Morley to Wakefield (Westgate) 28/08/23

12.5 miles, via Gillroyd, Burn Knolls, Glen Mills, Tingley Common, Tingley, Black Gates,

 Ardsley Common, The Fall, Lingwell Gate, Langley, Lofthouse Hill, Stanley (Canal Hill,

  Lee Mount, Lake Lock), Stanley Ferry, Park Hill colliery, Eastmoor, Northgate,

   Bus Station, and Coronation Gardens. 

If August Bank Holiday Weekend had failed to provide a walkable weekend, we might have rioted, but we are pared the consequences of that, despite the fact of both Saturday and Sunday presenting better weather than forecast, though with a few intense downpours in amongst, while Monday, when we did choose to leave the house gave us gloomier coverage than projected, albeit with no rain, so altogether a mixed bag of a Long Weekend, where the additional days of inactivity at the start felt like a bit of a bonus, having had a rough week at work, delving into the latest project that will certainly wear us out, physically moving half of the hospital libraries files around in order to condense our workspace. I'm recovered enough to go once our mandated extra day off comes along, with four more orphaned destinations in our locality targeted as we arrive at Morley Station at 9.55am, having a fresh-ish route to the south figured out as we rise up the steps from Valley Road to Albert Road and trot out past the old Morley Main colliery site to the merger with Peel Street, in order to find the ginnel that sneaks its way between the houses on Denshaw Drive and Crescent and across to Wide Lane opposite the Gillroyd terrace, before another passage leads us into the site of Gillroyd Mill, and the pavements of Millside Walk and Millbeck Approach can lead us down to Magpie Lane. Rise beyond along Peacock Green into the suburban knot on Burn Knolls where every road has a bird's name, with this lane seeming to set off with purpose before petering out by the playing fields that are home to Morley Town FC, which are crossed to meet Ingleborough Drive, which in turn leads us to the secret passage into the back of the Topcliffe Grove close, itself built on the site of Glen Mills, through which we pass to meet Topcliffe Lane, ending our novel trek in sight of the enduring mills on this hillside as we join the old railway path that leads over to Capitol business park, between to West Ardley Colliery site and the Ardsley railway triangle, hone now to the yards of AvailableCar.com and the Tradeteam distribution depot.

A Novel Path Awaits, from Peel Street through the Denshaws.

Millside Walk, on the Gillroyd Mill site.

Peacock Green in the 'Birds' Estate.

Topcliffe Grove on the Glen Mills site.

The Railway Path to Capitol Park.

Novel footfalls won't be forthcoming as we descend down to the A653 Dewsbury Road by the highways maintenance depot and the Tingley station site, crossing to pass around the eastern side of the Tingley Common interchange and passing under the M62 before we join the side of the A650 Bradford Road, which we've already tramped our way down this year, and even with it still reasonably close in our memories still has me forgetting the landscape which has us forgetting about the presence Black Gates estate, but not the former tavern and its miniature railway, oddly, as we pass over the A654 Thorpe Lane end and progress on through this mentally telescoped landscape towards the Country Baskets mill at the road apex. We'll detour off to pass the East & West Ardsley Social club, in its own secluded little nook, before we turn down Common Lane to resume on familiar pavements, passing out of the confining terraces and appreciating the better conditions that we had on our last trip as we follow the suburban ribbon downhill towards the angles of terraces at Ardsley Common, which once serviced the extensive railway yards and the Ironworks complex in this quarter, all gone now as suburbia continues its local encroachments, and our path gets original again as we turn on to Moor Knoll Lane to rise up past the enduring open fields and the urban woodlands that have thankfully been planted on the undevelopable hillside fringes. Rising up past the RSPCA's Leeds & Wakefield kennels, and the Sharp electronics plant before coming up between the suburban reach of East Ardsley and the declining terraces of The Fall(uh), we land at the top of Main Steet by the Bedford Arms, and then cross by East Ardsley Primary school and descend again down Cave Lane, visibly projecting us over to the Wakefield side of the local hills for the first time and finding more outlying terraces and cottages on this lane than expected before it becomes the dirt track that we walked on the Leeds Country Way, a mere 11 (eleven!) years ago, and it's looking a whole lot greener in the summer conditions of today.

Bradford Road, Tingley.

Black Gates House (and miniature railway?).

East & West Ardsley Social Club.

The Long Terraces of Ardsley Common.

The rise up Moor Knoll Lane to East Ardsley - The Fall.

A Surprising Amount of habitation on Cave Lane.

We pass among fields by the motorway and around a reedy pond before we enter the woods at Spring Lane Sidings, next to the railway, where we turn down to exit to Lingwell Gate Lane, passing under the M1 to leave Leeds District and hang an immediate left by terrace and chapel at Lingwell Gate to follow Castle Gate Lane, the path of the Wakefield Way from only 8 (eight!) years back, over the railway line and past the Lingwell Nook Lane corner, carrying on up the rise around the fields to the north of Lofthouse Colliery and the abandoned Lofthouse Hill golf course, passing across the E&WYUR remnants and noting the large plots of rhubarb that we are passing seem to have been left to grow wild or have been overcome by brightly coloured weeds. Pass Castle Gate farm and let Shop Lane guide us into the hamlet of Langley, meeting the Wakefield Way path again as Westgate lane lane leads us between playing fields and allotment gardens to the A61 Leeds Road at Lofthouse Hill, our midway point along the borough's long distance circular trail, orphaned into Tier 2  that we'll adopt into Tier 1 as we cross over and join the farm tracks that lead east, knowing that there's a southward turn to make somewhere down here, as a right of way is projected on the map, though where it lines up with reality seems rather debatable. Aiming down a field boundary to the only notable shed on these fields seems like the right way to go, to the eastern boundary of the long-lost Lofthouse Park, where part of the development therein has an access point to the track we're following, declining down towards Lee Moor Beck and then slipping up onto an embankment to pass over it, a track where local dog walkers convince me I'm nit trespassing, and also gets me thinking that this might be an abandoned, or never completed, stretch of railway that reached north of the Nagger Lines, a theory that become wholly plausible as we emerge onto Canal Lane between Lofthouse Gate and Stanley, tangling with our trek route to Normanton again as we press east past the primary academy and on among the terraces and suburbia upon Canal Hill, a name I've never quite been able to square with the elevated location.

