Marley - and back to Bingley

The next bit of the walk, alongside the railway line, was really tricky as the path ran between two fences and was almost completely overgrown. I got stung by nettles, scratched by brambles and stumbled in holes, so I was glad to reach the safety of a proper track again. It climbed up towards Marley, which is a tiny hamlet with some early 17th century properties - Marley Hall and some farm buildings. The hall itself was set back in gardens and I couldn't get a decent photo. (You get a better view from the train!) The building in the photo below is, I think, originally a farmhouse. They have a lovely wide view across the Aire valley and up towards Keighley.

I struggled to find the path out and back to Bingley, until I spotted this tiny stone bridge and a stile hiding behind a tree! The map wasn't much help as the detail was not clear. Then I saw the yellow waymarker, so that was a relief.

The return leg took me through woodland, mixed in parts with some coniferous larch too. I've decided I don't like walking through larch woods - too stark and forbidding! The narrow path was a little precarious in parts as well, along the edge of a steep slope, so I didn't enjoy the walk back as much as the outward journey - and it was drizzling by then!

Still some interesting things to spot: I love the old stone stiles.

The phantom den builders had been at work here too. These structures seem to be in all our woodlands these days.

Once through the wood, the path joined an ancient route called Altar Lane down into Bingley and back to Ireland Bridge. Some nice views from here - though even better if I'd have climbed further up the lane instead of down, as it takes you to a rocky outcrop known as Druid's Altar. I'd had enough walking for one day, though it is always satisfying to follow a new route successfully by myself.

Deer and Riverside

When the man (see yesterday) let the horses off the lead in the field, one of them continued to follow me, so I was a little relieved to be able to put a gate between me and him, if only because he was so big! I think he was just being friendly. He neighed a farewell to me!

A little further down the lane, I think as far as vehicles can go, is this old cottage, called Cophurst (I think). It is really quite remote, a good mile or more out of Bingley along the narrow track. It looks to have been renovated rather beautifully.

Over a stile and into a field and there were interesting things to discover - some lovely foxgloves beside an old drystone wall, and then a curious tank or trough that had a tiny stream running into it. I suppose it was intended to provide water for animals.

The walk I was following was called 'Deer and Riverside'. I'd seen plenty of riverside by this point, so I was delighted to see some deer too (fallow deer, I think, as they had dappled coats). Of course, they spotted me even quicker than I saw them and soon bounded off into the woodland. This part of the walk ran right down to the railway line. I'd often seen the area from the train so it was nice to explore it on foot. 

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.

To Tong Park Dam

After I'd visited the Hall Cliffe Community Garden in Baildon, I walked down Ladderbanks Lane, past some very gracious old Edwardian villas and some quite attractive, modern 'executive detached' houses. Then I took an old footpath down to Tong Park Dam. The path is wonderfully overgrown, almost like a tunnel in parts, with huge oak trees underplanted with holly and hawthorn. The surface is lined with worn flagstones and the whole path is quite low down between banks, making it, I guess, a holloway: a sunken lane. There was once a mill at Tong Park and the lake was its mill dam, so perhaps the footpath was a route to work for some of the millworkers.

At the end of the path, the view opens out over the lake, with what must be one of the most attractively-sited cricket grounds in the area, sadly lying idle this summer.

There were some ponies in a field and, though they were quite small, I noted they had feathered feet like shire horses. I've done a little research without really reaching any conclusion but I see that gypsy horses, bred to pull the brightly painted Romany caravans, have a similar look so these horses may have some gypsy heritage.

Much of the area around Tong Park Dam is rich in wildflowers so it was no surprise to see some beehives, with honey bees flying in and out.

Nor was I surprised to see yellow rattle growing, a semi-parasitic annual that feeds off the nutrients in the roots of grasses. It therefore has a weakening effect on grasses and enables species diversity and a stronger growth of wild flowers. This is turning into a nature walk...

