Woodlesford to Cross Gates 21/04/14

I know that a Bank Holiday cannot be wasted on R'n'R when the weather promises to be good, but I have learned that it is wise to not throw yourself into a major excursion when you have to work the following day, because your legs are not gong to thank you when you need to do the things that keep you in bread, which my colleague who went up Ingleborough found out to her cost. So I need something of less than 7 miles to keep me interested and not exhausted, and the missing miles from the original route of my day from Stanley Ferry to Rothwell looks to fit that particular bill, because why shouldn't I spend my Easter Monday like so many other citizens of Leeds, by taking a walk in Temple Newsam Park?

Woodlesford to Cross Gates via Temple Newsam Park  5.8 miles


Rothwell Country Park Summit
& the City of Leeds

I'll take a later start than normal, to give the morning cloud a chance to clear away, a wise choice as the sun beats down as I disembark the train at Woodlesford at 11.40am, where I have never made an official start to a days walking (2012's visit not getting counted on my walking total), so let's get another one checked off the list of WY Metro stations that I have visited during my 1,000 mile journey. There are are lot of footbridges to negotiate before you can get off the station, and I'd venture that it has more ramps and steps than most other stations in the county, a veritable riot of elevated walkways, and from there to Station Road to wander alongside the railway to meet the picturesque corner of the village around the former All Saints church, nowadays a considerable house (and For Sale too!). The overall feel of the village along Church Street and Holmsley is late 70s suburbia, but with a few odd outliers like the glass and breeze-block house, or the village green with an attractive many-chimneyed farm house sat beyond it, but its all oddly quiet for a Bank Holiday Monday. Ill head into the green space along Pickpocket Lane, now a track for dogwalkers rather than petty theft, making a trail to Rothwell Country Park again, with an excellent view emerging of the days destination rising above the landfill tips that dwell alongside the River Aire. Out of the shade of the bridleway and out onto the rising path beyond the John O' Gaunts estate, hoping that my route across the former colliery spoil tip will afford me a view point, noting that the country park looks a whole lot more appealing with some sunshine and extra spring greenery. There's not a huge amount of elevation above the surrounding territory, but the viewpoint is as good as I could have hoped for, and whilst the views south and east are largely hazed over, to the west the view over the city of Leeds is excellent giving a whole panorama from Middleton to Seacroft, easily the best view in East Leeds. I must have seen all those towers in the city from all angles, and through the haze The Great Fire of Leeds is still going strong. This is surely a place to come again, ideally on a crisp winter morning with the low sun behind you to cast the city in sharp relief, hopefully when the summit circle has had its interpretative boards restored.


'Concrete Bridge'

Descend from the spoil heap, alongside patches that have not been turfed over to illustrate just what this hill is made of, rapidly losing altitude and arriving back on Bullough Lane, still feeling like an industrial road, following it down through the shade of trees to the railway bridge, wishing that some substantial relic of the colliery had remained in situ. Under the tracks and the path of the cycleway that I know exists between rails and canal, seems to rise in a loop to cross the path just walked, moving on alongside the Leeds - Castleford line for quite a way, but I've no real idea about the accessibility of this route as it doesn't feel very public, and the few rusting signs among the trees boldly declare 'Private Property' Meeting a parallel track merging to it has me even more confused, maybe the correct route was through that enormous puddle after all, but despite the bafflement, I'm sure access rights exist over the Concrete Bridges over the A&CN and the Aire, as other wanderers and riders emerge from the ether. Finding out the purpose of these bridges took some heavy duty Googling as they are not attached to any roads or ancient ROWs in the area, and do not feature on the 1951 OS96 that has been my go-to for not-too-distant map history in West Yorkshire, it seems that they were built to provide rail access to Skelton Grange Power station, since demolished but once the major feature of the post-industrial wasteland that now resides to the west of the M1, still unclaimed by redevelopment. A path passes below the motorway, despite it being built 4 years after the power station was decommissioned, so that proves there was intent to keep this land useful, and any crossing of the river and canal needs to be put to good use, but I'll not be utilising it, favouring the descent down to the riverside meadows and wetlands, developed on, you've guessed it, former open cast coal mines. Again I've no idea as to the legal access rights on this site, alongside where the Aire was heavily canalised to prevent flooding of the coal workings, and as far as the channel of Wyke Beck, I'm sure I'm using a private path only accessible to twitchers and anglers, though I am on the outside if the serious enclosure fence, so who knows?


