Leeds to Castleford 17/07/12

Having done the walk along the Aire valley upstream from Leeds it seem only natural to do the path downstream as my next stretch of canal walking, and having chosen to start from Victoria Bridge to go south-east, a look at the Leeds waterfront guide has me realising that I have mad virtually no interaction with that area in all the time I've lived and worked in Leeds. I visited the Royal Armouries in 1997, and have had regular sessions in the Adelphi on Hunslet Road, but other than the regular bus rides over Leeds Bridge and an almost pathological obsession with the level of the Aire, I have no knowledge of the area. That needs to be rectified, and I reflect that my colleague who told me to walk the streets of Leeds might have been on to something after all.

Leeds to Castleford, via the Aire & Calder Navigation path.  13.2 miles

Leeds Bridge

Start out just after 9am, under slightly ordinary skies, and from Victoria Bridge, the path to take is the one alongside the north bank of the Aire and for a while, I put on my architectural critic hat, observing that the development known as the Embankment has been done in such a way that the attempt to make the new buildings fit in with the old warehouses has actually succeeded in making the older buildings vanish into a mass of uninspired brick and tile. Still better than the other buildings up to Leeds Bridge, though, they are of that ghastly style that looks like Lego, but they could have stuck with snazzing up the old buildings instead. I like the path extending out over the river on decking to pass building built right up to the riverside though, and the plaza outside Brasserie Blanc looks like a nice hidden away sort of spot. Also note that Asda, and other places, are sandbagged up on all sides, clearly expecting the Aire to rise during this 'wettest summer ever'.Leeds Bridge is always a sight to inspire joy, a graceful iron/steel bridge of 1730/1870 vintage, and the architecture around Bridge End is exactly how to build unmatching buildings that harmonise together perfectly, and its also the site of the first motion picture ever filmed, in 1888. Taking the south bank on to Dock Street, where some of the city's authentic small Georgian houses still endure, and then Navigation Walk where the attempts to harmonise new residential buildings around the dock with the older warehouse has failed completely, at least the north bank shows up a string of well done conversions.


Leeds Lock

I didn't actually know Centenary Bridge even existed, so far removed am I from visiting this part of the city, and the entertainment section of Brewery Wharf is nicely turned out, a pleasing circular building, albeit one hosting the sort of trendy venues that I would not frequent. The less said about the residential buildings in this quarter the better though, so it's nice to actually see some real life boating going on on the river.Crown Point Bridge is of a similar fashion to Leeds Bridge, only much more massive, and beyond is the Royal Armouries, which had stood in an isolated wilderness when I was last down here, but now stands by the Clarence Dock development, which has turned out to be something of a financial disaster, and it's a bit of an architectural one too. I think the summation of my thought is 'conversions good, new builds bad', but will make allowances when something singular is developed, Knights Way Bridge is a good addition to the area too. Seeing as we're at the start of the Aire & Calder Navigation, I might as well get the canal walking going in earnest, as I've wittered a lot over the first half-mile. Still, need to make a few observations even now, namely that the A&C is the oldest canal in the area, having initially opened in 1704, but that's not something you'd know from looking at it as it has been redeveloped many times and remained in regular industrial use until the late 20th century, Leeds Lock look like it could have been built in the 1970s. Also it's not strictly a canal, as it moves been unique channels and navigable sections of river, qualifying it as a 'Navigation', a peculiar bit of semantics. Finally, it's worth taking a peer down at the weir which Leeds Lock avoids, and then recall that the lock was inundated in 2007 and consider the height the river must have risen and the metric fuck-ton of water that poured into the city on that day.


