Rosedale Railways #2: Rosedale Circular 06/09/23

11.4 miles, from Blakey Junction, via Glead Holes. Slead Shoe Bents, Low Blakey Moor,

 Sherriff's Pit, Thorgill Head, Thorgill Bank, Hobb Crag, Bank Top, Chimney Bank,

  Rosedale Abbey, Abbey heads, Bell End, Plane Trees, School Row, Hill Cottages,

   Low Baring, Stone Kilns, Iron Kilns, Black Houses, Dale Head, Nab Scar, Reeking Gill,

    Seven Head, Cross Gill, and Blakey Swang.

Two warm and pleasant days off from the trail are spent, filled with activity before we get back to the business of the walking plan for this round of Summer Jollies, and we did not expect moorland mist to be on our menu in the midst of our warm spell, as it hangs in the air for the full duration of our 23+ mile ride out onto the moorland top, during which Mum demonstrates an amount of fearlessness in her motoring that belies her years as we tool our way up to the crest of Blakey Ridge again, to resume our exploration of the railway and ironworking that took place in the moorland edges of Rosedale, which falls away to the west and south of the road we ride the high road. We alight at 9.45am at Blakey Junction, with a 5 hour trip in our sights as we descend beside the infilled cutting that passed under the ridge road, down to the site of the Little Blakey hamlet that stood by the division of the railway lines around both sides of Rosedale, of which nought but feint foundation remnants remain in the landscape, and we'll head south from here, down the western branch, for reasons that will become apparent as we start our circular tour, with the mist already burning off as we pass through the gate by the end of the long switchback siding, with mist still obscuring views to the east, and the kiln complexes at the end of the eastern branch, which will get much of the day's attention. It's a steady contour-hugging walk to enjoy as we progress south, at about 360m with only the slightest of declines as we trot away on a decent cinder track surface, with sleeper markings still present underfoot as we look over the valley of Rosedale, trying to get some context of the landscape below as move on among the banks of purple heather that illuminate in the sunshine behind us, settling into the shallow cuttings that run atop the edge of the Glead Holes edge, and looking down across the long rib of Middle Ridge, where it looks like a huge piece of the valley side sloughed its way downhill in antiquity, leaving a scarred and wild landscape in its wake, one not caused by human mining or quarrying activity, with our surroundings becoming more steadily apparent as we track south. 

Rosedale Railways #1: Battersby to Blakey Junction 03/09/23

10.4 miles, via Bank Foot, Park Plantation, Ingleby Incline, Greenhow Moor,

 Bloworth Crossing, Farndale Moor, Wares Gill, Middle Head, Dale Head, Gill Beck,

  Esklet, Oak Beck Head, High Blakey Moor, Blakey Gill, and Blakey Ridge. 

Late Summer Jollies arrive, not a moment too soon, and we're off to stay in Ruswarp, a stone's throw up the Esk Valley from Whitby to operate as our base as Mum and I get in a week of relaxation and I can target some walking on the North York Moors, having trailed the coastal railway path and dropped feet on my OL27 plate for the first time in the Spring, it's time to get onto the OL26 map for the first time as the 20 miles of the Rosedale Railways on the remote High Moors, demand my attention as a complete change of scenery from all my day tripping from home, and not least because I've had them on my walking target list for longer than I can immediately recall. They're not especially local to where we're staying of course, and instead of using the Parental Taxi privileges to get to the start line, we'll catch a train up the Esk Valley line instead, starting out relatively late due to the scheduling of the Sunday services, and already in the grip of warm Summer conditions that we haven't seen the like of in two months, having snared a cheap ride for only £3 and travelling along a line I've seen in part before, having ridden the NYMR section to Grosmont in 2016, and as far as Danby back in 1985 in order to visit the National Park centre (Oh Hi, School Trip Memories!) and thence it's a dawdle into the unknown, beyond the head of the valley and into the catchment of the Tees where we can alight at Battersby, that odd junction station where all services have to reverse, in the apparent middle of nowhere. We'll depart here at 11.25am, away from the station complex and the long terraces of railway cottages shadowing the start of the branch line as it split off towards the moors, looming large on the southern horizon, a wholly industrial line constructed by the NER in 1858 to service the distant ironstone mines in Rosedale, creating a significant freight interchange in this landscape where the only immediate remnant to see is the crossing house on Stone Stoup Hill, from whence we have to follow the turns of the local lanes with the trackbed inaccessible through the fields, allowing attention to wander to scoping our surroundings, placing the Captain Cook monument on Easby Moor, and the anvil peak of Roseberry Topping behind us to the north, while a trio of prominent moorland tops rise like knuckles on the edge of the Cleveland Hills to the southwest of us.

Rivington Park to Egerton 04/03/23

7 miles, via the Pineteum, the Ravine, the Terraced Garden, the Dovecote, Noon Hill Slack,

 Hordern Stoops, Hoar Stones Brow, Belmont, Belmont Reservoir, Great Robert Hill, 

  Stones Bank Bridge, and Dimple.