Wyke Beck

The path that circumnavigates Skelton Lake doesn't offer good views through the heavy perimeter of trees, but the track is much more heavily built though for no apparent reason as no landfilling has gone on on this end of the Ings, but I'll watch the charging beck as it heads down to its outlet, and it's a notable feature of the landscape of East Leeds, affecting the city's pattern of development and feeding Roundhay Park and Eccup Reservoir much further up its course. I'll stick to the gravelled track when faced with a junction as the other option takes me back to used roads and closer to the M1, heading towards the hills built out of landfill, but keeping at a distance from them as a channel cuts across the site and directs me to the north, still wondering if I'm trespassing or not. Finding a metal gate with a notice on it gives me an opportunity to find out, and it seem that this area has had an application for paths and bridleways to be developed on it as of last year, and judging by the surfaces underfoot, it looks like the work is well advanced, so soon this will be a new country park to add to the list of East Leeds green spaces (next they need to get the access rights the St Aidan's pit site sorted out!). The path rise to Pontefract Lane where the M1 rages past above it and I am assailed by the smell of rotting meat, bags of which has been considerately dumped in the roadside ditch, and this is a road with a fun history, once a major route into the city but ignored when the roads were classified in the 20th century, declining to being a gated road before revival to national status with the redevelopment of the A63 in 2009. This section is still minor road, but not short on traffic, all of being dustbin lorries heading to the Leventhorpe landfill sites, and its along its edge I'll go spotting more new access points to the burgeoning country park, before taking the turn to pass under the M1, through an underpass styled to look like a 1980s branch of Sainsbury's. Now we can meet the Temple Newsam estate, right at its current southern boundary, but most of the land I've walked across since the riverside once belong to it  until the mining industry bit into it, and a rising path can be followed up to the interesting part of the estate, unless you can extract entertainment from seeing how different plants and trees bloom and blossom through the changing climates of spring, which I can, it seems.

Temple Newsam House

The quiet paths end as the route crests and Temple Newsam house emerges into view, lording over its grounds where the citizenry of Leeds have come out to play, and as I pass by I'll admire the view of the house of 1622, one of the finest Tudor - Jacobean houses in the land, with its associated stables and Home Farm below, and look out over the rolling landscapes of the grounds laid out by Capability Brown in the 1760s. It's such a good public park, maintained by Leeds City Council and I'm always happy to see so many people out and treating it with the respect it deserves, because few other local authorities have such massively notable antiquities in their care and manage to look after them so well. I won't be taking an extensive tour, that can be saved for the next season of #hibernot, but I'll make my way through the ball games, kite-flying, cycling and strolling to find a spot for the briefest of picnics, recalling a number of very drunken trips we made to Opera in the Park back in the day, and also the finest cricket catch I ever made, out on this very lawn in 2006 (caught and bowled, with the ball popped up over my head and grasped out of the air left-handed whilst performing a somersault) . If I were so inclined, I could easily lie on the grass here for quite a while, but I need to move on, dropping in on the stables block to pick up a route map of the park as there doesn't seem to be a good one available online, as well as finding more information on the walks along Wyke Beck for when I feel bold enough to cut a trail through East Leeds. Depart the throng and make my way beneath the parade of Elm trees up to the gatehouses out on the northern boundary, and I'm pretty sure that pedestrians aren't meant to come this way, risking their safety among the entering and exiting traffic, but if there's a gateway I'll walk through it rather than using the approved path. More playing fields follow, for the use of the locals of Halton, Colton and Whitkirk, and the path seems to be a stretch of Route 66, on the National Cycle Network, so from where I have encountered that on my travels, it seems to be taking the most eccentric of route across Yorkshire, I can only assume that cycle paths can be be circuitous as the cyclist can enjoy the meanderings whilst the walker would wonder why they aren't making the shortest route from point to point.

St Mary's, Whitkirk

Returning to Urban surroundings, my attention focuses towards the local parish church, St Mary's, Whitkirk, notable as one of only two medieval churches within the de facto City of Leeds, illustrating that this was once a rural community far removed from the bustle of urban life, and the surrounding buildings to the south of Selby Road suggest this theory too. It's a different story to the north though, with the 20th century showing itself boldly, with a shopping parade and the pub - Thai restaurant combo of the Brown Cow & Dragon across the way. I'll continue along Hollyshaw Lane towards Cross Gates and the urban sprawl of East Leeds, but again this was once a Victorian commuter village, developed with the coming of the railways and the east-facing terraces of large townhouse illustrate its brief history as a 19th century des-res, and the sight of the gas holder in the distance shows that it grew long before the city spread out this way. The history of urban development, not just in Leeds but anywhere, will always tell you that once the upscale developments have been made beyond the city, the spaces in between will gradually be filled in with lower grades of housing, and that is exactly what happened in Cross Gates through the 20th century. It's nice to open a window into its history though, as it's not a part of the town that I know well, only really acknowledging it as the home of an out of town shopping centre, and of the long debate as whether it is spelled as two words or one. Roll out to the A6120 Ring Road, where the 20th century landed hard, to cross over to the railway station, where the 19th century still dwells as it retains its period buildingsand pub, and the NER really did make an effort with their suburban stations back then. The station sits in a cutting lined in red brick with more long walkways and is a feat of engineering to far surpass what counts as a minor railway station these days, a real step back in time that deserves to have some steam trains running through it rather than the FTPEs. Anyways, that's my finish point for the day, and 2.35pm has my stroll done in under three hours, a good time and distance when work beckons tomorrow, and my ride home is less than 10 minutes distant, just enough time to ponder the thought 'I really need to do a lot more urban walking'.

Next on the Slate: Taking my Hospital Department out for drinks, and then, if I'm not to sozzled (and the weather holds off), going in search of a local viaduct and reservoir.


1,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 1033 miles
   (2014 total: 119.8 miles)

   (Up Country Total: 953.6 miles)
   (Solo Total: 842.1 miles)
   (Declared Total: 824.8 miles)