Tag Archives: Calder Valley

5th August picture of the day…

05 Thursday Aug 2021

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And relax… It seems some of my recent blogs on the nonsense Byline Times and the Guardian have published about the HS2 rail project have ruffled a few feathers judging by the traffic on my blog and comments on social media! That’s what happens when you critique lazy journalism with facts and references, you upset both right and left as each have an axe to grind so the truth is always the first casualty.

So, tonight I’m avoiding any political comment or critique. I’m going to talk about other things instead – like the weather! Who’s nicked the sunshine? We’ve had another indifferent day in the Calder Valley where heavy skies and the constant threat of rain has always been in the background. To be honest, it’s not been much of a problem as I’ve been office based, trying to work my way through the haul of pictures I took earlier in the week. Well, that and juggling various household chores and still trying to keep up my exercise regime. Where do the hours go?

One ray of sunshine was being able to stroll into Sowerby Bridge, visit the local Lidl and find the ‘Red Cross supplies’ had arrived. After several days of almost empty shelves the beer and wine section had been restocked, allowing me to panic buy – sorry, restock on bottles of their nice Hatherwoods IPA which has been very absent of late. Admittedly, carrying a ‘last supper’ number of bottles back up the hill to home in a rucsac left me in need of refreshment (and a shower), but hey!…

I’ll now turn off for the evening and leave you with a picture of the day. I was going to have a last evening stroll to complete my step total for the day but after cooking supper the weather had other plans. Here’s how sunset was in the Calder valley the other evening, when the descending orb in the sky was fighting a losing battle with incoming rain clouds. We didn’t even get this far tonight

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31st May picture of the day…

31 Monday May 2021

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Summer’s here! The past couple of days here in the Calder valley have been stunning with wall to wall sunshine, making up for some of the grey and grim days that have filled much of May. Even the fact it’s a bank holiday hasn’t put the mockers on the weather (for a change). Rather then joining the bank-holiday crowds heading for the coasts the pair of us have made the most of our time by staying at home and catching up on work on the house and garden which has been tiring to say the least but worth it just to be out in the sunshine and recharging the vitamin D levels. With my enforced stay in the ‘Septic Isle’ due to Covid and miserable weather I don’t think I’ve looked as pale as I did for years. Now we appear to be in for a run of good weather so my normal colour’s returning. Whilst I’ve been doing the heavy lifting on the garden terraces Dee’s been busy with sandpaper, filler and paintbrushes to restore the front door. Sitting high up on the valley side and facing South this row of cottages takes a battering from the weather, so keeping them up to scratch is a constant job.

That said, we’re having a day out tomorrow as we’re heading to somewhere I’ve never visited before. At Dawn’s suggestion we’re off to Flamborough Head near Bridlington, which sounds ideal, a rugged stetch of coastline with a lot of history, walking trails and wildlife. No doubt I’ll be blogging about it at some point but there’s going to be a a few more rolling blogs in the pipeline as from next Monday I’ll be spending several days based in Ipswich and travelling the East Anglian rail network for work. We’re having an early start in the morning so I’m cutting this blog short and leaving you with the picture of the day which I took this afternoon from our garden terrace looking over the cottages down towards Sowerby Bridge in the valley below. See what I mean about the sunshine?

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11th May picture of the day…

11 Tuesday May 2021

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Today’s been another day of mixed fortunes working from home. I can’t really complain as it’s been rather productive. I’ve no commercial writing to do this week so I can concentrate on pictures and rebooting scanning my old slides. A few weeks ago I managed to buy 4 packs of ‘Gepe’ glass slide mounts on eBay. I’ve been using the same 40 old mounts for nearly 15 years now and they’re showing their age. The plastic starts to split after hundreds of times of being remounted, so many of them are ‘cream crackered’ (Cockney rhyming slang for knackered = broken). Now with another 80 in the arsenal I can mount 60-80 slides at a time which speeds up the scanning process. OK, it’s still a tedious thing to have to do but there’s certainly light at the end of the tunnel now as I can see the physical pile of albums dwindle. Hallelujah!