To me the most disruptive thing about the Pandemic years has been the social ties that have been loosened and severed by the months of enforced isolation, and none more telling of these has been the distance that was put between myself and My Sister's family, where I haven't visited for a walking occasion since the summer of 2019, and not on a solo excursion since the preceding April, meaning that paths in the West Pennines have gone unseen, while my Nieces have transitioned into almost growed-up girls without us seeing it happen up close, and if there's a time to do something about that absence, that time is now. Company also allows me to push myself a bit harder on the trail as we make a second attempt to launch my twelfth walking year, and My Sister approaches my need to exercise with some very well-considered planning, which means not rising early and heading out immediately, instead easing through the morning an heading out for lunchtime, allowing us to fuel up before we get to the business of walking, and by aiming back towards their house means that no mental stress will be had from heading away from home and getting anxious about the duration of a return trip. So we head out to Rivington Park to take lunch at Rivington Barn for the umpteenth time, and afterwards, My Sister and I can then aim ourselves to head back around Winter Hill as she acts as my person trainer, as we attempt to get into some sort of walking condition again, and as we depart eastwards at 1.10pm, we can immediately acknowledge that the first challenge of the day will be heading uphill, off the Rivington Lane and onto the dirt track that lead up though the park's array of bare trees, onto the main path that leads up through the Pinetum, and on to shadow the Ravine, one of the features of Lord Leverhulme's parkland that has recently be revealed by some extensive tree-felling. The hard work comes as we rise on through the Terraced Garden, zig-zagging uphill still as my wheeze starts to get distractingly loud, though not actually worse than any of my regular early-season apparent breathing difficulties despite My Sister's concerns, before we hit the more direct rise up past the ornamental pond and bowling green that both manage to open up large flat spaces on the steeply pitched rise of the former Lever Park as we rise to the high track of the moorland-skirting Belmont Road, where the local crowds head on towards Rivington Pike and its tower and we press more northerly, towards the Dovecote Tower, above the informal garden around the site of the Bungalow, the now lost pile at the park's northernmost corner.

Mary Towneley Loop #3 - Holme Chapel to Sandbed 25/05/22

14.4 miles, on the Pennine Bridleway, via Green Clough, Long Causeway, Sheddon Clough,

 Cant Clough Reservoir, Worthsthorne Quarries, Hurstwood Reservoir, Smallshaw Clough, 

  Rams Clough, Gorple Gate, Gorple Stones, Clough Head, Widdop Reservoir, Clough Foot, 

   Lower Gorple Reservoir, Reaps Coppy, Reaps Level, Edge Lane, Land Bridge, 

    Strines Clough, Brown Hill, New Delight, Bow Lane, Blackshaw Head (Cally Hall), 

     Marsh Lane, Naze, Cowbridge Wood, and Jumble Hole. 

Long Distance Trail
means Selfies!
#3 at Holme Chapel

When we travelled out to Calderdale, we brough with us a weather projection that suggested we ought to be having a decent spell in the mid-week, but as the days have borne on, we have gotten much less encouraging forecasts, so that it comes to pass that we have to choose the lesser of two poor days when the third leg comes around, despite having started out with as much flexibility as we thought we could provide, and thus we ride out on Wednesday, a day earlier than intended, wrapped up in all my available waterproofs as the Parental Taxi drops me off at Holme Chapel, en route to Mum’s get together with her Skipton friends at Boundary Mill, Colne. It’s 10.10am when we start up, an hour later than usual in the hope of getting in behind the weather, which is still sending in a persistent drizzle as we rise away from the A646, armed with my trusty indestructible Fuji camera (as my new Lumix isn't getting ruined this early in its lifetime) as we shift up Green Lane, not getting any views of the Calder valley and the scars on its south side as a damp haze bleaches out everything, with a sharp wind blowing in behind us as we rise on a familiar sort of 150m pull, passing up above Green Clough, quitting the old lane and striking across the field paths to encounter workmen digging up the old surface. They’ve certainly got a lovely sort of day for tearing up the turf and laying hard core in its place, just as I have for passing among them, pondering how well my boots might hold up against this damp turf as we come up level with the Coal Clough windfarm, which the clouds appear to be rising above as we take the horse-friendly detour path that avoids a testing passage along the Long Causeway road at the clough head, touching the first of many routes from last year ahead of us striking onto the moors below the obscured Hameldon Ridge, but soon drifting downhill again, into some welcome vegetation around the Sheddon Clough Limestone Hushings. 

Mary Towneley Loop #2 - Broadley to Holme Chapel 23/05/22

14.8 miles, on the Pennine Bridleway, via Healey Dell, Spring Mill reservoir, Broadley Fold &   Prickshaw, Rooley Moor (Bottom of Rooley Moor, Warm Slack Hill, Pike Brow, Top of Pike,   

  Bagden Hillocks, Hamer Hill, Top of Leach) Cragg Quarry, Black Hill, Cowpe Bottom, 

   Hugh Mill, Waterfoot, Booth Fold, Edgeside, Shaw Clough, Lumb, Peers Clough, Red Moss,

    Bent Hill Rough, Deerplay Moor, Easden Clough, Stone House Fold, and Holme Station.

Long Distance Trail
means Selfies!
#2 at Broadley

Having had the main excursion of our Sunday rest day be a jaunt over to Ramsbottom to have a Sunday dinner date with My Sister and My Nieces at the Eagle & Child, when the time comes to approach the second leg of the Mary Townley Loop, My Mum has gotten much more comfortable with the tootle over the high road into Rossendale, making the main concern for Monday morning being getting around the rush hour, and school run, traffic in Todmorden, as we need to get a good start on the day as we could be facing down a tight weather window, as we’re deeply uncertain about what the capricious local weather could bring. As it is, we alight at 9.15am again, by the sandwich stand in Broadley, and set off purposefully down into Healey Dell nature reserve to meet the upstream path alongside the river Spodden taking us as far as the bridle bridge before joining the downstream path on part of the lost L&YR Rochdale – Bacup line, which is paced until we’re split off up by the beck and tramway that once led to Spring Mill, now lost to suburban redevelopment at the south end of Whitworth, but still naming the adjacent reservoir, which looms over the valley as we start the press up it west side. Gloom already hangs in the air as we slip back into Rochdale district and come up though the farm hamlets of Broadley Fold and Prickshaw, close enough together to not really warrant separate identities, with Knacks Lane drawing us up among further farmsteads, pressing southward before a sharp turn takes us into the quarry delves as the Bottom of Rooley Moor, directing us towards the nab end of the moorland at Hunger Hill before another sharp right turn pushes us onto the old road over Rooley Moor, where our long ascent northwesterly begins in earnest, with the tower blocks of Rochdale town centre directly behind us. 

