Easter Monday morning is as grim as you'd like, a steady rain puddling outside and me sat at my window wondering if this is going to be another walking day lost. Disappointed, I eat my packed lunch and revert the day back to non-walking setting, until I notice a distinct easing off in the weather around 11.30 am and decide to make for the trail, as it's not a long day on the slate, and I think I can make my target finish of 4.15pm what with there being a Sunday bus service for the bank holiday.
Active April: Day Two
Leeds Country Way #5: Swillington Bridge to Robin Hood 8.8 miles
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| Self at Swillington Bridge |
Swillington Bridge at 12.50pm looks pretty much the same as it did 47 hours earlier and the traffic on the A642 is still lunatic as I'm forced to cross to make for the river bank for another stretch along the River Aire. For some reason the path heads off east again, and you realise that the path isn't designed for a circumnavigation of the city by the shortest possible route, and you gain extra mile for the sake of country walking. More sights of the ruined Swillington House estate are taken in before the fun of River walking is soon lost as the path disappears into plots of birch trees and with the river only a few metres away, you can barely see it. The view opens out at Fleet Oil depot, which must have a good reason for being in such an odd location, and the view of St Aidan's Country Park and the Walking Dragline dominates the scene again. There are plenty of dog walkers out here, odd because we're not really near anywhere, and walking along the flood protection embankment makes it easy to forget to follow the actual path and make for Fleet Bridge over the Aire and Calder Canal. Fun now comes about as my map is so old that the route of the Leeds Country Way was redirected since it was printed and I've had to annotate my copy of Explorer 289 with my best soft pencil, so instead of inland towards Oulton, we head east along the towpath and around Lemonroyd marina, where I can be struck by the realisation that a lot of people really do live on boats. We continue along betwixt river and railway for about a mile, shielded from both by birch trees and dodging the many cyclists tearing it up, and this section of the River looks unnatural as it was largely rechanneled for improved navigation and to prevent the opencast site from flooding.
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| River Aire, near Mickletown |
Leave the riverside, and trot down Station road to the edge of Mickletown, another mining settlement, and then we start off west again, along Church Lane, oddly suburban for the location, and get a bit more train serendipity as we pass under the Leeds - Castleford line. Beyond is Methley, a village with a huge green and cricket club, and also a properly old church in St Oswald's, but very little by of houses, just a few mining cottages that I see. Cross the A639 and pass the suspiciously deserted Rose and Crown, and the head for another field stretch among the rapeseed, which provides the colour for the day and I can incorrectly identify the nearby M62 as my target finish of the M1, thought it looked a bit close! Can't find the way off the path to the road as we approach Scholey Hill, so have to have bit of a scramble down, and the find another closed pub, but no surprise that the Mexboro Arms went out of business if their beer of choice was Stones! Scholey Hill is less of a place than Methley, and off we go along Hungate Lane, past Methley Park and 'Home Farm: Home of the Christmas Tree Farm' according to their signage. At Elm farm there is a White Peacock in the garden, bizarrely and then we hit our first uphill section in a long while for a half mile alongside Moss Carr wood. Hit tea break time after failing to find the last junction, and then have to don the waterproof as it looks like the weather is about to catch up with me. The next noted place on the map is Cheesecake farm, but I see no farm, or Cheesecake for that matter, and then dive across the A642 for the last time, and along Pennington Lane, past Royds school to Royds Green, another non-village and I decide that this part of the world must be hamlet central. Then to the wonderfully named Dungeon Lane, and up the hill to Swithen's farm, which finally convinces me that horse farming really is keeping half the farms alive around this city. The number of people around here could actually convince you that it's a farm park, and on the north edge of the farm you get unexpected viewpoint #2. Not as good as Hunger Hills, but the view over Rothwell with the various high points of the city peeking out beyond is pleasantly surprising.
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| Viewpoint at Swithen's Farm |
Surely a view for a nicer day than this one, because on cue it starts to rain really hard and I'm really glad that I've got less than 2 miles of walk left as I descend the hill and have to traverse another horribly churned up horse paddock before the path takes me into Carlton. Odd to find a village that I'd never heard of, especially as it actually has some substance to it, with two pubs, both open to tempt the soggy walker, and a bus service that would have taken me home directly if it hadn't been for Sunday services, but I'm onto the last leg of the day so head out of the other end of the village, wher people are still walking dogs even in this weather. Beneath an avenue of pylons we go, and find the only section where the path has disappeared into a ploughed field, and then getting up the embankment on the far side is a real slip and slide and I deem this worst section of the whole LCW. Didn't know that there were railways around here, but they were built in the late 19th century to serve the collieries around Rothwell and Lofthouse, part of the grandly named East and West Yorkshire Union Railway, which also ran one of the least successful passenger services ever.
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| The former East and West Yorkshire Union Railway |
Love bits of railway trivia like that, and also love what happened next, because along here is where I encounter a couple of teenagers who thought they had found a secluded spot for an intimate moment, but hadn't counted on an idiot like me to come along to spoil their rhythm. Seriously kids? On a day like this too? Not got
anywhere indoors you could be using? Oh well, when desires need satiating, I guess... I'm still chuckling away to myself as the path takes the old trackbed down to Lofthouse and we join the A61, and the Gardener's Arms promises us 'Elvis! For One Night Only!'. Still ahead of the clock so walk to the edge of Robin Hood (I've no idea why a mining village should have such a name), and down Milner Lane, which takes us behind the house and alongside the M1 to our finish point at the motorway bridge over the A654. 4.10pm and I'm wet enough for the day, can't have many walking days worse than that last hour, and it's a brief dash back to the A61 to land the 110 bus, almost on the nose. And, Hey! Only one more section to go!
To Be Concluded...
1,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 77.9 miles
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