Bingley to Ravenroyd

Leaving Bingley behind, I followed the track alongside the river. It is quite peaceful, although the track is the main access to a riding school and stables at Ravenroyd so it is used by vehicles. I'd not walked this way before and I was quite charmed by how attractive this stretch of the river is.

The farm at Ravenroyd draws your eye from afar. It is a listed building built in the early 1600s, with later additions. It has wonderful mullioned windows and an unusual stone gutter with projecting rainwater spouts. It nestles rather sweetly in the valley, and I was reminded that this area is known as 'Throstle's Nest' - throstle being an old word for a thrush. I've not found out a great deal about the house, except that at one time it was associated with the Quakers.

OS Maps

I've been meaning for ages to get myself a custom-made Ordnance Survey map. You can order them with your home (or anywhere you choose) right at the centre of the map and customise the front cover with your own wording and photo too. I thought it would be fun, in this age of lockdown, to create one to to help me to explore my own local area even more fully. In fact they stopped making them right back in March when we first locked down, but I noticed they'd started offering them again so I ordered one.

I don't know what the available maps are like elsewhere but here in the UK we are quite proud of the Ordnance Survey. It came into being for military purposes after the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion (an attempt to restore the Stuarts to the throne) led to the need for detailed and accurate maps of Scotland. Attention then turned to mapping the south coast of England, to help with planning the defences against possible invasion from France. They used theodolites to divide the landscape into accurate triangles, fleshed out with detail on the map. It grew and grew, sponsored by landowners who wanted (effectively) aerial views of their land holdings. Ordnance Survey now produce detailed and up to date maps and related data, both paper and digital, using satellite information and other means, that enable government and businesses to plan effectively - as well as providing us walkers with sound information about rights of way and all the features necessary to navigate safely. Ever since I was a child I have found maps fascinating. Now I have my own, custom built, at a scale of 1: 25 000, that is 4cm on the map = 1km on the ground. You can see footpaths and bridleways, roads, rivers and the steepness of the terrain shown by contour lines. There is so much wonderful detail, it's almost as much fun exploring the map as it is exploring the actual territory.

The detail below is just a tiny portion of my map, which stretches from the centre of Bradford in the south up to Ilkley and Otley, west to Haworth, Keighley and Silsden and east to Apperley Bridge and Yeadon.

A visit to the farm

I've driven past many times, but never really speculated what lay beyond these gates, the entrance to Milner Field Farm. To coincide with Saltaire Festival and as part of the Heritage Open Days scheme (which sees private properties of historic interest opened to the general public), Saltaire History Club was offering guided tours of the farm.

It was built by Titus Salt Junior (one of Sir Titus' sons) in 1871 as a model farm for his grand mansion at Milner Field. I've written about the now demolished house in the past. (See HERE) It has a fascinating story though little remains apart from a few old stones, a fragment of the conservatory's mosaic floor and the top and bottom gate lodges. The farm, in contrast, continues as a business, run as a dairy farm by tenant farmers, currently the fourth generation of the Downs family, who have lived there since 1902.

The gates and gatehouse to the farm (top photo) give a hint of the grandness of the original Milner Field mansion, which was a solid-looking place built in a heavy Victorian Gothic style. The farmhouse itself (above) is less grand, though its windows with their slightly rounded arches give a nod to Saltaire's architecture. 

It has a wonderful view, perched on the hillside looking down towards Cottingley. The lone tree in the photo below is the upper of my two 'favourite trees', the ones I often take photos of when I'm walking along the canal towpath at Dowley Gap. (See HERE). 

To the east of the farm and its outbuildings, there's a view down to Saltaire itself.

Behind and slightly above the farm is the site where the Milner Field mansion was. The site is now overgrown by trees but just underneath those trees is a wall and a ha-ha (hidden ditch) that marked the garden boundary.

For those who like maps, I've included one below. Saltaire village and its mill are in the bottom right

corner and I've marked Milner Field Farm and the site of the original Milner Field mansion with a purple overlay.