Church Fenton to York 23/04/16

16.6 miles, via Cawood, Kelfield, Stillingfleet, Naburn & Fulford.

If you've decided to travel from Church Fenton station, you have to start when the two-hourly trains allow you to, so against all my normal walking instincts the day has to start by hopping off the 8.50am arrival, with the weather bringing on a bright Spring-like sky, but a fearsome wind coming on from the North-West, and the day has to start with some trainspotting before striking off along Station Road to the village centre. The road beyond the White Horse is wholly new territory, finally making an appearance after many comfortable days inside West Yorkshire, and my impression of the village holds steady, continuing to grow as a commuter settlement but still retaining a lot of rural charm, and populous enough to sustain two pubs, as the Fenton Flyer is met as Main Street starts to snake its way back into the countryside. Run out of footways as Busk lane turns to Brackenhill Lane, but for once we seem to have found a country lane that doesn't have a lot of traffic on it, and once beyond the turn to Biggin, you could kid yourself that you have this flatland lane to yourself, and attention can wander to the extensive site to the north that was once RAF Church Fenton, and has since become East Leeds airport, which seems like a rather overly ambitious title at the moment, but let's see where the economics take it, eh? Press on past Paradise Grange farm, and on to the long drag to Violet Hill farm, with only Paradise Wood and the passage of trains on the distant ECML for company, and this landscape illustrates well the difficulties of any walk from West Yorkshire to York, as your path of choice will be wholly determined by where you can cross the Ouse or the Wharfe. No train action at all to be seen once I get to the footbridge over the railway, and the farm track walking continues, onto and around Primrose Hill farm before hitting a brief field walk to meet the avenue of trees at the outer end of Fostergate Lane, which leads us purposefully over towards the village of Cawood, where contemporary development has grown around the peripheries but the centre still has the feel of a 19th century fishing village. The 19th century feeling extends to the roads, clearly inadequate for the B1223 and B1222, but it would be impossible to widen in any way, and the traffic directing measures on the 1872 swing bridge don't feel like they've been updated since its construction, and it's a wonderful moment of serendipity coming my way as I cross over the Ouse and meet a horse-drawn Gypsy caravan crossing to the south.

Cross Gates to Church Fenton 16/04/16

12.8 miles, via Manston, Barnbow, Parlington, Aberford, Lead, Cold Hill & Barkston Ash.

Let's strike away from Leeds, as the first two months have spent a lot of time breaking new ground within my experience bubble, and the oncoming Spring feels like a good time to set course for new lands beyond it, namely York, and as we are wandering to Church Fenton once again, we have to be particular with our start time, and allow ourselves a 5 and a half hour window to do a 5 hour walk. So off the train at Cross Gates station at 10am, and start the passage eastwards along the footpath to Railway Street and Austhorpe Road, noting sadly that the bridge on the old Wetherby Line has gone, thanks to road widening but the gates to the second Barnbow munitions works has gained a blue plaque to illustrates the industrial heritage of the area. Up to the Barnbow pub, knowing that name has a lot more resonance than it did to me a year ago, and onward down Manston Lane, where the industrial park is gradually diminishing and turning to residential use, but the Vickers Tank factory is still extent, but in need of a usage, and it would be a shame to see such a large factory destroyed to be replaced by anonymous suburbia. Past the sports club and Manston farm, we are soon out into the countryside, with it looking like it's going to be a good day, past Lazencroft farm, and the crossing house on the railway and there's little to strike the casual viewer that a century ago, the first Barnbow munitions work was assembled and operated in these fields. Employing 16,000 and staffed largely by women, it produced 566,000 tonnes of shells during the First World War and in December 1916 was the site of an explosion which killed 35 workers, a death toll that wasn't publically acknowledged until 1923. The eagle eyed will thus start to spot the foundation remnants that hide below turf and tree cover, and it puts something of a solution to the Mysterious Landscape that I saw here in 2012 when the Leeds Country Way brought me out here. Follow Barnbow Lane on a northward track to cross out friend Cock Beck and make my way to the footpath that leads out across Garforth Golf Course, a frustratingly sticky track that is well trodden enough to give an obvious passage among the golfers, but my hopes for a clear day are dashed as a hail storm starts to lash down, and 2016's winter indicates its going to have a pretty long tail.

Leeds to Guiseley 09/04/16

11 miles, via Burley, Kirkstall, Hawksworth, Horsforth, Rawdon & Yeadon.

