Morley to Mirfield 10/06/23

10.4 miles, via Troy Hill, Fountain Street, Scotchman Lane, Howley Mill, Lady Anne Crossing,

 Upper Batley, Batley, Clerk Green, Mount Pleasant,  Batley Carr, Boothroyd, Moor Bottom,

  Dewsbury Country Park, Ravensthorpe, Calder Bridge, Sands, The Beck, Hopton Bottom,

   Lower Hopton, and Ledgard Bridge.

We seem to have arrived on the first hot spell of the year, in mid June, as we reach the end of my first worked five day week in a while, and there's no telling if the energy levels are going to keep up for regular walking days as we attempt to push on towards the Summer, as my body has gotten used to working shorter weeks through May, though we're not getting too ambitious with our planning yet as there are at least 14 destinations around West Yorkshire that could be plausibly walked from home and added to the local Tier of Relative Proximity, and we've sights set on three of them for today as we set out, aiming ourselves towards Kirklees district for the first time in a while. There's no morning chill to be had as we arrive at our start line, at Morley station naturally, at 9.05am, and thus attempts to stay ahead of the swell of warmth count for nought, despite getting out an hour earlier than usual, and I can already feel like I'm getting a work out as we set off away up Station Road, noting Dartmouth Mills getting reconstructive works after suffering a fire last year, and rise up the angled path that leads up to Albert Road, where we join Troy Road and pass over Troy Hill by the still derelict St Mary in the Wood, around to Commercial Street, which we quit via Little Lane by the library and the the unity hall, down the ginnel that leads to Queen Street and the looming presence of the Town Hall. Pass behind that pile via Wellington Street and up through the Windsor Court shopping centre and on through Morrisons car park up to the civic complex on Corporation Street, where we hang a left past St Francis of Assisi RC church and the Fountain centre, as well as the WMC and the GNR goods shed, to join Fountain Street to lead us off to the southwest, pacing the sunny side of the street for a change in an attempt to get a different perspective on a local landscape that we've observed up close a good many times already as we track a way down from the Morley Academy to the Fountain Primary school, with all the terraced fronts and ends lying between, down to the former chapels on the A650 corner.

Dartmouth Mill restoration, Station Road, Morley.

Morley Library and Town Hall, and the concealed Little Lane.

The GNR Goods Shed, Fountain Street.

Terraced Fountain Street.

Over the Bruntcliffe Road and keep on with the B6123 as it leads past the Halfway House inn and out of Morley and over the M62 where the view across to the Pennine horizon never fails to entertain me, which recedes as we drop away with Scotchman Lane, along the front of the long suburban ribbon that backs onto Howley Hall golf course, dropping down and easing off and then dropping more sharply as we drop down to the former Needless inn, now renamed the Greedy Duck and having received a contemporary makeover which at least keeps it in business, as we find ourselves level with the southern portal of Morley tunnel, presenting itself as probably an hour's walk long, if so approached. On the border of Kirklees district, deep in the fall of Howden Clough we take the left that leads us past the equestrain farm on the site of Howley Park colliery and down Howley Mill Lane as it leads under the railway with the beck at its side via the asymmetrical arch and down to the shaded footpath that leads us towards Batley, where spying a Grey Wagtail by Lady Anne's mill distracts me from finding the footpath that splits right, down to the beck passage and up to Howley Street, where railway works are ongoing to replace the foot crossing by Batley Signal box, where part of the GNR embankment and abutment has been dug out in order to install a footbridge. We can observe this from both sides before its closure comes in the not too distant future, and the new passage over to Rutland Road will have to be used in the future as we follow it around into Upper Batley, taking us below the imposing spire and bulk of St Thomas's church as we seek a sensible way down from this hillside, as we rise through the Victorian villa district with Grosvenor Road and then fall away with Glen Avenue among the suburban growth that lies above the Smithies beck valley, to be met as we join Batley Field Hill as it comes down to the A652 Bradford Road, where we cross to Branch Road, past the apparently former Conservative club, the parish church of All Saints and the present and past homes of the local Sally Army.

The declining Scotchman Lane, leading into greater Calderdale.

The Greedy Duck, these days, Scotchman Lane

The shaded footpath passage of Howden Mill Lane.

The embankment and abutment remnants, Lady Anne's Crossing.

St Thomas's church, Upper Batley.

Glen Avenue, above the Smithies Beck valley.

Meet the main drag of Commercial Street and cross to the old Market Place, home to the old Post Office and the Town Hall, which is rather overshadowed by the bell-towered Library on Cambridge Street, where we'll break for elevenses in the town's War Memorial park, on the benches in the garden corner that commemorates local MP Jo Cox (murdered by a white supremacist 7 years ago this week, we should remember), before we rise over the crest past the RAFA and down past the town baths and old Technical school to meet Wellington Street, across from the Fox's Biscuits factory, where a busy trade seems to be going on from the factory shop, and our path leads us eastwards. This leads us into Clerk Green, with Dark Lane offering the rise on among the terraces to the next hillside among these urban valleys that feed the Calder, where the middle day sun is already beating down hard as we press over the hilltop, past the local Masjid and the extensive suburban estate reach of the town that isn't really visible from any of the normally used passages hereabouts, noting the older and encompassed terraced enclave at Mount Plaeasnt before we decline through Batley Carr with Track Road, past Hyrstlands house and its alleged park, and on down to the A638 Halifax Road, up into the edges of greater Dewsbury and downhill past the LDS church and the former Wheelwrights grammar schools. It's a longer trot along here than I'd expected us taking down to the Gospel church and the Masonic lodge before we take our turn onto Oxford Road to elevate us again through the town's villa district along a leafy lane that is marred horribly by sticky pavements, as a lack of rain in recent weeks has seen trees raining goo onto everything around-abouts (including my camera), and as we crest to the elevated views and the drop towards the Spen Valley beyond the St John Fisher RC Academy, it starts to feel like this isn't the sort of day to be aiming at three targets, as overheating starts to feel like a possibility as we come down to Staincliffe Road and the drop by the side of Dewsbury Crematorium at Boothroyd, as well as Crow's Nest Park and the edge of the Pandemic-era local bubble. 

