Witton Weavers Way #2 - Dimple to Witton Park 18/07/19

18.5 miles, via Turton Heights, Cheetham Close, Turton Tower, Jumbles reservoir, 

 Turton Bottoms, Edgworth, Wayoh reservoir, Entwhistle, Edge Fold, Cadshaw, 

  Darwen Moor, Darwen Tower, Earnsdale reservoir, Tockholes, Chapels, Stockclough, 

   Green Hills, Holly Tree, Cherry Tree, and Pleasington Fields.

Long Distance Trail

means Selfies!

#2 at Dimple.

The way this week has scheduled, with our trip to the Land Registry falling on a Tuesday, and with us visitors not wishing to get in the way of My Sister's family's first weekend of the Summer holidays, we are thus compelled to walk on consecutive days so that we might get away on Friday, which forecasts as deeply mediocre, and leave myself enough weekend to blog properly and get the brain in order before I find out where I might be working next week (the last couple of weeks since supposedly transferring to St James's hospital have seen me bouncing all over the LTHT sites). So we rise early, which is absolutely necessary as this 32 mile trail hasn't conveniently divided into equal pieces, and so up the lane we two head from Egerton to Dimple for an 8.35am start, with both of us taking entirely different expectations of the weather to come on the day as we pass Ciao Baby and make our way further up the A666 Blackburn Road to pick up the Weavers Way as it takes us past Buffs farm and onto the fields to the north of it, aiming ourselves uphill to attain the top of Turton Heights, which isn't the most straightforward of aims as its over 100m up from the roadside within half a mile. The local cows in this field seem more curious than yesterday's as to our progress up through the long grass, but we've gotten enough of a head-start on them to get out of their enclosure and onto the steeply rising moorland path unscathed, with early sunshine coming on to tease us with warmth and illumination of the valley of Eagley Brook as we can almost see down to Bolton before we land on the moorland cap with a decent enough track, heading up to the crest to get a view over to the Bradshaw Brook side and on to the Holcombe Moor side and Ramsbottom Peel Tower. Unfortunately, the way forward on the crest toward the southern end at Cheetham Close follows a ditch through the knee length grass, which is firm enough to walk on, but the morning dew soaks into our trousers and waterlogs our boots before we get far past halfway along the top, where a fence and a wall block our path, and My Sister curses the route forcibly and states her intention to travel no further up here as we're forced to stop and wring out our socks, and ponder the wisdom in our choice of route, especially as a herd of cows sits at the summit beyond.

Witton Weavers Way #1 - Witton Park to Dimple 17/07/19

14.9 miles, via Billinge Hill, Yellow Hills, Close farm, Hoghton Bottoms, The Horr, 
 Causeway wood, Sun Mill, Stanworth wood, Red Lea, Abbey Village, Rake Brook reservoir, 
  Roddlesworth reservoirs, Tockholes plantations, Hollinshead Hall, Pasture Houses Hey, 
   Longworth Moor, and Delph Brook plantations.

Long Distance Trail means Selfies!

#1 at Witton Park.

Anyone who's been following my walking career across 7+ years and two blogs will be aware that walking the Witton Weavers Way has been planned for in every walking season I have done, but has never gotten onto the schedule as circumstances have always found me doing something else when I've travelled to the West Pennines to visit My Sister and her family, so as the eighth season presses on to my Summer Jollies, we find good reason to get it off the schedule as My Mum needs to come up country as we three all need to be in one place to get some business sorted with HM Land Registry. That's all sorted at the Fylde office on Tuesday morning, which hopefully resolves all the remaining issues with regards our inheritance of Dad's estate, and then we can shift focus onto tackling this 32 mile circular trail that supposedly celebrates the pre-industrial heritage of this corner of Lancashire, that is actually Blackburn with Darwen's major trail, as Bolton district doesn't actually have one, which My Sister and I will be able to take on while enjoying the flexibility of having two other adults around while My Nieces go through the motions of their last week of school. So onwards, getting driven up from Egerton to Witton Park on the western side of Blackburn in the Parental Taxi, for a start at 9.15am, in alien walking territory but in a corner that's still plenty familiar as this former country estate that has been Blackburn's municipal park since 1946 has been a regular stomping ground for My Sister's family, and the route, starting off past the arena and athletics track, up to the old  pavilion and into Big Cover Wood traces the route of the first walk that I ever took with my Younger Niece, in the late summer of 2008. The rising track is just as testing for the early going as it was then, and I always seem to pant harder when in company, as I'm compelled to walk at someone else's pace, rising to the open fields that give us a look over the southern portion of Blackburn, with Ewood Park stadium obvious, and back to the northern flank of the West Pennine Moors, which this trail will take a while to get to as it loops northwards for a while, pressing uphill past Higher Garden Plantation to the limit of the parkland at Under Billinge Lane and joins the path across the slanted plots on which the woodlands of Billinge Hill stand, though we won't be seeking the summit path this time, but instead hang close to its western perimeter on the sharply rising and sometimes obscure track to seek the route westwards.