M1 & Concrete Bridges

Thwaite Mill

Anyway, to the path, and out of Leeds we go, gradually leaving the conversions and canal-side developments behind, and I get a little fuzzy on visual details because I've somehow managed to misplace all the pics I took between South Accommodation Road bridge and Knostrop Fall Weir, but the visual highlights along there were Mill wharf and Knostrop flood Lock, as well as the monumental remains of Knowsthorpe Swing bridge on the very modest GNR Hunslet goods branch. Onward to meet a modest mini Stonehenge, which honestly requires an explanatory notice board and a detour from the long island betwixt Aire and Navigation to go around Thwaite Mill, yet another site I really should have visited by now. Skelton Grange Road Bridge and it bicycle-unfriendly steps, returns us to the long island and we head away from Stourton and the city to open countryside, observing lost footballs popping out of the water in the turbulence below another weir. Tea break time comes as we hit the M1 bridge, and its a fun spot to pause and listen to the world roaring away above your head as you enjoy a moment of solitude. On down the long cut, past the imaginatively named Concrete Bridge, and this long straight path represents the opening stretch of the Trans Pennine Trail link path from Leeds, and as my walking develops, that is surely something that I should be looking towards for the future. Pass the big locks at Fishpond and Woodlesford, as well as a massivley impressive run-off channel, and note how much of the countryside seem to be actually be landfill or disused pits of some kind, and swap to the south side of the cut before the A642 bridge and encounter the only cyclist of the whole day on the stretch down to Fleet Bridge. We're on familiar territory now as we meet the Leeds Country Way route, and it's a good time to stop for lunch at Lemonroyd Marina, the end of the long cut.

The Aire at Shan House Bridge

Calder & Aire confluence

Carry on down the pre-walked path before moving to the north side of the river at Shan House Bridge to walk the long circumference path of the St Aiden's Opencast site/country park. The day has now turned warm and pleasant, and its good to see there are folks out to enjoy the nicely appointed paths out here. I'd known that the Aire had burst its banks and flooded the mine workings, but I hadn't known that it happened as recently as 1988 and that it had taken a decade to pump the water out of the site. No surprise that it stopped being economically viable, and it explains why the two bridges along here link seemingly unrelated lands after the river was rechanneled. Following the best path takes us away from the river for a while, and around a pair of the ox-bow lakes formed by the redirection of the river and also around Lowther Lake, one of many flooded pits now acting as fishing pond and nature reserve. Meet the day's only cyclist along here too, as she returns home towards the city and completely fails to understand the word 'footpath'. Thence onto the flood embankment, and follow that past more flooded pits to Allerton Bywater, where one house's desire to have riverfront setting forces the walker away from the riverside. So through the local park to return by Allerton wharf, and beyond The Boat Inn, the path is conveniently paved but is it the best path to carry home your shopping from the supermarket, I must wonder? The industrial plants of Castleford are now clear in the landscape, and the path down to the Castleford cut isn't a public right of way, but I'm feeling like rebel so walk it anyway. Here we meet the confluence of the Aire and the Calder, and despite the fact that the Aire continues south from here, it's quite apparent from a study of the river channels that it is really the Aire that pours into the Calder.

Castleford Viaduct

Castleford Cut

Castleford lock is enormously bizarre, or bizarrely enormous, and might actually a flood lock on closer thought, and the Castleford cut forms an enormous marina, divided by the A656 bridge, and with its boatyard and coal staithes it still has a bit of a 19th century feel. It's a damn long walk too at the end of the day, but it's the only place where I see one of the coal barges famously known as 'Tom Puddings', and the signs indicate that non-boaters are not welcome around Bulholme Lock, the first such instance on the canal. I had intended to stop here, but walk out into the Fairburn Ings nature reserve to take a look at the iron bowstring Castleford Viaduct, built in 1878 as part of the NER's Castleford - Garforth branch and now rusting away, this is one forgotten relic that looks like its beyond saving. Retrace steps back to the lock for the last stretch, crossing the lock and returning down the opposite side of the cut then towards the town via an industrial estate and the A656, not the prettiest of detours, I must admit. You do get the 1808 road bridge and its 2008 footbridge counterpart to prettify the Aire though, and it's along the riverside to the start of the Castleford Riverside trail we go to see where we'll be starting the next arm of the Aire & Calder Navigation explore in a couple of weeks, and all that remains is an odyssey through the town to find the railway station to find a train home because the 153 bus takes way too long to get to Morley, for some reason.

1,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 264.3 miles