Emley Moor & the Dewsbury Arm 08/03/14

Once I started thinking about places that I have regularly regarded whilst on my travels but never visited, the list started to rapidly expand as tracks and high points started to be recalled and added to my list. So onto my plans go Almscliffe Crags (the first visible high point of Lower Wharfedale) and the pair of Great Whernside and Buckden Pike (seen from afar on so many times on my trails about the Wharfe and Aire), and then you start considering the routes you had plotted and then never gotten to, like the Barnsley Canal and the long odyssey between Towton and Marston Moor battlefields, and they have to be added on too. Plus small fragments and un-used deviations start to appear as you plot, and future routes start to get shaped to somehow add them into the schedule, so that a route might start to look somewhat eccentric, but adds in a mile or so that you wouldn't have been able to factor in otherwise. That is why the Dewsbury Arm of the Calder & Hebble Navigation got onto today's route, with the Emley Moor transmitter being the primary goal, because of all the features of Yorkshire, this really is the one that is the standard candle, the landmark that can be seen for, quite literally, many miles around.

Shepley to Dewsbury, via Shelley, Emley Moor, Flockton, Thornhill and the Dewsbury Arm 
      11.4 miles



Shelley, & Emley Moor Transmitter

I would make more sense to approach Emley Moor transmitter from the north, thus having something far from home be drawn closer, but train schedules, sunshine schedules and my natural aversion to walking south means that I start out from Shepley on the Penistone Line at 10.30am, completely in the middle of terra incognita as I have never been out here before. Set out along the footpath called stretch gate, between the fields in the direction of Shelley and only a few steps have been made before getting sight of my destination, only an hour or so distant, but largely shrouded in cloud so only half of the concrete column is visible, and I wonder if this is going to be one of those days like my trip up Ingleborough, never really seeing the featured destination of the day. The track bottoms out at Shepley Beck, still in the catchment of the Colne, I think, and past the wasteland which looks like it used to be the village mill, then ascend to cross the A629 and make my way up through the village along Far Bank. It's quite a pull uphill, and I keep the jets going hard to get to the top of the village, one built largely in stone and not demonstrating an obvious centre, but it does have a good Methodist Hall at the bottom and an oddly austere village hall at the top. 70m of ascent later, and the track levels, crossing the B6116 to follow the path behind the high terrace of houses, naturally titled Back Lane, before finally hitting the fields for a gently rising wander across a quartet of fields before dropping out by Pilling Top farm, where the local dog is guarding well as it barks at me from behind the wall, sight unseen.

Emley Moor Transmitter,
 from Roydhouse

The ascent has started to give me a full perspective around Kirklees district, and it's a horizon that isn't familiar at all, the only immediately identifiable feature being Castle Hill, and I ponder my surroundings as I move to walk alongside the road, with the transmitter getting closer but still half hidden by cloud. Return to the fields once I've found the footpath that doesn't lead me into a wood processing yard, and rising over the fields, following the ROW, offers me another of those 270 degree panoramas looking south that give some useful pointers in this alien landscape, and Huddersfield and Castle Hill appear to the west, with the cleft of the Holme valley in the south west. The distant hills of the Dark Peak are off to the south, with the Dearne valley rising to the south east and the fields all round are about as arable as the come, so greenery is the order of the day beneath the grey clouds, all told not the most exciting of districts, but the High Moors have spoiled me, it's time to get used to extensive farm land again. From my viewpoint at 245m, it a short and moist descent before the rise towards the hamlet of Roydhouse, and I have to guess where the path might lead, eventually deciding that it really does lead right through someone's back yard before returning to the road. For such a small settlement, it does have a very large pub / restaurant complex, The 3 Acres, which might describe the scale of the building itself, and the transmitter tower loom ever closer, with just one more rise to achieve, once again along the roadside. All attention is focused on my destination, admittedly arriving far too early in the day, at least until the footpath runs out and I have to pick the safest place to be on the road, and at its steepest and blindest point to boot. Note the Shelley / Emley parish boundary marker and finally rise to the Emley Moor summit, not a High Moor as it's only 265m at its highest point in the neighbouring field, but still pretty bleak and remote, and offering perspectives all round West Yorkshire as the behemoth of a transmitter looms above you.

