Morley to Harewood 30/09/23

13.4 miles, via Valley Mills, White Rose, Beeston Park Side, Cross Flatts Park, Hunslet Carr,

  Pottery Fields, Crown Point, Leeds (St Peter's), The Leylands, Sheepscarr, Buslingthorpe,

   Scott Hall, Chapel Allerton, Moortown, Moor Allerton, Alwoodley, Alwoodley Gates,

    Sturdy Bridge, Cote Hill, and Wall Side. 

The first weekend of Autumn is spent away from the trail, as we've got a reunion to do celebrating (almost) 30 years since we first came to Leeds to attend University, reuniting five of the original ten members of our first student residence, seven (7!) years after our last meetup and feeling a lot more like a reunion of old guys this time around, as we ate and drank an afternoon and evening together, also presenting pretty nice day for it as well as we trolled ourselves from town to Hyde Park and back along the way of it, and experience that I'll probably have more to say about at the year's summation, but for now it's just good to take a break and catch up with some old heads before we resume another push into the Late Season. When that does come around, the weather hasn't travelled and we've got both a tight window ahead of rain and a total lack of trains to play with as our route chooses itself, having intended to approach if for much f the Summer, and as we descend to Morley Station for our 9am jump off, noting proper construction finally having started around the lift towers at the new station, we find our early going is all very familiar, down Valley Road past the old gasworks and mills, and onto the muddy avoiding path and thence down the railway-side, mostly undercover of overgrown foliage as we travel towards the White Rose Centre and its own woodland walk. This leads us out to the Dewsury Roads, amidst the tangling of the main road with the access way and the petrol stations, crossing over by the island in sight of the culverting Millshaw Beck and hitting the surprisingly long drag uphill on the A653 Dewsbury Road towards the greater city, with the railway bridge at the urban edge, beyond Stank Hall always being further along than expected, and running into Beeston Park Side, you become very much aware that we've already set two tracks in this direction, as we merge in with Ring Road Middleton, past the old St David's church and up to the Tommy Wass junction. The Dewsbury Road will be our obvious red route into the city, taking the left-side pavements along the dual carriageway to mix things up from our last trek this way in 2014, passing the long stretches of terraced ends of South Beeston around the shopping parade, across from the suburban semis that run down to the Broadway Inn and the Harrison Sparks plant, before we touch base with Cross Flatts Park, astonishingly less than an hour away from home, and pass the Dewsbury Road social club and the corner where we dwelled very briefly back in 1998, carrying on as industry bumps up to the lane, as the terraces return to the roadside, displaying a fine ghost sign before we pass the former cinema (and 'health club') on the Parkside Lane corner.

Morley to Horsforth 13/05/23

11.4 miles, via Valley Mills, White Rose, Beeston Park Side, South Beeston, Beeston, 

 Elland Road, Lowfields, Wortley Rec, New Wortley, HMP Leeds, Botany Bay, Burley, 

  Burley Park (station), Headingley (station), Queenswood, Morris Wood, Spen Lane, 

   West Park, Ireland Wood, Clayton Wood, Cookridge Hospital, and Tinshill. 

It's not really related to what we're doing today, as we already lack trains going through Morley due to another engineering possession and there's another train strike happening this weekend too, but on 11th May it was announced that Trans Pennine Express were not getting their franchise renewed, which is a rare bit of good news for us travellers to hear after many months (and years?) of their failure to maintain services and self induced industrial strife, which means we might have a competent operator taking on the North Country's premier express services once the mainline upgrade is finally completed in the 2036-41 window. Anyway, the good start to May continues as we rise to another Saturday trail, hopeful that the early gloom will shift before too long as we target a new trail from home to my local Old Country and beyond, starting out from Morley station at 10.15 am and heading down the Valley Road path with only the most cursory of glances being given to the deliveries of aggregate as I'm actually growing bored of spotting local freight trains now, heading on down by the Gasworks and Valley Mills site to strike for the fields beyond, rising over the false ridge and equestrian fields that have Cotton Mill beck concealed beneath it, and down again on the Millshaw Beck side. Land by the gas plant and exposed stream ahead of the staff car park at the south end of the White Rose centre, where we pass across the access road, and the A6110 Ring Road carefully, to progress up the side of Dewbury Road as to comes down the hill, rising up towards the railway bridge and the path to Stank Hall farm, passing up by the side of the former GNR Hunslet Goods line and soon enough find ourselves in the exact same part of Beeston Park Side that we visited last weekend, by old St David's and coming up to the Tommy Wass corner, where we'll swap sides to progress north rather than east (or in reality, South). 

Burley Park to Headingley via the Meanwood Valley 07/04/23

10.9 miles, via Headingley, Woodhouse Ridge, Buslingthorpe, Sugarwell Hill Park, Miles Hill,

 Meanwood (village), Meanwood Park, Meanwood (wood), Scotland Wood, Five Arches, 

  Adel Woods, Adel, Weetwood, Far Headingley, Beckett Park, and Queenswood

My N-th pair of Boots
is ready to hit the trail!

A seemingly early Easter weekend, arriving at that point in the year where you would start to expect the sir temperature to start to rise and the Sprig warmth comes on gives us the second opportunity to attempt to restart the walking year for 2023, heading out to where we last dropped feet in Season 12, and also donning my new Skechers boots for the first time, with an unusual sort of route in mind, which might give them an opportunity to demonstrate their all-terrain versatility as we go in search of the hidden green valley that hides in the middle of Leeds, while also dramatically splitting the city in half. So for Good Friday's stroll, we return to Burley Park, deep in terraced Leeds, with a proper mileage in mind for the start of the third walking month of the year, alighting the train at 10.35 and immediately setting course north-ish for the long uphill sweep of Beechwood Crescent, around the edge of my old stomping grounds in the first decade of full time residence in West Yorkshire, tracking up through the allotment gardens beyond and over the railway via the high bridge on St Michael's Lane, and hanging a left to join the footpath that skirts both Headingley RLFC stadium and the Cricket ground on the way up to Kirkstall Lane. Passing below the shadow of what's no longer called the Carnegie pavilion, we pass the Cornerstone Baptist church and the run of stores and that surround the sadly lost Lounge Cinema, before the B6157 meets the A660 Otley Road by the Arndale centre and our no easterly trajectory takes us onto the least of the crossroads' routes as Wood lane leads into Headingley's district of Victorian villas and student flats as we crest over toward the edge of the Meanwood Valley, betting the grand old reveal of Leeds's hidden valley from below Ridge Terrace before we join the path high wooded path that runs along the top of Woodhouse Ridge.