The Washburn valley

A friend recommended a walk in the Washburn valley, just outside Otley, so I took advantage of a balmy morning, before Storm Ciara arrived, to go and explore. The walk I had originally planned set off down the track above... and it looked so very muddy further down that I decided to forego that pleasure! Maybe I'll try that in the summer. Never mind, I followed the minor road down into the valley, which gave some attractive views. The Washburn is a tributary of the River Wharfe, and in the late 19th century it was dammed to make a chain of three reservoirs, with a fourth added in the 1960s, built to supply water to the city of Leeds. It is an area of quiet beauty and tranquillity, beloved by walkers. The Six Dales Trail, a relatively new long-distance trail, passes through the valley, connecting Otley with Middleham some 38 miles north.

This area of the lower valley is part of the Dob Estate, a 'country house' estate that was originally a deer park and has been in the Vavasour family since the 1500s. It is mostly rolling farmland, with a few woodland plantations. There are working farms and some very attractive residential properties scattered about, mostly conversions of old farm buildings.

My walk took me past the gates of one large farm, where the road turned into a rutted farm track. The free ranging hens gently scolded me for disturbing them, with that soft, throaty, burbling cluck that I remember so well from when I was a child, observing the hens my grandparents used to keep in their large garden. 

Summer Sunday stroll 3

Dowley Gap Lock to Bingley

[Continuing my walk from Saltaire to Bingley along the towpath of the Leeds-Liverpool Canal] 

Just beyond the locks at Dowley Gap there's a road bridge which carries the prettily named Primrose Lane over the canal. Just beside the bridge is a pub called The Fisherman's Inn, and there are a few tables on the canalside, so it's a nice spot to stop for a drink. It overlooks a winding hole, which is the term for a wider bit of canal where narrowboats can turn around if they need to. You can imagine that such long boats have to do quite a lot of forward and reverse to turn round. I once saw one try it in Saltaire, where a winding hole is marked on the map, but they had such a lot of trouble, getting virtually wedged across the canal! 

A little further along the towpath is a curious bridge, part stone and part metal, that carries a water pipe across the canal. It is part of the 32 mile long Nidd Aqueduct, which, since 1899, has brought water all the way from Scar House Reservoir in Nidderdale in the Yorkshire Dales to the water treatment works at Chellow Heights, to supply Bradford and the surrounding areas. 

The canal skirts round Bingley South Bog on its left, and enters the outskirts of the little market town of Bingley.

At this point, we are about 15 miles from Leeds and 112 miles from Liverpool - still a long way to go if you were a horse hauling a narrowboat to the docks. It's probably a good thing they couldn't read or they might just have sat down on the job!

These days our transport is so much faster and you can get a good idea of this in Bingley, where the canal, the Bingley relief road (a so-called by-pass that goes right through the middle of the town!) and the railway line all run alongside one another. In fact the canal had to be shifted sideways to make room for the bypass when it was built in 2003.

Old mills alongside the canal have been converted to apartments with some new blocks added too. They tend to leave the mill chimneys in place, as a reminder of the past.

Here there is a rather sculptural pedestrian footbridge over the canal.

A few older industrial units, garages and suchlike have been left, among newer builds like these townhouses that back on to the canal right in the centre of Bingley. I'm not sure that mill chimney will survive much longer, given the amount of foliage that has taken root in its brickwork!

Summer Sunday stroll 2

Hirst Lock to Dowley Gap Lock

[Continuing my walk from Saltaire to Bingley along the towpath of the Leeds-Liverpool Canal] 

Beyond Hirst Lock, the path passes through Hirst Wood itself, a shady and rather mysterious stretch of the canal with trees lining both sides. Views open out when you reach the aqueduct (above) that carries the canal over the River Aire. It is such a broad bridge that you don't really feel as though you're on a bridge (unlike, say, the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct in the Welsh Borders, which is rather hair-raising to cross). 

My brisk walking pace was almost keeping up with the cabin cruisers that had set off just before me when I passed Hirst Lock. 

There is an old mill on the left here, now converted into dwellings. It would be such a nice place to live... were it not for the sewage works just over the fence, with its distinctive aroma! The foliage along the canalside now more or less obscures the view of the changeline bridge, where the towpath passes from one side of the canal to the other. It's a pity as it's quite an attractive bridge. I suppose, sooner or later, someone will come along and trim the bushes back as part of the waterway maintenance. 

