Street. 

Tracing the reservoir drain to King Hill.

Rooley Moor and St Bart's revealed, above the Spodden Valley.

Whitworth, with Cowm Reservoir above.

Rochdale, and company, from Rushy Hill.

The Endings Quarry remnants.

The Old Turnpike, Tonacliffe Road, Broadley.

The Bridleway Loop drops into the woodlands of the Healey Dell nature reserve from here, but our day will wrap up here ahead of my target time, by a whole five minutes at 3.55pm, and thanks to some effective Google Maps searching, my Parental Taxi ride can be found by Porky’s Pit Stop, a convenient sandwich stand by a small car park which Mum could easily locate having flown mostly blind out of Calderdale from Todmorden, up Gorpley Clough and through Bacup and Whitworth to pick me up, a voluntary service which is most appreciated still, and much easier to use than bussing and training it the long way round via Rochdale. 

5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 5511.2 miles

2022 Total: 226.5 miles

Up Country Total: 5,034.5 miles

Solo Total: 5179.6 miles

5,000 in my 40s Total: 4105 miles

Next Up: Second Leg: Northbound across the full width of Rossendale.