My July NIW week does not feature any walking, despite being Down Country with a plan in my pocket, as getting on with some deferred housework and clearout tasks at My Mum's house demand the attention while we have all the members of the extended family visiting, having scheduled my trip in the same window as My Sister and her family's and thusly some necessary garden work and DIY can get blasted through while many hands, both young and old, are available to take them on, and thus not really providing a period for relaxation before we get back into the walking and the second phase of my Summer plans, which should lead us deeper into the southeast of the old West Riding. A fine plan which comes up against the problem of the weather turning unexpectedly inclement, resulting in choosing a later start out from home, and the local trains running late and failing to make an important connection for the only available service to my start line (which incidentally has nothing to do with the strikes in force today as Northern are thankfully maintaining a full slate), and that's why we aren't arriving at Fitzwilliam until almost 10.45am, behind the worst of the morning drizzle, but already feeling mildly dispirited as gloom and chill fill the air ahead of the anticipation of a late finish that's well have to take regardless of how well the day goes, with a time window demanding either a hurry-up to make it for the earlier ride or a dawdle in order to catch the later one. It's going to be a slow day, which we can feel as we push away, to the northeast along Wentworth Terrace, beyond the industrial terraces and the Pit Club on the north side of the village, shadowing the boundary of the old Fitzwilliam Hemsworth colliery and the reclaimed fields of the country park, passing the local industrial estate before it becomes a rough track to pass along the undulating fields boundaries, gradually turning eastwards working its way around to meet Dicky Sykes Lane and the run uphill past the recreation ground and terrace ends to land us on the A638 Wakefield Road in Brackenhill, the western part of greater Ackworth, across the way from the Electric Theatre cafe and cinema (?).
Sunday, 31 July 2022
Fitzwilliam to Adwick 30/07/22
Monday, 25 July 2022
South Elmsall to Conisbrough 23/07/22
As Saturday rolls up, the heatwave conditions already seem like a distant memory as the 39C peak experienced in Leeds on Tuesday (on Britain's hottest day on record), has since seen a welcome regression to the mean as temperatures dropped by 20C to get us back into a much more manageable walking climate, so we can thankfully progress without having a repeat of the Summer of 2018, and instead experience something like the same week of last year, where mid-July spiked hot before slumping into a really rather mediocre second half, as low cloud and chilly rain washed all the way across the Summer holidays. We have a nicely large time window for the plans for today, with a good cluster of points of interest at the end of the trip, really not all that far away in the Don Valley as we alight at South Elmsall a little after 8.50am, finding the day a little brighter than projected as we rise to High Street and drop down to the junction by the bus stand and the end of the main shopping street, hanging a left onto the B6422 and following the Doncaster Road as it leads off to the southeast, passing St Mary's church and out through the surprisingly narrow suburban band at Common End, soon landing in the shadow of Frickley Colliery park as we enter the countryside, not that we get much sight of its spoil tip's heights as it hides behind a bank of trees. Passing over Frickley Beck takes us out of West Yorkshire after less than a mile, entering Doncaster borough and losing the footway as Elmsall Lane moves on to pass through the embankment of the H&BR Wath branch, where we cross the Wakefield Way route and note the house of Moorhouse & South station, before the road starts its rise across Moorhouse Common, where more cyclists seem to be out than drivers as it presses uphill, revealing the local reverse horizon, with the Next depot and quarry marking its eastern edge as we push up past the woodlands of the Ashes and take a turn with the lane across the hill crest to show up the western horizon.This would guide the eye towards the distant Dearne Valley views, if it wasn't for the haze, and instead we have to look down towards the landscape of Frickley Park, which occasionally reveals itself beyond the thick hedges and wheat fields, mostly being obscured by Hooton Pagnell wood before the Hall is revealed briefly, as we land in Hooton Pagnell village, perched on the edge of this minor upland and bringing the picturesqueness along with the views, still maintaining its vintage rural flavour and some of those hints of a Cotswolds style as the cottages and farmsteads hang on around the market cross and All Saints church on its bluff, which are passed as we come below Hooton Hall, with its imposing gatehouse and high walls.