Aside from scanning and answering emails Dawn and I did manage to get out for an afternoon constitutional – and avoid getting soaked. For the past couple of days we’ve experienced thunderstorms and some very moody skies. They’ve been wonderful to watch but you really don’t want to get caught outside when the heavens open. Thankfully, because we live high up on the valley side there’s normally plenty of warning as you can see the rain approaching which can make for some very dramatic sights. One of those sights is today’s picture of the day – just to give you all a break from exotic travel images (oh, and have I got some great ones in store)…

Here’s the view from our bedroom window earlier today as the latest in a line of thunderstorms darkened our door – and the valley…

One of the wonderful things about living here in the Pennines is the skies. They’re constantly changing to provide amazing backdrops to the green hills of the Calder Valley. I’ll never get bored of trying to capture their variety and moods…

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There’s snow place like home…

02 Tuesday Feb 2021

Posted by in Calder Valley, Photography, Railways, Travel

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After enjoying some glorious sunshine yesterday I was rather surprised when Dawn said to me yesterday evening ‘oh, there’s heavy snow forecast for tonight’. I poo-poohed the idea and thought we’d probably get a smattering that would disappear within a few hours. Ha – that’ll teach me! This was the sight that greeted me when I opened the bedroom blinds this morning!

I love fresh snow like like this – especially when there’s no wind so it clings to trees and telephone wires. We’ had a good 5-6 inches overnight so I changed my plans and decided to make the best of the weather whilst I could. Here’s a few images to illustrate conditions here in the Calder Valley.

The trees look beautiful, but beware! Walking down our road was very much like running the gauntlet as you never knew when a branch would release a snow-bomb and score a direct hit on you!
Looking across the Calder Valley. Norland is up there somewhere, lost in the low cloud that added to the freezing conditions. It was also excellent at muffling sound, so the world really felt rather eerie.
The wonderful snowy shapes to be found in Long Wood, a short walk from home.

What the snow wasn’t so good for was travelling. Many side roads and steep hills were impassable and the railways were suffering too. From early morning until early afternoon there were no train services through the Calder valley towards either Manchester or Burnley. I hiked through Halifax to Dryclough Junction in the hope of getting a few shots of trains in the snow and I was fortunate enough to get this unusual shot.

Class 195115 working ‘bang road’ (wrong line) as 1G71, the 10.10 from Sowerby Bridge to Leeds. The set should have been working through to Manchester but it was turned around at Sowerby Bridge due to the line being blocked by the snow. Most services from Leeds were being turned back at Halifax, although the hourly service to Huddersfield (which uses the lines to the right) was running most of the time. A later 195 did run as empty stock as far as Todmorden before returning, presumably to see if it was possible to get through to Manchester, Services didn’t restart until early afternoon, although many trains were still cancelled.

This evening the rain had set in and the pristine snow soon turned to slush so I was glad I got out when I did to grab some shots whilst the snow was at its best. Tomorrow the forecast is for the rain to continue so its looking like a good day for staying at home in the warm. I’ve had two very different days out with the camera, so I can’t really complain! You can find the full selection of today’s scenic snow shots in this gallery, and the railway related ones in this gallery.

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15th January picture of the day…

15 Friday Jan 2021

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The wonderful snow scenes we saw yesterday have hung around for an encore – only today there was the added bonus of blue skies as a backdrop. OK, that meant it was cold too but that was a small price to pay for such glorious vistas! I managed to juggle work with a long walk with the camera in order to get my daily exercise and capture some of the views. Fortunately, we hadn’t had much wind since the snow, so tree branches were laden with the stuff although it had started to melt in the sun, meaning wandering through the woods was a bit like running the gauntlet as you never knew when you’d feel a show-bomb down the back of your neck as a tree scored a direct hit!

Tomorrow’s forecast is for rain, so today’s probably been my final chance to get decent snow pictures. That means the picture of the day will be returned to vintage shots of somewhere warmer and more exotic than the Pennines and West Yorkshire – as you’ll find out tomorrow…

In the meantime, here’s one of my shots from today, taken on the promenade up above where we live. This is a wonderful place to sit and enjoy the views across the valley, or even a sunset (and a surreptitious beer!).