Cottingley to Burley Park 19/03/23

6.2 miles, via Cottingley Hall, Elland Road, Farnley viaduct, Holbeck urban village,

 Monk Bridge viaduct, the Leeds & Liverpool canal path, Kirkstall viaduct, and Burley Park. 

No walking occurs on the weekend of 11-12th as there's a ice risk to deal with after the only significant snowfall of this persistently chilly winter coming at the end of the preceding week, and I value my ankles to much to be testing out some challenging going, and thus I can't be inspired to get going again until some actual sunshine arrives, to not be seen until the following Sunday, which means we are yet to get into a routine of Saturdays when starting from home, as we finally travel away from Morley to start from Cottingley station instead, as we need to make use for it now that notice for its formal closure has been posted. Get away ahead of 10.20pm, and pass over the footbridge to pass away from our local paths by taking the route across the Cottingley Hall estate, via the Dulverton Grove paths to pass north of the towers and over the Cottingley Drive orbital route to descend through Cottingley Cemetery as a path exists to take us past the crematorium and chapels before we dropped out at the point where the A6110 Ring Road Beeston and A643 entangle themselves, where we cross by the builders yard and cement plant to follow the latter as it leads up to, and under, the railway line to reveal the Planet Ice rink, which has finally opened after an extremely prolonged construction. We'll move toward the city, and our planned targets as we join Bobby Collins Way as it leads though the lots of the Elland Road Park & Ride, where the Covid vaccination centre loitered for most of 2021-2, taking us round the side of Leeds United's ground that regular traffic doesn't normally see, before we split under the M621 to the Lowfields industrial estate, and move with the footpath down to Junction 2 where all sorts of heavy engineering work is going on the remodel the traffic island, which looks certain to be ongoing for a while, before we shadow the A643 once more as it heads off to form the Leeds inner loop road. 

Morley & Leeds Circuit 25/06/22

16.5 miles, via Daisy Hill, Broad Oaks, Churwell, Beeston Royds, Farnley Junction, Far Royds,

 Lower Wortley,Western Flatts Park, Cabbage Hill, Upper Wortley, Armley, Armley Mills, 

  Leeds & Liverpool Canal, Monk Bridge, Granary Wharf, Leeds Bridge, Brewery Wharf, 

   Crown Point, Leeds Dock, Huinslet Mills, Knowsthorpe, Thwaite Gate, Thwaite Mills, 

    Stourton, Belle Isle, Middleton, Sissons Wood, West Wood, Owlers, and Gillroyd. 

Our pattern of smooth sailing through the 2022 walking year gets rudely disrupted as the first weekend of Summer lands, as a sequence of national train strike hit the country (after the RMT takes issue with management (and government) seeming to have forgotten that the railways have been important Key Workers over the last two years and ought to be treated accordingly in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic), and when this is coupled to an ongoing (and total) strike action by Arriva Yorkshire's bus crews in Wakefield district, the outcome for me is that my chosen walking field to the south and east of home has been rendered largely inaccessible by public transport, and enforced local walking will have to fill my weekend, which is not the easiest of tasks as lockdown walks absorbed nearly every path around Morley during 2020/1. We'll have to be creative to ensure we're not repeating ourselves too much as we roll down to Morley station for a 9.20am jump off, initially heading city-bound on a plauisble circular route via the path that rises away above the rock cliff to the top of New Bank Street and thence on to Daisy Hill, joining the rough path into the hidden, and somewhat overgrown valley beyond, which deposits us into the fields of wheat ahead of joining the track that leads up to Broad Oaks farm, where future residential development looks like a certainty, as work has already started on the groundwork in the fields around Lane Side farm, which have kept Morley and Churwell distinct. It can remain rural as we rock past the farmstead, cresting to the view towards the city in the northeast, not being able to approach the railway via the downhill path due to the construction work at the new White Rose station site on the embankment, which can be observed at a distance as we keep on the previously untraced path that leads us into the eastern side of Churwell, landing us by the old chapel and Sunday school on Back Green, which leads to the crossing of the A643 by the Old Golden Fleece Tesco and the memorial garden, before we head down old lane into the terraced and suburban village, passing Bar 27 and the village club on the way down. Hang a left by the old Manor farm and pace a way along New Village Way among the Lego houses of the still expanding village suburb, which continues to grow, having now completely absorbed the site of Snittles farm at the side of the M621, which is passed under to emerge by the side of the embankment of the Leeds New Line, which is passed over as we pace the boundary of the Jewish cemeteries and land on the A62 to pace the Gelderd Road over its crest by the factories on the edge of the Beeston Royds hillside, passing below the abandoned Hilltop cemeteries and joining the railway-side path by the split of the flying Farnley Junction. 

Fosse Way: Narborough to Syston 28/03/22

13.7 miles, via Enderby, Fosse Park, Braunstone Town, Rowley Fields, 

 West End / Westcotes, West Bridge, Roman & Medieval Leicester, 

  The Golden Mile / Belgrave, Rushey Mead, & Thurmaston.

