The Last Act: Bradford to Leeds 11/11/14

Well, the last day of the season is here, indeed the last day of my 3 year, 1,000 mile odyssey has finally arrived, it seemed such a long way away when I was first thinking about a long walking season to conclude on my 40th birthday, but over 1,100 miles have gone down since then, and I'm only just shy of 1,400 on the whole enterprise. Having featured five long circular trails, two cross-country treks and a whole mess of summits and high points, the season almost calls out for a dramatic conclusion, but mid November is no time to be making for Black Hill or Great Whernside, and I'll have to settle for somewhere a bit more mundane, and a trip to the old country of my first 14 years in West Yorkshire seems to be in order as I haven't visited my old haunts in Burley and Hyde Park since I moved away 7 years ago. Of course, a start in Bradford is pretty remote from there, but it makes more sense then striking out from New Pudsey or Horsforth, and anyway, filling in the gap between Leeds and Bradford seems appropriate at this late stage, indeed the city of Bradford deserves another apology, as whilst the district as a whole offers plenty for the walker, the city offers nothing at all. I have kept avoiding it as it has no green corridors or riverside walks, whilst development has ruined much of it historical face and the town planners seem to have favoured the motorist far more than the pedestrian, and whilst the terraces and suburbs of Leeds offer a kind of familiarity to me, those of Bradford have no resonance for me at all. But none of that is such a worthy excuse to ignore it completely, it is the second city of West Yorkshire after all, and so it deserves more than just the one visit during my 3 years of travels.

Bradford to Leeds, via Tyersal, Pudsey, Upper Armley, Burley & Hyde Park  12.6 miles

Brighouse to Batley 09/11/14

The final corners of the season are here already, the last days of my three year odyssey as well for that matter, and having been good to my word to do a lot of wandering below the Calder - Colne boundary, I still find that there are corners of Kirklees that I haven't ventured into. Far too many actually. Last year I apologised for not getting anywhere near Slaithwaite or Meltham, and a year on neither of those locations have been visited on my travels, and even with all those lines coming down on my map, I have somehow failed to go anywhere  near Mirfield as well, so I can only conclude that there will still be plenty of paths to pursue when more walking comes on in 2015. For now, though, a trip across the Spen Valley seems in order, as the top corner of this district has been largely forgotten when most of my routes went south, and so we head to the land of Cleckmondedge once again, to see if its best features are still there, and to sneak in a railway walk that could have easily been forgotten about. Additionally, as I'm trying to make the best of the weather whilst November offers days that are little more than 8 hours long, I'm travelling on a Sunday without making any changes to my plan, which means that my start line in Brighouse is not 35 minutes distant, but nearly 2 hours via the long way round through Bradford and Halifax.

Brighouse to Batley, via Clifton, Liversedge, Heckmondwike & Birstall.  10.5 miles

Wakefield to Dewsbury 25/10/14

This time last year I had just about run out of energy and was trying to keep the season going when my body was feeling extremely reluctant to keep going, and it's a good feeling to find that twelve months on my demeanour is feeling much more resolute and my body feels like there are still many more miles to be put down this season. A change in the weather helps, and after glum days and general exhaustion taking hold in September, the weekends of October have felt much more amenable to being out of doors, and with the joys of Autumn in the air, I finally look towards that major architectural feature that has cropped up again and again on my travels without me ever getting that near to it, and if the day is only going to be a relatively short stroll once again, I'm going to find plenty to see as I fill in another gap on the map and make a significant trip between Wakefield district and Kirklees for the very first time. (A deeply trainspotterish thing to note along the way is on riding out to Wakefield Westgate, I think that on all my travels, I have now ridden on every type of rail unit that serves the lines of West Yorkshire, the class 322 EMU being the only one not previously encountered, and whilst that has nothing to do with my walking exploits, it shows that a small part of my youthful brain is still active.)

Wakefield to Dewsbury, via Lupset & Ossett  9.3 miles

Woodlesford to Wakefield 18/10/14

If you cast your minds all the way back to the start of this year's walking season in February, you might recall that my trip from Morley to Wakefield took in a section of the old route of the Leeds Country Way, between West Ardsley and Alverthorpe, and so another section must remain of the 1980s route, unwalked to the east, discarded when the route was sensibly re-directed entirely with Leeds district. Helpfully, this section between Fleet Bridge and Alverthorpe doesn't come into too much contact with tracks already walked in the Leeds - Wakefield hinterland, and I need a reason to stroll in this quarter after spending so many weeks in the grip of Kirklees. Also, if you recall this time last year I was owing Kirklees an apology for having neglected it so badly in 2013, and now I find myself owing an apology to Wakefield for letting it drop from my schedule so comprehensively in 2014, especially as we got out to such a good start before it only made one appearance in the second half of the year, I guess that the Wakefield Way and this land of coal and agriculture will have to wait until 2015, it's good to have something to look forward to, I guess.

