Rumination: Summer Jollies (with Trains, Birds & the Night Skies)

Featuring: Ruswarp to Whitby - 1.5 miles, via the Rail & Riverside Path. 07/09/23

Esk View cottage might be the
 best letting we've scored so far!

Back in May, I pontificated some on the real value of a holiday break away from home, having let the disappointing opening of the year pass away and getting the spirits lifted with a warm week away on the Yorkshire Coast to get my walking year going properly, and three months on from the revivifying benefits of my Spring Jollies, I can tell you that exactly the same benefit can be felt at the End Of Summer, having endured two of the most frustrating months of poor weather, low energy and lacking motivation, heading away from the persistent gloom and changeability that has blighted July and August to be rewarded with the bright and warm week and the universe knew I spiritually needed. It’s another Friday-Friday let that we’re taking, going back to the coastal edge of the North York Moors after Mum expressed an interest in staying in the vicinity of Whitby, and I pulled up a very plausible pair of walks on the moors that got plotted when I was first seeking out rail trails at the start of my walking escapades in 2012, having managed to find a cottage at a significant reduction in price for the week after the end of the schools Summer break, just outside the town in the village of Ruswarp (which is pronounced Ruh-sup, if you were wondering), in a peaceful little idyll of its own, away from the tight streets and general throng of visitors that comes with this most beloved of coastal settlements. Even arriving having passed over moors under the heaviest of damp palls hanging in the air via the A169 does not do anything to temper our enthusiasm that we feel for Esk View cottage, and even on arrival we know that we’ve scored ourselves a gem that will be absolutely ideal for our rest and relaxation needs, amply sized and quietly out of the way at the end of its close, right on the north bank of the river Esk, with its own terrace and directly across from the railway bridge, which means that there will be entertainment to be had, even when settled in at our holiday base, be it on the rails above the water’s surface, or on the banks and their surroundings. 

Morley to Mirfield 10/06/23

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

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

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

   Lower Hopton, and Ledgard Bridge.

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

Morley to Normanton 03/06/23

10.9 miles, via Owlers, West Wood, Sissons Wood, South Middleton, Thorpe on the Hill,

 Lingwell Gate, Lofthouse Colliery, Lofthouse Gate, Stanley, The Nagger Lines, Stanley Ferry,

  Newlands Park, St John's Field, and Smirthwaite. 

We were very fortunate through the whole month of May to have not worked a single five day week across the whole width of it, and as we find ourselves at the first weekend of June, that five week run comes to an end, and thus we'll have to start worrying if the stamina is going to hold up after a very testing four day burst in the hospital libraries, followed by no scheduled time off until mid-July, so hopefully a return to sunny days will give me a mental lift to propel me on through the High Season, rather than proving physically draining as my body has yet to get itself into the early Spring mindset, as we veer dangerously close to your actual Summer. So, sunshine abounds as we head out, from Morley station once again, at 10am, and setting a course to the southeast as our quest to add new destinations to the local tiers, and to shuffle the routes beyond continues, rising from Valley Road up the long step flight again and feeling like we're soon going to be at a total loss for new routes away from this town as we join Clough Street again, ahead of visiting Denshaw Drive and Grove in our ongoing attempt to Watchperson every pavement hereabouts on our way towards Newlands Academy and the Gardeners Arms, where Wide Lane is joined to push us east, beyond the suburban reach and into the fields of Owlers. Meet and cross Dewsbury Road, and join the West Wood Road track for the n-th time as it drops down beyond the A653, passing over Millshaw Beck and rising under the railway lines current and former, before meeting West Wood and the intermittent shade that comes with paths along the periphery of the Middleton hillside, a route which I'm really glad that I haven't tired of having seen so much of it in recent years, and one which we surprisingly have to ourselves as the heat starts to bear down already, especially on the exposed stretch uphill to meet Sissons Wood, where the views back west across Morley, and northwest to Rombalds Moor, always entertain my brain, despite their familiarity to me.

Morley to Sandal 28/05/23

13.6 miles, via Gilroyd, Burn Knolls, Topcliffe, Tingley Common, Black Gates, East Ardsley,

 Jaw Hill, Kirkhamgate, Bushey Beck, Lodge Hill, Shepherd Hill, Low Common, Ossett Spa,

  Spring End, Hall Cliffe, Horbury, Horbury Junction, Broad Cut, Calder Park,

 Pugney's Country Park, Sandal Castle, and Castle Grove Park.