Sunday, 17 July 2022
Moorthorpe to Mexborough 16/07/22
For the third time this year, we're due another burst of heatwave conditions, and once again, they're not due to coincide with the weekend, which is just as well as we could be looking at a temperature spike in the vicinity of 38C at the start of next week, which is far beyond anything I can recall having experienced in this country (or indeed ever, as 35C in Heidelburg, Germany in 1990 is still the startling peak that I remember), and as 30+C over the summer of 2018 proved to be challenging for the seasonal walking experience, contentment can be found that we might still be able to dress normally and not be too anxious when Saturday projects a mere 25C maximum. So no early start is needed as we travel south again, getting ever closer to the established borders of our walking field for our jump off, alighting at Moorthorpe at 9.25am and admiring the under-employed station buildings and negotiating the footbridges to get to the B6422 Barnsley Road, where we strike east towards South Elmsall, passing the cemetery, St Joseph's church and the Kung Fu school, before we strike south between the terraces of Wesley Street, and then elevate ourselves up the side of the playing fields beyond Langthwaite Lane, to meet Westfield Lane by the bowling greens and the Frickley Colliery Welfare cricket club. Tracking south through this elevated urban extension of the three towns mash up, we pass the Junction Inn and follow the lane to its end, where new urban growth has filled up all the vacnat plots north of the Frickley Colliery Country park, where we enter via its original road entrance, tracing the rough track through where the pit head once stood, now utterly obscured by long grass, and our wandering detour to elongate the route starts as we join the long straight and hard path that reaches uphill to the northeast, describing the coal seams as they pass below us, if I'm interpreting them correctly. It's a good space for the locals to exercise as we are led up to the summit of the park, at the top of the old spoil tip, now identifiable with the seven grassy mounds atop it, which we'll pass around with the track as we look over Frickley Athletic FC's ground and over the South Elmsall and Upton villages, with water tower and mast beyond, as we ll as looking to the eastern horizon that we don't know as we come around to the south side, presenting the south-eastern horizon that's we've grown to know over the last month, before we head downhill on the rough, steep track to seek the way out south bound, beyond the wild ponds and the switching-back path.
Sunday, 10 July 2022
Fitzwilliam to Swinton 09/07/22
It's taken a while to get here, but as we head out for this trip, its seems that we are due the first day of the walking year that will remain bright and warm for the duration, having seen several days of heatwave conditions not coincide with the weekends, or having had promising days landing prolonged spells of gloom and surprisingly low temperatures along their paths, and we aren't able to get in early to start ahead of the heat, as our travel window is again being dictated by the availability of trains, with our decision to fill July with more modest distances than we pressed in June looking like a rather smart choice in the circumstance. With another route to the south in our plans, we alight at Fitzwilliam station at 9.50am, and meander a way over the footbridge and down the ginnel, both colorfully decorated, to pick up our path from the exact point we arrived here in April, by the Hill Top terrace and straight onto the B6273 Wakefield Road, to spend much of the early going on pavements traced in 2015, over three different routes, past the King's Meadow academy, and the community centre and across the suburban amalgamation with neighbouring Kinsley, home to the greyhound stadium and the pub called the Kinsley with the old terraced streets around it, before the countryside arrives beyond the care home and the very concealed former church. The lane pushes uphill, passing the perimeter of the Hemsworth Waterpark as it rises up Shaw Hill, as well as the fields that bound the town cemetery before we arrive in its initially suburban landscape, with the stone terraces sitting on the road crest before we come down to meet St Helen's church, still mostly concealed by trees on its perch before we join Cross Hill again, as tangling with our previous trio of routes into South Yorkshire is going to be a bit of a theme for the day, passing the trio of pubs and joining Market Street as it rises up between the Tesco store, the notably large Job Centre and the Community Centre and its War Memorial garden. At the division of the Rotherham Road, by the Costa, KFC and Farmfoods store, we spilt away from our first route to Thurnscoe with the B6422 Kirkby Road as it leads south through the Common End portion of the town, noting the YMCA's shed, the former Victoria Inn and the old Hippodrome theatre in among the terraces as we are led away to the open fields beyond the Albion WMC, giving us a look towards Upton Beacon and Walton Wood mast as the landscape falls away to the east, and we come out to meet the A628 bypass road, on the H&BR mainline route, with the house of its Hemsworth & South Kirkby station still in place at the roadside.
Sunday, 3 July 2022
Streethouse to Bolton upon Dearne 02/07/22
After our rail strike imposed interlude, we can get back to our questing into South Yorkshire as July rocks up, and today's start line requires quite the most ridiculous train ride to get to it, not just necessitating an early start on the ground to give me the best possible time window for, but also requiring an even earlier departure from home as there isn't a direct service to be had until much later, making this the third time this year that I've been compelled to travel the long way round when using services on the Wakey-Knotty line, and I'm sure it won't be the last either, so that we might alight at 8.55am at Streethouse. Starting out westwards along High Street, it's worth noting that Wakefield district appears to have got its bus services back as the #148 trucks past as we observe that the settlement beyond the level crossing is certainly the more substantial of the halves, taking us past its estate and primary school as we are led past the old Station Hotel, for the lost Sharlston station and over the top of the railwat triangle that once led into New Sharlston colliery, now landscaped away in the fields to the north as we pace on as the lane passes among the Coalpit Fields to the turn onto the track of Hammer Lane, that set us off south, taking us over the railway line that we didn't travel in on. Sharlston Common village lies beyond, with its suburban acquisitions reaching past its village school, which is passed around as we seek the route through the estate houses, along Jubilee and Northfield Road to find the way onto the A645 Weeland Road across from St Luke's church, where we continue southwest to the road division by the Spring Green Nurseries garden centre, and take the old Pontefract Road down its leafy passage toward the general spread of Crofton village, not on the most direct possible route considering our destination, but taking in lanes otherwise unpaced as we come down to the Church View terrace and war memorial on the Doncaster Road. Cross the A638 by the Cock & Crown inn and follow Cock Lane downhill as it passes around the western edge of the grounds of the lost Crofton Hall, now mostly buried beneath the suburbia that has swollen this satellite beyond greater Wakefield, with our route turning southeast as we join Harrison Road, passing the Shay Lane primary school and rising uphill to take us to a short detour up to All Saints church before joining the High Street, where the Crofton Old Hall hides behind the Crofton Academy, and the Royal Oak inn provides a faux half timbered contrast the rest of the main street shops, before we come up past the infant school and Sainsbury's store, ahead of the Hare Park Lane corner.
