The month of May is finally here, my favourite month of the year, and even though I am not currently in the best of conditions right now (feeling far too many niggles and non-walking related pains), I'm hopeful for a good month and if all goes to plan I could get 9 (count 'em) walking excursions down over the coming 4 weeks. Long weekends and jollies will give me plenty of time to get busy with what I enjoy going most, and let's burn a day of annual leave to give me a 4 day break for May Day weekend, allowing me to have a couple of decently long excursions plus necessary rest and relaxation times between. My progress for the year is also going well, at a similar mileage rate to last year and also making good progress down my list of walking targets too, so I'm pleased that I'm on the edge of completing the first of major plans of the year, namely blazing a trail to the administrative centres of West Yorkshire, and I'd saved Halifax for last on the assumption that this trail would probably require a decently long day, as well as good weather if this is to be my only visit to Calderdale for the entire year.
Morley to Halifax, via Birstall, Gomersall, Cleckheaton & Brighouse 15.3 miles
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| Morley RFC |
As usual, I'm starting out form Morley Town Hall, at a little after 9am, but unusually, it's under blue skies with the morning sun beating down, and a good 6 hour window of sunshine bodes well for the day as I start out up Wellington Street past the backs of the Town Hall and Morrisons, to meet Queensway, ascending past the play area and skate park on Scatcherd Park, as well as the Leisure Centre which is surely the crowning achievement of our local councillors in the last few years. Across Corporation Street and onto Scatcherd Lane, for some 20th century hosing development before meeting Morley Cricket Club, home of many of the town's organised festivities, and Morley RFC, who remain a Union team after the representatives missed the 1895 meeting in Huddersfield that founded the RFL because they were in the pub. Housing turns 19th century upscale, undoubtedly the nicest corner of the town, as we arrive at Dartmouth Park, named after the 2nd Earl of Dartmouth, the industrial benefactor of the town in the late 18th century, and looking like it has had a bit of a spruce up since I last came this way, for it is the nicer of the two parks in the town, but still feels a bit old fashioned (that might be a good thing). Out to meet the A650, and there's no alternative route to pacing down to Bruntcliffe Crossroads, so a long pavement walk starts, turning on to the A643, which could easily be followed all the way to Brighouse though I'm all for seeking out the more interesting routes, so Ill stay on this path on as long as in necessary, pointing out another outpost of the Primitive Methodists and getting something of the view of the distant highlands that i was denied two weeks ago as I pass over the M62. It's a panorama that I now know a lot better than when the Leeds Country Way brought me this way two years ago, and I'll pace the other side of the road for a bit of variation this time, necessarily as the path only remains on this side as the road descends down through the woods of Howden Clough, eventually meeting the view southwards and the entrance to Kirklees district opposite the well-preserved Howden Clough mill, hiding away behind a lot of spring leaf growth. Every trip seems to go through Kirklees doesn't it, intruding onto every route to the five boroughs (except Leeds, of course), and I'll make my bid to get off the A643 at Nab Lane, just so I can see the spot where two lost railways used to cross, for the L&NWR New Leeds Line used to pass beneath the GNR Wrenthorpe - Adwalton line, but aside from the obvious and huge road bridge there is little evidence to tease the untrained eye, largely as the embankment of one has been bulldozed into the cutting of the other. Nab Lane itself is blocked off at the bridge, probably to prevent it becoming a rat run to Birstall retail park, and so the traffic to the domestic waste recyclers can be uninterrupted, and you do wonder what that man in the fold up chair directing the cars leaving the site is actually doing.
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| Oakwell Hall |
A wander through an industrial estate isn't the nicest of routes, even on a sunny day, but the road being called Pheasant Drive is at least better than me having been convinced it was 'Pleasant', but I'm going this way to pass over another of the New Leeds Line's hidden overbridges, before turning down alongside the infilled cutting behind the local houses. The railway walk rapidly peters out among a cluster of 1970s house, but a path can be found between them and some industrial units, offering a view of the remaining abutment of the bridge at the north end of Birstall Upper station, over the A62, and happily the mill that the map claims can still be found, not demolished like so many others. Avoid the middle of Birstall, only previously visited when I needed to see my conveyancer when buying my flat, taking the footpath that winds its way uphill via some impressive terracing before passing behind an apartment complex and winding up in the garden of a very old house indeed. These smaller towns do develop in the mot unusual of ways, throwing houses of many different ages into small spaces without obvious of a developmental plan, with upscale and low grade frequently at very close proximity, and here's another pub called the White Bear, and this one is faring just as poorly as the one at Tingley, sadly. Nova Lane is the next target, slipping off the main road like a hidden country lane before moving through a council estate, and this leads me up towards Oakwell Country Park, which I hadn't actually intended to visit when I picked my route, but I'm so close it would seem foolish not to, especially as you can see the house from the road. So up to the house I head, a heavily blackened Elizabethan pile with associated stables block that has been in municipal hands since the 1920s and acts as the Kirklees version of Temple Newsam, a good spot to break for elevenses, feeling that it should surely be busier than it feels. It turns out the people mostly head to the nature trails or the extensive Colliery Field section of the park, which busy up as I make my way onward, and that's yet another colliery park on my trail, Gomersal Pit lasting from 1911 to 1973 and now home to parkland on the spoil heaps, with car parks and recreation grounds on the colliery site, plus a life size sculpture to really illustrate the conditions of underground mining.