Three rest days later, and after some extra fortification thanks to a whole family get together lunch at the Booth Wood inn on the Ripponden & Oldham Road (which looks like it could become a regular tradition), we ought to be ready to go again as we find ourselves back at home on the middle day of the Spring Bank Holiday weekend, with the prospect of a filled slate for the month for the first time this year, and the marker of 100 miles on the year finally falling into view, which prompts us to Sunday walking despite the gloom gathering once again, to reveal that all those bright days still haven't heated the aits all that much. Left to my own devices once more, there's no impetus to get going at a hurry, as we return to the business of finding new trajectories out of Morley towards every railway station within reasonable walking distance, not getting going until we've seen what's happening at our own local development, where work continues on the new platforms and footbridge, with new lampposts being added to the mix, before our trail starts, southbound for a change at 10.30am, rising up the steps flight to Albert Road, noting that some recent tree felling has revealed a new angle on the Miners Arms that hadn't been seen previously, before we strike off, along Clough Street, between terraces and semis down to Middleton Terrace. We seek the path among the local green spaces among the developments on the Gilroyd Mills site and among the closes around Magpie Lane, passing in leafy seclusion across Peacock Green and down to Topcliffe Beck before we start the sharp rise up Topcliffe Lane, towards Topcliffe farm, where much heavy agricultural machinery is arriving, and on around the West Ardsley colliery site, with its tramway embankments still visible, before we pass through the Capitol Park office complex again, dropping down to meet the A653 Dewsbury Road which is crossed by the Highway Agency maintenance depot and the site of the lost Tingley station.

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.

Hemsworth to Bretton Park 20/08/22

15.2 miles, via West End, Vissitt, Holgate Almshouses, Hiendley Common, South Hiendley, 

 Felkirk, Hodroyd Colliery, Ellis Laithe, Old Royston, Notton, Brickyard Plantation, 

  Woolley, High Moor, Beacon Hill, Woolley Edge Services, Town End, West Bretton, 

   and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

The last two rounds of train strikes thankfully didn't effect our walking plans as Northern Trains weren't involved on either of them, leaving us to come and go as we had intended but for this day we have a general stoppage which means we are going to have to delay our planned late season residency in South Yorkshire and instead pull something off the end of season list instead, feeling fortunate that we do have full bus services available across Wakefield district thanks to the end of the beef at Arriva, ensuring that we can take a couple of rides south on the #427 and #496 to give us than chance to go for a Summer afternoon walk in the park in the late stretch of the day's passage. It's to Hemsworth we ride, to alight at the bus stand that could be easily mistaken for part of the Tesco superstore at 9.10am, just a few steps away from the library and the tangle of the roads in the middle of town at Cross Hill, where we pick the fifth and final of them for our westbound path, joining the Barnsley Road as it pushes out via the urban borough of West End, with its pair of Working Men's clubs giving the sort you'd anticipate as we pass the midway point on the old turnpike between Pontefract and Barnsley, and depart the suburban ribbon of the town as we elevate out past the Vissitt Cottage bar and hotel. The fields around Vissitt Manor give us the looks east towrds the fall toward the Don, but we are upper Dearne bound from here on in as we join Robin Lane, passing the suburban ribbon as we have the Enley Moor masts landing on our horizon, following west to meet the Holgate Almshouses, which are a fine bit of late Gothickery that you really can't get a good angle on from the road, which gives better sight toward distant Barnsley as we progress, shadowing the fall of Frickley Beck and the H&BR mainline beyond Brierly tunnel as we are drawn into the village enclave above Hiendley Common, distinct with its estate house and terraces from its near neighbour to the north, but apparently unnamed.

Fitzwilliam to Adwick 30/07/22

14.8 miles, via Brackenhill, Ackworth Moor Top, Low Farm, Ackworth Viaduct, 

 Burnhill Bridge, Standing Flat Bridge, Thorp Marsh, Wentbridge, Sayles Plantation,

  Brockadale, Smeaton Pasture,  Kirk Smeaton, Little Smeaton, Willow Bridge, Norton,

   Campsall, Sutton Field, Burghwallis, Skellow Cross, Carcroft, and Old Ea Beck. 

