Hope - far and near

Mid-morning on a Monday, a fabulous day with blue skies, warm sunshine and hardly a breeze but the pandemic lockdown meant there were few cars or people in the village centre. I was able to stand (without fear of getting run over) in the middle of Victoria Road to take the photo above. With the shops on the left (all closed), Salts Mill to the right (also closed), the railway station down to the left (trains running but fewer of them and hardly any commuters), local schools and Shipley College (closed, so no students about), I have never known it so quiet.

My eyes are always drawn to the hill across the valley. It's called Hope Hill, which I love as it reminds me of Psalm 121: 'I will lift up my eyes to the hills. Where does my hope come from?' I wonder who named it and how many other people, trekking to work in the Mill perhaps, have also found strength and encouragement from this view?

You can barely make it out in the top photo but there is a farm right up near the top of Hope Hill (Hope Farm, of course). I'm not sure if it is still a working farm or just a farmhouse. At one time, years ago, one of my daughter's teachers lived up there. I recall she once took her class pond-dipping in her garden.

My circular walk took me round through Baildon and back along West Lane, from the centre of Baildon to the top of Shipley Glen, passing across the hillside below the farm buildings (see photo below). It's actually a fairly built-up residential area for most of the way, though you wouldn't know looking up from the valley. The trees on the escarpment hide the houses (which sit on a kind of wide step halfway up the hillside) and it all looks deceptively lush and green. There are some substantial old mansions and even older farmhouses but the space has been infilled over the years with large estates of modern houses. Where there are still a few fields, there were lambs lazily enjoying the sunshine.