Denby Dale to Slaithwaite 17/08/19

16.2 miles, via Dunkirk Crossroads, Lower Denby, Upper Denby, Ingbirchworth 

 & the reservoir, Brown's Edge, Wood Royd Hill, Gate Head, Barnside, Hepworth, Scholes, 

  Holmfirth (Gully, Bank and Bridge Fold), Netherthong, Wilshaw, Calmlands, Meltham, 

   Holt Head, and Kitchen Clough.

August so far could easily have convinced me that The End of Summer has arrived a month early, as the cooling temperatures and constant reappearances of rain could fit neatly into the turning weeks of September, and even the yellowing of the evening sunshine seems to be coming on more quickly than usual, all of which have me carefully picking my routes to fit with the weather, and dropping plans to do anything on the open moorlands after the rains have been hammering down throughout Friday afternoon and evening. So we'll no be taking the planned trip onto Meltham Moor this weekend, and instead pull up a walk off the reserve list, one which should be mostly keeping us on the roads and giving us a chance to put down some miles at a decent speed after last Sunday's debacle, riding the rails out to Denby Dale, and choosing a later start so the mornings drizzles can work themselves out before we've gotten too far underway, alighting at 9.45am under skies that are much glummer than projected, and take a few minutes to shelter as the rain has its last fall for the day before we set off. We seek the footpath that leads down to the A636 Wakefield Road by the Dale Inn, passing more developments of Suburbia in the Countryside as we go, crossing the main road to head down Norman Road to meet the Springfield Mill complex and the river Dearne at the valley bottom before heading up the valley side and eastwards with Dearneside Road, among the old cottages of the village and below the suburban growth that has filled out the southern bank of the valley. As we meander our way around to Miller Hill and the rising road out of town, the geographically minded among you will have noticed that we are heading away from our intended destination, and the simple reason for that it after having made so many routes around this part of the West Riding in the late Spring and early Summer, it feels like time to take one victory lap around the area before we put it away for a while, and that's why we are on a bit of a broad circuit up and out of the Dearne valley as the day starts to warm and brighten. We're not quite getting the contextual views that I crave as we make our way uphill, as Denby Dale viaduct manages to hide its considerable bulk from the viewpoints at this remove and so we focus on going up through the green fields and past the isolated, and wonderfully named, Romb Pickle terrace on the way to the Dunkirk Crossroads, filling in a blank on the map that will be the theme for much of the first half of this excursion.

Colne Valley Circular 11/08/19

13.4 miles, from Golcar, via Linthwaite (Hoyle House and Lower Clough), Banks Brow,

 Kitchen Clough, Yew Tree, Top o' the Hill, Lingards Wood, Holme Moor brow, 

  Binn Moor brow, Binns, Bank Bottom, Marsden, Huck Hill, Slaithwaite Moor, Reaps Hill, 

   Scout Wood, Merry Dale, Ainley Place, Wilberlee, Campinot Wood, Crimble Clough, 

    Westwood Edge, Bolster Moor, and Heath House wood.

Another Summer Saturday drops from the schedule due to heavy rainfall, as if the peaking of national all-time temperatures in late July was the cue for everything to go downhill and render the remainder of the season changeable and rather chilly, and so we are shunted onto a Sunday trip again, with my options limited by the issues that come with transport connections, and that's why we end up on an early bus ride out to western Huddersfield to start the Colne Valley Circular walk from Golcar, not a part of the world I've travelled into so far due to its distinct lack of railway stations. So alight the #301 bus by St John's church, in this village that has now been largely consumed into the neighbouring town's suburbia and we make our way to the Colne Valley Museum, where we'll have a 9.05am jump off, elevated above the valley side and surrounded by the many cottages of the domestic weaving industries of the early 19th centuries, and set off with the guidebook in hand, ready to be informed as to why so many houses have multiple storeys and large upstairs windows as we head down the steep Carr Top Lane, because many had their workshops located in the part of the cottage where maximum daylight for their workshops could be gained, it seems. This guide, which I've had my shelf for over 5 years, seems keen to inform me about everything there is to see on this route, and provides detail about the Sunday School and the lost Baptist Chapel on Chapel Lane before we hit the path by the burial ground that seems far to slick and slippery for comfort, descending us down towards the railway lines, where two short viaducts span a descending brook, one a disused relic of much busier times on the L&NWR's Leeds to Manchester lines, which are passed under to hit the soft track that descends to the valley floor under the cover of trees. Meet the Huddersfield Narrow canal by lock 15E, which has us tied to a familiar trail again, albeit one that's nearly 7 years old, and the route guide would send us along the towpath, but I'm ready for a deviation even at this early stage, which will take us down by the side of the Colne, which charges angrily after the rains of the last two days, along the path on the edge of the flood plain where the long grass will quickly saturate one's trousers, taking us around the Linthwaite's famous Titanic mills, named for their 1912 completion date, rather than their massive size, and our route goes straight through their carpark, where the Titanic Spa and many apartments now dwell within the site.

Hadfield to Marsden via Black Hill 03/08/19

15 miles, via Padfield, Runal Intake, Devil's Elbow, Torside Crossing, Torside Reservoir,   
 Crowden Great Brook Clough, Laddow Rocks, Grains Moss, Dun Hill, Black Hill, 
  Black Dike Head, Good Bent, Dean Clough, Wessenden Head, Hey Cote Hill, 
   Hey Brinks, Rigg Shaw, Rams Clough, Binns and Bank Bottom.

After my Summer Jollies, it seemed wise to take a weekend off, as I'd been going at it on the trail for every weekend since the middle of April, and once back in work we experienced the most horrifying temperature spike, pushing temperatures up past 30C, which were then followed by the most dramatic shift downwards as the last weekend of July came around, more than 12C cooler and with both days blighted with rain that fell for many hours, scuppering any plans for getting out regardless of how modestly they might have been scaled. As it happened, we probably wouldn't have gotten out as it was, as an impromptu drinks get together was had on the Friday evening of the 26th July with my good friends IH & AK as we needed to have one last turn around with M&SW before they move away to Edinburgh at the end of August, which was a nice break from routine and had me snoozing off the booze for much of Saturday as the rain pelted down in a way that seemed entirely inappropriate. As M&S had scheduled up a final session for the next Saturday along, being available for that would be appropriate having enjoyed 23+ years of friendship with them, but a return ticket to Hadfield was starting to burn a hole in my pocket, with the August weather looking just a weird as July's, getting in my statement walk of the year, the one with West Yorkshire's actual summit in it, had to take priority, involving a 2+ hour trip out to the part of Derbyshire that isn't threatened with being underwater after a week of storms, a journey that would be so much easier if we could get the TPEs to stop at Guide Bridge and not have to make the connection at Manchester Piccadilly. So alight at 9.40am, feeling that it's slightly odd that it should be here, about as far south as is possible, that I have chosen to make my contact point on the west side of the Pennine divide, admiring the once mainline station that now sits at the lonely end of its branch line, starting out be retracing steps to the Trans Pennine Trail, admiring the views over the suburban rooftops to the moors to the north of Longdendale before passing under the old Woodhead Line at Platt Street bridge. This leads us into Padfield, among the old terraces and newer arrivals that have clustered around the largely still industrial site of Hadfield Mill, rising with the long uphill terraces of Post Street, which seem to be the way of such things on the west side of the Pennines, heading up past the former Wesleyan Chapel to meet the old rural village on Padfield Main Road, around the Peels Arms inn and displaying a whole wad of rural charm on the lane up to the Whitehouse Farm B&B.

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.