My July NIW week does not feature any walking, despite being Down Country with a plan in my pocket, as getting on with some deferred housework and clearout tasks at My Mum's house demand the attention while we have all the members of the extended family visiting, having scheduled my trip in the same window as My Sister and her family's and thusly some necessary garden work and DIY can get blasted through while many hands, both young and old, are available to take them on, and thus not really providing a period for relaxation before we get back into the walking and the second phase of my Summer plans, which should lead us deeper into the southeast of the old West Riding. A fine plan which comes up against the problem of the weather turning unexpectedly inclement, resulting in choosing a later start out from home, and the local trains running late and failing to make an important connection for the only available service to my start line (which incidentally has nothing to do with the strikes in force today as Northern are thankfully maintaining a full slate), and that's why we aren't arriving at Fitzwilliam until almost 10.45am, behind the worst of the morning drizzle, but already feeling mildly dispirited as gloom and chill fill the air ahead of the anticipation of a late finish that's well have to take regardless of how well the day goes, with a time window demanding either a hurry-up to make it for the earlier ride or a dawdle in order to catch the later one. It's going to be a slow day, which we can feel as we push away, to the northeast along Wentworth Terrace, beyond the industrial terraces and the Pit Club on the north side of the village, shadowing the boundary of the old Fitzwilliam Hemsworth colliery and the reclaimed fields of the country park, passing the local industrial estate before it becomes a rough track to pass along the undulating fields boundaries, gradually turning eastwards working its way around to meet Dicky Sykes Lane and the run uphill past the recreation ground and terrace ends to land us on the A638 Wakefield Road in Brackenhill, the western part of greater Ackworth, across the way from the Electric Theatre cafe and cinema (?).

South Elmsall to Conisbrough 23/07/22

14 miles, via Moorhouse Common, Hooton Pagnell, Brodsworth, Brodsworth Park,   Marr, Marr Wind farm, Ox Pasture, High Melton, Cadeby, Conisbrough Viaduct,

  Cadeby Tunnel, Cadeby Cliff, Kingswood, Conisbrough Castle, and Burcroft.

As Saturday rolls up, the heatwave conditions already seem like a distant memory as the 39C peak experienced in Leeds on Tuesday (on Britain's hottest day on record), has since seen a welcome regression to the mean as temperatures dropped by 20C to get us back into a much more manageable walking climate, so we can thankfully progress without having a repeat of the Summer of 2018, and instead experience something like the same week of last year, where mid-July spiked hot before slumping into a really rather mediocre second half, as low cloud and chilly rain washed all the way across the Summer holidays. We have a nicely large time window for the plans for today, with a good cluster of points of interest at the end of the trip, really not all that far away in the Don Valley as we alight at South Elmsall a little after 8.50am, finding the day a little brighter than projected as we rise to High Street and drop down to the junction by the bus stand and the end of the main shopping street, hanging a left onto the B6422 and following the Doncaster Road as it leads off to the southeast, passing St Mary's church and out through the surprisingly narrow suburban band at Common End, soon landing in the shadow of Frickley Colliery park as we enter the countryside, not that we get much sight of its spoil tip's heights as it hides behind a bank of trees. Passing over Frickley Beck takes us out of West Yorkshire after less than a mile, entering Doncaster borough and losing the footway as Elmsall Lane moves on to pass through the embankment of the H&BR Wath branch, where we cross the Wakefield Way route and note the house of Moorhouse & South station, before the road starts its rise across Moorhouse Common, where more cyclists seem to be out than drivers as it presses uphill, revealing the local reverse horizon, with the Next depot and quarry marking its eastern edge as we push up past the woodlands of the Ashes and take a turn with the lane across the hill crest to show up the western horizon.This would guide the eye towards the distant Dearne Valley views, if it wasn't for the haze, and instead we have to look down towards the landscape of Frickley Park, which occasionally reveals itself beyond the thick hedges and wheat fields, mostly being obscured by Hooton Pagnell wood before the Hall is revealed briefly, as we land in Hooton Pagnell village, perched on the edge of this minor upland and bringing the picturesqueness along with the views, still maintaining its vintage rural flavour and some of those hints of a Cotswolds style as the cottages and farmsteads hang on around the market cross and All Saints church on its bluff, which are passed as we come below Hooton Hall, with its imposing gatehouse and high walls.

Streethouse to Bolton upon Dearne 02/07/22

17.2 miles, via Coalpit Field, Sharlston Common, Crofton, New Crofton, Santingley Grange,

 Wintersett, Ferry Top, Wintersett Reservoir, Ryhill Pits, West Fields, Hodroyd colliery, 

  Wester Cliff, Sandy Bridge, Shafton, Shafton Two Gates, Upper Cudworth, Cudworth,

   Cudworth Common, Storrs Wood, Crooke House, Edderthorpe, Darfield, Mill Houses, 

    Quarry Hills, Marles Bridge, and Bolton Ings. 