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| Gomersall Methodist Church |
It's a shame I couldn't loiter here longer, as it would lend itself to closer examination, though it will probably be an ideal afternoon filler for the next time my nieces come this way, but I need to keep moving on, out of the park and across the A629 to find the ascending path that leads through the fields that form a green strip that divides Gomersal in half, I'm not even sure where the centre lies, probably in the lower of the two halves. This is yet another town that I have no knowledge of prior to today's passage, I'm only really familiar with it because it almost shares a name with Rugby Union player Andy, but from my brief minute crossing the A651, it looks like this corner is the usual mix of post-rural makeovers and contemporary attempts to blend in with them, with available plots for further development. Crest the hillside as I pass down West Lane, and before the Spen Valley is entered we can see the most attractive building in this quarter of the town, namely Gomersal Methodist church of 1877, which has a broad convex front that adds dynamism to the familiar square structure, forming a nice little grouping with its Sunday school building. Thence down Ferrand Land back into the countryside, offering views to the hills around Bradford and winding its way downhill until I'm met by a trio of gates, to farm, campsite and fields, all locked and with no indication of the path I'm planing to take, so after much pondering, I'm forced to take the other available path out to Cliffe Lane instead (an examine of the OS website later, it indicates that the ROW has been rescinded through the campsite without an alternative being established, which I didn't think was permissible). Along the way meet a lady who is having to coax stray chickens back into her yard, and it seems that the best way to do this is with a breadcrumb trail, because chickens are not the brightest of creatures, and once on the road again, its down hill past the empire of polytunnels down the next cross-country path to find that this one is also scheduled to be withdrawn owing to residential development coming to this particular field. Surely it's not that difficult to allow for 5 feet of land for a path, I ponder, but as the development hasn't started yet, i feel no qualms at all about pulling aside the fence and walking down through the field and rough ground all the way down to meeting the trackbed of the New Leeds Line again, just at the northern throat of the site of Cleckheaton Spen station. It's not a time for railway walking though, instead slipping down the the perimeter of the huge embankment on which the station stood, to get views across to the town from the field boundary and sight of many, many bunnies retreating to safety in the largest rabbit warren that I have yet seen.
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| Cleckheaton Viaduct |
I had hoped that the rising path alongside the lagoon formed by the dammed section of the River Spen would afford me a good view of Cleckheaton Viaduct, built not for railway but for road traffic to allow the L&NWR station to be easily accessible from the town on the other side of the valley, but I've arrived to late in the year, an Spring growth has almost entirely obscured its iron piers and masonry plinths from view. It's available to walk across though, offering views of the steeper end of the Spen Valley, and it's a remarkable survivor too, having not had a station to serve since 1953, or anything else at all since, and I'm sure it wouldn't be rocket science to get it linked to the Spen valley Ringway, only half a mile distant at Royds Park. So onward into Cleckheaton, starting to busy up around lunchtime, and it's just a bit too early for me to repose in the Savoy Cinema garden, and I'll continue on, snaring another bonus Town Hall, of 1890, by Mawson & Hudson, a much more modest and parochial version than those of the larger towns of West Yorkshire, but still attractive and offering much to the folks of Spenborough. Carry on up Market Street, feeling delight that the town centre pubs are all still in business, and meet the A643 again, following out of town as it really is the only available route in this direction, passing beneath the old railway bridge carrying the Spen Valley Greenway, and the memorial to the railway accident of 1929 when coal wagons were shunted onto the butchers shop below (thankfully non-fatally). The initial pull along Westgate is easygoing enough, passing out of the urban town towards the suburbs, with the Lion Confectionery factory providing the dividing point, and as the road turns to Moorside it gets altogether leafier, with the gates to the former Broomfield Mill still standing by the roadside and St Luke's church making itself much more prominent than the parish church did. Then the hard drag comes on, one of the steepest sections of A-Road that I can immediately think of, the sort of ascent that makes you resent the sun for being out and warm when a nice breeze would be more welcome, and it's more old farmsteads and later suburban outliers along the road all the way to Hartshead Moorside, up the crossroads with the A649, with its competing pubs opposite each other, the Old Packhorse and the New Packhorse. Move along to cross the M62 bridge, just north of the service station, and as the road continues to ascend, I feel that we must surely be at the top of the day, with my surroundings of Hartshead Moor Top looking like a quiet hamlet that just happens to have a dual carriageway running through it.
