Morley to Baildon 16/09/23

13.3 miles, via Daisy Hill, Laneside, Daffil Woods, Rooms, Farnley Wood, New Farnley,

 Park Side, Roker Lane Bottom, Pudsey (Fartown, Greenside, Chapeltown, Waterloo, Hill Foot),

  Bradford Road, Gain Lane, Fagley, Eccleshill, Bank Top, Blake Hill, All Alone, Idle Hill,

   Wrose Brow, Wood End, Baildon Wood Bottom, and Low Baildon. 

The warm week away that we had already feels like a distant memory as gloom and chill return to the atmosphere of West Yorkshire for the last weekend of the Summer, ensuring that there will be no long pushes across the county as we get into the Late Season, with the impetus that we gained already feeling squandered as we start pulling up the shorter treks that we had in mind for the dwindling days of the year, not that I feeling in anything like the condition that would be needed for tilting at a trail in excess of 14 miles now, as getting back into work and the midst of a physical task that we we all seem to feel the need to get to the end of as quickly as possible has burnt off a whole bunch of energy. So the modest treks from home will start as we aim at the Aire valley again, meeting the start line at Morley station at 9.20am, with our north-westerly path rising above the station site to observe the completion(?) of the drainage works that had left a deep, flooded hole in the car park, and passing on into the empire of bungalows again, passing over Daisy Hill and up King George Avenue to trail out to the A643 Victoria Road to observe that the Laneside housing development is coming on at a pace as houses spread out over the once green fields to the south, already looking like some might be plausibly liveable by the end of the year. Across the main road, we enter the suburban hinterland of Morley and Churwell, keeping things green as we drop down among the urban woods along Westwood Side before we join the track that leads into Daffil Woods and wander on among the local nature preserve before joining the field path that leads us under the M621 and on to the view towards Leeds that casts it in a dense pall, before arriving on the track that services the farmsteads of Rooms, before we come down to pass under the old bridge on the New Leeds Line and emerge beyond onto the A62 between the trailer park and the Jewish Cemeteries. Over Gelderd Road and we rise again, up the track to and onto the field paths around Spring End farm, elevating ourselves onto the Farnley Wood hillside, to join the high path across its top, still admirable for its lack of suburban growth, and also being the namesake of the (unsuccessful) 1663 plot against the Restoration government of Charles II which I learned about on one of my many wiki-crawls, getting little of a projected horizon abounds due to the low cloud, before we meet the path that leads us over to New Farnley, over the hillcrest and away from the flocks of gulls and crows that are supervising the ploughing, and tracking downhill to the yard of the house with a concrete alligator in it.

A hole in the ground gets infilled, Morley Station.

New Housing develops at apace, Laneside.

The Urban Nature Reserve, Daffil Woods.

Among the farmsteads of Rooms.

Rising to the Farnley Wood hillside.

Descending from the Farnley Wood hillside.

Pass onto the A58 and track along the pavements of Lawns Lane beyond, rising into Leeds's semi-detached suburbia and noting the Forge Row cottages before we join the footpath to take us around the northern perimeter of this village, previously un-walked for some of its length as we keep a slight remove from the grounds of Farnley Park, and the idle cattle in these undulating fields, before we meet a track we have paced before to find it delving into a thicket of seasonal overgrowth, which makes for some challenging footfalls as we make our way to the equestrian enclosure behind Park Side farm and the clear way down to Back Lane, where first walked just one week ago. Somehow, the descending path beyond is missed, as we look towards Pudsey and following the leading footways, meaning that we get down to Tong Road a little further along than intended, passing us down past the Lane Side terrace and cottage before we come down to Roker Lane Bottom, where the streams of the Tong and Fulneck valleys meet, and the inhabited partial remains of Union Bridge mill endure, where multiple previous trekd have brought is before, but not from home as we start the long rise up towards Pudsey, rising among the fields, cottages and farmsteads and finding the landscape all rather familiar as we trek up to the East House corner, high above the valley and leading us into Pudsey at the bottom end of Little Moor. There's a slightly more rural aspect to this corner, and the Whitby Fish van has to be noted by Tomlinson's Farm Shop as we process among the stoney cottages at the top of Roker Lane and on to the estate landscape that sits by the corner that leads into Fulneck, where paths are yet to lead us this year, beyond which we join Fartown as it leads us into Fartown, past the Fleece inn and on to the Carlisle Road corner where we turn to pass over the old Loop Line, above Pudsey Greenside station, passing the Royal inn again and rising with the lane as it leads us towards the town's main street, also noting Lucifer's takeout before we come up to Chapeltown, by the board school and Cenotaph.