After our rail strike imposed interlude, we can get back to our questing into South Yorkshire as July rocks up, and today's start line requires quite the most ridiculous train ride to get to it, not just necessitating an early start on the ground to give me the best possible time window for, but also requiring an even earlier departure from home as there isn't a direct service to be had until much later, making this the third time this year that I've been compelled to travel the long way round when using services on the Wakey-Knotty line, and I'm sure it won't be the last either, so that we might alight at 8.55am at Streethouse. Starting out westwards along High Street, it's worth noting that Wakefield district appears to have got its bus services back as the #148 trucks past as we observe that the settlement beyond the level crossing is certainly the more substantial of the halves, taking us past its estate and primary school as we are led past the old Station Hotel, for the lost Sharlston station and over the top of the railwat triangle that once led into New Sharlston colliery, now landscaped away in the fields to the north as we pace on as the lane passes among the Coalpit Fields to the turn onto the track of Hammer Lane, that set us off south, taking us over the railway line that we didn't travel in on. Sharlston Common village lies beyond, with its suburban acquisitions reaching past its village school, which is passed around as we seek the route through the estate houses, along Jubilee and Northfield Road to find the way onto the A645 Weeland Road across from St Luke's church, where we continue southwest to the road division by the Spring Green Nurseries garden centre, and take the old Pontefract Road down its leafy passage toward the general spread of Crofton village, not on the most direct possible route considering our destination, but taking in lanes otherwise unpaced as we come down to the Church View terrace and war memorial on the Doncaster Road. Cross the A638 by the Cock & Crown inn and follow Cock Lane downhill as it passes around the western edge of the grounds of the lost Crofton Hall, now mostly buried beneath the suburbia that has swollen this satellite beyond greater Wakefield, with our route turning southeast as we join Harrison Road, passing the Shay Lane primary school and rising uphill to take us to a short detour up to All Saints church before joining the High Street, where the Crofton Old Hall hides behind the Crofton Academy, and the Royal Oak inn provides a faux half timbered contrast the rest of the main street shops, before we come up past the infant school and Sainsbury's store, ahead of the Hare Park Lane corner.

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. 

Ossett to Streethouse 16/04/22

13 miles, via South Ossett, Horbury, Horbury Junction, Lupset Hall Park, Thornes, 

 Wakefield (Kirkgate), Primrose Hill, East Moor, Southern Washlands, Blue Bridge,

  Ashfields, Half Moon Pond, Kirkthorpe, Plump Hill, Warmfield Common, 

   Butcher's Gap Lane, Mill Hill, and Snydale Cemetery. 

After a single night's rest, we're good to go again as Easter Saturday morning rolls around, though the weather isn't looking as propitious as it did yesterday, with early morning mist hanging heavy as we head out, having had to take planning slide rule to project this expedition as a train being absent thanks to the ongoing TPE-RMT beef and strike means that I’m presented with a window that’s either too short or too long if I use Northern’s services via Dewsbury, and that’s why we are today busing it via Wakefield to get to our start line in Ossett. Alight at 9.30am, to the west of the city this time as we aim eastwards, departing the bus station and finding a way down behind Ossett Town Hall and through the vacant market place, before we project ourselves away, down Station Road, passing the old town library and striking out as we are lead over the old station site, and on tracking southeasterly as we pass the Southdale playing fields and land in South Ossett without having ever noticed the join, landing among its statement terraces and getting no sight at all of its parish church as we come down over Manor Road. A field gap does lie beyond, as the road shifts its way around Sowood Farm and Rock House, giving us a mist shrouded look into the space to north of Horbury before we come around into the town itself, passing the Old Halfway House and the Victoria inns as the morning haze starts to rapidly burn off, and once we’re past the old Co-op store it looks like the sunshine will bathe the day against expectations, resuming the warm spell for the long weekend as we come down past the Memorial gardens, the old Town Hall and the public library. Beyond the derelict chapel and Sunday school, we meet the end of High Street, and check the Sowood – Westfield Roads off the untraced by any other route list, to find that it’s as pleasing a stretch as it ever was, offering vintage frontages and views up to St Peter & St Leonard’s church as we pass by again, and still prospering along our fourth(!) traversal before we shift down Cluntergate, with its awesome name and trio of drinking establishments that keep us company as we drop down to the A642 bypass road, which is crossed before Daw Lane and Green Lane can lead us into the residential band around St Mary's church.

Sandal to Glasshoughton 15/04/22

11.1 miles, via Oakenshaw Junction, Barnsley Canal, Heath Common, Heath, 

 Kirkthorpe, Newland Hall, Calverley Green, Altofts, Lower Altofts, 

  Wakefield Europort, Whitwood, Ackton Pasture, and Cutsyke. 