Holmfirth to Hadfield 13/07/19

13.8 miles, via Hinchcliffe Mill, Holmbridge, Holme, Lane, Holme Moss, 

 Heyden Brook valley, Heyden Bridge, Woodhead Reservoir, Crowden, 

  Torside Reservoir, Hollins, Rhodes Wood, Valehouse Wood, and Tintwistle. 

After six weeks of pushing the boundary of my Field of Walking Experience southwards, and using the High Season weekend to probe the upper reaches of the Don Valley, like I'd promised to do, it's time to shift focus and start to looking westwards, so that I might start pressing westwards, so that we might properly investigate the Holme valley while Summer is still in business and can get in the long days of travelling before the days shorten too much, and having made such a big noise about all my approaches toward western Kirklees, my first day of travelling from within it will actually be striking for a finish line far beyond it. An early start is essential, predictably enough, but not just because of the length of the trip, but also because I'm NIW for the week and My Mum is travelling up so we might get some issues with regards my legacy and inheritance sorted out, and so it's away on the earliest of plausible trains and then off on the nearest available bus to land in Holmfirth for an 8.50am jump off, which comes after the necessary use of public conveniences as there are not going to be many places for comfort breaks on today's trip. July ought to be bringing the joy of the season, but the projections for the day have gradually rendered it mediocre, with little chance of sunshine in the day's first half, and thus we're off under gloomy skies, but wholly tolerable warmth, as we note Holmfirth's memorial pillar to the Treaty of Amiens of 1802, a rather premature monument to peace with Revolutionary France when 12 years of the Napoleonic Wars would start only 14 months later, placed opposite the bus stands that have been the focus of all our visits so far, before we make for the opposite bank of the Holme, which takes us up the politely dressed shopping parades of Victoria Street. Even before regular opening hours, the town feel busier than it ought to be, and thus the people need to be shed from our path as we strike westwards on Huddersfield Road, the other main street so far unseen in this town, as it leads past Holmfirth's market and mill, to the division point of the A635 - A6024 where the choice of moorland routes needs to be made, and admiring the landscape of weavers cottages and modest factories that still look the part of a town that originally thrived because of the domestic production of woollen goods, rather than heavy industry.

Penistone to Holmfirth 06/07/19

16.9 miles, via Spring Vale, Castle Green, Snowden Hill, Underbank, Smithy Moor, 
 Underbank Reservoir, Midhopestones, Upper Midhope, Langsett Reservoir, 
  Crooklands Wood, Swinden Lane, Snow Road, Stone Rucks Moss, South Nab, 
   Windleden, Winscar Reservoir, Harden, Hade Edge, Longley, and Under Bank.