Mary Towneley Loop #1 - Sandbed to Broadley 21/05/22

15.8 miles, on the Pennine Bridleway, via Callis Bridge, Callis Wood, Edge End Plantation, 

 Rough Head, London Road, Mankinholes, Lumbutts, Hey head Green, Rake End, 

  Salter Rake Gate, North Hollingworth, Bottomley, Summit Tunnel, Reddyshore Scout, 

   Owler Clough, Higher Calderbrook, Grimes, Turn Slack Clough, High Lee Slack, 

    Hills Clough, Watergrove Reservoir, Higher Slack Brook, Long Shoot Clough, Brown Hill, 

     Lobden golf course, Rushy Hill, Hopwood Hall, and Hindle Pastures.

Long Distance Trail
means Selfies!
#1 at Sandbed.

Late May means Spring Jollies time, and my first opportunity to get away from home at this time of year since 2019, and as we don’t have an obvious holiday locale that fits in with the year’s field of interest, and thusly we look to what we’d been hoping to do before a global pandemic got in the way, and that’s why we’re setting course for Calderdale with the plan we hatched for Spring 2020 (also carried in Summer 2021, but then put on reserve again, because reasons), namely the Mary Towneley Loop on the Pennine Bridleway, 47 miles over the fields, moors and valleys of the three river catchments on the West Yorkshire - Lancashire border. Taking a cottage with My Mum on the hillside above the A646 Halifax Road puts us in a good location for the initial start line, where the parental taxi won’t be needed as we’re only a few bus stops west of Sandbed, where the #590 service can be ridden for a 9.15am start, at the point where the Pennine Way and Bridleway tangle up passing across the valley, and we immediately strike south at Callis Bridge, passing over the river Calder and the Rochdale canal, and hit the rising path that leads up to Callis Wood, giving us a fine view over Charelstown before we disappear into the trees, switching back with the hard track and also wandering off of it as we elevate. Before we can reach the high apron of fields above the valley, we drop down to pass over Beaumont Clough bridge and then rise along the perimeter of Edge End plantation to reach the track that leads across the open plots of Rough Head, directing us towards Stoodley Pike on its high perch, while Blackshaw Head and Heptonstall appear on our reverse horizon, and the bridleway endeavours to keep us low-ish as we come around to Kinshaw Lane, taking us by Swillington farm and onto the passage of London Road, 100m below the high monument. 

Halifax to Keighley 09/10/21

16.1 miles, via Cross Fields, Dean Clough, Lee Mount, Ovenden, Illingworth, Illingworth Moor, 

 Odd Moor, Ogden, Cockhill Hill, Denholme Gate, Denholme Mill (sorta), Bradshaw Head, 

  Bank Nook, Leeming, Oxenhope (Lowertown & station), Moor House, Haworth, Ebor Mill,

   Mytholmes, Vale Mill, Oakworth station, Harewood Hill, Damems, Grove Mills, Ingrow, 

    Spring Bank, Woodhouse, Walk Mill, and Low Mill.

I've complained about my joint pains, most notably in my right hip, in my year summaries for the last couple of seasons, though it seems to have been tinnitus and a bad case of brain fog that have blighted the last few months, getting in the way of my rest and play (but not work, oddly) with frustrating regularity, but as we meet what should be the last long trip of 2021, the pain I've long endured has suddenly shifted from annoying to troubling, as if my hip joint is suddenly starting to grind on itself, adding another frustrating wrinkle to the late season going. Anyways, we're Airedale bound again as we alight in Halifax, deep in the Hebble valley, after 9.15am, immediately seeking another fresh route across the town centre as we cross to the rise of Horton Street, following to it to its very top and refusing the initial pair of northbound street options, and eventually making the turn onto Commercial Street by the Victoria Theatre, which takes us through the town's banking district, home to the Victorian era home of the Halifax Permanent Building Society, among many others, as well as the town'd outsize GPO too. This landscape persists until Waterhouse Street dumps us on the passage over Broad Street, behind the Town Hall, where our route takes us around the side of the eponymous Plaza betwixt the Vue Cinema and the Premier Inn to seek the way thorough the back streets beyond to take us under the flyovers of the A58 Burdock Way and around the Crib Lane car parks to find the end of Corporation Street to leads us into the former mill landscape of Dean Clough, initially passing the G and K mills before descending down into the company of the many carpet factories at the valley floor. Follow Lee Bridge Road up to the 1904 Cean Clough inn, as the flyover of the A629 shoots its way across the Hebble valley and into the Holmfield branch, and we'll stay with the passage upstream with Lee Bank road for a while, as beyond the mills we can spy the stub of Lee Bank viaduct on the old GNR line projecting out of the greenery on the eastern edge, where it switched sides on its northbound passage beyond Old Lane tunnel, and further up by the recycling centre we can find the retaining walls of the railway on the western side of the valley, upon which the contemporary roadway now sits.

Hebden Bridge to Queensbury 02/10/21

9.9 miles, via Machpelah, Birchcliffe, Chiserley (sorta), Midgley Moor (Collon Flat & 
 Dimmin Dale), Luddenden Dean, Low Bridge, Warley Moor (Height Edge, Sleepy Lowe Flat, 
  & Rocking Stone Flat), Cold Edge, Hunter Hill, Stod Fold, Lower Brockholes, Illingworth,
    Bradshaw, Raggalds, Mountain and Hill Top (abandoned en route to Bradford). 

