South Elmsall to Nostell Priory 01/10/22

13.8 miles, via Hacking Hill, Coalpit Fields, Wrangbrook, Barnsdale Tunnel, Shinwell, Upton, 

 Upton Moor, Royd Moor, Badsworth Common, Shepherd's Hill, Ackworth Moor Top, 

Brackenhill, Taylor Wood Cottages, Wragby, and Nostell Park (St Michael's, Nostell Priory

 house, Lower Lake, Obelisk Park, Top Park Wood, Mill Piece, Engine Wood, and East Vista).

My September Nine Day Weekend finally arrives, too late for Summer Jollies and not featuring any Autumn Jollies as midweek is going to be spent with My Mum, to celebrate her 80th birthday, and thus we're left with only the weekends to use as we push for 1,000km in 2022, with our organisation being disrupted further by having renewed strikes on the railways, postponed after the death of HMQE2 and now restored to keep us inside West Yorkshire, which isn't a huge problem as I've had a couple of bus-able plans on my slate for months now, with the idea of walking in the park maintained as we seek out another one deep in the heart of Wakefield district. Thus we ride out on the #425 and #496 to South Elmsall, alighting at the bus stand at 9.45am, after a journey that was almost twice the duration of one on rails (no thanks to Arriva for misplacing a service along the way) and the bright morning sunshine that we had for most of the journey looks like it's not going to endure as we head out, over the railway station and up High Street, with the rain coming on sharply as we hide in the bus shelter by the United Service Club for several minutes, letting it pass before we continue on up Hacking Hill to the estate at the top of the town before Field Lane leads us out above the old quarry remnants and into the landscape dominated by the Next distribution depots. It's a development that's still growing, placing a new facility on the south side of the lane with its own linking bridge overhead, to be regarded with a certain kind of awe at it sheer extent across the plots ahead of the A638, where we land by Cherry Tree farm and the H&BR Wath branch, where our easterly push, away from our apparent destination continues, across the Doncaster Road and onto the dirt track of Coal Pit Lane as the early gloom starts to lift, dropping a rainbow above the Upton Becaon / Walton Wood / Barnsdale ridge as we press on toward the earthworks around the lost Waterfield farm. We can place ourselves on the very edge of Doncaster borough, west of the A1 and Skelbrooke village before we turn north, onto the Wakefield Way route as it strikes along the muddy field boundary down to the sewage farm , where the path up to the cottage by the remains of the H&BR South Yorkshire Junction branch is overgrown and damp, reminding me of just how little interaction I've had with horrible paths across this year, a theme which reoccurs once we've met the driveway and taken the most direct path north, a field walk and green passage that's enough to make me want keep to pavements from now on, which we can do once we've landed on Sleep Hill Lane and drawn ourselves out to and across the A6201 Wrangbrook Lane.

High Street, Hacking Hill, South Elmsall.

The Next Depots, Field Lane.

The H&BR Wath branch, from Coalpit Lane.

The H&BR South Yorkshire Junction branch, from Coalpit Lane.

Joining the terrible path the Sleep Hill Lane.

The A6201 Wrangbrook Road.

Being in the vicinity of Wrangbrook hamlet and junction means that we do have to allow ourselves one detour before we get properly on track to our destination, as the former H&BR mainline is encountered and the deep rock cutting to the east is accessed to walk the quarter mile or so to take another look at Barnsdale tunnel, which has is gates open today allowing me to venture a short way inside, through not all the way to its eastern portal as despite is being one of the driest and safest abandoned tunnels according to urbexers, I haven't brought a torch with me to secure the subterranean mile's round trip to the A1 and back, so we can only regard it superficially before we return to Sheepwalk Lane and set us onto our day's proper trajectory. Tom Wood Ash Lane leads west below the Wrangbrook estate, and above the bungalows by the railway route, seemingly placed incongruously until Wrangbrook Road takes a sharp northbound turn beyond the Brookside WMC, around the site of Upton colliery, which brought industry to this landscape in the 20th century, growing this and the neighbouring Shinwell estate on the hillside below the Walton Wood mast, and now forming a country park with some remnants still enduring around the primary school and community library on the westbound Waggon Lane, like the bridge over the line to the spoil tip or the disused Welfare Hall by the Stead Court business park. Pause for early lunch in the shade of the local memorial garden while the last of the morning's dampness washes over before we transition into Upton proper, to join the High Street at its eastern end as it takes us past the Methodist church, the United Services club and main shopping parade, before coming upon the bottom of Field Lane, coming down from the Upton Beacon water tower, and the Upton Arms across the way, with Common Lane keeping us on a suburban track west as we check off the most significant unseen pavements of this quarter, before start to travel by joining the side of the A638 Doncaster Road as it starts its northwesterly push through the fields.

