The good news is that the latest 40th birthday celebration on 7th June went off in a much more predictable manner than the previous one, with 30+ people descending on AK's house to enjoy afternoon tea, a larger crowd than I'm usefully sociable in, but enough familiar faces to keep me company before staying on late for pizza and drinks, altogether a good day, enjoyed by all. The bad news is that the following weekend has me dropping Wild Boar Fell off my schedule again, as I can see no way to fit it into a day that also has me invited out for a dinner date with a group of my colleagues, attending the restaurant which we had been due to visit at Christmas last year before being curtailed by a power cut. Travelling out to the bottom corner of Cumbria and then being back in time for a 6.30pm table seems beyond my scheming, even with FoSCL doing the organisational work, lateness will either ruin it or I'll arrive still reeking and sore after topping a 700m+ hill. The later considerations come down to cost, as a rail trip and a meal seems like a lot of green to drop on one day, especially with another trip coming on the next weekend, and the weather finally looks not really good enough for a trip that really would deserve to be a year highlight. So on Friday evening, we look to the reserve list instead, wondering where else in Kirklees has avoided my gaze so far, and that's where a wander to Holmfirth drops in, for it's the notable town in the county that I have still never visited in all my years up country.
Raventhorpe to Holmfirth, via Lepton, Kirkburton & Brockholes. 12.1 miles
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| Hagg Wood |
Start out from Ravensthorpe station, as it's due a first official start on my wanderings, and the day isn't going to be taken a great pace initially as I feel like I have plenty of time before I need to be heading homeward, so getting going at 10.20am gives me what feels like a decent sized window for the day. Head straight away from the Calder valley, joining the bridleway rising alongside the railway to find the way into Lady Wood, one of many sections of ancient wood that have endured along the hillsides south of the river, a path that immediately offers shade and solitude as I delve off into the Kirklees fields once more. Muddiness gives way to flagstones before I emerge out into the open fields again, where a landscape of horses rules as we rise away from the river, meeting the track that links Calder farm with one of the remoter nursing homes in the county, and my eagerness to head uphill has me peeling left at the farm to take the bridleway south along the edge of Oliver Wood. Meeting the edge of the Dewsbury district golf course has me realising that I am not on the right track, having headed uphill too early, not paying enough attention as I traverse the fold on the map, so Instead of continuing to gain and lose a lot of height on my way south, I head downhill on the other bridleway, keeping off the links and exiting the golf course once I meet Hagg Wood. Initial going is very soft, as the path doubles as a run off, but gets firmer as the canopy of trees rises and you get a nicely impacted track that offers glimpses down in the valley, with the larger buildings of Mirfield obvious. The woodland walking is proving frustratingly short-lived as I emerge again, to wander up through the Whitley Park mill redevelopment, where new industry and residential opportunities haven't quite taken hold yet, but it retains some of it's 19th century feel, still having its sports club and cricket field out at the back. Stick on the hard road surfaces as we ascend away past the scattered cottagers and farmsteads, before diving into the bottom edge of Lilley Wood for one very muddy beck crossing before meeting the long drag up the farm track to Lilley Hall farm. Back Lane has a decent surface, and offers improving views as we go up, but it's an unforgiving ascent that keeps on at a steady pitch rising for 100m or so over half a mile, the sort of stretch that has you wondering if your time and distance projections are going to come good after all.
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| Hall Wood (former) |
Huge relief is felt as the farm and the B6118 is met, below the looming remains of Whitley Park, familiar from my trip to Huddersfield earlier this year, and I pause to water and adjust my clothing before pressing on, as despite being an over cast day, it's pretty damned warm, and the extra sleeves have to go, leaving me in just Jillet and Tee, something you will almost never see, me walking with bared arms. Head down the path already walked, but not turning towards Gregory Farm this time, instead striking out across the fields around the farm known as The Kennels, and wondering why they created such a large diversion to prevent walkers coming through their yard, and lots of recently mown grass has me feeling that hayfeverishness that seems to hit me once every three years or so. Back on firmer tracks has me heading for more woodland walking, and the path divides by an old railway freight van, descending into Hall Wood, where extensive tree felling has left me with no cover to speak of. We do have view towards Huddersfield for a while, but I would have liked more trees, so hopefully the replanting will have this filed looking a bit more dynamic in a few years time, and I can wonder why lupins seem to have taken over this corner so thoroughly. Eventually get tree cover as the path bottoms out to cross Rods Beck, and then it's a rise up through a still heavily green wheat field, already grown to almost waist height and just as I think that a lot of day has passed without getting sight of Emley Moor transmitter, it looms up over the rise to the south, as if it were the sentinel that watches over everyone that passes through Kirklees. My first couple of hours of solitude among woods and fields ends as I roll into Lepton Thorn, a quiet hamlet that hides away from the mass of Lepton itself down a half a mile of Knotty Lane, and once over the A642, we find ourselves in the outer stretches of suburban Huddersfield, which has spread out onto this hillside between the Wakefield and Penistone roads. There's a Victorian church and vicarage at the top of Rowley Lane, and then it's 1930's semis along it facing south, with the later houses on the north facing side developed to get the sun trap in the back gardens, it all feels a bit too elevated for suburbia, but there are plenty of people willing to live here, judging by the size of the school, but honestly it's not the sort of place I could ever imagine living.