After ten years of doing this, I really ought to have learned by now to not necessarily trust my weather eye when trying to predict the weather for the Pennines from my regular haunts in greater Leeds, as this past week had me observing all the changeable weather patterns of early Autumn from my vantage point at Seacroft Hospital and figured that a white cloud day projected for Saturday couldn't be more challenging than the passage of sunshine and showers that had covered the five days that preceded it, a display of climate naivete that's completely in keeping with 2021's experience. Our ride out to Hebden Bridge for our fifth and final embarkation of the year has us doubting the weather quality for the day, already grey and drizzly before we're off the train for a start ahead of 9.15am, already happy that we chose to graduate up to a long sleeved jacket before we headed out, and the rain's already coming on as we pass over the Calder and the Rochdale Canal, and make our way across the Burnley Road to the Machpelah terrace and the road towards Keighley, turning northeast as we meet the steep flight of steps that elevates us rapidly up to the raked terraces of Birchcliffe. It'd be a challenging ascent even in warmer temperatures, and as we hit the top, the reach of Marlborough Terrace continues at a similar sort of pitch, as if this town built its urban sprawl without real consideration for how practical it might be as we're elevated high above the combining valleys on the troublingly slick cobbles, passing above the rooftops and looking back to Heptonstall across the way before we join Sandy Gate, shadowing the fall of the Nut Clough as we press on northeasterly, above the tree line and into the rural apron of fields above. It's a slog up this damp tarmac, doing the ascent of the regular 150m of Calderdale ascent and then some as we push away from the clough edge to Lane Ends Lane, getting the fine view of all the amalgamating channels around Hebden Bridge as we press uphill, taking us to the south of Chiserley village, and its nearby companions to the north in Wadsworth and Old Town, almost grazing the settlement as we pass the Hare & Hounds inn by the high lane junction, and join Popples Lane beyond, accessing the farmsteads on the high marginal lands. 

Mytholmroyd to Bingley 25/09/21

15.6 miles, via Dark Lane, Foster Clough Delphs, Churn Milk Joan, Midgeley Moor, 

 Dimmin Dale, Back Clough, Low Brown Knoll. Catchwater Drain, Bare Clough, Parcel Beds, 

  Spa Clough, Warley Moor Reservoir, Nab Water, White Moor, Delf Hill, Sawood, Trough Lane,

   Black Moor, Brow Moor, Hardgate, Barcroft, Lees Moor, Harden Moor, Deep Cliff Hole, 

    St Ives Estate (Heather Park, Peat Dykes, Coppice Pond, Home farm, St Ives House, 

     Cuckoo Nest Wood), Clay Gates, and Myrtle Park. 

Only a few days into it and it already looks like the Autumn of 2021 is going to be throwing us weather that is just as inconsistent and unpredictable as the alleged Summer did, as gloom comes on when a white cloud day was projected for its first Saturday, much more mediocre than the forecast would suggest, which is a real shame as we need a few more good walking days before the inevitable fade of the season as we've three more trips over the Calderdale - Airedale moors to get in, and some residual warmth and no rain would be most welcome for them, thank you very much. The promise of the morning seen in Morley has already passed as we arrive in Calderdale, alighting the train at Mytholmroyd at 9.10am, as a wall of low white cloud is slowly drifting downstream from the west, looking to obscure everything from view as we aim a new trajectory out of the village, directly north, which means that early paces will match those taken before as New Road leads us beyond St Michael's church and over the Calder to Burnley Road, where the A646 is crossed ahead of us joining Midgley Road by the Russel Dean store. Uphill we immediately press over the Rochdale Canal, past the Clog Mill and the local school on its perch ahead of the lane starting to trace the descending wooded clough, finally getting off the road as we meet Dark Lane, which could be mistaken for a driveway to some high cottages before is starts its own snaking path uphill between high walls, giving us some elevation that ought to give us some grand views backwards, but the world seems to be ending to the west, as greyness bleaches out the horizon with the cloud hanging heavy at moorland altitude. A lightly teeming rain also falls, ensuring that the going underfoot is damp, saturating my trews in the long grass as we find our way onto the higher and rougher Stony Lane path, shadowing the fall of Foster Clough as we elevate ourselves above the valley, already wondering if it was wise to come out on a day like this, as we'll be at altitude for the full run to distant Airedale, as while Cragg Vale can be clearly defined on the horizon behind us, the moorland tops to both sides of it linger below a deepening pall of distinctly unfriendly cloud cover, below 400m, which gives me every reason to pause.

Colne to Keighley 18/09/21

Burnley Manchester Road to Burnley Central: 1.2 miles, via Centenary Way and St Peter's.

It feels like we've been waiting for the entirety of Summer for Summer to arrive, and now it actually feel like it's arrived, it's already done, as are my Jollies, thus starting out from Morley again as we return to the long trips on the train, looking to complete this three legged excursion around the western edge of the expanded field of experience in the East Lancs valley, heading out with my left foot's sole stuck together with one off-brand Compeed plaster and knowing that even with a 7am start from home, it's going to be a three hour trip to the starting line. As is familiar by now, the connection options in Burnley are awful, and thus to make best use of a wasted hour, it's best to alight at Manchester Road station and walk across the town again, alighting at 8.50am to find that the way up to the A682 is indeed a challenge, rising up the long allegedly level access ramp which adds minutes to any westbound connection, before we set a course around the east end of the town, hitting Centenary Way beyond the traffic island to head over the flyover that we passed under last time out, looking west to the town and its Town Hall, framed by Pendle Hill as we also pass over the canal. Looking east, the best, and indeed only, views to Boulsworth Hill and the Hameldon Ridge can be had over the roofs of Tesco and the bowling alley, ahead of the descent down to pass behind the police station and courts complex, before we come up to the eastern end of St James's Street, in the shadow of The Culvert and its embankment, and carry on up Church Street, passing below the high rising St Peter's Centre, the only tall building in the entire town, located in a loop of the River Brun, across the way from the closest batch of enduring terraces and townhouses in the town, around the bottom of Ormerod Street. Past the oldest schools in the town, we meet Burnley's parish church, St Peter's, located in it's yard in another twist of the Brun, and looking to celebrate 900 years of its recorded establishment in 2022, giving some ancient history to a town that doesn't suggest much before the 19th century, passed around as we join School Lane, passing below the old Grammar School on the way up to Active Way, which is crossed as we seek the alternate path to Burnley Central station, between the Anchor and Prestige retail parks which hasn't been cut off due to the dereliction of the Adelphi hotel, landing at 9.20am, meaning the last train trip of the morning will only require a half hour wait, and then we can lead you into the day's scheduled programming...