Having taken a weekend out to visit My Good Friends in Calderdale, and to get in my first night out on the town since the Covid Pandemic started, in Manchester, we can return to the trail feeling socially recharged, which is just as well as the long Easter Weekend is next on the slate, right at the cusp of the year starting to be warmer, and we’ve gotten a trio of routes to cram into the four days, from starting points around greater Wakefield aimed at railway stations that have yet to act as finish lines on my travels, and that’s what we have in mind as we ride out in the Good Friday sunshine. Alight at Sandal & Agbrigg station at 9.40am, and our route starts southeast, through the car park on the western side of it, to find the cycleway that follows the former railway spur that linked the GNR-GCR main line to the North Midland main line off to the south, rising over what feel like a mile against an already sharp natural gradient, to drop us down below one of the many Oakenshaw junctions at the northern edge of Walton village, which we turn away from to follow Oakenshaw Lane north, to soon see an Azuma making shot work of the ascent on its London-bound passage south. Passing north we can look to Wakefield on the horizon, and find a pony loose in the road before we choose to make a brief detour to trace the Barnsley Canal’s section that we didn’t examine in 2015, the channel that meanders north towards Agbrigg, still in water and reedy, forming its own sort of nature reserve with a developing right of way along the tow path, followed as far as the channel remains up to the allotments before overgrowth stops progress and we are compelled to go back the way we came, listening to the sound of the diesel trains making slow progress south on the railway. Back on the lane we spy the viaduct on the canal, and befriend the horses in the fields of Oakenshaw farm as we pass around it, to pass over more railway lines, the Crofton line and the spur to the North Midland line, which seems to be theme in this district as branches and links abound, before we are angled around to meet Heath Common and the A638 Doncaster Road, both of which are passed over, the former on an isolated stretch of former road among the rough grass and gorse bushes, and below the horses grazing the pasture to the south, with the remains of Heath Old Hall on the immediate horizon. 

Woodlesford to Knottingley 12/03/22

14.5 miles, via Fleet Mill, Lemonroyd Bridge, RSPB St Aidan's, Shan House Bridge, 

 Methley Cut, Caroline Bridge, Lowther Colliery, Wood End, The Linesway, Allerton Bywater,

  Newton Ings, Newton, Fairburn Ings, Fairburn, Brotherton, Byram, and Ferrybridge. 

My New Lumix is Ready to Go, &
Old Lumix becomes a Paperweight!

After the expiry of my old Panasonic Lumix, and the temporary revival of my old Fuji Finepix, we are compelled to introduce my third camera of my walking career, another DMC-TZ70 which I managed to acquire at very short notice via John Lewis's, at a pretty modest price seeing that its model has been superseded a couple of times since I got my original one, while I'm not looking to upgrade as that would be an unnecessarily expensive and complicated business when I need my tool to be as ready to go as I am, and thus the black model replaces the silver one, restoring to my arsenal all the familiar benefits and drawbacks that I've grown accustomed to over the last four years, with the important reminder to try to keep it dry whenever possible. Thus armed we set out again, questing for the remotest of the Five Towns, travelling to Woodlesford to find it further away in time than it is in distance at the southeast corner of greater Leeds, alighting at 10am, and aiming a path down the course of the lower Aire valley, joining the pavement of the A642 and following it down to the canal were we join the path alongside the wide channel of the Aire & Calder Navigation, and follow its long length down to Fleet Bridge wharf, where the oil depot is gradually getting demolished and rise to the embankment of the river Aire, which we'll be tracing along the length of the section that we re-chanelled after the catastrophic flooding of 1988. All the river below the former opencast pit of RSPB St Aidan's is wholly man made, to be crossed above the weir at Lemonroyd Bridge, and leading us directly into the bird sanctuary, where the originally planned path has to be traced to its west, just to check that the path through the northwest lakes is indeed still flooded, with the floodwater still not going away after a month, before we resume our eastern track, taking us past a reedy lagoon, formed by the old river course, and the old Lemonroyd Lock chamber, and the old canal channel beyond, isolated by the passages of both having been completely re-dug, a short distance to the south.

Sowerby Bridge to Todmorden 24/07/21

16.8 miles, via, Sowerby, Wood Bottom, Luddenden Foot, Luddenden, Oats Royds Mill, Booth,

 Luddenden Dean, Dry Carr - Slack, Clough Hole, Garnett Edge, Midgeley Moor, Back Clough,

  Low Brown Knoll, High Brown Knoll, Flaight Hill, Robin Delph Flat, Gib Slack, Crimsworth

   Dean, Lumb Bridge, Shackleton Knoll, Rowshaw, Walshaw, Rowshaw Clough, Hebden Dale,

    Gibson Mill, Gibson Wood, Knoll Top, Colden, Colden School, Blackshaw Head, Hippins 

     Clough, Great Rock, Great House Clough, Cross Stone, and Priestwell. 