A nice weekend off to start the month, drinking and socialising, returning to the trail on that weekend, the second one in April, where I always feel there's a shift in the air temperature and it actually starts to feel like Spring, and the initial suggestions for today are good, with clear skies and plenty of sunshine, but as soon as that wind from the north-west cuts in, it's evident that wintery feelings might be around for a while yet. At least starting out from the Big City might keep some extra warmth in the air, starting out from Leeds station at 10.05, and immediately heading from the Aire Street exit to head down Whitehall Road to seek out the other remnants of Leeds Central station, still enduring since its closure, notably the remains of the passageway leading into the station hotel, and the wagon hoist that remains in the midst of the Wellington Place office park, an odd survivor that is treated with due reverence, though it's frustrating that there are no good angles on the approach viaduct from this quarter. Set the north-western course by heading across Wellington Street and up Lisbon Street, past the desolate site of the International Swimming Pool, and over the Inner Ring via the footbridge that leads to the knot of council houses around Duncombe Street. Rising to Burley Street we take an interest in passage of the many terraces that once endured between Burley Road and Kirkstall Road but were swept away by the city planners to be replaced by light industry and offices in the 1960s, these days only The Fox & Newt (a regular watering hole) and The Highland (which I've never visited) remain, along with the former vicarage of St Andrew's church (itself gone). Hopefully life will return to this quarter as blocks of student flats continue to develop, and I'll wander down the access road parallel to Burley Road as far as the ITV studios before returning to the roadside, where there are plenty of terraces remaining in the LS6 - Hyde Park sector, but for some reason the missing ones interest me more as I pace on to pass under the Harrogate line, noting the only pair of 19th century houses that still stand before pressing on past St Matthias's church and down to the site of Burley Village, a patch of parkland where the old village endured until the early 20th century.

Horsforth to Bingley 28/03/16

10.4 miles, via Rawdon, Esholt, Baildon (& the Bank) & Shipley Glen.

Easter Monday dawns and British Summer Time is here at last, and a late start is in order to get in behind the rain, so the ride out to Horsforth station doesn't have me getting on the trail until almost 11.15am, but the clocks change has us in exactly the same part of the solar day as I'd previously employing, and in keeping with the West Leeds theme of the early part of 2016, it's time to start using the suburban stations on the Harrogate line to see what scope on the city they can open up. So set out onto Station Road, still uncertain where the actual centre of Horsforth might be, and find this corner looking rather desirable if it wasn't for the fact that it is located directly below the Leeds & Bradford airport flightpath, and once the turn is made onto Brownberrie Lane by the Old Ball, a feeling of sudden elevation is gained as you look out over the cricket field to Hunger Hills and the realisation that we are quite a lot higher than the Aire Valley up here. Press on through the smarter lands of outer suburbia, passing Trinity University, which I still call TASC when I want to show my age, and this is a site still growing beyond the confines of the Theological and Arts college that it started out as. Moving beyond the periphery of Greater Leeds, the lack of views starts to get frustrating, and only once we meet the green space before Rawdon can we get a look of two in the direction of Calverley and Pudsey, with the faintest glint of snow on the far distant hills to the south of Kirklees. Slip onto Layon Avenue for some quieter going and to pass around the back of St Peter's Rawdon, before returning to Town Street for a look uo to Billings Hill, the other good viewpoint in this quarter and pass the Emmott Arms and the cricket field to clock the fact that there's a lot more to Rawdon than the snippet that you see when travelling up the A65. Hit the ginnel that snakes its way among the Larkfields and start the first descent of the day past the allotments with the memorial to J. Arthur Godwin, first Lord Mayor of Bradford, before passing out across Park Road and down the passageway that leads out to New Road Side and the A65, for a short look at the familiar face of Rawdon before finding the semi waterlogged path that slips around Littlemoor Primary school and down to the A658.

Apperley Bridge to Leeds 26/03/16

9.7 miles, via Calverley Bridge, Newlay, & Kirkstall.

Back Up Country again, for a long Easter Weekend that seems to be apt to deal the best weather onto the days that I won't be walking (Friday and Sunday) and leaving the cruddy stuff for the days when I'm hitting the trail, so there's gonna be quite a bit of attempting to stay ahead of the rain as my quest to visit every railway station in West Yorkshire resumes. Apperley Bridge in a new arrival on the scene this year, one of three scheduled to enter service in 2016, and that's an extra wrinkle to add to this particular quest, and whilst it's not on the site of the original station, it's a fresh drop off point between Leeds and Shipley to use, secreted below the bridge that carries the old access road to Esholt Hall, and a handy starting point for a walk along the River Aire back into the City. So onwards at 9.55am, off through the carpark to get back to the A658 Harrogate Road, last seen only a couple of weeks back, and above the site of the original Midland Railway station (1846-1965) we find our way onto Woodlands Drive to pass up and over the line branching to Ilkley and to wander among the many expensive villas that have grown up and become hidden along this semi-private road. Footpaths lead down to the riverbank, via playing fields and freshly silaged grasslands to pick up the path last seen when walking the Leeds Country Way in 2012, but the scenario is pretty dissimilar now, as the remnants of the Boxing Day floods still scar the landscape. Plastic bags and paper still coat the low hanging branches of the waterside trees and dried grass is knotted up in every link of fence to be seen, and on the southern side there's heavy scouring on the banks and even a couple of trees have been felled, I'm guessing that this is one mess that no human hands are going to clean up. Drift away from the bank around the sewage works, but keep on towards Leeds this time around, returning to the waterside to pass below the impressive pair of railway bridges and to take in the fenced off lands to the north where a farm and former industrial park are getting the residential redevelopment treatment as Woodlands at Horsforth Vale, not yet sufficiently complete to have alarmed the new residents as the floodwaters of 2015 surged up to and through its perimeter fence.