Hebden Bridge to Todmorden 12/09/21

10.1 miles, via Hebble End, Calder Holmes Park, Machpelah, Mytholm, Colden Clough, 

 Hudson Mill, New Delight, Strines, Land, Clough, Moor Lane, Duke's Cut, Pole Hill, 

  Bride Stones Moor, Great Bride Stones, Fast End, Orchan Rocks, Well Wood, Hartley Wood, 

   Cross Lee, and Centre Vale Park.

It's been such a rough summer for keeping up with my planned walking schedule, that even before we got to my Late Season break away, I'd already decided to junk my plans for the week away, putting the Mary Townley Loop of the Pennine Bridleway onto the list of things to do in a future walking season, as what I really need right now is to feel like I'm getting to catch up on the excursions delayed because of the three weekends lost from this past month, especially as trips to the far side on the Pennies are going to start getting tenuous once the days start shortening. So I travel away with My Mum, as we seize the first real opportunity that we've been given to travel away from home for a while since this age of Covid descended on us, not getting to far away from home as we ride out to Hebden Bridge on Friday evening, landing us in a convenient place to be nearby to family and friends in the hereabouts, and taking a let in an Airbnb house, a classic Calderdale Under-Over, owned by a Norwegian family and used as their hytte, in as handy a location in the town centre as could be desired. Walking lands on the schedule come Sunday morning, avoiding the crowds of Happy Valley Pride weekend as we rise for a 9am start, descending from our base to the end of market Street to do a bit of a tour of the unseen paths of Hebden Bridge before we get going properly, walking up past the Co-op to the Hebble End bridges to join the canal path eastwards for a few terraces before dropping down Fountain Street to cross back over the Calder via the footbridge, then sidling along Central Street to cross the footbridge over Hebden Water that links the I&N school with Riverside Juniors on Holme Street. Passing the Post Office and the Trades Club, we rise to pass over the canal again at Bridge 17 and take our path through Calder Holmes park, and rise to Station Road, to be as close to the station as possible before we pick up the route that we'd had on the slate for August Bank Holiday Monday, which takes us over the canal for the third and final time, and onto the A646 as we can then follow the New Road - West Gate - Market Street alignment across the heart of town, long before the revellers and day-trippers get going, allowing us to quietly examine the town ahead of the throng. 

Hebden Bridge to Nelson 04/09/21

15.2 miles, via Calder Holme Park, Wood End, Lee Mills Bridge, Midgehole, Shackleton, 

 Walshaw, New Laithe Moor, Alcomden Bridge, Greave Pasture, Greave Clough, The Sod, 

  Hey Slacks, Boulsworth Hill (Lad Law & Abbott Stone), Bedding Hill Moor, Will Moor, 

   Deerstones Moor, Upper & Lower Coldwell reservoirs, Walton's Monument, Castercliff, 

    Marsden Park, and Netherfield. 

August Bank Holiday Monday also gets dropped from my walking schedule, not solely because of the mediocre weather, but due to the fact of being laid up in bed for 10 hours of Sunday with an absolute bastard of a headache behind my eyes, as if all the experience of the preceding day out overwhelmed me completely, completely blowing the already busted flush that was August 2021, and so as we head into the final third of this year, we have to start looking to force in the walking long walking days on the High Moors, regardless of the conditions, just to get them paced before the days get too short. That's where we find ourselves as September starts, alighting at Hebden Bridge at 8.15am, and setting out northbound, trying to find footfalls that haven't been made through this town already, which means passing through Calder Holmes park on the north side path and rising over the canal via the bridge into the formal garden by the Picture house, and thence crossing the A646 New Road to head up Bridge Gate, where the marketeers are already breakfasting in the many cafes and our path takes us over Hebden Water via St George's Bridge, the 1510 packhorse bridge that's one of the most enduring structures in the valley. Take a left onto Hanging Royd Lane, behind the town hall complex to trek on among the terraces and factory units that occupy the only significant area of flat ground in the town, which leads us up to another crossing of Hebden Water via the Victoria Road bridge, and another twisting turn or two among th terraced streets that start to stack up on the hillside, feeling puzzled that a riverside path in the town does not exist, only located at the end of Spring Grove where the Foster Mill packhorse bridge leads us across again and into the green passage upstream. The local cricket field is hidden in this riverside glade, as are some allotment gardens and the village bowling club, all crammed onto whatever flat ground they can find upstream from the town, alongside the river that churns away over the riffles and pools that have been contained by built-up walls along both banks, clearly trying to manage the flow of the many valleys that feed water into this single channel and into the Calder, a feat to be admired as we we move our way up to the Lee Mill bridge, where a suburban enclave has been developed on the mill site.