You’ll be able to find the full selection of snow shots taken over this past week in this gallery on my Zenfolio website from tomorrow.

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14th January picture of the day…

14 Thursday Jan 2021

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Apologies for no picture of the day yesterday. It’s not that I didn’t have one – but that (despite the weather being bloody awful) I ended being really busy and by the time I got around to blogging I’d run out of steam and fancied a quiet night just watching a movie with Dawn.

Today was rather different. The weather forecast had predicted a mix of snow showers and rain, but neither of us were prepared for the sight that greeted us when I opened the bedroom blinds. We had wall to wall snow, it had stuck and it was still falling. Someone forgot to order the rain! In fact, it snowed steadily until mid-afternoon, by which time I managed to venture out with the camera as part of my daily constitutional. I love fresh snow, especially on still days when it coats the trees to a depth, transforming their trunks and branches into sculptures. The road we live on passes through some woods so I didn’t have to venture far to get pictures, although in the end I decided to make a round trip through the woods and down to the railway to get my first train shots of the year (unbelievable!) before walking along the canal into Sowerby Bridge to grab a few more shots at the station just before the light went completely. Trudging back uphill along slippery pavements to reach home wasn’t the most enjoyable part of the trip as the rain finally arrived but it was worth it as I don’t know how long the snow’s going to hang around, and we don’t get that many days when the conditions are so good. The only thing missing was blue skies, but hey – you can’t have everything! I’ll be adding the full selection to this gallery on my website tomorrow, as well as yet more old slide scans to this gallery.

In the meantime, here’s the picture of the day, which I took shortly after leaving home this afternoon. It seems many parts of the country were blessed with rain, not snow, so I hope I don’t make too many people jealous!

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12th January picture(s) of the day…

12 Tuesday Jan 2021

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I’m feeling generous, so there’s more than one picture today as the weather’s been glorious! The temperatures rose so much under the clear skies and bright sunlight that it almost (almost) felt like a Spring day. But unlike Spring, it’s here for one day only, which I was I was determined to make the most of it by scrapping what I’d intended to do and tore myself away from the office and computer screens to enjoy the outdoors. So much of our time is spent cooped-up due to Covid lockdowns that I would’ve been a fool not to. The day started with great promise – although not so much if you lived in central Sowerby Bridge as the clouds were determined to hang on to the valley floor for as long as possible. This was the view from our bedroom window. OK, it’s not the *exact* view as it was shot on a telephoto lens!

Central Sowerby Bridge looking like it’s been tear-gassed!

Although it would have been tempting to venture further I was a good little boy and stayed local. It wasn’t that much of a hardship as we’ve extensive woodland literally on our doorstep. Today it was a pleasure to wander the woods unhindered by drizzle, which makes a change – although some of the paths are still a quagmire. With the amount of rain we’ve been having the ground’s saturated. It’ll take quite some time before firm ground returns. Even so, sights like this do lift the heart.

This is Scarr Woods, literally just down the road from us. It’s a gorgeous patch of woodland that’s looked after by local volunteers. Right now they’re removing some non-native species to open out the wood ready to replant with a variety of items as this explains…

Psst – don’t tell the anti High Speed 2 ‘Tree protectors’ that someone’s killing trees!

My stroll was pretty strenuous as these woods aren’t exactly flat, which is part of the attraction as it’s a much more interesting landscape. On leaving the woods my perambulations took me up to the promenade on the edge of Halifax which permits some stunning views across the Calder Valley. Wandering on I dropped down one of our local cobbled hills which has been made famous in one of the opening scenes of the TV drama ‘Gentlemen Jack’. Half way down there’s a great place to stop as you get two very different views. This one across the valley…

Looking down on Sowerby Bridge, plus a rare sight in the sky nowadays – a plane’s vapour trail!

Just a few metres down the hill, looking in the opposite direction (and looking up) is this magnificent sight – the Wainhouse Tower!.