Batley Town Hall and Market Place.

Batley Public Baths, Cambridge Street.

Dark Lane, Clerk Green

Track Lane, Batley Carr.

Oxford Road, and sticky pavements.

Oxford Road, above the Spen Valley.

At least there's no more uphill to do as we head into the Spen valley, across the B6117 Heckmondwike Road and down among the council houses of Moor Bottom on Beckett Lane to meet Low Road and the way into the greenery beyond, located beyond the pair of bulk catering stores and leading us briefly over the old Thornhill - Heckmondwike railway line and the Spen Valley Greenway, before we are lead through Dewsbury Country Park and on to our passage over the River Spen, before Park Road lands us on the edge of Ravensthorpe, where uncertain route directions have us following the NCN66 signs that lead us to Sackville Street and our change of direction down Spen Valley Road. I could be surprised by the amount of lunchtime activity hereabouts as we come down to the A644 Huddersfield Road at the end of the town's main drag which we'll follow as it takes us down to Calder Road as it leads between the terraces and factories to the passage over its river, into the industrial landscape that lies beyond, as well as to Ravensthorpe station, which is still where it was 2 years ago thanks to the Trans Pennine Route Upgrade works having yet to arrive here, marking our first destination tag of the day, but not our last, where lunch can be taken as we choose to abbreviate the trip once we get to Mirfield, only an hour or so distant from here. Having noted a previously unacknowledged railway bridge, we return to the riverside, to seek the path along the bank that I wasn't convinced existed back in 2012, but find is thoroughly traceable still as we follow the upstream Calder through the shade, below the retaining walls that hold up the asphalt plant above and opposite the Greenwood Cut on the navigation, as we pass below the railway with some significant structural work keeping it in place as it looms to the south, before we stick to the bank-side and trace away around the Ladywood Lakes fishery and into the yard of the Ship Inn at Sands, which has comprehensively gone out of business. 

Low Road, Dewsbury Moor Bottom.

The Spen Bridge, Dewsbury Country Park.

Huddersfield Road, Ravensthorpe.

Ravensthorpe Station is still here!

A path on the Calder's south bank exists!

Railway retaining walls at the riverside.

The Ship Inn, Sands, is no longer in business.

Stay on the south side of the Calder as we join the footway beside the Steanard Lane taking us along towards the bridge across to Dr Reddy's plant and under the railway as it passes over on the skewed arches of Wheatley's bridge, then keeping on to the Christmas Tree farm and still rural feeling enclave at the Beck, before we find suburban growth arriving at Hopton Bottom, as the Applewood development claims more fields below the woodlands rising to the south, where a short route to the finish line could be made as Granny Lane leads us towards the Hopton New Road bridge, but we'll instead go a longer way around beyond the Flowerpot inn. The reach of Calder Road, passing the former Congregational chapel and hanging above the riverside leads us around to Lower Hopton, and gives us scope of a stretch f road that has failed to fall onto any previously plotted route, taking us past a surprisingly busy riverside frontage as we come around to Ledgard's bridge, and our usual passage over the Calder at the western edge of Mirfield, and thence its a press east along Back Station Road past the mill conversion and redevelopment to get us to our second, and sadly final destination of the day, where the murals under the Station Road bridge still need to be admired before we rise to the platform level. Land at 1.20pm, in good time for either of the available trains, feeling slightly dispirited at being beaten by the heat, and like I've had a proper testing of the endurance of my post-Covid self in hot weather that shows that a full recovery is still rather distant, but nonetheless encouraged that an alternative route to Deighton has already formed in my mind before we've even had need sit down to plot on Google Maps, so that gives me a future rote to ponder for the Summer, while also wondering what works the TPRU will have to do in the coming years to render this awkward elevated slab of station properly accessible.

Wheatley's Bridge, on the Calder.

Hopton Bottom.

The former Congregational chapel, Lower Hopton.

Ledgard's Bridge. Hopton - Mirfield.

Nova at Mirfield.
~~~

If it's Birdlife You Want, Have a Grey Wagtail
(you can tell it's Grey because of how Yellow it is!)

5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 6045.7 miles

2023 Total: 123.5 miles

Up Country Total: 5,565 miles

Solo Total: 5703.1 miles

5,000 in my 40s Total: 4635.5 miles

Destinations Moved into Tier 1: Ravensthorpe, Mirfield

Next Up: Keeping thing Local while Morley is denied all Rail Access.