Woodlesford to Wakefield, via Bottom Boat & Stanley  10.5 miles

Huddersfield to Halifax 12/10/14

I'm not going to ruminate on running out of steam as my third walking season runs into Autumn, that would involve even more writing when my enthusiasm for this blog is already at an all time low, so let's just admit that once October rolled around, I was desperate for a weekend off to have a couple of long mornings in bed and to look forwards to running down the season with some more modest exploits. That means there will be no attempt on Black Hill this year, and a late season jaunt to Mallerstang shifts to the improbable side of unlikely, and filling in the blanks on the map starts to look like the plan for the remainder of the year, as once the three years of lines have been overlaid on Google Maps, there are still a few distinct holes where my feet have failed to fall. So after the third celebration of a 40th Birthday this year, for my best friend IH whose distaste for birthdays is unmatched among all the people I know, has gone by on the Friday evening (Thai food and Ales in Hebden Bridge, if you are wondering), I've still got most a weekend to use, and going out for a Sunday morning exercise seems to be the best course, and to make a return trip to Calderdale after claiming that I would only make it out there the one time, and the plan for the day is Colne to Hebble, or out through the north of Huddersfield, and into Halifax from the south, both routes which I have not taken on my travels around the county.

Huddersfield to Halifax, via Lindley, West Vale and the Halifax Arm.  10.4 miles

Kirklees Way #4: Dewsbury to Clayton West 23/08/14

Self at Dewsbury

August has been going well so far, so I think this is a cue to go against the clock again, not because I'm feeling like i should be going at a healthier clip, but more because I've got a hot date in the late afternoon (or that's how I've been teasing it on Facebook, more prosaically it's a barbecue at my supervisor's house in Garforth, scheduled in whilst we can still claim Summer is in the air). I've realistically got one bus ride from my destination that will get me home in time, and that's due at 2pm, so a very early start is in order, rolling through Dewsbury town centre as the low sun glowers down into my eyes, long before the citizens emerge to hit the shops and the only people about are busy setting up the urban beach around the town hall for August bank holiday weekend. One thing to ponder at this early hour, however, regarding the statue of two figures in the town hall square, notionally titled 'The Good Samaritan', it actually looks like someone tending their drunk friend after a heavy chundering session and ought to be titled something like 'I think that's the last of it' or 'That curry was a really bad idea'. Also, I'm not the only person on the internet to have made this observation, so look it up, but anyway, I think I'm starting to digress, so onward...

Kirklees Way #4: Dewsbury to Clayton West  12.6 miles

Hadfield to Penistone 21/06/14

Top of the year already, and I rarely get out to do anything with the longest day before the decline of Summer kicks in, so as we are entering the final corner of my three year odyssey this seems like a cue for a long day on the trail, aiming for the second most talked about route of all the paths that I have been considering over the last few years, namely the Woodhead Route, the late and lamented Manchester, Sheffiled & Lincolnshire Railway / Great Central Railway line from Hadfield to Penistone, now enduring as the central stretch of the Trans Pennine Trail. A big day also deserves company, and I request the company of my good friend MW, himself a keen walker and in the midst of his own voyage of experience in his 40th year, so that me might share a social expedition that the previous years have missed. Even before we have set out he has shown his value, acknowledging that a train ride from Leeds to Hadfield is unduly long and expensive, and that alighting at Stalybridge and getting a taxi will cut 40 mins of time and £10+ from travel costs. So onwards into virgin territory for the both of us, starting out on the very fringe of Greater Manchester, but actually with the High Peak District of Derbyshire, and it you'd like an alternative perspective on the day, hop over to MW's blog to enjoy a much brisker and more engaging writing style.