They say that wisdom comes with age, but it's taken me until my eighth walking season to realise that when travelling a distance by train, especially out of West Yorkshire, that money can be saved by purchasing an open return ticket to your destination as scheduling a return trip within a month could result in your costs being almost halved, a useful bit of genuine common sense that seriously only came to me with the start of Summer, having already burned rather too much cash on my jaunts into South Yorkshire this year. It's going to be the last one of those for this year on this trip, as our area of interest needs to shift over to the western portion of Kirklees before we start to run out of sufficient days to do it justice and so we travel back to Penistone, with my return ticket pricing the trip at less than £6 rather than more than £9, aiming at an early start as there's a long trip to come, but cursing the fact that the Summer weather hasn't come with us, with grey skies and the threat of drizzle hanging in the air as we disembark the train, because it seems to be cold here more often than it's hot. Working our way around to the station exit means it's nearly 8.50am when we get going, heading down the station approach past the office of Lavender International, which apparently occupies the building that once housed the DC electric railway controls of the old Woodhead line, and drop out onto Sheffield Road by the former station hotel, turning left so that the very short blank space down to Wentworth Road might be filled in on my walking map, which achieves almost total coverage of all the potential routes out of Penistone. We head back under the viaduct end with the road into Spring Vale, noting the ambulance and fire stations by the council depot that weren't seen on the last trip by, before ploughing on though the parades of terraces that sit below skies that look as glum as they did on my previous jaunt through, before we take a left turn with Green Road to head up to the wide and expanded railway bridge that carries the railway to Barnsley and the Trans Pennine Trail to Sheffield, the Upper Don Valley section of which will be saved for a future year despite it teasing me with offers of a WW2 era tank ramp and a turntable pit to see.

Huddersfield to Penistone 29/06/19

14.8 miles, via Lockwood, Berry Brow, Honley (New Town), Brockholes, New Mill, 

 Jackson Bridge, Gate Head, Victoria Crossroads, Crow Edge, Catshaw Cross, 

  Millhouse Green, Thurlstone, and Bridge End.

I'm not sure why, but discovering that June this year had five Saturdays in it gave me a great sense of joy, as if it was granting me an extra weekend between my late Spring and early Summer breaks, which is completely ridiculous as the number of available weekends is pretty much a constant, but we have managed to be super-productive as this year's High Season has come on, and while we might have not had the best of the weather through it, we have a one day heatwave coming on for this occasion, spiking in the high 20s when we've seen no really hot days in the last month. So, an early start is due to keep ahead of it, riding out to Huddersfield to finally make a proper trip into the Holme Valley as our walking interest for the year starts to shift westwards, departing the station at a whisker or two after 8am, with early morning mist keeping the heat off as we strike on into the town centre, a landscape that still doesn't feel that familiar despite many transits through it, heading out across St George's Square and on to the main shopping drag along John William Street. Despite being an hour ahead of the shops opening, there's still plenty of people out and about, getting an early jump on the day as we press on, admiring some of the rather distinctive works of late 20th century modernism that loiter among the Victorian Parades, passing the Market Cross, the sole enduring feature of the 18th century town, and making our way southwards down New Street until we find our way blocked by the police, investigating shenanigans from the night before. So we have to improvise a detour, down through the arcade of Market Avenue to the parallel Victoria Lane, which turns out to also be taped off, which means a further excursion off route, around the curved terrace of the Piazza Centre, which circuits the town's Library & Art Gallery, before we head up High Street, past the Town Hall and Ramsden House, with its mosaic of Huddersfield's early industrial history before we can get back on track, down the end of New Street that must have looked all the rage in the 1970s. Meeting the Queensgate - Castlegate inner ring road marks the end of the town centre, and we cross to join the A616 Chapel Hill, which descends away swiftly, directing our eyes into the valley to come as we descend past the looming bulk of Kirklees College's campus, with the town's continuing industrial district filing out the plots to the east as we come upon the passages over the Huddersfield Narrow Canal and the River Colne in short order, and beyond the Folly Hall Mills, we've got a whole lot of fresh territory to explore.

Dodworth to Stocksmoor 22/06/19

17.5 miles, via Silkstone, Noblethorpe, Hoylandswaine, Oxspring, Roughbirchworth, 

 Sheephouse Height, Hartcliff Hill, Hill Side, Hornthwaite Hill, Thurlstone, Royd Moor, 

  Ingbirchworth Moor, Dearne Low Common, Piper Junction, Lane Head, 

   Shepley (Cliffe), and Stone Wood.

