Back at the top of the year, I had high hopes for the second half of my walking season, feeling like I could safely aim for 500 miles on the year and also manage to fit in all my major targets and have some weeks to spare as my 40th approached, but a month on and I'm feeling like the wheels have been spinning for the last few weeks with little progress being made. July isn't quite the time to declare the season beyond redemption, but it's looking unlikely that I will be able to fit in both of the Kirklees Way and Wakefield Way before November as it will take a total of 12 trips to complete them, and that would be three whole months of my schedule. I had really been hopeful to be half way around the Kirklees Way by now, but tiredness at the end of June and wanting to fit the the Tour de France at the start of the month lost me two weekends, with my weekend after my trip down country being a non-starter as the heatwave had had me turning into Freddie Flakeout and rain coming down on the Saturday was not the inspiring change I'd hoped for. Then my trip for yesterday failed as I made out early to catch the train to Marsden only for my plan to be scuppered by its non-appearance due to a lack of available train crew, the first time I've heard that be announced by the tannoy, by the way, and missing my connection up the line would mean a trip of over two hours before I could get going and a longer stretch of walking in the hottest part of the day, so I am shortly heading home to sulk. Still, heatwave feels over by Sunday morning, and July needs a conclusion, before moving on to hopefully make August count, and the reserve list has another route to the city on it...
Morley to Leeds, via Beeston Royds and Whitehall Road 6.9 miles
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| St Peter's, Morley |
Greet Morley Town hall for the traditional start at 9.00am, and I'm getting quite a portfolio of pics of it from all the starts I've made over these last couple of years, and I'm off northwards, down Queen Street to Morley Bottoms, this time taking a left to Brunswick Street and then hard right onto Bank Street, one of those roads to enjoy if you really like stone retaining walls, securing the foundations of the houses above, and feeling like one of those older road that the development of the town turned into something of a back street. Rising rapidly, a good and new perspective is gained towards St Mary in the Wood, and the back of the Cheapside parade of shops looks like an ordinary stone terrace in spite of its faintly neo-classical facade, and the low rise flats along Bank Avenue come as a bit of a surprise, figuring that I have ridden around this block on all side without ever venturing into it in the seven years I have lived in this town. Emerge past the Victoria Court office park and onto the A643, crossing by the Shell garage to take another look into the yard of St Peter's church and its Sunday school, also getting a close look at the Leeds & Elland road sign a little further along Victoria road, still wondering how many of these endure around the city and also puzzling as to why the old school yard next to the church has become a home for bed delivery vans. My fresh trail peels off from the main road onto Sandmead Close, the part of suburban Morley which sprung up in the late 70s and only recently stopped growing, the sort of land you don't normally venture into unless you have to, and all the way down to Woodcross and Westwood Side it's a mix of houses that I can't even consider wanting to live in, at least until the tree growth becomes more prominent and a view across the Beeston Royds hillside and beyond to the Aire valley emerges before being lost as I descend away from Morley's particular hill. From the road into the Churwell woods to trace part of the local nature trail, heading out towards the motorway along paths traced on the circular walk of last year, and looking a whole lot more lively in July than they did in February, and then it's under the M621 and along the field boundary path towards Rooms farm, finding it heavily overgrown and good for losing a small dog in, according to the lady met coming the other way.