Hadfield to Penistone, via the Trans Pennine Trail  16.5 miles

Hadrian's Wall Path #1: Wallsend to Heddon on the Wall 18/05/14

Self at Segedunum, Wallsend

Spring Jollies arrive and that's a cue to travel far from my normal walking comfort zone, and to utilise the generosity of my parents for travelling and boarding purposes, and it's to Northumberland we head, basing ourselves in Corbridge for my first National Trail, as I should feature at least one before my initial three year odyssey ends, and that is going to be the Hadrian's Wall Path. Established as a National Trail in 2003 and 73 miles long, it follows the coast to coast route of the Hadrian's Wall World Heritage Site, and as a geographical and historical feature, it really should not need an introduction, but I will provide one in case you haven't been paying attention. Constructed on the orders of the Roman Emperor Hadrian in AD122, it was an 80 mile long defensive border and customs facility between Roman Britannia and the troublesome provinces of Caledonia (subject of two unsuccessful military campaigns in the preceding century), marking one of the first established frontiers anywhere in the world and of the beginning of the end of the centuries of expansion of the Roman Empire. Now it endures as a fascinating historical curiosity which has left a band of remnants across a broad stretch of Northern England, which should demand the attention of anyone who has an interest in the ancient history of these islands.

Hadrian's Wall Path #1: Wallsend to Heddon on the Wall  15.8 miles

Tingley Viaduct & Ardsley Reservoir 27/04/14

Taking the whole department out for drinks could have been an expensive business if all 26 staff had turned out, but thanks to shifts patterns, absences and unavailability, a wholly more manageable 8 folk turned out which ensured that a drinks order could be made without recourse to writing things down, but I'm still baffled as to how many people thought they were celebrating my 40th birthday already. Maybe my choice of words on the e-mail invite, notably 'in a spirit of egalitarianism in my 40th year', was a bit confusing, but no matter because a seven pint session went on with a whole lot of nonsense talked and laughter echoed around, plus a couple of old faces rejoining the crew and everyone getting off for their last ride home. So predictably, Saturday is scrubbed with a hangover and no real awareness of what the day is doing until late afternoon, but even with it being a notional weekend off, I could use the stretch to work off the beer, and to make some space for the epic post-hangover bacon sandwich, so Sunday morning demands a supposedly short stroll to find a couple of the hidden highlights of the borough.

Tingley Viaduct & Ardsley Reservoir  8.6 miles

Morley to Huddersfield 19/04/14

The walking year so far has not really had me exerting myself in my choice of trails, starting off at a steady pace of short walks for the colder part of the season and having largely avoided treks that would be all-day ventures. Nearly 100 miles into the 2014 season and I still haven't topped 12 miles in a single day, so it's time to make a break from such modest excursions, and as we've a long weekend of Easter break afoot, I can allow myself an extra day of relaxation before hitting the trail on Saturday. So, to the heart of Kirklees we look, finally cutting a path from home to the Calder valley and the south west (having failed to do so in my first 1,000 miles), to see if Huddersfield is a long way away or not, for I dwell under the idea that it isn't that far away at all, only 30 minutes distant by train, but we all know that travel time is deceptive as almost everywhere else in West Yorkshire is around an hour distant, and that line on the map is what tells the true story.

Morley to Huddersfield, via Batley, Dewsbury, Thornhill Lees, Whitley & Kirkheaton 
   16.1 miles

Stanley Ferry to Rothwell 28/03/14

Back to the North Country and it's hard to believe that I'm on the final corner already, only 15 miles left to go until I reach 1,000, a target that seemed so improbably large when conceived in June 2012, but now within reach without me really having had to strive for it all that hard, and it could have been gotten down within 2 years if I had really put the hammer down, and would be attainable today if I so wished. The finale needs to be attempted in some place sociable though, and not on glum Friday afternoon where no one could possibly acknowledge it, whilst everyone I know is still at work. So let's get my third and final West Yorkshire railway walk out of the way, and it seems right that a heavily overcast sky should come down to cover the day when I finally set out to take a look at West Yorkshire's coal mining heritage.

