Pontefract to Doncaster 13/08/22

16.4 miles, from Tanshelf, via Friar Wood, Mill Hill, Hardwick Lane, East Hardwick, 

 Whitegate Hill, Badworth Hunt Kennel, Standing Flat Bridge, Thorpe Audlin, 

  Thorpe Grange, Walton Wood, Barnsdale, Barnsdale Bar, Skelbrooke, Harry Wood, 

   Hampole, Red House, Roman Ridge, Woodlands, Beck Hill, Hanging Wood, Highfields,

    Scawsby, Lady Pitt's Bridge, St Mary's Bridge, North Bridge, and Frenchgate. 

If there were ever a day that needed an 8am start it was this one, as Saturday has us settling into the fifth day of the mid-August heatwave, but such options aren't available to get us to the start line before the day's heat has started to kick in, as there's no early services to be had via Castleford thanks to engineering works (rather than strikes that Northern aren't being affected by), and bus services are no alternative when the need is to get going in a hurry, and thus the first ride to take us directly out to Tanshelf is two hours later than I'd have liked, returning us to Pontefract's other station nearly six months after I laid it down as one of this season's jump off points. Alight at 10.05 am, dressed in the summer get-up of light shirt and floppy hat, carrying much more liquid than food, and hoping that the day's trek, to the 12th and final new destination for the year will prove as unchallenging as I'd project as we rise to the side of the A639 Park, which will be our companion for a while as it leads us south past the western edge of Pontefract Town centre, uphill past the former Queen Hotel, and the Haribo factory, which looms large over its store at the end of Cornmarket and following Jubilee Way as it crests over the town's hilltop to descend down by the end of Ropergate and the Central Methodist church before we get into a tangle with the A645 Southgate, at the west end of Friar Wood gardens. Away from the Wakefield Road, we rise with Mill Hill, passing through a shaded groove in the landscape, concealing what appears to be caves in the rock faces amidst the landscape of villas as we pass south ito the suburban reach of the town beyond the Carleton Road crossing, and keeping on as we meet the division of the A628 Barnsley Road, hanging left as we meet the wide boulevard of the Hardwick Road as it pushes out of town, along the supposed alignment of the Roman Ermine Street, passing under the upper half of the Swinton & Knottingley railway line and into the fields beyond, into the Little Went Valley. The footway keeps us secure along the straight and quiet passage of the A639 as it passes among the fields, across the fall f the streams as we pass Haverlands farm, looking east to the rise of Went Hill and heading up the modest rise among the parched and recently harvested wheat fields in the full glare of the sun as we head along towards East Hardwick, the sole village of note along this stretch of the lane, which is probably why the traffic is so light, coming up the rise to pass the cottages and pump at the west end of Darrington Road, before we lose our pavement and have to brave the metalled road surface beyond, across the east end of  Ackworth's Station Road and over the Wakefield Way route. 

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.