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| Thornhills Beck Viaduct |
I'll not be following the A643 to Brighouse, instead joining the path of the Kirklees Way as it offers some green walking once again, and as the farm track descends to Whitaker Pits farm, the view of the hills returns, but now indicating a clearer path into Calderdale and away from Kirklees, and once some donkeys have been startled and folks greeted at the farm, it's on through the woods to find a spot to take lunch in the long, damp grass, and today must be proving hard work as all eight slices of pizza go into my face without difficulty. Moving on I immediately regret my gluttony, pacing rather slowly and heavily across the fields but another great panoramic view from Emley Moor to Alpine Bradford is enough to inspire progress, as I work my way back down to the harder surfaces, eventually meeting Jay House Lane to make the descent to Brighouse. Soon enough we slip out of the fields and into a nice wooded glade, taking care to avoid oncoming traffic and wondering why people would drive out here to dump unwanted furniture, and shortly the Calderdale Way is met, and I'm coming this way because walking that path brought me close to Thornhills Beck viaduct on the L&Y Pickle Bridge line without me catching sight if it, so today I'm here with that exact purpose. Again, Spring growth hasn't done the view if it any favours, with 4 of its 5 arches largely obscured from view with only the broad skewed arch clearly visible above the road, but that's another stray viaduct off the list of railway relics, just when i think I might be running out of them. Descend to the ford crossing Cifton beck, where the depth gauge indicates that it is sometimes 1000% deeper than it is today, and it's been 100m of descent since Hartshead Moor Top and I allow myself to think that the hardest work of the day has been done as I walk through the still active mills of the town up to the A641. Not heading for the town centre, I instead cut across the town via Thornhill Bridge Lane and Waterloo Road which feature much more ascent than I had anticipated as they traverse the elevated finger of land that Brighouse resides upon, and the town really is an empire of stone terraces, I've no idea why I thought this place was small. Across the A644 and its suddenly downhill very sharply down Brighouse Wood lane, passing an odd crenellated tower and carefully picking my steps down the cobbles to meet the A6025, and I realise that I have somehow managed to plot a route that passes through 5 river valleys, and there will be a lot more hard work before today is done, even though that shouldn't be a surprise because I know what Calderdale is like, after all.
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| 'Red Beck Vale' |
Along the road past the Red Rooster (another pub for you Rolling Stones fans) and past the industrial units that cluster alongside Red Beck and then the ascending starts again, hauling up to Brookfoot lane, the sort of road that I didn't expect to be busy but actually has more traffic than I am honestly comfortable with, even when I have a decent width of pavement to walk along. I start to wonder why I didn't choose a route through Bailiff Bridge and Hipperholme as my calves start to ache, but I figure that I wouldn't have gotten such a good view on that path as the valley views open below me, and oddly this one doesn't seem to have a name, though its upper half is Shibden Dale and it looks to be shaping up to be just as scenic and just as hidden. As the road levels off, we find the influence of the Marshalls aggregate works seems to spread widely on its site below Southowram, and i think there surely can't be much hillside left for them to excavate, though they still seem busy enough, with large quantities of their bricks and slabs being stored in the car parks. Away from the road finally as I find Cow Lane, alongside which a farm grouping has had a very snazzy executive makeover, but no good reason can be found for why one house has and armoured personnel carrier in its garden, and the views into the valley improve as I high retaining wall rises on the other side, and these walls seem to be a feature of this corner of Calderdale, built to keep fields level and to prevent them sliding down the hillside. The farm track leads down to Brookfoot View farm, where the ongoing route isn't obvious and I have to be directed by one of the residents after having looked over every fence in the vicinity, and it does go down the narrow strip of lawn in front of it, from where the best view of Red Beck Vale (as I have now named it) can be gained. Then in amongst more high walls and up steps to more rolling grassland, before passing down and up to a long stretch along a wall that is more consistently impressive than anything that will be encountered along Hadrian's Wall, before finding another badly hidden junction that leads me onto a decently level track across fields through cows and on to Walter Clough farm. Clambering over the gate there, I am immediately greeted by the owner and his big dog, telling me that I am on private property and that the ROW has been moved out of his yard, and that I shouldn't be travelling with a 15 year old E288, I apologise and am sent on my way to the correct route, wondering if I'm going to get to my destination without any more strange routing moments, four in one day is just silly.