It's from this spot that you can see my two favourite trees, up the hillside. Some trees were beginning to look a little autumnal at this stage of the summer, but not these two. 

Here, I did catch up with the two cabin cruisers, as they had to stop to get clearance to negotiate the locks at Dowley Gap. The scene from the bridge looks much more interesting when there are boats moored.

There were a lot of other people about, enjoying the beautiful late summer weather. I have to be careful as I never hear cyclists coming up behind me, and some of them ride rather too fast.

As I reached the top of the locks, a narrowboat had just finished its journey up the 20 foot (6 m) rise. The cabin cruisers lower down faced a bit of a wait, until the water levels in the two lock chambers were regulated to allow them to enter the bottom lock. It's a fascinatingly complicated enterprise. You have to know what you're doing, so you don't waste a lot of water. Some of the locks have lock-keepers to operate them and there is a lock house at Dowley Gap, but I'm not sure if these locks are manned or not. This particular boat looked to be doing a good job of negotiating the locks. Narrowboats can often fit through if just one gate is opened, but the advice is to open both gates to avoid damage to the gates. (Not everyone heeds the advice!)

Cookie chaos

I had a really lovely Christmas with my daughter and family. Our Christmas dinner was roast beef, for a change from the traditional turkey, and very tasty it was too; vegetables cooked to perfection and very tender beef from the local butcher in Hebden Bridge. Then we all lolled around, as you do, in a contented glow and played board games and charades, with much hilarity. I forgot my camera so I only have a few phone snaps and nothing worth sharing!

On Boxing Day, though it was dull and drizzly, we had a walk with our extended family plus Cookie, my grand-dog. He's still only a puppy but he's pretty well-behaved. He runs ahead sometimes but he keeps running back to check where the family are and he comes back when you call him. We were, however, in an unfamiliar area so my daughter mostly kept him on his lead. Leads are for playing with and getting tangled up in, of course! Motherhood is quite an art with two lively kids and a puppy!

Cookie seemed to like the new, soft bed I bought him for Christmas, anyway. It'll probably get chewed... Most things do! He is settled in with the family quite happily and even I, unused to dogs and initially not keen on the idea, have adjusted. In fact, I think he's a real softie (or perhaps it's me that's the softie!)

Wellingore

The area of Lincolnshire where my sister lives could not be more different from my own Yorkshire home area. I love exploring its fields and villages. The buildings are an interesting mix. Some are made of the local limestone, some are mellowed old brick, mostly with lovely terracotta pantile roofs. Many of them have pretty little gable windows in the roof. There is a lot of new building, though some of the houses are so skilfully blended in that you can't really tell their age. In fact, nearby, there is one whole village that has been built quite recently and it really looks like it's been there for centuries. Nowadays, there are a lot of modern executive developments too, which are generally a bit less imaginative.

I found this medieval stepped cross in the village of Wellingore (below). It would originally have had a cross head on the shaft but many of them were destroyed by iconoclasts in the 16th and 17th centuries. It may have acted as a boundary marker or a market cross. They are sometimes called butter crosses.

There is also a windmill in Wellingore, though its sails and cap were lost and the tower is now part of a private house. The base is 18th century and the upper layers were added in the 1850s. It was defunct by 1945. Windmills were common in the area at one time. Before she moved to a bungalow, my sister lived for many years in a mill house, though the adjacent windmill had long since been demolished.

Harvest time

I spent a few days with my sister, who lives in a village just south of Lincoln. It's an agricultural area with a patchwork of large arable fields, where the farmers were busy with the harvest. My uncle, whose business supplies lime to farmers, was saying they have been very concerned by the weather this year (again). The run of wet weather we've had lately has come just at the wrong time, delaying the harvest and lowering the quality of the grain. Mind you, I don't suppose there are many years in our variable climate where the weather patterns really do favour farmers. 

The fields were full of stubble. Once the straw has dried it is baled up, these days into huge cylindrical bales that are lifted by spiked forks on tractors. When I was a young girl, I had a friend who lived on a farm and I used to like going to help with the work. In those days, straw bales were much smaller oblongs that I could just about lift by hand.

Most of the cornfield poppies seemed to be over. I just found a few in the field margins.