Humberstone to Oadby 24/03/16

6.3 miles, via Old Schools, Urban Villages and Lost Estates.

Two more days of making myself useful spent, dismantling a built-in wardrobe that My Dad had constructed to never come apart, and lugging ridiculous quantities of compost around so that Spring might bring some gardening action for my folks, and the remaining day available for walking doesn't look too promising, with only half of it looking good before a lot of rain arrives. So I'll do only half of the walk planned, as it takes in quite a lot of my personal history, and leave the countryside half for later, as I ought to do more urban walking in Leicester, for it is the city where I was born and grew up. Places from my formative past are to fall beneath my feet then, and where better place to start at 9.20am than at Abbotts Road URC, where the family have had an influence for many years, and many significant social lessons were learned, not a place that will be removed from my psyche with any ease despite my religious nature being lost a long time ago. Not to far away, beyond the Ring Road and at the top of the street is to be found Humberstone village, where both my Infant and Junior schools still endure, where I had my formal education between 1978 and 1985, still housed in buildings of frustratingly indeterminate age that owe more to Victorian ideals than those of the Post-War age, and whilst the pre-fabs and the wooden nursery have gone, it's good to see how much remains. Tour the whole combined site by taking the walk along Main Street and then back through Windmill Park, to return down Lidster Court by St Mary's Church, a Victorian rebuild job of a Medieval foundation, before taking in the small corner of the villages that suggests it rural heritage before the city grew to swallow it in the 20th century. The loss of the rural aspect of this corner can be found in the tale of Humberstone Hall, the site of which, south of the village, was completely consumed by housing in the 1930s with the house itself demolished with only a couple of estate lodges remaining, and its driveway becoming the locally legendary Pine Tree Avenue, where the huge and proud trees are still present, despite actually being Sequoias.

East Leicestershire Village Circuit #3 21/03/16

16.7 miles, via Houghton on the Hill, Ingarsby, Billesdon, Rolleston,  Illston on the Hill,
 Burton Overy, Great Glen & Stretton Magna.

Down Country as per tradition at the end of March, to offer company to My Parents and to make myself useful around the house now that My Dad is rather less mobile than he was, so a Sunday lunchtime carvery trip followed by a good afternoon of yardwork gets us off to a good start, but as Spring finally arrives on the calendar it's time to get back on the trail, and as it's been a lot of short trips around so far this must be a cue to get some good miles under my boots. Leicestershire is good country for piling on the forgiving mileages, so another village circuit comes together, almost off the cuff, and deliberately aligned to overlap with my previous circuits of the east of the county, so start out from the yard of the Old Black Horse in Houghton on the Hill, dropped off by My Mum at 9.35am, with it all looking much the same as it did last October, right down to the uninspiring weather. Head northwards up Main Street to the crossing of the A47 and thence out into the countryside along Ingarsby Lane, to take the shortest possible route to my favourite lost village, spotting the burgeoning static solar energy field developing above Houghton village, and this might be the popularist lane in this quarter today as it's here and only here that other wanderers are to be found on these tracks. Rise on the bridleway to the lost village, still as lovable as it ever was, and the lack of vegetation cover this time around means I can see the viaduct over Ingarsby Hollow, the major bridge relic of the GNR Leicester extension line, and that's a nice spot, not seen last time. Eastwards then, on the bridleway that feels like a lane that dropped from the landscape along with Ingarsby village, for some muddy going with attention focused towards Coplow Hill, the distinctive hill in these parts, prominent without being all that tall, hidden away by behind the woodlands of Botany Bay Covert, passed through before arrival on Tilton Lane, running close to the top of the hill. Unfortunately, the wood on the hill top offers no permissive walks of any kind, so a gaze into the trees is all you can offer as the roads skirt around the hilltop, which feels somewhat frustrating as a viewpoint up here would be most welcome to get views towards the city or to the majestic Quenby Hall.