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| Halifax from Southowram Bank |
On to Walter Clough Lane and back uphill, past the entrance to the farm that has had a very large gate installed, so they clearly don't want people in their yard, and my path continues alongside the clough that I have already named twice, and the day seem to turn from being consistently sunny as I go, and seeing that I'm closing in on 3pm, this day starts to feel like it has gone on too long. I could continue along the road to bank top, but choose the path across the fields, and that is soon a regrettable decision as each field is pitched to offer little by way of an obvious route to the next, I pause to water thinking that I must have gone soft, as I'm certainly having a harder time today than on any of my other trips this year. After Marsh farm, Marsh Lane returns me to a hard surface but I feel like me feet are really dragging heavily, a really bad enthusiasm fall off is going on, I guess this is going to happen after the working the first five day week in the last three, and it's a proper haul to get myself up to Bank Top, which I'm guessing is suburban Halifax at this quarter, offering a mix of old and new once again, with apartment buildings stood by the road that names the village. Once the hill is crested, and a few steps are taken down the hillside to the top of Southowram Bank, the spirits start to revive as a view across the Hebble Valley opens up and a panorama evolves with Ovenden Moor and Wainhouse Tower at the bottom, with the town in the valley bottom, clearly enclosed on all sides by the rising hills. It's another path that requires careful steps down, certainly not one to ascend regardless of how enthusiastic you might be feeling, listening to the passing cars on the cobbles sounding like they are driving on bubble wrap, and the shifting vistas above the trees offering fresh sight lines on the town's architectural highlights below (and above, in some cases). Eventually the bottom is met, having passed over the Calderdale line and over Beacon Hill tunnel, and one more corner is turned and you are on the edge of the town centre, having had virtually no suburban interaction on this side with the hillside being too steep for the town to expand upwards onto it. I've dropped in on Cripplegate just behind Halifax Minster, and it would be easy to make a beeline for the railway station as my legs have had enough for the day, but my target is the town hall, so my path has to continue, but at least I'm in a place where a long sit down can be obtained easily.
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| Halifax Town Hall & Self |
I'll take the path up the side of the former Parish church, 15th century Perpendicular Gothic, and still blacked by soot, another building that I hope never gets cleaned, and also look over to the war memorial gardens, with a monument that is surely an echo of Edwin Lutyens' Cenotaph design, and then its on up past several enduring mill buildings to cross Charles Street and meet the path that ascends Gaol lane between the Woolshops Centre and the Royal Mail depot. This leads me up to Market Street, where Calderdale Council advertises its presence boldly, but sadly follows the lead of Kirklees by inhabiting a building that is not pretty in any way, and from there it's a short walk up Crossley Street to the fifth (or sixth) and final Town Hall of West Yorkshires districts. It's honestly a slightly crazy design, of 1862 by Charles Barry (famously co-designer of the Palace of Westminster), with an Italian Renaissance body and a stylistically inappropriate Mansard roof, plus a tower and spire that defy easy categorisation, falling somewhere between the Royal Liver Building and St George's, Bloomsbury to these eyes. It's another one that is enclosed on a relatively small footprint, making it difficult to photograph from any angle, despite me taking a walk all the way around it, but no matter, that's my goals for the day, and the end of 2014's first themed tour, and I'll depart down Corn Market, leaving behind the financial district, original home to the Halifax Building society, and into the retail district. It looks like the whole area was built in a relatively short time back in the 19th century, achieving a unity of style that is most appealing, and it gets me thinking that Halifax might be the best preserved of all the West Yorkshire Town, though it looks like it could use an economic revival but where couldn't these days? I'll trot down Westgate Arcade, a version of Leeds' Victoria Quarter in miniature, so that I can take a look at the Piece Hall of 1775, the oldest surviving cloth hall in the country, but frustratingly it's all closed up, for a £19M refit that won't be completed until 2016, so I'll have to wander round to the gate on Cross Street, to take a look at the interior with colonnaded arcades running all around the sides, and aside from the pediment and lantern above the gate, the exterior is entirely featureless, proving the 18th century merchants felt no need to show off like their 19th century successors did. Still, that's last calling point on the day, only a short walk across Church Street to get to the Railway Station, and it's 4.10pm when I land on the platform, and that's been my hardest day since last October, and that soreness on my neck and face indicates probable sunburn too, this year really is marching on apace isn't it?
Next on the Slate: A Long Weekend means a Long Walk, with Castles!
1,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 1056.9 miles
(2014 total: 143.7 miles)
(Up Country Total: 977.5 miles)
(Solo Total: 866 miles)
(Declared Total: 848.7 miles)
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