Emley Moor Transmitter, from Jagger Lane

The steel mast at the moorland summit is dwarfed by the concrete giant stood beyond it, and I wonder if I'm close enough to be standing within its radius, as the roadside is as close as I can get to it, as I'd need to be guest of Arqiva to get any closer to it, though the compound looks pretty deserted at Saturday lunchtime... Move up to the viewing point alongside Jagger Lane, which is actually too close to the transmitter for it to be possible to fit it in in a single photograph, but at 330m tall, it is the tallest free-standing structure in the country, completed in 1971 and broadcasting to an area of over 10,000 km2. The antenna and viewing platform have finally become visible too, through the wispy cloud, which has either lifted or become more transparent with proximity, and I think low cloud helps you appreciate the height of the transmitter, which might otherwise rise into a featureless sky unabated. For the first time on my wandering in 2014, I stop to eat lunch, having previously managed to go without on my excursions, but food will have to go down hurriedly as the wind is chill and there's only so much you can appreciate an engineering triumph whilst your skin temperature drops. So move on, completely failing to get a fix on the features to the north, another notable failure to orientate myself, as I look to the north east and completely misidentify the distant features which later turn out to be Ossett parish church and the city of Wakefield, and it's alongside Jagger lane we go, sheltered by trees and walking against the traffic for over half a mile towards Emley, passing one of the funniest warning signs I 've ever seen (attention being drawn to animal and children crossing with a duck represented as being as large as the kids). I can understand why this elevated land is mostly occupied by scattered farmsteads, but finding the odd terrace by the roadside seems somewhat eccentric, and as soon as sight of Emley village is gained, it's time to hit the bridleways north, for the long haul over to the Calder Valley.

Emley Moor Transmitter,
from Common Lane

Stringer House Lane seem rather well occupied for a dirt track, so I really don't understand how development works, but beyond there Crawshaw Lane it completely devoid of life or seeming attachment to any of the adjacent fields, again feeling like an ancient road that never quite joined the modern world. Sunshine starts to break through and clouds lift as I move half a mile on, descending to meet Six Lanes End, where six track and roads meet, and I'll take the next one to the right, Common Lane, doubling back on myself and obtaining a ghastly walking surface of churned up mud, but do gain a good view back to the transmitter as it gradually recedes to being a landscape feature again. The footpath confusingly leads me down into someone's front yard before I can find the track down to the crossing of Flockton Beck, but getting up the field on the other side proves challenging when the local sheep (brown and white, and horn-ed) decide to charge down the hillside to greet me, assuming I'm there to feed them, which startles the pair of Highland cows present who take it upon themselves to try to chase me out of their field, and only an uphill stretch and their docile level of aggression save me from a stampeding. Once again, I find that I am not in nature's good books, and I have to water myself and have a few minutes of respite on the edge of Flockton before crossing the A637 and hauling myself over the rise up the field boundaries to the A642, and the dirt bikers tearing it up in one field prove to be much less dangerous than the sheep and cows. Denby Grange Lane leads me over the crest of the hill to offer up views towards Thornhill, and showing up an expensive looking makeover at the grange itself, before turning to a dirt track to descend down to Denby Lane, for a brief meeting with the Kirklees way, passing through Woodlands Farm, which has also had an executive do-over, making it look a lot like a holday village.



The Cross, Thornhill

Follow the track on down to Lower Denby farm, enjoying the view into the cleft covered by Denby Wood, and continuing down the bridleway to Heigh House, which turns out to be a mistake as it it horribly carved up, probably by forestry traffic, and no care has been taken to consolidate the surface in a long while. Something is sure to go wrong on a wet and muddy surface like this and loss of balance sees me dropping my camera into the ooze, but amazingly it still works when I extract it and clean is off, bless you Fuji Finepix E900, you really do keep on coming through for me! Judy Haigh Lane returns me to a hard surface, and as I cross Smithy Beck and Howroyd Beck, I realise that I am completely filthy, an ideal look for me as return to civilisation and the ascent of Thornhill Edge, which has many expensive looking houses spread across its southern facing side. It's a good 100m up, along Edge Road and Albion Road to meet the high edge, crossing the Kirklees Way again, and getting my last good look back towards Emley Moor from next to the Flatt Top pub, named after the 80s haircut and with an inaccessible door midway up its side wall. Moving into Thornhill proper, you realise that the town is largely a council estate dropped onto a hilltop between the older terraces, and aside from it being the home of 'Educating Yorkshire', it is place that you know nothing about, for like Kippax it is not a place you would encounter in passing. The Town, a road named as such, seems to be the High Street, and at its top end is The Cross, which is probably the most picturesque corner of the town, if viewed from the correct angle, and then Overthorpe Road starts the decent from the hilltop, having finally given me a correct orientation towards Ossett and Dewsbury and all the altitude gained is lost as I follow Slaithwaite Road all the way down to the canal side, and then retrace the path along the Calder and Hebble Navigation so that I might be able to get a picture of the three-arched viaduct crossing, built as part of the Midland Railway's abortive 1906 Savile Town branch, when it is not completely obscured by foliage.