Having been NIW and Down Country for the week, travelling without walking plans and ending up doing a whole mess of not much as we endured a blast heatwave conditions, we return to the North Country feeling like we ought to get back on the trail as things cool down and gloom over again, as some more mileage needs to be put down among Calderdale's hills and valleys while it's not raining, not least because July needs to be redeemed after that damp spell got it going on completely the wrong foot, and having had too much enforced R'n'R. With a lot of miles planned, we travel early, to alight at Sowerby Bridge at 8.05am, under skies that look like they'll be keeping the sunshine at bay all day, as we start off with the morning chill still hanging heavy as we decline down Station Road, past the builders yard in the coal drops, and the old police station, down to the crossing of the mouth of the Ryburn as it flows under the railway to merge into the Calder, taking a left as we meet the A58 and crossing over West Street by the Sowerby Bridge flat iron to start the ascent to Sowerby village. We're coming this way as the options for low down and westbound routes up the Calder Valley are rather thin on the ground, and so we rise sharply with Quarry Hill, passing the Royal Oak inn and St George's church on the sharp rise up to Fore Lane, which skirts us around White Windows house, and St Peter's Avenue pushes us between the suburban and council estates on the hilltop, giving us a view over the lower Ryburn valley towards Norland Moor,for a change, before we pass the grounds of Ryburn Valley High School, with its old schoolhouse almost concealed in plain sight at the roadside. Arrive at the site of the Victorian village school, across the way from St Peter's church, which shares some of the neo-Classical vintage of its companion downhill, and pass through the old heart of Sowerby village by the shopping parade and the Old Hall, before the turn northwards and downhill comes by the Church Stile inn, taking us down Pinfold Lane as it clings on to the high edge of the Calder Valley, which opens out ahead of us, drawing our attention across the way towards Luddenden Dean, our first target for the day, as it merges in between the high hillsides, west of Halifax and below Midgeley Moor.

Bronte Way #3: Wycoller to Gawthorpe Hall 27/05/21

15.8 miles, via Turnhole Clough, Saucer Hill Clough, Boulsworth Dyke, Will Moor, 

 Thursden Wood, Thursden Brook, Park Wood, Pike Lowe, Holden Clough, 

  Swinden Reservoirs, Lee Green Reservoir, Swinden Water, Houghton Hagg Wood, 

   Brun Valley Country Park, Bank Hall  Park, Leeds & Liverpool Canal (Burnley), 

    Reedley, New in Pendle bridge, Spurn Clough, Moor Isles Clough, Pendle Hall bridge, 

     Ightenhill, Habergham, and Pit Plantation. 

Long Distance Trail means Selfies!
#3 at Wycoller Country Park

Two rest days are taken from the trail in the midweek period of 2021's Spring Jollies at Home, to allow time for other activities like shopping, spring cleaning and generally getting our house in order before The Way is rejoined at its most awkward extremity, but not putting Mum too far out of the way on another day out for her while performing Parental Taxi duties, dropping us off at 9.50am under much brighter conditions than we saw three days back above Wycoller's valley, at the country Park's Haworth Road car park, where we can both regard The Atom in a much more positive light than we did on Monday, as sunshine really elevates the views from the Panopticon. Looking forward to a whole day of walking into the previously unknown in Lancashire, our first in a long while, The Way needs to be returned to by the descending path down to the hamlet, giving us restored views over Pendle Hill and its borough downstream as we return to Wycoller Hall's ruins where we can poke around the remains of this late 16th century hall, dismantled in the early 19th century, meaning we have the same sort of edifice to regard as Charlotte Bronte supposedly did, as we wander among its rooms and around to the aisled barn, and that's going to be about it for the Bronte connections as The Way seems to have fallen like the Hadrian's Wall Path, having crammed most of its points of interest into its middle portion. We'll need to trip around the hamlet before we go, tracing the track to its northwestern end by Lowlands Farm, and the pricey new cottages that have been added in here, then coming back up the main street, crossing over the beck as we go and quietly marveling at how expensive and Cotswolds-ish it all feels, ahead of us meeting the Packhorse and Clapper bridges again and heading on upstream along the metaled path on the southern bank, through some willow tunnels and across a small wetland reserve as the settlement falls away behind us. 

Bronte Way #2: Thornton to Wycoller 24/05/21

16 miles, via Thornton Cemetery, Well Heads, Denholme Clough, Black Edge, Thornton Moor, 

 Stony Hill Clough, Leeming Reservoir, Back Leeming, Oxenhope (Lower Town), 

  Old Oxenhope hall, Haworth, Penistone Hill, The Slack, Bronte Bridge, The Height, 

   Buckley Green, Ponden Reservoir & Hall,  Whitestone Clough, Silver Hill Bank, Jarnel,

    Watersheddles Reservoir, Cross Bent, Smithy Clough, and The Atom.