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| Rowley Viaduct |
Strike into the fields once more, just as the suburban living starts to feel expensive, skirting round a cul-de-sac to meet the grassy path that leads me away from the town and down towards a railway embankment, a remnant of the L&NWR branch to Kirkburton, active from 1867 to 1965, and previously encountered on the Huddersfield Broad canal, and completely missed when in Kirkheaton, but I've deliberately come this way because i know there's relic to be found hidden among the trees. This is Rowley Viaduct, which I guess is five arches long, as I cannot get a clear view of it because of the cover of foliage even when I wander off the path to pass below it, but it's a pretty considerable structure built to pass over Beldon Brook, hidden away and calmly filling a millpond beneath the high arches of blue engineering bricks. My eagle eye spot the familiar bits of L&NWR styling, and it's always a good feeling to find another viaduct in the county when you think you had seen them all, but it's not a good spot for lunch, rather too dank and muddy, so I hit the hammers to ascend sharply up the field beyond, as the viaduct recedes into the morass of trees and the embankment only stands out if you know what you are looking at. Chow down on my over cooked pizza at 12.35pm, actually discarding the crusts like a hard to please child and check on my time and distance, realising that I never made an accurate plot on this route so I don't actually know the distance to my end point, and finally having it dawn on me that if I'm not heading homeward by 3.30pm, there's very little chance of me being able to make my date in Leeds because public transport will not get me back to Morley until 5pm. So the second half of the day will have to go at the hurry-up, with me feeling chastened by my lack of planning, and the ascent continues through the long grass through the fields towards Highburton, which I'm not entirely sure is a pace in its own right of just the upper half of Kirkburton, but it's an immediately more appealing than Lepton, a relative riot of stone cottages and villas, with new builds growing in a much more sympathetic style, and a nice little historic corner with the grouping of the Smith's arm public house and the market cross, a nice spot to be in as the day brightens for a while, and I pass through the village down Hall Lane and Slant Gate, forsaking the path the leads over the throat of the former Kirkburton station, because this is one of those frustrating parts of the wotld where a footpath going in the exact direction you want is relatively hard to find.
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| Kirkburton |
Meet the B6116, and follow it through some quite unexpected greenery before it moves onto the main drag through Kirkburton, which seems to be one of the most desirable of villages in the district, judging by the relatively upscale shops and the size of the houses, and it's another completely unexpected source of walking enthusiasm, as many leaflets to be found in the Kirklees Tourist information will feature trails that radiate about this place. It's certainly got it's festive face on for today, all dressed up for the World Cup and the inevitable disappointment to come from England's math vs Italy, and alinger in the pub would be tempting on another day, but I'm against the clock now, and so must depart from North Lane once I meet the local branch of the Co-op dropping down to Low Town where various cottages and old industrial buildings have had recent executive makeovers, and the parish church looms over the site from the hill above. Hit the route westwards once again as I find the path that leads leads out of town through the fields and behind the cricket field to meet Riley lane and then to drop downhill awkwardly to cross the A629 and to lead into yet another stretch of woodland. I hope that Saville Wood might offer the remote feeling walk that I have hoped for all day, and the dank and slippery stretch down to Thunder Bridge Dike has me feeling hopeful, but the rising track beyond is evergreen rather than deciduous, and it's also at a horrible pitch once again, so it's slow going among uninspiring trees. It may be the remotest wood that I encounter but its certainly the busiest, with me unsure where the dog walkers have appeared from and where the tracks that the off-road cyclists are tearing up might lead, but once a clear view has appeared below Boothroyd Wood my perspective improves, getting sight towards Stocksmoor, and then Wood Lane appears quite unexpectedly, as if I'd expected this mile of woodland to be like the 20 mile stretch at the end of the Pennine Way. The track through Joy and Smith Woods is more level, but sticky enough to be arduous even when it traces the boundary wall to Wood End Farm, and from there it's a pretty alarming road walk along Green Side road, which keeps the senses alert and the pace up as an unexpected amount of traffic pounds along this vergeless country road.