Pandemic conditions (as well as necessary housework and heatwave) means that it's been a while since we last dropped feet in Leicestershire, so while we are Down Country for a week, to attend a memorial service for a family friend and to aid Mum with some garden tasks and junk clearance, it's definitely time to get back in the Old Country saddle, and revive some plans that I've had on my slate since September 2019, to expand on the county experience that had been built via the courses of the Leicestershire Round and the Long Walk to Leicester, if we can recall that far. The scheme is to trace all the major roads to the minor towns around the county, and we'll be starting with those of Roman vintage, with the Fosse Way as our first, tracing its portion across the city from southwest to northeast, and not its full lengths to Exeter or Lincoln, and we'll not be needing to abuse Parental Taxi privileges to get the start line, as we can bus and train our way out, not starting too late as we're walking the first available day after the shift into British Summer Time, so it's not even a late start as we alight at Narborough station at 10.30am, under the bright sunshine that's lingered on for more than ten days now. This is easily the best vintage village station in the county, with all of its elements still in place and to be regarded before we press up Station Road to the main street by the Narborough Arms, to immediately get us onto our trajectory at the Coventry - Leicester Road corner, not on the actual Fosse but on the old A46, which has migrated away from the city through the 1970s to 1990s, taking the route northeasterly as it takes us past All Saints church and through a Leicestershire village landscape that I haven't seen up close in so long, as we're drawn out beyond St Pius X RC church and the end of the B4114 bypass road, where we pass under the M1. The city appears to lie beyond, but we're still in the county as we enter another suburban enclave, which is probably counted as part of nearby Enderby, just off to the west beyond the motorway, with the width of the road indicating it past significance as it pulls us up to the B582 Blaby - Enderby Road island by the Miller & Carter steakhouse, with St John's road taking us onwards, past the last fields to be seen on this side of the city, as well as Palmers Garden centre, the Park and Ride facility and the HQ of Leicestershire constabulary, ahead of us approaching the A653 Soar Valley Way, the outer Ring Road.

Pontefract to Leeds 19/03/22

15.3 miles, via Lady Balk, New Town, Toll Hill, Red Hill, Castleford, Whitwood Mere, 

 Methley Bridge, Windmill Moor, Methley Junction, Methley, Wood Row, Methley Park, 

  Oulton, John O' Gaunts, Haigh Common, Stourton, Thwaite Gate, Hunslet, 

   Pottery Field, Camp Field, South Bank, and Monk Bridge. 

As we meet the last weekend of the Early Season of 2022, and the last official weekend of Winter, it actually looks like we can start dressing for Spring, as the inconsistent weather, tinged by chills that were sometimes offset by sunshine, looks like it’s gone for a while, to be replaced by clear skies that look quite incongruous against the bare trees and barren fields, a lot like what we saw a decade ago, and thus the thick jacket goes away until October and the peaked hat comes out again, as our opening quest to the Five Towns need to be concluded by returning ourselves to the Big City. The campaign will begin Pontefract at 9.30am, and from Monkhill station this time as it’s never featured as a start point before, possibly one of the saddest town stations anywhere, but well-placed for a view to the remnants of the castle and the colliery from its footbridge (but no sight at all of the Ferrybridge power station cooling towers as they were demolished a mere five days after I passed them by last weekend!), from where we’ll descend to Monkhill Road, where we can take a path north, under the eastern station throat and away, taking us through the town’s northern suburban bands of Lady Balk and New Town, now desirable as they are longer overshadowed by the coal mining industry, though the remaining spoil heap of Prince of Wales colliery still looms above their eastern edges. The downhill press takes us under the M62, and into the green space that still keeps Pontefract and Castleford separate, with no cooling towers to see on the eastern horizon, and Xscape off to the west as Spittal Harwick Lane leads us sharply up into greater Castleford, with suburbia soon crowding the road as we come up Toll Hill, where we tangle with the B6136 Holywell Lane, and meet the junction by the former tavern where we split off, tracing the edge of the Fryston and Airedale estates as Redhill lane keeps us on our northwesterly trajectory. We're on Castleford’s highest hill up here, working our way past the recreation ground and the Redhill Sports & Social Club before taking the turn that leads us past the underground reservoirs, and the water tower and microwave masts that render this hillside distinct from far afield, and once up, its soon down again, steeply through a rock-cut channel on secluded section of road that the modern world discourages use of before we come out by Queen’s Park, and follow Ferrybridge Road downhill through the town’s Edwardian townhouse district, down to the Castleford Academy campus and the town’s civic centre. 

Leeds to Wakefield 07/02/22

10 miles, via Camp Field, Pottery Field, Hunslet, Hunslet Carr, Belle Isle, 

 Sharp House, Robin Hood, Lofthouse, Lofthouse Hill, Lofthouse Gate, 

  Outwood, Newton Lane End, Newton Hill, St John's, and Kirkgate. 

Brevity is the theoretical theme for the blog as we move into Season #11, keeping the writing abbreviated as we move through and beyond the southeastern quarter of West Yorkshire, starting out by giving the year a framework to be hung upon, starting with s god handful of road treks, starting by travelling from Leeds to Wakefield via a novel route, alighting onto an almost pleasant Winter morning and leaving the railway station at 9.35am, out of the south entrance and making a way our via the brick  arched vault of Dark Neville Street, which has somehow never featured before. From Neville Street, it's over the Aire via Victoria Bridge and on down Victoria Road,along the edge of the Holbeck Urban Village and the historical Camp Field, Making a way around the traffic islands above the M621 and heading over the top of Dewsbury Road, to join Jack Lane, passing over the old railways and the locomotive works of Hunslet at Pottery Field to meet the A61 South Accommodation Road, which is crossed as we meet the suburbs of modern Hunslet. The Oval is followed, between Morrisons and the local playing fields, to meet the sentinel spire of St Mary's church, where Balm Road is joined, taking us over the railway by the freightliner depot and uphill through Hunslet Carr, meeting the Bile Beans sign ahead of passage under the M621 and starting the climb of Belle Isle Road, rising with the wide boulevard through the vintage council estate and passing across the middle of the Circus as we go. The city view retreats behind us as we rise up the long lane to land at the same latitude as the Middleton estate, passing over the end of the local Ring Road as Throstle Nest Road and Sharp Lane take us into the suburban band beyond, forming the outer edge of the city, before briefly passing into the countryside to pass over the M1, before we land on the edge of Robin Hood, where the A61 Leeds Road is met, to continue due south.