The H&BR Mainline, at Wrangbrook.

Barnsdale Tunnel, west portal.

Tomw Wood Ash Lane, Wrangbrook Estate.

Waggon Lane, Shinwell Estate.

High Street, Upton.

Common Lane, Upton.

A wide verge keeps us secure as we press on past the outlying cottages and on towards Upton Manor farm, and the plots around the lost Elmsall lodge, but our passage across Upton Moor along the side of the turnpike isn't going to be plain sailing, as our space diminishes past the first notable corner on the lane, placing us on a narrow strip of grass above a ditch in the face of the oncoming traffic as we press on uphill, away from the South Yorkshire horizon and trying to gain some sense of location as we cross one of the most notable local blank spaces on the map, passing west of the Upton - Walton Wood upland and only having High Leys farm for company on the eastern fringes of Royd Moor. The crest comes, though, placing us southwest of Badsworth and northeast of Hemsworth as the local roads cut in, with the view ahead revealing the strange extent of the Went valley, seemingly enclosed by the hills above Wentbridge in the east and having no obvious water-shedding extent in the west, where Leeds sits on the distant horizon but Wakefield doesn't, an aspect to be lost as we press downhill with a clear sightline all the way down to the passage under the Swinton & Knottingley line with a rise following to take us past the derelict Badsworth Common farmstead, the Brickyard Plantation Veg Shed, and the closed up First Impressions plant nursery. From the bluff of Shepherd's Hill we can observe the embankment spur of the Fitzwillam colliery branch before we pass driveway to Moorhouse farm and the fall and rise towards Ackorth Moor Top, passing its cemetery and the northeast view to the Six Arch viaduct ( a better profile than we had up close) before we tuck in among its estate houses, back on urban pavements almost surreally after so long on the countryside kerb, pressing west as we come up to the traffic island on the A628 Barnsley Road by the Stoneacre dealership, the Beverley Arms and the war memorial, before the Wakefleid Road leads us on past Rhyddings House and All Saints parish church.

Doncaster Road, Upton Moor.

Doncaster Road, Royd Moor.

Doncaster Road crests into the Went Valley.

Under the Swinton & Knottingley Line.

The Fitzwilliam Colliery branch embankment.

Ackworth Six Arch Viaduct.

All Saints Church, Ackworth Moor Top.

On to the Bell Lane corner and back onto the familiar portion of the A638, past the Boot & Shoe inn, the village club and the Angel inn, to meet the Fitzwilliam Colliery branch which is passed over into Brackenhill, to meet the passage down to the Electric Theatre, all seen on a gloomier day than this in August, before we press out of greater Ackworth by passing the terraced frontages and the suburbia developed over the local  quarry pits and through the rough plots of Brackenhill Common on pavements which we paced in 2015 but seem to no memory of seven years after the fact, as the colliery park punctuates our reverse horizon. Approach the junction with the Went and Hemsworth Lane, passing the parade of estate houses at Taylor Wood Cottages, with the old turnpike's Bar House sitting ahead of them, before we pass over the A6428, and run on along the pavement towards Wragby along the Doncaster Road, which hopefully does something to tie Ackworth more securely into the local landscape, carrying on along a narrow, tightly-bounded and blind-cornered pavement that's more terrifying than any amount of road walking before we come up past the (former?) Spread Eagle inn and into the village that always feels like it got deliberately moved by the Nostell Priory estate, which we'll approach after late lunching on the bench at the end of Engine Lane. Despite being a National Trust site, the real bonus of the Nostell Priory site is the fact that only admission to the house and gardens cost, while access to the Deer Park is free, and thusly no money has to exchange hands as we wander in, making a beeline from the first corner to the yard of Wragby's parish church of St Michael & Our Lady a short way into the grounds, before pressing on in with the visitors path along the driveway, past the business park in the Home Farm complex, and the estate facilities in the stable block to land in front of 18th century and Palladian Nostell Priory House, built by James Paine and Robert Adam, forming probably the noblest residential centrepiece in the borough. 