Spring Lane Sidings woods.

Fallow Rhubarb Fields and Railway Remnants 

Shop Lane and Langley hamlet.

Lofthouse Hill on the Leeds Road.

The one barn in the landscape will be our guide.

The Railway(?) Embankment north of Canal Lane.

I'm pretty sure that this hillside perch is actually the Calder watershed, rapidly falling away to the south through the urban spread of Stanley, which we will continue through, passing the close that I'm sure that the field route ought to have brought us to, and along in front of the terraces that seem to have been deliberately placed for southerly views, above the suburbs below, taking us around to Mount Road, where we pass over the former Outwood-Cutsyke line at Lee Mount, dropping down past the Methodist Chapel to meet Lake Lock Road, where passage through Stanley Cemetery leads us to the yard of the now absent St Peter's church, where only foundations and the 1953 coronation memorial clock remain. Break for a late lunch here, having progressed so far without stopping, before dropping out onto A642 Aberford Road, and failing to get sight of the route that supposedly leads down to the banks of the Calder, revising the route on the fly to descend the main road along Stanley's riverfront to meet Water Lane, passing down to the waterworks entrance and joining the contained Trans Pennine trail footpath as it heads south to the driveway that leads into Smalley Bight farm, where we'll cross over the Nagger Lines and trace the previously unseen field boundary path beyond that leads us down to Ferry Lane, where the urban spread of eastern Wakefield seems to have reached its furthest extent, with Nellie Spindler Drive having arrived in the landscape between the canal vintage terraces. The bus stop here marks our second orphan of Tier 2 to render local, as we started a trek from Stanley Ferry here in 2014, and we'll make for the Aire & Calder Navigation's towpath via Ward Lane past the sawmill and woodyard to meet the canal cut at Ramsden's Bridge(s), and heading south alongside the moorings that seem to be mostly permanent residences for the alleged boaters, pondering the appeal of such a lifestyle before the trail path is forced away, into the post industrial landscape that sits above it, beyond the Stanley Ferry Flash nature reserve and along to the Park Hill Colliery site, just west of Wellbeck Bridge and our turn to pass over the A6194 Neil Fox Way, where the suburban growth has yet to reach in the four years since we first circuited in this direction.

Canal Hill, Stanley.

The Outwood - Cutsyke Line at Lee Mount.

Stanley Parish Church was here.

Smalley Bight Farm.

Ferry Lane, Stanley Ferry.

Ramsden's Bridge(s).

Park Hill Colliery site, on Neil Fox Way

Across Wakefield's eastern relief road, a rough and unofficial footpath strikes a route across the still un-developed fields, on a heading directly into the northern portion of the Eastmoor estate, landing in the play area or garage access space off Gisburn Avenue, and thanks to son judicious pre-planning, we've gotten our path into the city ready from here, downward to Windhill Drive and on past the bus terminal circus, on along the long curved sweep to Queen Elizabeth Drive and out past the old health centre and the QE2 park, and out to the A642 Stanley Road again, at the corner at the bottom of Pinderfields Hospital's site. Switch sides and head down to Trinity Methodist church and the Fox 'n' Grapes inn, and the swing around with the lane to enter the Northgate ward, passing along the long terraced front on Jacob's Well road and tangling with the A61 as the terraces reaching down from Pinder's Fields terminate opposite the vast pile of the Trinity Walk shopping centre, with the towers and spires of the city only become apparent along here, as we come in by the Lightwaves Leisure centre and cross over Marsh Way to meet Wakefield Bus station, the third orphaned Tier 2 destination of the day, which would present the easy finish line for trip straight home, if it wasn't for one significant omission on my walking tours. This is to be rectified by taking that familiar track, down Upper York Street, across Northgate itself, and down Rishworth Street to Coronation Gardens, and thence down Cliff Parade between County Hall, Court house and Town Hall and through the Burgage Square development to land us at Westgate station, where none of our local trails have ever landed us before, despite seven previous visits, and a 2.25pm finish ought to land us in time for an express ride to Leeds that should have had us back to Morley in only 35 minutes, but signalling delays and vanished connections on a non-strike day conspire for it to take 95 instead, which might show why this town is actually best accessed by bus.

Windhill Drive, Eastmoor.

Queen Elizabeth Park, Eastmoor.

Jakob's Well Drive, and the Trinity Walk centre.

Wakefield Bus Station.

Wakefield Court House, and Town Hall.

Wakefield Westgate station is local at last.

5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 6116.3 miles
2023 Total: 194.1 miles
Up Country Total: 5,624.5 miles
Solo Total: 5773.7 miles
5,000 in my 40s Total: 4716.2 miles

Destinations Moved from Tier 2 to Tier 1: Lofthouse Hill, Stanley Ferry, Wakefield Bus Station, 

 Wakefield Westgate Station.

Next Up: Late Summer Jollies, seeking the Industrial Heritage of the North Yorkshire Moors.