Sunday, 26 June 2022
Morley & Leeds Circuit 25/06/22
Our pattern of smooth sailing through the 2022 walking year gets rudely disrupted as the first weekend of Summer lands, as a sequence of national train strike hit the country (after the RMT takes issue with management (and government) seeming to have forgotten that the railways have been important Key Workers over the last two years and ought to be treated accordingly in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic), and when this is coupled to an ongoing (and total) strike action by Arriva Yorkshire's bus crews in Wakefield district, the outcome for me is that my chosen walking field to the south and east of home has been rendered largely inaccessible by public transport, and enforced local walking will have to fill my weekend, which is not the easiest of tasks as lockdown walks absorbed nearly every path around Morley during 2020/1. We'll have to be creative to ensure we're not repeating ourselves too much as we roll down to Morley station for a 9.20am jump off, initially heading city-bound on a plauisble circular route via the path that rises away above the rock cliff to the top of New Bank Street and thence on to Daisy Hill, joining the rough path into the hidden, and somewhat overgrown valley beyond, which deposits us into the fields of wheat ahead of joining the track that leads up to Broad Oaks farm, where future residential development looks like a certainty, as work has already started on the groundwork in the fields around Lane Side farm, which have kept Morley and Churwell distinct. It can remain rural as we rock past the farmstead, cresting to the view towards the city in the northeast, not being able to approach the railway via the downhill path due to the construction work at the new White Rose station site on the embankment, which can be observed at a distance as we keep on the previously untraced path that leads us into the eastern side of Churwell, landing us by the old chapel and Sunday school on Back Green, which leads to the crossing of the A643 by the Old Golden Fleece Tesco and the memorial garden, before we head down old lane into the terraced and suburban village, passing Bar 27 and the village club on the way down. Hang a left by the old Manor farm and pace a way along New Village Way among the Lego houses of the still expanding village suburb, which continues to grow, having now completely absorbed the site of Snittles farm at the side of the M621, which is passed under to emerge by the side of the embankment of the Leeds New Line, which is passed over as we pace the boundary of the Jewish cemeteries and land on the A62 to pace the Gelderd Road over its crest by the factories on the edge of the Beeston Royds hillside, passing below the abandoned Hilltop cemeteries and joining the railway-side path by the split of the flying Farnley Junction.
Sunday, 19 June 2022
Featherstone to Goldthorpe 18/06/22
After three days of heatwave conditions, or more realistically three days of temperatures in excess of 20C for the first time this year, we look forward to Summer as we sit just shy of the top of the year, but predictably enough, the heat and sunshine cannot last into the weekend, and we're looking at a potentially tight weather window to pace against to fit with our tight time window that's dictated by our choice of start point and destination, which looks like it might be the theme as the High Season progresses, so we're going to have to keep the pace up today if we don't want a long wait to get home. Arrive at Featherstone at 10am, on the first train that doesn't take the long way round, to strike out route south down Station Lane, past the Railway Hotel and the mildly bustling main street, taking us down to the A645 Wakefield & Pontefract Road, which is crossed between the town council offices and the Lidl store, joining Girnhill Lane as it takes us south through the terraces into the suburban band of the town beyond the WMC and community gardens, an area that seems to have swollen with Lego houses below the lane's sudden eastbound turn, which leads to the rough track at the town's edge. This leads us to the field path that we traced back in 2014, joining it as it heads arrow-straight southwest through the wheatfields on a clear route over to the rougher and partially concealed tracks that take us down to the passages over the upper reaches of Went Beck, feeling happy that there's a dog walker to follow as we track around the edge of a plantation that's grown a lot over the last 8 years as we are led to the hamlet of West Hardwick, where the main farmstead and associated cottages are passed around as we get onto New Road as it leads southeast for a bit to put us onto the permissive path that leads towards Nostell Priory. Southwest-bound again we ahead below the plots of South Ings Fields, shadowing Hardwick Beck as it flows away from the estate, as the Pump Lane track directs us towards the eastern perimeter wall, where the National Trust site could be entered, it appears, but we're staying outside it, trying to find a path in Engine Wood that might not actually exist before picking up the Engine Lane track as it leads down to the Nostell East Vista, where a wide open space leads the eye west to the Palladian Nostell Priory house, with grazing cattle in the fields to the east, and a staring bench is provided for elevenses, as it is feel like that time of day already.