The Angel Inn, Ackworth Moor Top.

Wakefield Road, and the diminishing end of Brackenhill.

Taylor Wood Cottages and the Toll Bar House.

The Spread Eagle inn, Wragby.

St Michael & Our Lady, Wragby Parish Church, Nostell Priory.

The Stables Block, Nostell Priory.

Nostell Priory House.

The multi-use path leads us north, towards the Lower Lake, one of three across the estate, where the aquatic birdlife can be observed through the shade of trees, and the pictureseque architecture of the boathouse and footbridge can be absorbed before we press on, out beyond the woodlands to the open fields of Obelisk Park, the main body of the Deer Park, where the local cattle herd grazes and a Buzzard can be observed (making achange form the usual spotting of Red Kites), following the northern driveway on the long drag up to the Obelisk Lodge (which is actually a pyramid), a 17th century semi-folly at the parkland's edge, parring the path towards Huntwick Grange, and Featherstone. We then take a left to join the woodland cycle trail, where everyone seems to walk along regardless of the the signage asking us not to, which takes us on a meandering track through Top Park Wood, west and then south on a track that seems to have been designed to be as technical and indirect as possible for the benefit of bike riders, down the side of the concealed holiday park before returning us to the woodlands above Lower Lake, putting us back on the main track until we meet the boathouse and ornamental bridge again and the edge of Hardwick Beck leads us east, to the open fields of Mill Piece, to follow the track that leads towards the Pump Lane track. This actually takes us beyond the walled park, into Engine Wood, but as we have no fixed deadline to today, we can venture onto the estate's 'other paths' for the sake of it, enjoying the late afternoon sunshine in the woods as we convince ourselves there are bellpit remnats to be found out here (we are in a coalfield landscape after all), before we emerge from Roebuck Wood at a considerable distance down the East Vista, which would offer the best view towards the main house, if we had the morning sunshine rising behind us, but all is in shadow now as we come inbound, down to Engine Lane and the ha-ha ditch, which is crossed to return us to the main park, angling ourselves south to frame the westerly view with the lengthening Autumnal shadows.

Lower Lake, Nostell Priory.

Obelisk Park, Nostell Priory.

Obelisk Lodge, Nostell Priory.

Top Park Wood, Nostell Priory.

The Boat House and Ornamental Bridge.

Mill Piece, Nostell Priory.

The East Vista, Nostell Priory.

Returning uphill towards the car parks means that's we've seen just about all of the parkland that we don't have to pay to access, and thus the gardens and house can wait for another occasion when I'm feeling more flush and we can shuffle out to the Doncaster Road, and press on along to the southern gatehouse, to seek the bus stop at the top of Garmil Lane, knowing that a long wait isn't likely with the #496 running a quarter-hourly service, but it turns out my timing is immaculate (or Arriva are trying to get back into my good books) as my ride arrives at the same time as I do, at 3.05pm, ensuring the trip back home lasts little over an hour.

5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 5873.5 miles

2022 Total: 584.8 miles

Up Country Total: 5,392.8 miles

Solo Total: 5537.91 miles

5,000 in my 40s Total: 4463.3 miles

1,000 km in 2022 Ticker: 940.4 km

Next Up: Down Country for My Mum's 80th, before finding another park to walk in?