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| The City of Leeds, from Beeston Royds |
Surer going beyond once the farm track is met, descending towards the A62 with the Beeston Royds hill rising into the landscape once again, and then passing beneath the bridge on the L&NWR Leeds New Line which has been observed remotely on previous occasions but has now been formally interacted with, and once on Gelderd Road, we cross over where the travellers caravan park sits opposite the UHC Jewish cemetery, hitting the path uphill towards Spring End farm. Striking out across the fields offers a view back towards the rising spires and towers of Morley, a view which evolves as I ascend, not sharply but challenging enough against the morning heat and breezes, and the next field is met beyond some extensive bank consolidation work, and it's too easy to follow the ground in path across the field and among the sheep rather than sticking to the right of way that hugs the boundary, but the two ladies walking out from the farm for their morning jog don't seem to be too concerned by this man wandering among their livestock. A stile and a gate lead to Wood lane, a farm track that leads to Farnley Wood farm, sitting atop the Beeston Royds ridge, and a fine panorama is gained as the top is attained, only 115m up but with an emerging view across Morley and Middleton to the city, and northwards across Farnley and Wortley to the Aire Valley, and Ferrybridge Power station even makes an appearance too. It's good than a large slab of rural land has endured as the city has consumed lands all around it, I'm going to guess that its sides were too steep for suburban development in the 60s and it is now protected as green belt, now offering another great viewpoint for the city of Leeds, the fourth on I have noted on my travels. The descent comes on pretty rapidly as I head for the the A58, passing what appears to be a bird viewing hide and meeting a heavily overgrown concrete path that slips down to the barns above Ochre House farm, and a good farm track emerges to take me to the farm itself, offering a lot of corrugated roofs and not much sight of actual farming. The lane leads out to Whitehall Road, and industry on my map has been replaced by residential development and a bit of imagination is required to spot the path of the former railway line that once crossed the A58 and led to Farnley Ironworks, and from there it's townward in front of the 1930s semis, where someone's flowering plants have escaped into the grass verges and have grown into one of the craziest patches of weeds that I have ever seen.
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| Railway footbridge, Wortley |
Take a short, and direct, route across the A6110 Ring Road and continue along Whitehall Road, above a patch where industries have endured and every frontage along the roadside seems to be either a garage or a domestic wholesalers, some of the units look familiar from having passed them on the train and a look back offers a final perspective towards Beeston Royds, still looking like the over-sized hill that it really isn't. Approaching the railway, it's good to see that much of the former Farnley & Wortley station has remained, despite being closed in 1952, the brick station building as a carpet retailer and the wooden goods shed in the hands of a scrap merchant, and it's slightly puzzling that this is one that has never reappeared on the reopening plans, considering its location. The road dog-legs to cross the Huddersfield line, over the bridge that I have ridden under thousands of times, and past the Dragon Hotel, which seems to have sussed out the formula for enduring as a pub when its obvious constituency has passed on, and now the old Halifax turnpike offers me a straight route into the city, but I still have a couple of deviations in my plans. I'm mostly curious as to cross over the pair of footbridges which pass over the railway and the former goods yards alongside (still visible to the keen-eyed despite the redevelopment of industrial units and the yard full of portakabins), and I can't imagine that they get a lot of use these days, though the first of them, the more substantial of the pair, links to the Wortley playing fields and looks like it has factored into footpath developments as West Leeds looks to advertise its green spaces. The view from the recreation grounds towards the city, and to Elland Road and the south for that matter, a fresh perspectives for me, and I'm always happy to see a park that is well used and cared for, as the Wortley district is one I've never had reason to venture into, and thus had no idea as to its qualities, and beyond the terraces a good view towards my favourite church in the city opens out, to St Bartholomew's Armley, the finest over-sized and bonkers Victorian religious pile in a city that has a few. The second footbridge, returning me to the A58, is actually three bridges, one crossing the abandoned Wortley Curve, linking the GNR's lines to Wakefield and Bradford, and the second passes over the mainline to the south, both box girdered and enclosed, whilst the third, over the Huddersfield line and somewhat lower down, has ridiculously low sides, and the footpath is contained by wooden fences which would be more suited to a garden boundary. I can only guess that health and safety was a much smaller consideration in the 19th century, when the workers of Wortley tramped these paths to their work among the goods yards, cattle markets and other industries which once thrived along Whitehall Road, of which only forlorn fragments remain today.