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| The Holme Valley |
Relief is felt to get off the road once a shortcut can be taken trough the meadows around Blakehouse farm, which leads over to the road crossing at March lane farm, where the footpath is found to have moved, but to bring it closer to the farm buildings on this occasion, which is surely a first, but it makes the way west that bit easier trace as it follows the field boundary rater than wandering vaguely through trees and grass land. The summit of the day is met at 280m, but the amount of up and down I've done already feels comparable to having walked a 700m hill, but the top gives us a view, finally down into the Holme valley winding its wooded sides off to the southwest with the Holme Moss - Black Hill mass rising beyond, with the radio mast atop it, and sight of my destination, somewhere down there among the surprisingly large quantity of buildings, has me hopeful that my target finish time is attainable. Press on down hill, through very long grass, which could easily convince me that this is a forgotten path, but when a fence crossing is met it's apparent that this is also a path that has moved, into an adjacent field and showing a neatly trimmed trod through the meadows. It's easier going for the descender than it is for those coming up, having found that a short stroll in these parts can be a rather challenging proposition, and the appearance of the Penistone line comes up pretty rapidly, as I pass over the footbridge facing the west portal of Thurstonland tunnel, where a young dad and his small son are sat, particularly enthused at the prospect of watching the trains go by. The ongoing route is the less obvious of the forking paths, following through the trees and across the fields to meet the edge of Brockholes, dropping out onto Oakes Lane, at the point where the L&Y branch to Holmfirth once ran, just along from the junction on the existing railway, no obvious remnant here, aside from the new housing development called The Cutting, and my path takes me through a wholly better class of council estate, along Oakes Avenue, which is entirely built in stone and tile, where the World cup parties are already coming together, in spite of the 11pm kick off. Three nasty hairpins have to be negotiated as four roads converge in short order, passing across the A616, where the railway bridge is the only major remainder of the Holmfirth branch, and down to Luke lane, right next to the River Holme, where the mill conversion at Mytholm Bridge gains my immediate approval.
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| Sid's Cafe, Holmfirth |
An upstream riverside walk should not be considered downhill all the way though, and there's a lot more ascending to be done than I had anticipated rising away from the river on a path walled on one side and offering only views of greenery on the river side, not offering much aside from tree cover, soft going and the occasional bit of rocky outcropping until the cricket fields and mills of Thongsbridge are met. A short road walk takes us along Miry Lane before heading up Berry Bank Lane, behind the natty little Parish church, and back under the foliage once more, and I had not expected such a feeling of remoteness on such a leafy lane, as only the sounds of unseen kids in unseen gardens offering suggestion that you are not actually far that far from civilisation. There's also the odd tourist to be found, having mistaken these paths for something that could be walked in sandals, and more than one protests that they do indeed have boots and sticks for such occasions, but had not brought them along today, this is why the heavy boots always come with me, so that hardly any path can offer me a reason for fear. Emerge at the close of houses at Bramble Bank, a ghastly collection of hideous boxes that do not fit in with the look of the valley at all, and rise to meet the A635, new mill Road, the main drag into the town, taking a look over the valley to see that nearly every house in the valley is prettier than the ones just passed, and I must have crossed the old railway line again somewhere back there, but missed it due to redevelopment red mist. Holmfirth's reputation for picturesqueness soon comes through as the Monumental Almshouses of 1856 are met at the top of Station Road, a Gothic pile worthy of applause, and also on the right is the former station site of the L&Y branch, active from 1850 to 1965, and which would now be a much greater asset to the town than a hall for the Jehovah's witnesses could ever be. Pass on downhill, between shops and houses of varying qualities of gorgeous, where the Masonic lodge of 1846 is appropriately imposing and even the Bamforth & Co factory looks appealing. One more bend and we are Town gate, and by the riverside in the town centre, where enthusiasm for the coming Tour de France has taken over pretty comprehensively, due in town on 6th July, and I've not got time for much of an explore, so I'll just note the jumbled style of the Parish Church, and also Sid's Cafe opposite, but I'm not going in search of the other fixtures of 'Last of the Summer Wine', which must surely be this town's meal ticket as much as the Brontës are Howarth's. I'll just take a look over the wall to the riverside and over to the Picture house before leaving the tourist throng and rolling up to the bus stop at 3.10pm, happy to land within the 5 hour window that I had open for me, and then soon homeward bound for my works Christmas outing, only six months late (or early, if you prefer).
Next on the Slate: Top of the Year means Railway walking, Social walking and a journey over the English Watershed, through virgin territory, all on one day!
1,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 1148.3 miles (2014 total: 235.1 miles)
(Up Country Total: 1068.9 miles)
(Solo Total: 949.9 miles)
(Declared Total: 940.1 miles)
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