Todmorden to Colne 28/08/21

16.7 miles, via Cobden, Willow Bank, Hole Bottom. Whirlaw Stones, Stony Lane, 

 Mount Cross, Stiperden Bank, Stiperden Slack, Hoof Stones Height, Black Hameldon, 

  Hare Stones Hill, Gorple Gate, Clough Head, The Brinks, Flaught Hill Tom Groove, 

   Hey Slack Clough, Boulsworth Hill (Lad Law, Weather Stones, Little Chair Stones, 

    Little Saucer Stones, & Great Saucer Stones), Pot Brinks Moor, The forest of Trawden, 

     Hollin Hall, Trawden, Winewall, Cotton Tree, and Colne Field.

Another August weekend proves to be unusable thanks to another bout of unseasonably awful weather, which at least allows me a clear couple of days to be domestically sociable as My Mum travels Up Country on a flying visit, though it frustratingly denies me the opportunity to abuse my Parental Taxi privileges while I continue to tilt at the passage over the northwestern hills of West Yorkshire, so enforced rest comes on as I quietly curse out what has been easily my most disappointing Summer so far, at least until the long Bank Holiday break turns out to be the first warm one in six. Thus we get back to early starts on our trailing, and alight at Todmorden station at 8.20am, arriving in the upper reaches of the Calder Valley under the brightest of skies, a sight which we've really missed and will enjoy all day as we start out descending, down Station Approach and finding the shortcut path that I knew existed beneath Todmorden viaduct, taking us down to the A646 Burnley Road by the bus station and the new branch of Aldi, turning up the valley to follow the road into the quarter of town, nominally Cobden (or Patmos) that we haven't seen too much of previously. Past the shopping parades and Todmorden Community College, we get a frontage of townhouses along the main road, and we manage to distract ourselves from out intended route out of the valley by missing our northward turn as we traipse past the cricket field, crossing by the lodge house of Centre Vale park and rising into the landscape of post-industry and terraces, up West Street and Blind Lane to get back on track with Victoria Road, taking us under the railway as it rises up the Copy Pit line, and get our ascent really going as we hit Meadow Bottom Road. Rising up the clough of Willow Bank with short terraces flanking the road, we soon land by the site of Todmorden Laundry, with one cottage using its former chimney as a turret house of sorts, beyond which the lane starts a twisty path up hill, passing around the cottages and farmstead that have been dug into the rising hillside, and getting some early shade as we elevate up towards Hole Bottom, giving us some respite from the breath-testing ascent before we tangle up with the Calderdale Way path as it takes its turn up through the trees.

Mytholmroyd to Brierfield 14/08/21

15.2 miles, via Hawks Clough, Crow Nest Woods, Hebden Bridge (Fairfield & Hebble End), 

 Heptonstall, Slack, Clough Hole, High Greenwood, Black Dean Bridge, Clough Foot, 

  Widdop Reservoir, Great Edge Bottom, Tom Groove, Rapes Clough, Thursden New Bridge, 

   Broad Bank, Holt Hill, Lane Bottom, Haggate, Marsden Height and Catlow Row.

The first weekend of August is lost due to neither day being able to present a viably large window of decent weather for trekking over the Pennines, with rain particularly blighting the latter half of the Saturday, and thus our disappointing Summer continues with us being almost halfway through the month before we can get out again, full of intent to seek out the way to the only road that could honestly be described as a mountain pass in West Yorkshire, over the top of the northwestern high lands and into the East Lancs valley once more. We'll start this trip from Mytholmroyd, just so we are varying up our start lines and putting down a bit of distance before we are compelled onto the uphill lane, alighting at 9.10am and setting a course westwards along the floor of the Calder Valley, seeking a path that makes the most interesting possible passage along the straight mile of the railway line, which means descending to Cragg Road and cross Cragg Brook via the footbridge in the shadow of the viaduct that leads us over to the flats of Elphaborough Court, which are passed among to join Thrush Hill Road, where we pass under the narrow tunnel to the north side. Thence left, down behind the housing block on Erringden Road to meet the first footbridge, which elevates us over to the south side again, leading us into the Nest Estate, with its enduring 1940s vintage prefabs, and its path through the central close before we turn to the railway once again, passing over the stone Paddy Bridge, which doubles as a farm access route, which lead us back to the suburban edge of Caldene Avenue at Hawks Clough, where another turn takes us over the rails for a third time, over the footbridge leading to the Great and Little Stubb farms. Pass among them before another farm track drops us down, taking us under the railway via the Stubbs lane underbridge before we meet a rough path that shadows the railway west, through the trees and above the industrial enclave at Calder Brook before we meet Carr Lane and pass over the railway for the final time in this quarter, settling us onto the track of Crow Nest Road, which leads us below the steep ban of woodland at a short remove from the railway's side, where morning sun teases us with an appearance above the canopy before we meet the outlying houses that sit beyond the site of what used to be Hebden Bridge's gasworks, just a step or twelve east of the end of Wood Top Road and the railway station.

Hebden Bridge to Burnley 31/07/21

14.7 miles, via Calder Holmes Park, Hebble End, Mytholm, Rawtonstall Bank, Pry Hill, 

 Blackshaw Head, Well Hill, Pole Hill, Hawk Stones, Stiperden Bank & Bar, Coal Clough 

  Wind Farm, Long Causeway, Mosley Height, Mere Clough, Red Lees, Brunshaw, Turf Moor,

   Burnley Town Centre, Sandygate, Barracks, Central & Manchester Road stations.

