Morley to Oakenshaw 19/08/23

10.8 miles,  via Bruntcliffe, Howden Clough, Upper Batley, Cross Bank, Healey, Staincliffe,

 Moorside, Heckmondwike (Spen), Lower Popeley, Liversedge (Spen), Littletown, Royds Park,

  Rawfolds, Cleckheaton (central), Chain Bar, and Cleckheaton & District Golf Course.

The first pair of weekends in August are lost to poor weather, not catastrophically wet but fundamentally uninspiring when energy levels are low, having endured two busy weeks at work in the LGI, launching a new collection routine after finally closing down our mostly empty library in the Clarendon Wing and concentrating service into a single office, which would have proved hard work for me come the weekends regardless of our current conditions, which has me feeling that the 2020-esque second half of the season which we might have hoped for is most likely going to be replaced by a 2021 styled Summer of disappointment and junked plans. Honestly, though, the inertia de to reduced stamina is more troubling to this August than the weather has been so far, as both weekends promoted activity that I could have engaged in, but didn't, with engineering possessions on the railway prompting the belief that the new footbridge spans at White Rose station were finally due to be installed, and the BBC Proms bringing a concert, albeit one of chamber music, to Dewsbury Town Hall, about as ever as we'll get to home, but the lack of trains to use on a Sunday, coupled to the busing shenanigans that would have been otherwise necessary to get there, meant that it might as well have been on the Moon for how accessible it would have been for me. So August is well on its way, and almost on its way out once we can get to our first trip of the month, pulling up the shortest available on on the slate to get busy with the other season specific trend for 2023, as Shuffling the Tiers has also revealed a whole bunch of Tier 2 destinations, now abandoned far from its outer perimeter and now looking lost among the extensive reaches of the trails of Tier 1, where to my tidy mind feels they ought to be, and that's why we will be 'Gathering The Orphans' in Season 12 as well, and we've got three of them to aim for today, scattered across North Kirklees, and in the Spen Valley.

Big Crane in the White Rose Station landscape 07/08

New Footbridge installed at White Rose 15/08

Alternate View from a Moving Train 17/08

We ought to get the walking, really. and as we're heading west from Morley. we'll be using our alternate start line at Morley Hole for this trip, as there's not much point doing an excessive tramp across the town where there's so little novel to see for the mileage walked, and thus we launch off at 10.10am, with the weather being actually bright and warm-ish as we not much to go by way of original footfalls as the rise of the A643 Bruntcliffe Road offers itself for the initial going, and beyond the roadworks, we could almost autopilot our way up, past Cemetery, Academy and Joiner's on the way up to the A650 crossroads, through Bruntcliffe itself and out of town over the M62. Howden Clough Road is also plenty familiar by now as we pass the stray terraces at the top of the decline that we drift down, through the coating of woodlands that reach up the valley side. which have grown to completely obscure the eponymous mill, where we bottom out and rise again to Howden Clough village-let at the edge of greater Batley, passing the Mann's Buildings terraces and hanging a left onto Upper Batley Low Lane, still on local paths around between the terraces and down to the railway embankment remnant at the Windmill Lane corner, before we finally get onto a path not walked from home, previously seen of course, but walked southerly for the change up, above the fall of Howden Clough and Howley Beck. It's all fields for a bit, past Still House farm and down to the dog walking park at the top edge of Upper Batley, where the suburbia of modest and grander means gathers, and the novelty is lost again, as we cross Upper Batley Lane and pass down among the Villas to the top of Carlinghow Hill, where we descend through the roughly hewn rock and down past Batley's grammar school and former hospital, down to the remains of the Birstall railway branch and the old Carlinghow station house, all raked above the valley floor.

Roadworks promote interest on Bruntcliffe Road.

Howden Clough Road, Bruntcliffe.

Howden Clough Road falls and rises.

Upper Batley Low Lane terraces, Howden Clough

Upper Batley.

Carlinghow Station House.

Novelty resumes across the A652 Bradford Road, passing up among the low rise council flats on Centenary Way, up to Cross Bank Road, and around to Carlinghow Lane to seek the way uphill, found at the top of the South Bank Road close, where the old track of Coal Pit Lane leads above the playing fields and beyond the terrace ends to rise uphill among the fields, getting rather green and forgotten about by the modern world, aside from the tethered goat and sheep on mowing duty, which draw us in behind the suburban back gardens of Healey, a nice green lane to transition us between previously seen corners, with us emerging onto Healey Lane down from the George Inn. Deighton Lane leads us past the allotments and over West Park Road into the suburban hinterland that we call Staincliffe, up past Christ Church on the hillcrest and down the familiar Staincliffe Hall Road to the passage over the A638 Halifax Road by the Burcher's Arms and its notable ghost sign palimpsest, and thence down Dewbury Gate Road past Staincliffe Rec and on betwixt greater Dewsbury and Heckmondwike, formally entering the latter as we shift off onto Moor End Road, cresting us down into the Spen valley, twisting its way downhill among rural outliers, terraces and suburbs, past anther George Inn and down towards the north edge of the Moorside Estate. This steeply directs us down to the B6117 Heckmondwike Road, where our south-westerly passage shifts to a north-westerly one, passing up the eastern valley's suburban front opposite the chemical works and the builders suppliers in the old goods yard to land at the Walkley Lane bridge at the south end of the Heckmondwike railway cutting, our first orphaned destination of the day, where we'll pass down to the trackbed level and find that the deep cutting is wildly overgrown compared to our last visit, and passage up gets challenging enough to feel like you might get lost in the burgeoning before we reach the drier and firmly ballasted alignment in it leafy seclusion through the stone-lined cutting from Brunswick Road bridge along to the High Street tunnel.