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| Railway Roundhouses |
Press on along Whitehall Road, including the section now abandoned, to the point that the A58 and A62 converge, and wonder how the Adam's Court Victorian school on the corner endured to 21st century city council use, when it never seemed to have a populous district to service it, even on the 1906 OS map, and the it's over the Inner Ring road via the footbridge, which must be one of the longest on the country, taking a solid four minutes to cross along its many slopes. Carry on under the railway bridges which must cause a third of Leeds' total traffic congestion, as the various roads pile up at the Armley Gyratory, and the pedestrian path keeps you so well concealed from the traffic island that you almost feel like you've found a hidden green oasis in the city, it also makes that path leading into Holbeck via the very dark and long tunnel under the railway look rather more significant than it really is, as it doesn't really lead anywhere. Once having passed under the lines to the Aire valley, more railway relics can be found, my favourites in the city by a long shot, namely the Roundhouse, Half-Roundhouse and waggon works of 1847, built for the Leeds & Thirsk railway (one of the parent companies of the NER), and the most remarkable of survivors seeing that they passed out of railway use in 1904. All three buildings have retained most of their 19th century appearance, in spite of a century of re-use and contemporary conversion to commercial life as vehicle hire or wine merchants, and forming the most intact collection of steam age railway depots in the country, a testament to the enduring quality of Victorian engineering, and their builder, Thomas Grainger earns his name drop here. I love these buildings, and allow myself a good poke around as it's turned into the sunniest part of the day and there's no one around on a Sunday morning to get in the way of my photographing, and even spending a nicely long time on the site, it still takes extensive mental gymnastics to attach it to the railways, carried on an elevated section alongside it, and the absence of Leeds Central station from the landscape just makes things more confusing.
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| The LGI Gilbert Scott building |
Having had my fill of railway architecture, the path leads back to the city, over the Leeds & Liverpool canal, and over the Aire on the westernmost of the old river crossings, Wellington Bridge, now carrying the dual carriageway and barely recognisable as a river bridge at all, and on the north bank, we see the site of the soon to be former Yorkshire Post building, now in the grip of demolition when I had hoped it would still be intact when I came this way. It may have been a monstrosity and a Brutalist nightmare, but i feel we are at risk at demolishing so many of the bad 60s buildings that we have too few left to remind us of the mistakes in architecture made in the past, all that remains is the clock tower and there's no guarantee that it will survive and the building might one day be as lost as Benjamin Gott's Bean Ing woollen factory which preceded it on the site. Cross over Wellington Street and note that redevelopment hasn't come this way yet, unlike the nearby City Island complex or the new student flats along Burley Road, the buildings facing the Inner ring looking most forlorn and the site of the International Pool still being levelled and little more than a car park five years after its demolition, and Brotherton House, one of the better 60s buildings, is still in need of some love. Pop up at Westgate island, where Westgate Point is one one of the best examples of the 1990s 'Leeds Look' styling, imitating the use of brick and slate which dominates the old city, whilst across the road are two of the worst buildings in the city, the Magistrates court and the Crown court, which bot look like they were made of Lego, in different but equally awful ways. Press on up Park Street, to meet my place of employment, the Leeds General Infirmary, and the Gilbert Scott building of 1869 would be loved by me even if I didn't work there, it still looks like a dry run for the stylings of the Midland Hotel at St Pancras to my eyes, and my photo collage of it, made in 2003 before its abortive stonework cleaning, is still my proudest artistic achievement. Push on along Great George Street and up towards Millennium square, below the Portland stone clad Brotherton Wing, which still looks like the back end of a 1930s ocean going liner to me, and then it's across to Cuthbert Brodricks for my pint, even if it's 11.40am and turning towards a day that doesn't really require a drink on the terrace. That's another new root burned into the city, and a weekend not lost to walking, and I'm going to use being in town as an opportunity for shopping, as I need more OS maps for my next trip down country, and a pint of beer in my veins will aid a search for a new fleece in TK Maxx, as slight drunkenness will make that store just that bit more hilarious.
Next on the Slate: The Kirklees Way has to be next, no excuses, plus 1,000 miles is going to be achevied again, twice!
1,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 1206.5 miles (2014 total: 293.3 miles)
(Up Country Total: 1110.9 miles)
(Solo Total: 991.1 miles)
(Declared Total: 998.3 miles)
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