As we find ourselves on the cusp of August, you might have the hope that we have something like a Summer climate in the air, but we're not seeing anything of the sort as we approach the high season objectives around the moors to the northwest of Calderdale and over the English Watershed into East Lancashire, instead of sunshine and warmth,we've got a cool and white cloud-y sort of day to face, hopeful that the proximity to the Pennines is not going to bring the rain at altitude as we join the old road out of the Calder valley for a proper trek into the unknown. We're not up with the lark today, instead riding out to Hebden Bridge for a 9.15am start, in the hope that predicted rain on the far side of the Pennines might have blown itself out by the time we get there, aiming ourselves towards the high roads by keeping low initially, departing the station to make a passage through Calder Holmes park, where its gloomy and early enough to only have dog walkers for company as we track its paths over to the side of the Rochdale Canal, where we cross Bridge 17 to follow the towpath west, past Blackpit Lock and over the Calder aqueduct. There's light drizzle in the air as we make our way along the back of the factories and terraces of Hebble End that are squeezed onto the narrow island between the river and the canal, keeping to the path until we meet the site of Calder Mills, where we split off to Robertshaw Road, taking us over to the other end of the ranked terraces in this space to follow Stubbing Holme Road as it follows the channel of the Calder, markedly narrower here as it flows down from its confluence with Colden Clough, where a footbridge takes us to the north side again, and up alongside the interceding stream channel. This leads us up to Bank Foot Bridge, where we land towards the western end of town, crossing over the A646 King Street to get on our route properly, starting our ascent of Church Lane as it passes behind the old folks home complex and into the district of Mytholm, passing the church of St James, which confirms itself as Hebden Bridge's parish church, on the closest plot of level ground large enough to accommodate it, as well as passing the local school and starting our climb in earnest as Bank Terrace and Glen View Road start their steep, twisting course uphill between the terraces and semis that cling onto this hillside, among the rising woodlands.

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.

Northowram to Mytholmroyd 17/07/21

15 miles, via Lands Head, Upper Shibden Dale, Shibden Head, Ambler Thorn, Raggalds, 

 Soil Hill, Ogden, Ogden Reservoir, Ovenden Moor, Cold Edge, Withins Head, Hunter Hill,

  Wainstalls, Reap Hirst, Peel House, Luddenden, Roebuck Wood, Luddenden Foot, 

   Calder Valley Greenway, and Brearley.

After two consecutive weekends of garbage weather, shedding my walking plans on principle, coupled to the intent to travel away Down Country, seems like a rather foolish course of action once a veritable heatwave washes across the country, offering the hours of sunshine that we'd desired for a scenic walk, albeit attached to a temperature spike that you could probably do without, meaning that the trail is rejoined with hope that the month of July might be redeemed, while dressed in my light summer gear that hasn't been out in three years and loaded with liquids for what could be a very testing day indeed. This time busing out to Northowram goes without a hitch and it's already hot as our feet touch the ground opposite the surgery and across from the end of Hall Lane at 9.35am, so we already know that it's not going to be a rapid sort of day, which means a slightly more leisurely pace will allow a chance to properly see the landscape that we hurried through two weeks ago, seeing how suburbia has butted up to and penetrated the grounds of Northowram Hall, which still hides in there behind the wall and the trees, and how much of the associated estate has endured outside the boundary. Further on, we enter the landscape of fields and farmsteads scattered on the high land that Shibden Dale digs into, with Marsh Hall being by far the most impressive, with its apparent 17th century stylings and vintage, while Land Head almost form the heart of a rural mini-hamlet among the undulations and hillocks that rise around the concealed valley which remains our point of focal interest, to be found down Cave Hill where the view from the Brow Lane corner is as marked a contrast as you could want as the sunshine blazes down. Our traversal is thus resumed, as Blake Hill End Road traces the eastern branch of the valley, past Bleak Hill End farm, before turning back along the valley side with Paddock Road, past its eponymous farm and the only suburban house with an aspirant view in the area, before we join the track of Addersgate Lane, wending its way down the hillside past the farmsteads perched on the dale's brow, passing by Plough Royds, Woodcock and Adders Gate and getting quite the most superlative views of  downstream Shibden Dale, as we go.

Sandbed to Cowling 26/06/21

16.3 miles, on The Pennine Way, via Marsh Wood, Pry Hill, Hebble Hole, Colden, 

 Hot Stones Hill, Green Hill, Clough Head Hill, Reaps Level, Graining Water, Clough Foot, 

  Walshaw Dean Lower & Middle reservoirs, Withins Height - Dick Delf, Top Withins, 

   The Height, Buckley Green, Ponden Reservoir, Dean Clough, Crag Top, Thornton Hill, 

    Oakworth Moor, The Sea, Cat Stone Hill, Ickornshaw Moor, High End Lowe, 

     Dean Hole Clough, Lumb Head, Green Hill, and Ickornshaw. 

Summer lands, in theory, but June fails to continue to flame as we aim our our most ambitious tilt at the lands between the Calder and the Aire, approaching an unbroken stretch of the Pennine Way, that most notable of long distance paths that I keep blathering on about never wanting to do in its entirety, located only a short way west of where we were last weekend, but those extra couple of miles upstream from Hebden Bridge requiring an earlier start and some inconvenient early morning busing to get us to the start of the trail and the time window we need for so, so much off-roading. So it's off the #592 bus at 9am, by the Sandbed terrace, on the side of the A646 Halifax Road, deep in the wooded cleft of Calderdale, by the Callis Bridge weirs and at the point where the Pennine Way and Bridleway both drop in from the south, immediately joining the former of these as it starts north, under the railway and past Lacy House, at the eastern end of the Underbank hamlet-let, and sending us directly up a stone causey at an angle that makes you glad that we haven't got wetness underfoot as height is rapidly gained away from the river. Altitude gains us views back, landing Stoodley Pike and its moorlands on our reverse horizon as we land amongst the perched cottages and farmsteads of Higher Underbank, following our path west before it switches back beyond, past the concealed former chapel and its graveyard, and onto the path directing us northeasterly into Marsh Wood, giving us a gentler ascent up the steep sides of the Calder valley than we are accustomed to, letting the locality of Charlestown and Eastwood recede behind us as we rise up through the ferns and birch, only getting steep as we rise up aside Dale Clough. It looks like it has an old hydro plant built above the cascade, which we pass on our way up through a knot of inconvenient vegetation to meet the cottage cluster above, the last one crammed in on the angled valley side as above lies open fields, met once we're past the Long Hey Top terrace and a passage along the track of Winter's Lane, with a clear way ahead through the long grass, angling us between the Popples and Scammerton Farmsteads, and passing through the wild garden of the latter on our way up to Badger Lane, one of the unexplored high roads in this quarter, and on up to the crest of the Pry Hill ridge, our first summit of the day.