Stanley Ferry to Rothwell, via the Nagger Lines and the E&WYUR line  10.3 miles

Outwood to Castleford 15/03/14

I am not a scholar of railway history, but am an enthusiastic student, being good with dates, companies and infrastructure, but still having difficulty comprehending the process of development and the minds of those who invested. It's all a tale of 19th century capitalism running rampant and unrestrained, with individual companies seeking to dominate their markets and reap the profits, with governments happy to sit back and let free trade have its day, without a view to building a national infrastructure. The tale of today's trail, the so-called Methley Joint line, is such a case in point, as back in the 1860s, the Midland Railway lines dominated traffic to the south-east of Leeds, and rather than paying for access rights, the Great Northern, the Lancashire & Yorkshire and the North Eastern railways decided it would be cheaper to club together and construct their own line to link metals between Castleford and Outwood, and to tap the blooming colliery traffic in the area. Operating from 1865 to 1957 as a going concern, and remaining to serve the coal industry until as late as 1981, it is now a remnant to an age when there was hope that traffic and industry could justify the expenditure and construction of a new line, one which to contemporary eyes seems to have had no real reason for ever having been there in the first place.

Outwood to Castleford via the Methley Joint & the Methley-Cutsyke (L&Y) lines  9 miles

Castleford to Aberford 01/03/14

So, first 40th birthday bash of the year on 21st February went down well, despite being on a Friday evening and me enduring an odyssey of almost 2 hours to get from Morley to the Leeds Irish Centre, where I had oddly never previously been in my 20+ years up country. LT got a pretty good showing, with a healthy turnout from work occupying one corner of the hall, and a good time was had by all (cliched, but true), for there was chatter and food, dancing and silliness, tears and laughter, and booze, lots and lots of booze. Plus an amount of flexibility to the 1am late license that allowed for a much later finish than was expected, and even then a couple of us ended up going back to my supervisor's house to not stop drinking until 4am, and after that we mostly failed to sleep on the sofa before Saturday morning rolled around and we snuck off early once public transport got going again. Stumbling my way through Garforth on a bright and chill morning had me saddened that such a good day was going to be wasted, but I'm much more cheered by a heavy dose of the random element being dropped into my day, so return home knowing that the whole weekend is going to be lost as I try to get my hangover shifted and my sleeping pattern back in order.

And then, one week on, as March means serious business, Railway Walking...

Castleford to Aberford, via the NER branch and the Fly Line  11.1 miles

Thornton to Keighley 06/04/13

The major lesson of taking on the Alpine Route from Halifax to Keighley is that of knowing your route, I had planned out and projected the route for the week prior to walking it, memorising its various twists and turns, but I'd never actually accurately plotted it and got an accurate distance. Using Google maps and plotting a line along the nearest available roads gave me a distance of 15.5 miles, and that seemed sufficiently different from the direct route of 12 miles for me to use it as the projected distance, even when factoring in the deviations I would inevitably make. Ground conditions and the hill climbs made the first day hard but I still thought I'd projected correctly, but sitting down to plan the unintended day 2, I realised just how badly I'd screwed up my calculations as the unwalked miles totalled not 8 but 10, and I suddenly felt lucky that I had chosen to quit as 19 miles of up and down would surely have been beyond me. So include that in the mix of reasons as to why the 2013 season has gotten off to a sluggish start, along with a general lack of mental and physical enthusiasm, and this winter that just will not end... But, anyway, onward!

The Beeching Report 50th Anniversary Walk, part 2: Thornton to Keighley  10.2 miles

Halifax to Thornton 01/04/13

27th March marked the 50th anniversary of the publication of The Beeching Report on the Reshaping of British Railways, and I have already posted my somewhat intemperate thoughts on that matter, but that mix of small-minded accountancy, flawed statistics and socially regressive thought is worthy of a railway walk to demonstrate that we might have gained something from the losses this country suffered. Trouble is, the route that I intend to explore was actually closed down in the years prior to 1963, which demonstrates that the demonisation of Dr Beeching is somewhat misplaced as all he did was accelerate a process of decline and closure which had been in progress since the early 1950s, but when all is said, he still remains a worthy figure of hate in my eyes. So onward to tread the old Great Northern Railway's route from Halifax to Keighley, opened between 1874 and 1884, by what railwaymen used to call 'the Alpine Route', which is one of the most heavily engineered railways in the whole country, and you'll forgive me if I go full-on trainspotter as I seek out every single railway remnant I can find along the way.

The Beeching Report 50th Anniversary Walk: Halifax to Keighley Thornton  9.3 miles

The Manifold Trail 24/10/12

The Leek and Manifold Valley Light Railway was a White Elephant by any interpretation of the phrase, opened as a narrow gauge line in 1904 to link the dairies of the Manifold Valley to the rails of the North Staffordshire Railway, it was never going to succeed as a passenger line as the valley it served had no significant habitation and tourist traffic would always be limited because, as one wag put it, 'the line starts in the middle of nowhere and ends in the same place.'. For thirty years its two locomotive transported milk to the wider world before the depression of the 1930s closed the dairies and put an end to the line in 1934, and Staffordshire County Council inherited the line, opening it as a bridleway in 1937, showing that practical thinking towards transport is not a modern phenomenon. 