Long Distance Trail means Selfies!
#2 at Bronte House, Thornton.

For leg #2 of this trip across a Chunk of West Yorkshire's literary history, I've got my Parental Taxi in attendance, so there's no need to make the frustratingly long bus ride via Bradford Interchange to get out to Thornton, as Mum can drive me out here, getting in behind the rush hour traffic, and not putting her out of her way at all as she can continue on to visit friends of hers in Skipton without having to put much more than a dozen miles on the round trip from Morley along the way of acting as my shuttle, like she would normally have done if we were having normal Spring Jollies. So alight on Thornton Road at 9.45am, and scurry back up Ball Street to mick up the trail once again at the Bronte House, where Rev. Bronte recalled as having spent the happiest years of his life (mainly because all the members of his family were alive whilst residing there), before we set off with the trail up Market Street, taking in more of this pleasingly rural vintage village, as we roll up to the Black Horse inn on the West Lane corner and rise up to meet the suburban spread of the village above, taking us past the Thornton Mill redevelopment and up to the chapel and Sunday school on the James Street Corner. Cross here and rise to the path on Reservoir View, the last terrace in the village at this altitude, and enter the equestrian fields and meadow beyond, perched up the valley side above the tapering west end of the village, affording come fine views up and down the valley, as well as to Thornton viaduct as it descibes it less than straightforwards passage up from the south, before we enter Thornton cemetery and trace its wide promenade path across its width, between the raked terraces of graves up and down the hillside. A rough track and field path guide us on, from Bottom of the Row farm, and up to Close Head farm, as we look down to the passge of Well Heads tunnel, its portal hidden in the wooded pit below, and still no closer to being revived than int was in 2013, and we'll start on that year's route again as we rise up to Well Heads hamlet, with its stone terraces stretching down from the White Horse inn, atop the rather blasted feeling ridge that rises between Thornton's valley and the next one over to the north.

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. 

Mirfield to Ravensthorpe via Cleckheaton 24/04/21

14.5 miles, via Calder View, Battyeford, Littlemoor, New Scarboro, East Thorpe, 

 Castle Hall Hill, Northorpe, Ponderosa Zoo,  Heckmondwike (Cuttings & Spen), 

  Liversedge (Spen), Royds Park, Cleckheaton (Spen), Manns Dam viaduct, 

   Cleckheaton (Central), Liversedge (Central), Heckmondwike (Central & Junction), 

    Carr Lane, and Dewsbury Country Park. 

With Spring feeling like it might have finally Sprung, more than two weeks later than usual, but ahead of having had long enough for my second vaccine dose to work its full effect, we aim to keep things kinda local before we look to start expanding the walking field much wider as we march on into May,  and as this tenth season has seen us retracing some old routes among my continued explorations, that seems like a good theme to continue as we aim to revisit the lost railway lines of the Spen Valley, first seen in the early days of 2012. So, to Mirfield we return, with another wandering route planned ahead of us, alighting just ahead of 9.15am, with the early morning chill still in force as we head off west along Back Station Road below the long brick retaining walls of the station plinth and past the looming bulk of Ledgard Mills, before we head across the Calder to its south bank via Ledgard Bridge, to graze the corner of Lower Hopton and pass back under the railway with its many arches above Chadwick Fold Lane, around the Butt End Mill site and the Hopton Cottage residential home. This leads us into the Calder View housing development still on a counter-intuitive route westwards, but my reason to be here among these still blooming lego houses is because we are on the site of the L&YR Mirfield engine shed, which operated from 1885 to 1967, of which nought remains aside from the access bridge across the modern railway, which itself will be soon removed with the expansion and widening of the lines through Mirfield so that's one to snare a look at before it's day is done. Through the brownfield site development and away across the flood plain that's sensibly being laid out as a riverside garden, to get us on track for our exploration of the bulk of the L&NWR's Leeds New Line, landing on the path on the south bank of the Calder to progress west once more, soon meeting the arched remains of the northern side of Battyeford viaduct ahead of the embankment on the far bank, ahead of the high abutment on the south side, east of Heaton Lodge junction where the projecting iron girder span passed over the river at an acute skew. 

Dewsbury & D.R.C. Walk #3: Mirfield to Dewsbury 10/04/21

11.7 miles, via Hopton Bottom, Briery Bank, Whitley Wood, Whitley Lower, Briestfield, 

 Dimpledale, Thornhill Edge, Edge End, Rectory Park, Mill Bank, C&H Navigation, 

  Healey Mills, Pildacre Fields, D&O Greenway, Earlsheaton Common, and Sands Lane. 

Long Distance Trail
means Selfies!
#3 at Mirfield Station.

