The Spen Valley Greenway 28/04/12

If you were given an interest in railways in your early years, there's a good chance that it's something that you never quite got out of your system, regardless of the fact that you stopped trainspotting and attending open days in your teens. You'll still hop on the occasional preserved line, and take note of developments on the national network, as well as displaying levels of interest that would still tag you as a gricer to any observer. That's the case with me at least, and the casual browsing of the internet led me to the discovery of this day's pair of walks through the Spen Valley, aka the Five Towns, aka the land where the names couldn't sound any more Yorkshire.

Active April: Day Four, part 1

The Spen Valley Greenway - Ravensthorpe to Low Moor  7 miles

I'll say this straight up, the implementation of The Beeching Report of 1963 into the restructuring of Britain's Railways was one of the worst social mistakes ever perpetrated by a British Government. The names of Richard Beeching and Ernest Marples should be dirt to anyone with a social conscience and the evisceration of the railway network on grounds of 'cost' and 'efficiency' caused untold damage to towns and communities across the country, as well as doing damage to the concept of public transport, and the necessity thereof, that is still felt half a century later. The damage done was ultimately irreparable but there are people who are trying to make amends to put back some of what was taken away. Sustrans may not have the ability to replace the railways , but they have made efforts to get large sections of the old network re-used as cycle paths, for local use and as part of the National Cycle Network, and that is why today, we will be getting our kicks on Route 66.


Huddersfield Road bridge

Getting to the start of the Spen Valley Greenway is an adventure in itself, there is no obvious path to get on to it from Ravensthorpe station to it start on the far side of the Calder & Hebble canal, so a creative detour is needed before out walk can start at 10.30am, on a railway embankment between canal, railway lines, industrial use and countryside wasteland. We are on the Lancashire & Yorkshire's Ravensthorpe branch, from Thornhills to Heckmondwike which only closed permanently in 1986 after the cessation of freight service to the oil depot at Liversedge, and thus so much of the permanent way endured, most notably Ravensthorpe viaduct over the River Calder, its fun to note the railway fragments left in the landscape, especially the electric signals, which look quite incongruous. The bridge over Huddersfield Road is a replacement, but acts as an attractive advertisement for the path, and as I head north past the old goods shed of Ravensthorpe goods yard, I am struck by an intense feeling of joy to see that there are so many people out to use the path for cycling, dog-walking, social intercourse and land-skiing (it's not Nordic Walking, as these folks have skis with casters on them). I had honestly expected to see about half a dozen people out on the whole day, really nice to have my preconceptions shattered in the first few minutes!


Bridge near Dewsbury Moor

Hecmondkwike Central

The path alongside Dewsbury Moor offers little hint of where the River Spen might be and the path doesn't follow the trackbed exactly, adding in some up & down, and side to side to keep things interesting for the cyclists, and the path also offers interesting obstacles, public sculpture and bits of poetry on the bridges. Not too sure about the poetry, can't tell if its bollocks or not, but that is my problem with poetry in general, so I'm not going to hold that against it. A spur to the right is the remains of a link to the New Leeds Line (of which more, later), but our path follows on to the L&Y's Mirfield to Low Moor line, which closed to traffic in 1981, having lost its passenger service in 1965. The trackbed here is also largely intact, which benefits the Greenway, but the selling off of Heckmondwike goods yard to development means you have to sidle around houses and driveways before you arrive at the platforms of Heckmondwike Central station. Power on north as the rain starts to come, and enjoy that each street entrance has its own unique sign and the seats provided seem to have been sculpted from digger buckets.


Liversedge Central & 'Rotate'

Knowler Hill Tunnel











Soon enough, we've gone under the A62 and we're at the site of Liversedge Central station and I'm sure you need a very specific sort of education to know where one town ends and another starts on this part of the world. Tea break time here, and love the sculpture here, titled 'Rotate' and made up of 40 steel hoops which just cry out for passing cyclists to enter and ride round and round and round...
Continue north, under the A649 and into Knowler Hill tunnel, only 79 yards long but still dark enough for an atmospheric photograph, and then past the Darley Road entrance, which has the best bespoke sculpture on the route,  and then out into countryside for the first time. As if to make up for the lack if immediate interest along this stretch we are given the best sculpture of the whole path 'Swaledale Flock' by Sally Matthews. The sculptor is worthy of credit as this flock of scrap metal sheep are as animated and as characterful as sculptures have any business being.


'Swaledale Flock'

Whitcliffe Road Bridge
& Cleckheaton goods yard













Approach Cleckheaton, with its overstated town hall, and the site of the Central station (the only one in Britain to have been legally stolen) has been encroached on by Tesco, but the goods yard is still intact, albeit entertainingly derelict, and the Whitcliffe Road overbridge is as imposing as any structure on the path, then carry on towards lunchtime, and stop at the last bridge before the M62 when the skies split open again.If you've ever wondered why an over-long railway bridge has endured over the M62 at Chain Bar, its because there's a cycle path using it, and it's encouraging that the bridge has not been enclosed so you are free to clamber up for a view to your hearts content. Continuing north, we cross the A58 and Cleckheaton Golf Course and look out for rabbits and more railway furniture, pondering the thought that if Bradford had grown to be West Yorkshire's major city, this would probably have been the main line to London.


The M62 bridge at Chain Bar

Oakenshaw Tunnel

Down into a cutting with attractively arranged bridges, and then into Oakenshaw tunnel, an altogether modest 67 yards, and then towards what my map says is the end of the Greenway, a sign says too but the path keeps on going. Which is fine by me as the path leads us past some over-styled industrial units which used to be part of Transperience, the museum of Public Transport, which was one of the more infamous financial fiascoes of the 1990s, costing £11.5m and being open for less than 2 years! The path runs up to the extent railway and I stop at Cleckheaton Road bridge as the path goes on, and I have no intention of walking to Bradford (which is actually much further away than I think it is). 


'Transperience'

I've got to make a detour around Victoria Park to catch a bus for part 2 of today's walk, but there you have the sights of a railway that could have functioned well as part of West Yorkshire's public transport network, serving three towns that have no rail links, but now only there for those who like to exercise or take their off-road travel seriously.

To Be Continued...



1,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 95.9 miles