Summer lands, and the weather manages to actually look appropriately seasonal at long last, not that I'm full of the joys as the weekend rolls up, largely because I'm knackered after my first week of working at St James's Hospital, performing the same role as I did at the LGI but in a much busier office and at a much higher tempo that I've gotten used to, meaning I do seven hours of raw labour a day before sloping off home to crash hard, which means my weekly exile to the archive at Seacroft on Fridays feels like a useful respite after that. So we don't start as early as necessary as Saturday's trip gets underway, aiming at route that was virtually improvised in the preceding week as a few gaps and omissions were noted around the paths already walked and the excursions plotted for the future, and as the day promises to be in excess of 17 miles it makes sense to get it done while we linger at the top of the High Season, riding out to Dodworth on the fringe of greater Barnsley on a 142 Pacer unit that gets very crowded as we pass into South Yorkshire, to land at this most modest and minimalist of stations at a measure or two after 9.50am. Sunshine falls on us as we join the B6099 Station Road as it takes us northwards, over the level crossing and on along the boundary of the Fall Bank industrial estate, up towards the A628 bypass road, which we don't immediately join as a leafier road awaits, beyond the traffic island and The Fairway Hotel and Pub, following Elmhirst Lane as it skirts the Dodworth Business Park on the site of the Old Silkstone Colliery and on towards Silkstone Golf Course on the lofty edge of the Cawthorne Valley. We join a superseded green lane that pushes west, which I'd assumed was the original A628 route before the bypass was built, but judging bu its narrowness and considerable overgrowth, this route was diverted a long, long time back as the turnpike chose to avoid this steep hill edge, which allows us a quiet start to the day and teases some lofty views as we go, forwards towards Hoylandswaine's hillside and over the periphery of the Dove valley. Descend the lane to meet the road that I had been prepared to ignore, but Barnsley Road will lead us over some green gaps on my maps and cross some previously burned paths in this area so that's reason enough for me to dome this way today, pressing west as we lead into the shade of Silkstone Fall woods, before we meet the footpath-free Silkstone Bypass, which we'll follow with some wariness as that village centre doesn't really need to be seen up close again, so soon.

Barnsley to Holmfirth 15/06/19

17.2 miles, via Shaw Lands, Dodworth, Silkstone Common, Berry Moor, Four Lane End, 

 Oxspring, Spring Vale, Penistone (Bridge End), Scout Dike, Ingbirchworth, High Flatts, 

  Birds Edge, Lane Head, Snowgate Head, New Mill, Lydgate and Town End. 

As we progress into the 2019 High Season, the long days ought to invite the possibilities of starting early, but the appeal of getting on the trail before 9am is diminished by the fact of it refusing to get particularly warm even as we alight on the last weekend of Spring, and even then getting out early is going to be a non-starter when the body isn't willing to get going a work o'clock on a Saturday morning, having not had any rest time over the preceding six days. Factor in the discovery that I'm being reassigned at very short notice at work, and have thus just completed my last shift at Leeds General Infirmary after 20+ years on that site, it's hardly a surprise that my brain is all sorts of haywire as the weekend lands, and all my walking gear has to be gathered at the hurry up to get me out to Barnsley with another South to West Yorkshire stretch in mind, disembarking the train at 9.10am, as the morning's sunshine start fades to be replaced by a light covering of cloud that will persist for the whole day. Third visit of the year, and I'm already starting to get a feel for Barnsley town centre, though its main drag of shops is yet to be seen as we depart the Interchange onto Eldon Street which takes us past the Parkway cinema and the Civic theatre before we take a turn up through the Victorian Arcade, which does its best to culturally elevate its rather humble residents and tenants, as we rise to meet Market Hill and the way past the Town Hall once again as we land on Shambles Street. We shadow the back of the main shopping parade along here, as well as passing below the buildings seen on our previous passage through the town, getting a fresh angle on the Sixth Form college, the Borough Council offices and the Lamproom Theatre in its former chapel before we drop down past the Premier Inn to meet the Townend Roundabout, which offers vistas over southern Barnsley to stimulate interest for a future walking season before we eventually pick out the route that will take us westwards. Dodworth Road, the A628, will take us on into another district of proud townhouses that have probably seen better days, stretched out beyond the soon to be former Marlborough inn, looking like it might have once been on of the town's most desirable residential streets, with only the accumulated centuries of soot staining making it look like the coal town of history, though a peer down a couple of side streets gives some indication of the much more modest terraces that grew with the collieries in the area back in the 19th century.