Hebden Bridge to Keighley 19/06/21

12.4 miles, via Nutclough, Wood End, Spring Wood, Pecket Well, Duck Hill, Small Shaw Hill, 

 Robin Delph Flat, Bedlam Hill, Leaning Grooves, Cock Hill, Lord's Allotment, Dike Nook,

  Oxenhope Cemetery, West Croft Head, Oxenhope (Upper Town), Royd House Mill, 

   Haworth Brow, Lees, Cross Roads, Whins Wood, Hermit Hole, Ingrow, and Low Mill. 

With one 5,000 mile target passed, we're soon enough back on the trail to get to the next one, and back where I'd intended to be in my schedule before May caused everything to get shaken up, carrying on a lot further down Calderdale to carry on with my tilts from Calder to Aire, leaving two railway stations and three branch valleys in our wake, which will have to be returned to as the high season progresses, but for now, as close to the longest day as we can get, we return to the moors, and the highest viable road in the quarter, hopeful that it's not too dangerous to attempt to walk. We'll get back to the 12 miles of the valley that we've skipped before we're too deep into Summer, but for the last weekend of Spring we'll alight at Hebden Bridge at 9.15am, with skies looking like June isn't going to be as flaming as it was couple of weeks back as we start out, down Station Road and across the Calder and the Navigation as we rise up to the A646 Burnley Road and pace it west, before peeling away by the Machpelah terrace to rise above the town along Commercial Road, with the A6033 being our route of choice all the way to the Worth Valley. So the rise starts as soon as we're past the market place and the White Lion inn, taking a gentler ascent than we experienced on our last passage out of the valley from here, but still rising rapidly, up the eastern side of the Hebden Water valley, soon rising us above the channel of the river that is far wider than might be expected, tracing the footway of the road as it sits on a ledge between high retaining walls above and below on the elevation up to Nutclough, where we find ourselves among the tall terraces familiar to the area, and passing around the Nut Clough Mills and its own curved feature terrace. Keighley Road rises past the Nutclough Inn, and the terraces continue up the hillside, either clinging to the narrow plots by the roadside or reaching down into the valley as the town recedes behind us, before we find the plots of later suburban growth, which allows for views and gardens at hugely inconvenient angles, before we pass the old Co-op store on  the Lee Mill Road Corner, and the split off to the 'low' road up the valley as Midgehole Road drops away, and we reach the top of the town, with the footway leaving the road far earlier than expected.

Brighouse to Bingley 12/06/21

14.8 miles, via Lane Head, Slead Syke, Hove Edge, Broad Oak, Hipperholme, 

 Common Wood Head, Jum Hole, Lane Ends, Stone Chair, Cock Hill, Hunger Hill, 

  Queensbury, Hill Top, Fox Hill, Mountain, Raggalds, Keelham, Denholme Clough, 

   Denholme Gate, Denholme Mills, Denholme, Lodge Gate, Doctor's Bridge, 

    Manywells Height, Cullingworth Gate, Cullingworth, Cow House bridge, Hill End, 

     Harden, Low Park, Birkey Bank Wood, Holme House Wood, and Ireland bridge. 

I'd hoped that the passing of my 5,000th mile in the walking career would be marked somewhere dramatic, in a landscape worthy of the achievement, but the location I'd had in mind for a while would involve a long trip away, and right now I'm still not in the mood to cram myself onto a Dales-bound train with all the others who've grown to love the great outdoors during these pandemic times, and thus we'll save that idea for another day, as I've still got three more 5,000 mile targets to hopefully attain before we get to turning 50, still three years distant from now. Thus we ride to Brighouse, as our westward progress up the Calder valley continues for another start new start line as we aim our routes towards the Aire still, alighting at 8.55am under gloomy skies, some 40 minutes ahead of the day's sunshine, and we're short of original route to take when heading north, over the River Calder via the A641 bridge, between the climbing walls on the mill and flour silo on Mill Royd Street, and over the Calder & Hebble Navigation via Anchor Bridge, beyond the western end of the town and joining the tangle of the main roads as we rise to the island at the end of Ludenscheid Link. The new path thus starts as we rise with the A644 Halifax Road, rising through the villa district of the town, with the Brighouse Library and Art Gallery sitting in the midst of the smart houses, as does the ambulance station, and the Success Chinese takeaway, which is a nice auger for the day's progress, with our northwesterly trajectory taking us beyond the terraced district of town, to the south of Lane Head Rec, and on into the swelling suburbia, which has grown around the urban hamlet of Slead Syke and the associated big houses concealed in their grounds. Uphill all the way feels like it's going to be the order of the day as we rise past the Charles Kershaw nurseries, as the suburban front falls away from the west side of the road, as we draw up close to the valley edge above the passage of Red Beck below, while the road still manages to roll some as we meet the urban village at the top of Brighouse, Hove Edge, where we are flashed a view of the ridge passage to come to the north, ahead of passing St Chad's church and the Dusty Miller inn, all dressed up to mark the arrival of the Euro 2020 tournament, a year behind schedule but still feeling like its come too early.