Low Moor to Shipley 08/11/21

10.4 miles via Moor Top, Wibsey Slack, Wibsey Park, Haycliffe Hill, Low Green, Horton Park, 

 Dirk Hill, Shearbridge, Croft Street, Eastbrook, Stott Hill, Canal Wharf, Canal Road, 

  Bolton Woods, Dumb Mill Place, Crag End, Windhill, and Gallows Bridge. 

We shall not have a glum finale to 2021's walking year, as I'll be spending my end of season / birthday week off work Up Country for a change, which opens up the opportunity to pick up some of the shorter trips that dropped from the schedule, which could have plausibly numbered three thanks to a decent weather projection, but as I've actually got plans of necessary things to do while My Mum visits (taking another chance for her to get away from home for a bit), means that I'll only get in one, which is fine, as I've still got a lost canal to seek and one more railway station in mid-Airedale to visit. So our finale transit of greater Bradford starts at Low Moor at 9.15am under a wash of Autumnal sunshine, marking this out as the only trip of the year in this direction that hasn't started in Kirklees or Calderdale, as we move out to Cleckheaton Road to start as track to the kinda northwest, taking us past the terraced blocks that I'm pretty sure were built to service the former railway shed, rather than the ironworks, noting that it's still solidly industrial here as we press past the eastern perimeter of the Solenis chemical works and the Rhenus Logistics distribution depot, bounded by the ditch containing the river Spen. At the Brighouse Road corner, we pass through the Memorial Gardens and cross Common Road to join Netherlands Avenue, where the rise up towards the watershed ridge starts in earnest, with most our our usual miles of preamble having been shed thanks to a much closer start than usual, and this suburban boulevard lead us up to the crossing of the A649 Huddersfield Road, where we have to ponder if it feels familiar at all (almost forgotten since featuring on 2020's pre-pandemic season opener, it seems) and thence its on uphill, through Bradford's south-facing suburbia on this once-leafy boulevard. Meet Halifax Road, right by the tram tracks, and it's not even 48 hours since we were last passing this way, as we continue our fresh trajectory to the northwest, crossing to St Paul's Avenue to rise on through the suburban band, before meeting a real situation of dueling churches and schools, as St Winifrede's RC establishments occupy sites on both sides of the road as if they were trying to crowd out those of the CofE at St Paul's, the parish church of Wibsey and Buttershaw, urban boroughs which spread out to both sides of us up here. 

Halifax to Frizinghall 06/11/21

13.4 miles, via Old Bank, Stump Cross, Northowram, Stone Chair, Shelf Hall, Shelf, Beck Hill /   Royds Woodside, Buttershaw Mills, Odsal Top, Staygate, Goose Hill, Cutler Heights, Tyersal,      Thornbury, Moorside, Undercliffe / Eccleshill,  Five Lane Ends, Bolton Hall, and Bolton Woods.

As we lapse into the season of GMT and reach the final walking weekend of the year, we again find ourselves travelling out to Halifax, which seems to have quite unintentionally become our late season launching pad, like how Hebden Bridge took a similar status in the middle season, mostly because we've found a few new trajectories and un-traced paths heading out from it during our closing phase of route planning, and we had better get them down now, as we don't have plans to be burning any more trails in this quarter over the next few years. So it's off the Grand Central KGX express again for a 9am start, hoping that the glum weather will hold off a second time as we start out, aware of the lost hour of daylight as we start another trek to the northeast, descending away from the station down to Church Street, passing around the old railway goods yard and past the Ring O' Bells inn and Halifax Minster before passing over the hidden Hebble below Lower Kirkgate as we pass the decaying coal drops and the projections of the lost and contemporary railway viaducts before starting our path out of the valley, up Bank Bottom past the Matalan store on the Clarks Bridge mills site. This leads us up to the bottom of Old Bank, the forgotten old road into the valley which provides a testing ascent on steep and slick cobbles, rising us on through the trees on the Beacon Hill side as we pass above the views over the town, to be regarded for one last time before we head up through the cover of foliage to Beacon Hill Road and the flight of steps up to Godley Branch Road, which leads us to the A58 Godley Road, where the footway is joined again as we pass under Godley Bridge and enter the cutting that digs through the hilltop beyond. It's out third trek along here in this direction over the last two seasons, an odd choice when we still haven't seen Shibden Hall up close, just off our path to the southeast as we cut across Shibden Dale at the roadside, where there's been just enough leaf shedding going on to afford us the approximation of a view upstream into this hidden valley before we arrive at Stump Cross again, passing its inn and tall terraces on the corner before coming past the toll house and join the new turnpike to take us on our way, rising with the A6036 Bradford Road as it elevates us up the valley side, though not quite as sharply as the old road does. 

Halifax to Bradford (again) 30/10/21

10.7 miles, via North Bridge, Haley Hill, Akroydon, Boothtown, Booth Bank, Catherine Slack,

 Shibden Head, Ambler Thorn, Queensbury (Ford, West End), Low Fold, Hole Bottom, 

  Clayton (Bailey Stile, St John's, Town End, Pinnacle, Lidget), Paradise Green, Scholemoor, 

   Lidget Green, Lister Hills, Forster Square, & Exchange.  