Coal Pit Lane.

The George Inn, Healey. 

Christ Church (and school), Staincliffe.

Moor End Lane, Dewsbury Moorside.

Heckmondwike Deep Cutting.

Church Street bridge, Heckmondwike.

This passage land us in Old Station Court, the urbanisation of Heckmondwike Spen station, and this trip's purpose becomes apparent, to tag the Spen Valley Ringway and the many bridges of its preserved cutting into my local sphere, on my third traversal and fifth actual visit, which means I'll probably never tire of its yellow stones and dark bricks arching overhead, and walking among them as it pushes us below the town and out into the pleasingly secluded greenery beyond, under the A62 Leeds Road bridge at Lower Popeley and through Thornleigh Drive close on the site of the oil depot, before we move into the Liversedge Spen station site and break for lunch at the Listing Lane bridge. Gloom threatens to set in as we resume, as distant clouds spotted a while back gather overhead, but it blows out alsmost as soon as it arrives, and we're barely past the Littletown estate before we back in sunshine and quitting the Ringway at Royds Park, out second 2012 vintage orphaned destination to bring local as we drop down the perimeter with Edercliffe Crescent, passing the health centre on the corner and crossing the A638 Bradford Road by the Princess Mary Athletics Stadium, and then setting off up Primrose Lane to pass over the River Spen and rise up past the fields of Hartshead AFC and come upon the Spen Valley Greenway as it passes over, soon joined as we scurry up the embankment. We'll tag this one as local too as we progress north-westwards, to catch up again with most of the upper section that we didn't see in 2021, passing above the still open and non suburban or industrial fields south of Cleckheaton, where the metal-worked flock of sheep are still present at the trackside, untouched by the light-fingered brigade, ahead of our wander on into the town, it's suburban splurge being mostly hidden from view by trees, passing over the A641 Westgate bridge and landing in Cleckheaton Central station site, opposite Tesco and the town's philosophical wall (which isn't as good as Goldthorpe's!).

Heckmondwike Cutting Never Gets Old.

Listing Lane Bridge, Liversedge (Spen).

Edercliffe Crescent and Royds Park.

Primrose Lane Bridge.

The flock of metal sheep endures.

Cleckheaton Central Station.

The void to the west of the line, beyond the station has overgrown completely since we came here 11 years ago, and turns out that it wasn't the good yard either, so the broadness of the span of Whitcliffe Road road bridge above seems unnecessary, though the width of the cutting might be due to the feed into the actual goods yard on the supermarket car park site, all things to ponder as we push out of town behind the suburban edges, finding this length of the Greenway to maybe be the busiest part, with cycling club types out on force to disrupt the amblers, on the stretch over Whitechapel Road and under Snelsins bridge, ahead of the passage over the M62, west of Chain Bar. The impact of three weeks of busy-ness at work, but no proper exercise ifs felt as we rest and water for a while at the north end, before we press onwards, through the woods and over the A58 Whitehall Road and into the greenery proper once more, in amongst the fairways of Cleckheaton & District Golf Course, where the eagle eyed can spot the access for the old coal mining works and the concealed beck flowing below, and otherwise surge over the embankment and settle into the cutting that lies beyond as the Greenway makes its pitch for the top of the Spen Valley, noting the surviving gradient post and mile markers ahead of the occupation bridges and the approach to Oakenshaw tunnel which we pass through, to enjoy the chilled air within. We quit the railway path here and rise up the steps to Green Lane, keeping us just out of Bradford district as we turn back to Wyke Lane, to associate ourselves among the farmsteads and the suburban outliers that we last saw at the end of leg #2 of the Kirklees Way, pressing directly east and downhill, past the junction from which Oakenshaw Cross has been controversially removed down to the A638 Bradford Road, opposite St Andrew's church, landing only the shortest of stretches away from my trip over to Low Moor but crossed off today as the last of my orphaned destinations on this trajectory, and we'll wrap here at 2,25pm, with this stray trio of orange dots on my map now rendered in red, and buses away conveniently available in both directions.

Wide cutting beyond Whitcliffe Road bridge.

Snelsins Bridge almost concealed.

The Rhodes Pit Occupation Bridge.

One Mile Marker, south of Low Moor.

Oakenshaw Tunnel id pleasingly chilly.

Oakenshaw Cross has gone (and not without controversy!).

5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 6103.8 miles

2023 Total: 181.6 miles

Up Country Total: 5,612 miles

Solo Total: 5761.2 miles

5,000 in my 40s Total: 4704.2 miles

Destinations Moved from Tier 2 to Tier 1: Heckmondwike, Liversedge, Oakenshaw

Next Up: August Bank Holiday Weekend needs to Yield Mileage.