The Dewsbury Arm & GNR Bridge

Dewsbury Basin

Onward to Thornhill locks, making may for the gang of cycling lads, and find my way to Dewsbury Junction to get in one of the pair of stubs of the Calder & Hebble Navigation, namely the Dewsbury Arm (I can't find a more formal name for it, so that will have to suffice) and it may be less than a mile long, but it was a significant route for the textiles trade from its completion in 1770 to the advent of the railways, and I'm pleased that it has endured, because I loves me a industrial relic. Heading under the Calderdale line railway bridge, it doesn't look like the branch gets a lot of boat traffic, judging by the amount of weed growing out from the water's edge, but the path is well used by walkers and cyclists, and also by anglers, out in mass beyond the railway bridge which was once part of the L&Y's branch to Dewsbury Market Place station (active 1867 - 1930), and still remaining in use to service a local cement works. Onward under Bretton Street Bridge, to come close to Mill Street East, where there's a nicely plain commemorative canal mural, before swinging away again to pass beneath a relatively ornate latticework railway bridge (ornate compared to the plate girders on the previous one), and this is part of yet another railway line, the GNR's Headfield spur, built in 1887 and linking its 1874 metals of the Dewsbury loop to those of the L&Y, enduring on and off as a good route as late as 1990. If I were in charge of planning for railway bridges, I think they might all be bowstrings, hopefully this one is earmarked for the Sustrans treatment after their good works on the nearby Headfield Viaduct and Earlsheaton tunnel, and then it can remain in situ to remind people of the enterprising railway age of the 19th century when four railway companies gave Dewsbury five different stations. Paying attention to the canal again, the waterfront development that every town seem to get has grown up on the eastern bank, so residents can get the views of angling and kids testing their arm strength chucking stones into the water. The moorings start to appear, and the canal swing around to show up Dewsbury basin, naturally crowded like every marina, but I do wonder how many of the boats are actually active, still it's a nice spot as the sun shines, largely surrounded by low rise factories, complete with pub and cafe, which confirm my belief that many wayside hostelries are kept in business by passing cyclists.

Cloth Hall Mills

Back onto Mill Street East for the final stretch, road walking among the factories, including the north's largest producer of greetings cards, and the local Arriva bus depot, wishing that industrial roads would get the cleansing treatment a bit more than they do, before turning right to Savile Road, opposite Asda, to cross over the Calder as it loops its way through the town. Next feature is Dewbury Minster, an ancient site, but with a largely Victorian exterior, built in that yellow sandstone that glow warmly as the afternoon sunshine falls upon it, and I really ought to go over to the town hall, to tag that for my wanderings, but time is against me if I don't want a long wait for my ride home, so keep on into the busy town centre, actually unaware of which direction I should be heading to get to the railway station. So I carry on along Westgate and Northgate, past the old market place and the shop called Guns & Roses, which is for all your firearms and florist needs in one handy location. The road leads me up towards the L&NWR's Dewsbury viaduct, carrying the mainline which still serves the town, and from the edge of the A638 Ring Road I can look back to Cloth Hall Mills, which might be my favourite building in West Yorkshire, largely because of the inscription upon it 'Machell Bros. Limited: Shoddy & Mungo Manufrs.', a reminder that this county once thrived producing the sort of textiles that no one would tolerate wearing these days. Then it's a race to the finish line, passing the statute of a Rugby player and a textile worker with huge breasts (?), and heading uphill to roll up the the railway station before 3.10pm, mere minutes before my ride home and actually feeling heavily exercised for the first time this year, and here's where the great thing about Dewsbury comes into play, it's only 20 minutes away from home!

Next on the slate: A railway walk along another line with a confusing history.


1,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 964.5 miles (2014 total: 51.3 miles)