Having done the walk over the Aire - Calder transition between Halifax and Bradford last weekend, it would seem to make sense to approach today's excursion as going back the way we came so as to vary things up a bit, but instead we'll be doing a repeat of start and finish points on consecutive weekends because I've had the road walk up the side of the Holmfield valley tagged as an ascent option since I first rode the bus up to Queensbury, and also because we have weather forecast to come on from the southwest all day, and I have no intention at all of walking into the teeth of that over the latter half of our trip. Dampness is already heavy in the air and thick on the ground as we alight in Halifax at 9.30am, seeking another fresh route to the north as we leave the Station compound and head up Horton Street once again, this time making our turn onto Market Street, taking us between the Piece Hall and the Westgate Arcade, and on between the Borough Market and the Woolshops centre, along with making another pass the Duke of Wellington's Regiment memorial before heading out onto Northgate, in the direction of the Broad Street centre and the bus station, which is finally in the grip of a remodelling to replace the 1980s styled pavilions, the last such in the county. Heading towards North Bridge, we turn onto Bowling Dyke to pass below it and the A58 flyovers to meet the crossing over Hebble Brook at the throat of Dean Clough, and tramp the pavements of Old Lane to meet the snicket that was famously photographed by Bill Brandt in 1937, where we'll rise up the steep and slippery cobbles to pass over the old GNR line between North Bridge station and Old Lane tunnel, both hidden by overgrowth in the cutting, and thence up the valley side on more setts to arrive on the side of the A647 Haley Hill, high above the valley side already, below the looming towers blocks on the Range Lane corner. The main road leads us up the valley's periphery, past the perched Lidl store and up to All Souls Haley Hill, the towering and spired pile that might be Sir George Gilbert Scott's crowning achievement in his speciality of Victorian Gothic revival churches, which lies below Ackroyd Park, home to the Bankfield museum and once home to Edward Ackroyd, the local employer and benefactor who developed the industrial suburb of Ackroydon in the 1860s which lies along the side of the rising road, a place to take a proper visual interest in on a nicer day than this one.

Halifax to Bradford 23/10/21

14 miles, via Woolshops, Cross Field, Bull Green, Peoples Park, Gibraltar, Spring Hall, 

 Pellon, Brackenbed, Wheatley, Jumples Crag, Illingworth, Illingworth Moor, Bradshaw, 

  Raggalds, West Scholes, Yews Green, Fall Bottom, Clayton (Town End), Deep Lane, 

   Scholemoor, Lidgett Green, Bradford University campus, & Shearbridge.

Having finally done with trips out of the Calder valley last week, the late season centre of gravity seems to have shifted back towards Halifax, just like it did last year, as if it holds an appeal for this point in the annual cycle, and it's also time to approach some mileage that we missed out on a few weeks back and to get onto the untraced trajectory in the county that had meant to be on the slate for the end of 2020, while getting to it finally provides a ride from Bradford on the Grand Central train to London King's Cross too, ticking the Class 180s off the list of unridden traction on West Yorkshire services. We alight in Halifax at 9am, just as the morning sun is rising above the hills to the east, and even though our destination is off to the north-east, our early going will be wholly westwards once we're away from the station and Square Road, picking a route that takes us up the steps that leads to the carpark and main street of the Woolshops centre, then up the old commercial street of the same name to make another encounter with the Duke of Wellington Regiment's memorial, before crossing Market Street to get some wholly variable town centre flavours from our passages up Russell Street and Cheapside. We pass through the banking district again, and taje George Street up to the crossing of the A629 Cow Green, before we join Bull Green taking us out of the town centre and in the direction of the Calderdale roads before we shift onto the rising urban slab by Hopwood Hall, and get a real variation of the urban qualities as we pass under the A58 Burdock Way with Hopwood Lane, passing through the terraces around Royds Mill ahead of the greenery taking over around Peoples Park, the old municipal library and museum and the Crossley Almshouses. Old Halifax sure is a land of contrasts, and unrelenting hills too as we press on west, with the quality of the bands of 19th century development almost seeming to have been plotted randomly, as we pass on over Queen's Road and come up behind the plot of St Paul's station once again, noting its distance from the town but it convenience for the biscuit factories that still operate on both sides of the road, an enduring feature of industry in the landscape of Gibraltar, on these slopes above the Hebble valley, where the King Cross Social Club's sports field needs extensive retaining walls on two sides to keep it level.

Halifax to Apperley Bridge 29/05/21

12.7 miles, via North Bridge, Claremount, Stump Cross, Northowram, Stone Cross, 

 Shelf Hall, Shelf, Beck Hill, Buttershaw, Wibsey Park, Wibsey, Brown Royd Hill, 

  Little Horton (Chapel Green, Holme Top, & Little Horton Green), Bradford city centre, 

   Wapping, Park End, Undercliffe, Eccleshill, Greengates and Dyehouse Fold. 

Out with the old Boots #7,
and in with the new Boots #8!

As my Spring Jollies at Home week ends, but my Ten Day Weekend concludes, there are some feelings of frustration to be had as we shift back into the regular scope of walking from home, firstly, is that fact that the 20+ miles of walking time lost due to horrid weather conditions over two days at the start of the month have resulted in my missing the opportunity to breach my first 5,000 mile target of my walking career this weekend, standing at only 33 miles distant as we open out today, meaning the chance to gather the family, or at least have Mum stick around at mine for another day, to force a celebration of sorts, is gone. Equally annoying is the fact that Pair of Boots #7 have given up the ghost quite spectacularly, with the extensive gluing applied to their uppers in the late portion of last year having failed to prevent their demise in the face of the all the mud and wetness that they have encountered since being revived a month ago, when I'd hoped that they too would see me past 5,000 miles, and thus Boots #8 has to be purchased, going back to the suede and mesh styles of my initial pairs, after encountering the poor wear of the uppers on Mountain Warehouse's all leather styles, as well as being put off by their suddenly increased cost. I've no idea at all if these Storm boots will endure like their 5,000 mile sole guarantee suggests they ought, or whether I'll have bust them up by the end of 2022, but they're £40 less expensive than a like-for-like replacement and are going to need a breaking in walk as my feet have gotten used to rigid uppers and heavier soles over the last few years, and thus we'll have to adapt our walking plans around the risk of blistering or other foot trauma, meaning urban walking is the order of the day, allowing us a more limited route mileage and multiple opportunities to bolt from the trail, if needs be.