The Manifold Trail: Waterhouses to Hulme End  8.4 miles

The Monsal Trail 23/10/12

Whilst the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midland Junction Railway was built as a joint venture with the L&NWR, completed in 1863, it was always the baby of the Midland Railway, forming their mainline to Manchester. If the line had remained open, carved through Wye Dale and the Derwent valley, it could have been a scenic line to rival the Settle & Carlisle (also a baby of the Midland Railway), but it met it's end in 1968 after the Labour government gave up on it, proving that idiotic decisions were still being made in the post-Beeching years. The Monsal trail, occupying stretches of the line was opened as a multi-use path by the Peak District National Park Authority in 1981, with Derbyshire County Council protecting the line from encroaching development, but the original trail took detours around four tunnels which were only reopened to use in 2011, thanks in part to Julia Bradbury walking them for her TV programme, and making the new alignment possibly the best railway walk in the whole country.

The Monsal Trail: Wyedale Head to Bakewell.  10.6 miles

The Tissington Trail 22/10/12

The London & North Western Railway were late arrivals to the Peak District, a region dominated by the Midland Railway (of whom more later), and their line from Uttoxeter to Buxton (via the lines of the North Staffordshire and the Cromford & High Peak railway) was opened in 1899 in an attempt to generate revenue in the area and to milk some of that sweet tourist money. It was a line that was popular with ramblers for easily accessing Dovedale and brought visitors to the Tissington Well-Dressing Festival (when people used to travel for such things), but the line was never profitable and only the lower section below Ashbourne was any use for local traffic and it lost passenger services in 1954 and closed entirely in 1967. The track bed north of Ashbourne was acquired by Derbyshire County Council and in 1971 was opened as a dedicated cyclepath, one of the first in the whole country, and as it's the longest of my planned walks for this holiday, it's a good idea to get it off the slate nice and early.

The Tissington Trail: Ashbourne to Parsley Hay.  13.5 miles

Smardale Gill 30/05/12

The last week of May had been my planned holiday week since taking the same week last year, so the appearance of two Friends of the Settle & Carlisle Line walks in the immediate area during my week away was a very neat bit of happenstance, the sort of coincidence you often wish for and never get. Especially useful is the fact that the first of them goes to somewhere that I had been planning to walk ever since I chose Kirkby Stephen as my holiday destination, as Smardale Gill has landscape and industrial heritage and the walk promised us a bit of nature too, "For the Botanists" the FOSCL leaflet claims. "Sold!" is my immediate thought to that premise.

Spring Jollies: Day Four

Smardale Gill circular. 11.7 miles

The Kirkby Stephen Viaduct Trail & Croglam Castle 27/05/12

A mini heatwave descended for the end of May, to neatly coincide with me taking my spring holiday in Kirkby Stephen with my parents. I chose Kirkby Stephen as it's a useful gateway to the north-western corner of the Yorkshire Dales and would be straight-forwardly accessible if I'd been forced to travel alone, and the week of choice neatly coincided with two FOSCL walks in the immediate area. So we travelled up on Saturday, the 26th, directing my parents over the A66 and the splendid bleakness of Stainmore, to take up our week's residence at Manor Lodge, which was all you could want for in a holiday home (apart from a lack of wi-fi), and to take stock of the town. To me it feels like a town lacking a constituency, in that other towns around the Dales, like Settle, Ilkley, Richmond and Leyburn attract tourists from the major conurbations nearby, but Kirkby Stephen has no major populations to draw from, and Cumbrians are more likely to hit The Lakes than the Dales or the Eden Valley. I characterise the town as 'hanging in there' because it feels like its peak has passed but still seems to have life left in it, and has plenty going for it if you are willing to invest time in the area. I should become an advocate for the upper Eden Valley, because it really is quite wonderful, and this town has its best face on in this week, dolled up for the Jubilee and basking in spring sunshine.

Enough chatter though, on to Sunday, and Walking!

Spring Jollies: Day One

The Kirkby Stephen Viaduct Trail & Croglam Castle.  4.6 miles.