Memorial Cottage, Forge Row, New Farnley.

Rough Going on the path to Park Side Farm.

Union Bridge Mills, Roker Lane Bottom.

Among the suburban - Rural outliers, Roker Lane.

Roker Lane, Pudsey Littlemoor.

Carlisle Road, Pudsey Greenside.

Break in the neighbouring memorial gardens for elevenses, pondering whether it would have been wiser to have dressed for Autumn on a day like this and also feeling a mild frustration that two hours into this trip, we have yet to make headway on many original paths or pavements as we track to the northwest, which isn't going to change any time soon as we set off past the Golden Lion and Commercial inns to meet Uppermoor, to join the long push to the northwest out of the town, on through Waterloo and at a height above the fall of Tyersal Beck, which cannot be seen that much as suburbia abounds around the Marsh inn and the drag across the hill just goes on and on. There's at least a lot of suburban styles to absorb as we carry on, past the enduring Waterloo Mills as we corner around Waterloo Road and come to the descent of sorts down to Hill Foot, not getting the elevated view that I mis-remember from this locality and also noting housing having arrived in most of the empty spaces among the former rural outliers along the lane as we meet the shopping parade and the parish church of St James the Great on Galloway Lane, beyond the Owlcotes Road corner, which in turn leads us out to the A647 Bradford Road, by the invisible traffic island and the home of the territorial Parachute Regiment, crossing the dual carriageway to its north side so that we might meet the break point on the Leeds Country Way that marked our very first trek from home some 11+ years ago, by the Woodhall Park sports fields. We'll make our way to the city border as we trace a way past the Howdy! and Lala's restaurants, passing over the old Shipley - Tyersal line bridge and touch the edge of Bradford as we split off down Gain Lane to make our encounter with the still enduring green space between the cities, one which is markedly diminishing as Woodhall Lane now has a proper metalled surface, leading to a new industrial park beyond the old fever hospital, constructed on a vast earthen plinth that looms large over the old railway remains and the passage of Fagley Beck, which seems to be filled with soap suds, where we'll finally split onto an unseen path, just at the point where my camera decides that this is the point to stop working, as no power seems to be getting to the lens motor.

The Commercial inn, on Chapeltown and Uppermoor, Pudsey.

The Marsh Inn, Pudsey Waterloo.

New Developments encroaching on Galloway Lane.

The A647 Bradford Road.

Gain Lane, on the Bradford - Leeds border.

New Development at a cost of Green Fields, above Fagley Beck.

A most unwelcome outcome to have, especially as I've only had 18 months of use out of it (and aren't carrying my spare, for obvious reasons), now having to fly blind as we pass over the stream and up the ginnel to meet Foston Lane, at the eastern edge of the Fagley estate, one of the more depressing landscapes I've trailed into under these glum skies, pacing along to Fagley Road to note more urban fields getting consumed by residential development, a theme which continues further as we trace Foxcote Crescent up to the isolated track of Fagley Lane, which once fed the Throstle Nest farm in the fields behind the Bradford Industrial Museum, but now is being scoured to grow its eponymous housing estate, losing the farmstead and almost all of the green space between Undercliffe and Ravenscliffe. Suburbia relacing green fields will always be spirit crushing to me, especially as its rarely done to provide the sort of housing that the population really needs, and I'll get my spirit back up as we rise among the outliers on the lane up to St Luke's school and church ahead of the crossing of the A658 Harrogate Road, confirming that all these fields are now lost before we delve into the older suburbia of Eccleshill, where urban village and the extensive spread of this city's industries butt together along Victoria Road as it rises to the east of the village centre, shuffling us onto the high embankment beyond the White Hart inn as the downstream Aire valley landscape falls away to the right side of us, passing the Victoria Hotel and around to Bank Top and Norman Lane to set us on a trajectory towards Five Lane Ends. Interesting route finding has us taking a turn beyond the long north-facing terraces through the carpark of the local Morrison's store, and the Enterprise 5 retail park, to pass over the Bradford (& Idle) Road and then cuttinf another corner as we trek past the Javelin House HQ of West Yorkshire Police at Blake Hill to meet Highfield Road beyond, trailing us towards distant Thackley before we need to pop the map out to trace a way all the super-concealed All Alone Road, an ancient track snaking it way among the suburbia that has grown on this high quarter, not actually visiting its eponymous hamlet and not having any houses built facing it, lending it a very strange air as it leads into the high fields between Idle and Wrose. 