Ravensthorpe to Bradford 15/05/21

12.7 miles, via the Greenwood Cut, the Calder Valley Greenway, Northorpe, Crossley, 

 Finching Dike, Norristhorpe, Liversedge Hall, Lands Beck, Hightown, West End, Scholes, 

  Stubs Beck, Oakenshaw, Victoria Park, Toad Holes Beck nature reserve, Woodhouse Hill, 

   Staygate, West Bowling, Ripleyville and Broomfields. 

It's immensely frustrating to lose a weekend's walking in May, especially when it's due to foul weather, with a double-raindrop sort of day completely blanketing Saturday, and brain fog coming on to completely discourage me from the idea of aiming at 16+ miles on a Sunday, or any other distance for that matter thanks to the issues with Sunday train services hereabouts, and thus hopes for a tilt at my first 5,000 career walked miles target before the end of the month fade from view, having just entered the final 100 miles on our last excursion out. It's already looking like this might be the worst May of all my walking years so far, barely able to string two nice, or even warm, days together, and I'm immediately feeling anxious that we might be looking at 2021 turning into a repeat of a garbage year like 2007, when it rained from June right through to its conclusion, as we ride the train out to Ravensthorpe, to alight at 9.10am under glum skies and a persistent light drizzle, taking in our spartan surroundings for plausibly our last visit to the station on its current site before we set off properly. The day's plan is to make my second trip from Calder to Aire via the city of Bradford, and our initial steps take  us out over the former river, and onto the north bank if it, having finally located the accessible path that slips down a cobbled hairpin slope to find the way upstream that I completely failed to locate when tracing the length of the C&H Navigation in 2012, and as we pace along the riverside, below Ravensthorpe's industrial band, it's clear that someone has recently been down here to keep the grassy track mown, keeping the damp leaves from soaking my legs in the early going. It's positively damp with atmosphere down here, with the path coming around to Greenwood Lock, at the start of the Navigation's Greenwood Cut, slicing off a corner of the river above Shepley Weir, forming another quite green strip along the waterway that conceals the industrial buildings on both sides as it lead us up to and under the Low Mill bridge and flood lock, and on around the long curve of the sweeping Calder before we rise away to join the side of the A644 by the sole riverside house in the area. 

Batley to Baildon 01/05/21

17 miles, via Healey, The Crofts, Heckmondwike, Littletown, Lane Ends, Gomersal, Birdacre, 

 Field Head, Lodge Beck, Hunsworth (sorta), Chatts Wood, Woodlands, Mill Carr Hill, Bierley,

  Goose Hill, Bowling Park, East Bowling, New Leeds, Barkerend, Beech Grove, Undercliffe, 

   Bolton Outlanes, Five Lane Ends, High Field, Idle, Thackley, and Buck Mill Bridge. 

It's taken a while to get here, but our arrival in May finally has it feeling like we are safe to declare 'Serious Business' on the year, as we're three weeks out from my second Covid vaccine dose and this country is now equally far out of its tightened lockdown restrictions which means our local bubble can be escaped and the season pushed further afield, not that I've got a mass of pre-prepared routes readied, as my cautious nature knows how these pandemic conditions have played out already and where the best laid plans often end up. Thus we look to travelling from the Calder valley to the Aire valley, by as many paths as we can find, as it's the major trajectory across West Yorkshire that we've been ignoring for the longest, and our first of these has us alighting at Batley, at a remove from the actual Calder because Dewsbury lacks obvious fresh routes north, for a 9am start, with a generally westwards path to initially trace, downhill along Station Road among the proud Victorian warehouses, and across Mill Lane and Bradford Road with a surprising amount of ease. The rise out of the valley of Batley Beck then starts as we hit Hick Lane, rising up below the imposing former Methodist chapel and then taking a turn away from the town's main street by the Union Rooms to follow Wellington Street as it passes its eponymous pub and a whole lot of not much else, until we meet the old public baths and technical school, across the way from the Fox's Biscuits factory, which along with the Variety Club is one of the main reasons for the town's national profile, The Pleasures of Batley indeed. It's uphill still beyond there, up to the Healey Lane corner and on along the path previously traveled past Jessop park and into the landscape of suburbia that has crept up the hillside, passing through the estate ahead of taking the turn off West Park Road to follow the old road alignment as it wanders into the concealed village of Healey, where some of its rustic flavour still endure around the George Inn and its own version of Healey Mills, just like it namesake down by the Calder to the southeast of here. 

South Leeds & Middleton Circuit 13/03/21

15.3 miles, from Morley station, via Daisy Hill, Churwell, Cottingley Hall, Royds Farm Ind Est, 

 Beeston Royds, Gelderd Road, Monk Bridge, Granary Wharf, Camp Field, Crown Point 

  retail park, Pottery Field, Hunslet Moor, Middleton Railway, Middleton Park (Belle Isle 

   railhead, & Broom Pit), Middleton, Thorpe Lane, Tingley Common, Glen Road playing fields, 

    and Magpie Lane rec. 