I'd have loved to have gotten this whole trail down within the Easter weekend, and a different vintage of myself would have eagerly been out there on the Monday, but my contemporary vintage is starting to feel the need to not push things so hard, and thus time is taken out to do other necessary things and the D&DRCW has to wait its turn in the schedule, dropping in on the last quiet weekend before the National Lockdown restrictions see their next significant easing, and also ahead of myself getting my second dose of the Covid vaccine to hopefully ease my mind ahead of the renewal of the crowds. We also have a nice day promised by the forecasts as we ride back out to Mirfield for a jump off ahead of 9.15am, rejoining the circuit path below the deep Station Road overbridge, heading south on Hopton New Road between the open fields and the large plots of allotments to approach the crossing of the Calder at Hopton Bridge, all the way feeling that the dense bank of cloud lingering to the south of the river was not something projected to happen today, before our path takes us a little way east along Granny Lane before slipping onto a path that takes us along between the back gardens, both old and new, of the suburban enclave of Hopton Bottom. Enter the fields as the path skirts the looming woodlands of Briery Bank, tracing the boundary before heading across to Valance Beck, which is crossed before we hit the sharp rise beyond, seeing naught but gloom ahead of us the the southwest, with the blue skies receding to the north as we look back over New Hall farm and woods to Mirfield and greater Dewsbury, and expanding the horizon northwards before we crest and field walk downhill again. A track is joined, skirting around Royds House farm in its own little glade, as we are lead downwards to pass over Liley Clough and then rise among more foliage free trees, to meet the track up from Hopton Mills, passing below Brier Knowl farm perched above, a lane which we traced southwesterly a good few seasons back, and those steps are retraced down towards the cottage cluster at Whitley Wood Bottom, whilst we aim a new track southeastwards, on one of those rare trajectories that has been distinctly absent on all our previous local travels.

Littleborough to Halifax 12/09/20

18 miles, via Gale, Summit, Warland Gate, Bottoms, Walsden, Gauxholme, Salford, 

 Todmorden, Millwood, Lobb Mill, Spring Side, Eastwood, Sandbed, Charlestown, Calderside, 

  Mytholm, Hebden Bridge, Hawksclough, Mythholmroyd, Brearley, Luddenden Foot, Friendly, 

   Causeway Head, Cote Hill, Granny Hill, and King Cross.

After so many weeks of complaining about this season's weather, it actually looks like Summer might have an End of note, which is nice to consider as the morning shadows lengthen and the early chills set in, indeed rising with the lark to travel start to feel a trifle unnecessary when the days are taking to some time to warm through, but when a long trip is in the offing, it seems wise to still make best use of the day, and having finally made this year's triumphant arrival in Lancashire, it's already time to get out of it, via possibly the lowest impact trans-Pennine route in this quarter, with my light boots donned for a welcome change. So it's ride the rails out to Littleborough for an 8.30am alight, setting a northbound course that immediately has little for me to do with regards navigation, giving us a raw mileage sort of day after the more complicated moorland walks prior to it, departing the station yard to Railway Street and crossing over the modest River Roch as we go, turning onto the A58 Halifax Road by the imposing Wheatsheaf inn and passing the snow and ice alert signage for the high road passages, right by Holy Trinity parish church, just ahead of the turn onto the A6033 Todmorden Road, which has us done with corners for a while. It's upstream with the Roch that we are headed, along the same passage as the canal and the railway, though the depth of the valley is hidden by the low rises of terraces and industrial units stretched along the roadside, offering us little to indicate that the South Pennines and the Rossendale Moors loom large to either side of us, though the climb does start to feel more pronounced as we head on, as we pass into the urban hamlet of Gale, with its Fair View terrace perched over the roadside and the fields starting to angle steeply beyond. Once past the Grove dyeworks redevelopment, and in the vicinity of nearby Calderbrook, whose stray terraces and village school sit by the roadside, we've risen high enough to get a dramatic sort of location around, revealing the cloud brushed hills to the east and looking across the valley to the imposing and derelict Rock Nook cotton mill, sat above the railway as it starts its gouge through the hills, with the aqueduct containing the Roch running above the cutting while doubling as a canal flood run-off. The main point of engineering interest is found beyond, across from the Sladen Wood cotton mill, namely the L&YR's 1.6 mile long Summit Tunnel of 1841, presenting quite the dramatic image with its southern portal, still in regular use despite the petrol train fire that closed it for much of 1985 (giving it a record of the World's longest when constructed, and site of possibly the largest underground transport fire too), a length which we will be tracing as we head on, through the hamlet of Summit, the last such settlement in this corner Greater Manchester, which is looking pleasing and stoney at the roadside as we pass through.