> Insert Missing Pictures Here. perhaps? <

It Certainly live up to its name as it drops us out onto Westfield Lane, among the suburbia that has grown right up to the south side of Idle Hill, with its masts and overed reservoir, and we have to navigate some more as we rise with Cotswold Avenue to be as close to the summit above the Aire Valley as can be managed, before we descend again, around five corners among the many semis that had to be memorised in advance to get down from Spring Hill to the ginnel that leads to Low Ash Road, taking us back into the trees and onto the descent beside Carr Mires Beck on a damp and slippery path through Wrose Brow Plantation, away from east Bradford and down to greater Shipley at Wood End. Pass the impressive former schools beside Wrose Brow Road and then take a merry old time getting across the A657 Leeds Road, up the rise from Windhill, dropping quickly down to the Thackley Old Road beyond to take the track beyond the mill and industrial works that leads down to the end of the the descent of the Shipley - Tyersal line and on between the former and contemporary railways to pass over the electrified line via a bridge that's in a different place than is marked on the map, and thence through the fields to make passage over the Leeds & Liverpool canal at Turn Bridge, adjacent to the bridge carrying the Baildon branch overhead, with the embankment leading us northwards to passage over the Aire, via the footbridge in the shadow of the high viaduct of stone arches and a sole lattice girder span that hides away from all attention in the shroud of riverside trees. The A6038 Otley Road lies beyond, crossed over to meet the wide spread of suburban Baildon, at Wood Bottom, way down the hill from the village centre but still providing a challenging rise or two on the pavements as we head up Midland Road and Woodcot Avenue, shadowing the railway from below it to above it, tracking all the way up to Low Baildon without getting sight of it until we've negotiated a way down a ginnel and passed along Hawthorn View come out onto Kirklands Lane and passed into the Ridgeland Close linear development that sits in the old goods yard, leading us directly to Baildon station, where the walking day wraps up at 2.20pm, well ahead of the train away, allowing time for us to late lunch before our baffling odyssey homeward, via Bradford, and Leeds, begins.

> Insert more Missing Pictures Here. perhaps? <

NB: At time of writing, on Sunday afternoon, it seems that Lumix #2 now seems to be feeling to need to work normally again, coming back to life without me having applied any TLC to it, so it's hard to tell if it took objection to the damp atmospherics of yesterday or whether the Spring goo that got may have got into its mechanism worked themselves out, leaving me frankly baffled as Lumix #1 at least had the decency to take multiple soakings before giving up altogether, and wondering if another new camera might be in the offing come birthday time, as I might be the only citizen of these isles who still prefers using a single purpose piece of technical kit rather than recording everything on their smartphone. Regardless, the last two hours of this trip will have to be re-walked at some stage, hopefully before the end of the year, as I'm going to need photographic coverage of this previously unseen landscape in eastern Bradford, be it with the revived Lunix#2, my trusty Fuji Finepix #2 or some other modestly affordable digital camera as that was mostly 5+ miles of novel, and historic, paths and my trailing around the county absolutely needs to be fully recorded for posterity, doesn't it, because why else would be doing this (aside from the obvious benefits of healthy exercise, fulfilling my geographical curiosity and maintaining my mental health)?

5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 6166.8 miles

2023 Total: 244.6 miles

Up Country Total: 5,675 miles

Solo Total: 5824.2 miles

5,000 in my 40s Total: 4766.7 miles

Destinations Moved from Tier 2 to Tier 1: Baildon
Trails moved from Tier 3 to Tier 2: 1

Next Up: A weekend off to celebrate 30 years Up Country, before burning one across the city?