We've passed the first anniversary of the declaration of the Covid-19 Pandemic, and we find ourselves still constrained by the restrictions of National Lockdown, still in a situation which I'm sure none of us through we'd find ourselves after 12 months, but as HM Government is not looking to offer any meaningful release for the remainder of this month, we need to plot out things for our walking year on a local bubble basis for the next three trips, and thus the breakout of the season is held back while I seek parklands or other points of interest in the vicinity if Morley. South Leeds is thus the target for the day, as I've never done a there and back to the city before, and we don't get started early as the morning is looking aggressively mediocre, with wind being the major issue as we don't get to the starting line at Morley station until 10.10am, and setting off on a northbound and clockwise path that leads us up the steps to King George Croft and on to the ascent of New Bank Street up to Daisy Hill, and we haven't got much further along, onto the dirt path through the valley, before the day's issues start to take hold. As soon as we start to descend on the muddy slope, my feet slip from under me, planting me on my backside as I realize that I don't have my walking stick with me, before finding that traversing up the field path towards Broad Oaks is much harder going than expected as the soil is extremely damp, and once on the lane I find that my camera has decided to get fritzty and under-responsive as the farm track out to Elland Road is traced, meaning my photography is going to slow me down further as is the wind as it blows in hard from the southwest. Cross the A643 feeling muddy and mightily frustrated, all ready to quit on the trip before we've barely traced a mile as we continue on to seek the footpath beyond the end of Daffil Road, that leads us onto the end of Smools Lane, and into the top of Churwell's suburban spread and urban woods, tracing the Daffil Wood path until we reach a split off onto an older right of way that leads us out into the open fields on the side of the M621, which have still managed to resist both phases of Churwell's suburban expansion. With the motorway droning away to the side of us, we pass alongside a large leveled off area which seems to be formed of colliery spoil, before we are compelled to descend with the path as the valley space below Farnley Wood hill, formed by its beck, crosses the landscape, offering a view to the city and a slippery service that I lose traction on again, hurting two different muscles in my right leg as I slither downhill, cursing my rotten luck noisily as we come down by the most recent development of the Churwell new village at Fairfield Rise. 

Bradford to Dewsbury 12/02/20

11.4 miles, via Adolphus Street, East Bowling, Bowling Hall & Park, West Bowling, 

 Staygate, Odsal, Low Moor, Oakenshaw, Chain Bar, Cleckheaton, Royds Park, 

  Liversedge, Heckmondwike, Staincliffe and Batley Carr.

The first few weeks of 2020 proved to be pretty dry by recent standards, so once I chose to take a break from work, the weather found it to be an excellent time to come on strong, with Atlantic Storm Ciara bringing on all the rain, causing flooding issues again over Sunday, causing major headaches for my friends in Calderdale, with rains following to blight all of Monday and Tuesday, where the only outdoors time I'll be spending involves going to the optician to see about new specs for my failing eyes. It's not until Wednesday that things look better and the early season roaming can resume, to pick up the trail that returns us in the direction of the River Calder, emerging at 10.15am under sunny skies again, setting a course south along Bridge Street and past the Leisure Exchange complex to the tangle of the A647 and A650, as beyond these lies the site of Bradford's original station on the GNR lines, Adolphus Street, which only served as a passenger terminal between 1854-67, but endured as a goods complex until 1972, and while its main buildings have long gone, where Wakefield Road now runs, a large section of its plinth endures. We follow this along Dryden Street, passing the bricked up entrance, the platform level access ramp and the retaining walls to the coal drops where small industrial units now dwell, accessing the high level by a flight of steps and passing on through the Essex Street Industrial Estate, where the St James's Wholesale Market resides on the station site, following the access lane out to the A650, which we cross via the subways to emerge by the Gurdwara on the Usher Street corner, where we progress on past the Bowling Park primary school, and elevate among the industrial units on Barnard Road to pass under the Bowling - Laisterdyke line, under one of the many bridges on the alignment Bradford avoiding that's been closed since 1964. We then ascend through what could be the confusing rabbit warren of terraces and semis of East Bowling, but we've prepped a route to lead us up and along Paley, Brassey and Flockton Roads to land us at the top on Brompton Avenue, which leads us to Bolling Hall, one of the definitively oldest houses in Bradford, of medieval, 17th and 18th century vintages having endured on site since the 11th century,  famously featuring as a Royalist base during the English Civil War and the siege of Bradford in 1643, and now in City ownership as a museum and library. A fine place for a bit of historic transportation away from the contemporary surroundings as you pace around the gardens, and then continue the trip into the greenery of the past as our route leads us into Bowling Park, Bradford's green lung, high to its south, where we pace through the wild gardens and playing fields on the way over to Parkside Road on the eastern edge of West Bowling.

Huddersfield to Bradford 08/02/20

10.9 miles, via Hillhouse, Fartown, Fell Greave Woods, Bradley Bar, Toothill, Brighouse, 

 Bonegate, Bailiff Bridge, Lower Wyke, Wyke, Moorside, Hilltop, Odsal, Bankfoot, 

  and West Bowling.

My traditional February break from work lands, and for the first time in five years I'll be spending it all at home, as previous years have had me away to visit My Parents, but with Dad having passed away last year and with Mum having some Winter sun in Malta this, I've got all of it to use for my own entertainment, getting my ninth season of walking going by firmly welding it to the terrain of 2019's wandering as we build an early season framework in the eastern edge of the territory that I intend to explore over the coming nine months. Thus we hit the first Saturday of the year, where sunshine still pours through ahead of Storm Ciara bringing on all the Winter weather that we haven't experienced over the last six weeks, landing ourselves at Huddersfield station at a little after 9.50am, thanks to some strange train alignments, marching ourselves boldly across St George's square with a trajectory to the north in mind, leading us past the very closed George Hotel and onto John William street, where we pace along to the old Empire cinema, and meet Viaduct Street, which leads us along the elevated railway that leads into the station from the north. It really is the hidden engineering marvel of the city, far too easy to not acknowledge properly as you travel, which we follow out behind Tesco to the inner ring road, which we cross at the Castlegate - Southgate junction to join the side of the A641 Northgate, as we strike away from the town centre, past the car dealerships and under the noticeably widened railway bridge above, where our path becomes the Bradford Road, which already announces our destination for the day as we start our rise, among the terrace parades on the way up through the urban district of Hillhouse. More stone terraces and low-rise flats fill the roadside beyond the Halifax Old Road corner, leading us on towards Fartown where the Railway Inn announces the proximity of the old MR Newtown Goods line, the contemporary Birkby - Bradley greenway in its Heckmondwike-esque cutting, all located a short way below the Fartown Green corner where we bust through my circular route around the town from last year, and hit the real rise of the road as it pushes out through Huddersfield's suburbia. Less than two miles out and the banks of woodlands that apron the hills to the north start to make themselves apparent, filling in the roadside around Ash Brow Mills and the Asda superstore on all the sections of land that have proved too steep for suburban development, where we take our last looks back into the Colne Valley, before we rise on, to meet the ancient Fell Greave woods, where the Kirklees brought us back in 2014, beyond which the suburban and literal top of Huddersfield can be found at Bradley Bar.

The Long Walk to Leicester #8 - Loughborough to Leicester 05/09/19

15.5 miles, via Loughborough Moors, Pillings Lock, Barrow upon Soar, Meadow Farm,   Mountsorrel Lock,  Sileby Mill, Cossington Mill, Rothley, Wanlip, Birstall, Red Hill, 
  Ellis Meadows, Abbey Meadows, Abbey Park, St Margaret's, and the City Centre.

Long Distance Trek means Selfies!
#7 at Loughborough station.

The Last Leg of the Long Walk comes around, the latest of my cross country schemes to come to fruition, feeling fortunate that the opening of the late season of 2019's walking has sent some rather good walking days our way so far, and there's not massive pressure to get out early again as the morning temperatures are markedly lower than the preceding couple of days, and anyway, the return rail ticket I bought to Loughborough if off-peak and thus not valid until after 9pm, so the Parental Taxi doesn't need to be ready for the crack of dawn to get me underway. So back to the point where my Up Country and Down Country trekking points finally touched, getting away from the railway station in the shadow of the Brush works at 9.40am, striking across the car parks to Nottingham Road, by the mill that is getting the upscale apartment treatment to descend beck to the towpath of the Loughborough Cut of the Grand Union Canal's Soar Navigation, coming down on the opposite side of it to the residential complex built around a former hosiery factory and passing under the Great Central Railway's canal bridge, their next fixer up job before they can start building their embankments to get to the bridge of the Midland Mainline. We strike southeast from here along the towpath, hemmed in by thick hedge and the town having grown to fill all the plots up to the west side of the canal, surrounding the once rural Little Moorland bridge, and looking like its probably ready to consume the factory site to the south of it, the one with large ghostly lettering along the length of its wall that resolutely refuse to resolve into any readable words, and beyond the town looks to have breached a path into the low fields of Loughborough Moors to the east as a new close or two have arrived on the far side of Moor Lane bridge. That's as far as this town's suburban splurge has grown, with the town ending by the boatyard of the Peter Le Marchand Trust, who run boating trips for the elderly and disabled and whose boats were spotted more than once along the path of the previous day on the trail, beyond which we enter the low fields once again, with only cows in the fields and the morning air still feeling chilly despite the sunshine, with all feeling peaceful beyond Miller's bridge, where there are only random boaters and solo dog walkers out on the canal with me.

Saltaire to Leeds 27/10/18

13.8 miles, via Shipley, Windhill, Idle Moor, Thackley, Greengates, Calverley, Farsley, 

 Bagley, Coal Hill, Bradley Hill, Swinnow, Hough End, Farnley Reservoir, Silver Royd Hill, 

  Blue Hill, Green Side, New Wortley, and Holbeck.

After last weekend's deeply unseasonal warmth, normal service is resumed as we land on the last weekend of British Summer Time, as things look a whole lot gloomier and greyer as our walk down the Aire Valley gets set to resume, and despite the need to make the most of the daylight hours and to not have to end the day chasing the fading sunlight, we set out an hour later than initially planned to that the morning's rains might have had a chance to pass. Fortunately for us, the last of the early drizzle is just departing the air as we land at Saltaire station, ready to strike on to the south-east at 10.10am, feeling saddened that we aren't going to see this proudest of Victorian townlets in the best of lights again, but countering that thought with the knowledge that if you really want to see Saltaire at its brightest and best-est, you should be here in summertime, along with every other urban day-tripper in these parts. So we start, away from Victoria Road and down the steps to the level of the yard of Salt's Mill, which looms large and only slightly Italianate above us to our left as we press to the east, pondering that's it's still odd that I've never been inside it to see the Hockneys and whatever else is contained within, passing the towering chimney and moving on past the low range of buildings that house the Early Music store and the large bicycle emporium. This leads us to Salt's Mill Road and the main car park for Saltaire, in the post industrial space around the Leeds & Liverpool canal, which is also home to the offices of HMRC, strangely, though hints of the late 19th century industry endure at the waterside, and beyond we meet the Victoria Mills, Shipley's sizable companion to the more famous one upstream, now in residential use, and then we meet the views up to Shipley town centre as we cross the A6038 Otley Road between Airedale Mills and the Noble Comb. Up the side street of View Croft Road we head, around the Boatmans Wharf flat block, where I first looked at a property to buy back in 2006, and up the steps to the towpath of the canal, crossing it via Gallows Bridge and emerging through the stone shops and houses beyond to land on the side of the A657 Leeds Road, which will be our companion for a chunk of the day as it takes us away from the long curve of the valley of the Aire. We start off by passing under the contemporary railway bridges and over Bradford Beck to pass the enduring site of Shipley Windhill station, still intact despite the demolition threats, and rise up through the Windhill end of Shipley, passing the branch library, the board school and the Traveller's Rest inn before the road starts to elevate us significantly, as we pass the basilica of Christ Church before we pass the older limits of the town and slip firmly into 20th century suburbia with flat blocks and semis clinging to the fringes of Idle Hill.