See why I couldn’t countenance being stuck in the office all day today? Sadly, normal service will be resumed tomorrow as the weather forecast is crap!

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9th January picture of the day…

09 Saturday Jan 2021

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Just like ‘Lockdown 1.0’ the latest version has rendered the weekend superflous for many of us – it’s morphed from something special into just another day. All the events people could look forward to attending (be it sporting events, restaurants or just going to the pub) have all been taken away. The only thing remaining is the ability to have a lie-in as you don’t have to go to work.

That situation’s rather different for us freelances as work is something that’s been taken away from many of us too! Despite that, I was up early to keep up my weekly routine of starting the day by editing or scanning pictures in an effort to feel something had been achieved. I must admit, I’ve rather enjoyed these early mornings and the chance to watch the sun rise across the valley – which it did with aplomb this morning as the skies remained clear and the valley fog-free. The pair of us decided to make the most of the conditions and enjoy a long stroll to an area we don’t normally walk to. High above Sowerby Bridge is the very edge of Halifax and an area called Norton Tower. Along with the nearby village of Warley, we could see that both were in the snowline that had spared us, so we went for a wander and discovered places we never knew existed, along with a stunning view. So, today’s picture is contemporary rather than historical. I took it this afternoon. It shows the view from Norton Tower, looking back towards where we live, with the Wainhouse Tower marking the spot.

What would have made our winter walk complete would have been the chance to pop into a pub on the way home for a warm and a drink – but I can’t see that pleasure returning for some time yet. Even so, the pair of us really enjoyed exploring, and the view was stunning.

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6th January picture of the day…

06 Wednesday Jan 2021

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Well, we may be back in lockdown, but today was one of those days where I really didn’t mind being stuck around home as the weather was absolutely glorious! It was a crisp winter day with wall-to-wall sunshine that made it a pleasure to take my daily constitutional. Most of the snow has disappeared now, apart from the occasional patch in the shadows, although it tarries on the very high moors.

Either side of my stroll was spent at home working, either wading through yet more old slides from Ireland, Spain and Singapore (they’ll appear on my website tomorrow) or researching my next article for RAIL magazine. This will be rather different as the focus isn’t really on the railways, but you’ll see what I mean when it comes out.

Rather than select a vintage picture for today I thought I’d show you what life in the Calder Valley was like today. Here’s the view from the Promenade above our local woods whilst I was out strolling. Apologies for the quality as it was taken on my phone!

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More Calder Valley rail investment.

01 Sunday Nov 2020

Posted by in Calder Valley, Rail Investment, Railways, Uncategorized

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Since the 24th October through till the 1st November the railway through the Calder valley has been severed in both directions to allow for some very important work to take place at Todmorden. A £3.7m Great North Rail Project investment is seeing the 1840-built Grade II listed structure grit blasted to its bare metal to allow structural repairs to take place.

180-year-old bridge designed by railway pioneer George Stephenson is a skew bridge over the Rochdale canal. The single 31 m (102 ft) cast iron span, consists of a pair of bowed ribs with vertical hangars projected above the ribs in an ornamental Gothic arcade. The abutments are semi-octagonal castellated turrets. The whole structure looks very grand and must have been incredibly impressive in its day, projecting the power of the new railways.

Meanwhile, Taylors bridge, which carries the railway over Rose Bank Road just to the West of Todmorden station has been completely reconstructed with two disused sections permanently removed as part of the same investment.

Sadly, due to other commitments and the lousy weather we’ve been having, I didn’t have chance to visit and record the work until Friday 3oth, by which time Taylors bridge had been replaced, with all the old spans removed and the new ones dropped into place by a huge crane (which had already left the site. Network Rail and its contractors were busy replacing the track, ready for services to restart. Here’s a selection of images from my visit.

Trains from Leeds were terminated at Hebden Bridge where there’s a crossover that allows them to reverse and work back ‘right line’. Here’s 195128 which was preparing to do exactly that after depositing me. From Manchester, services were terminating at Rochdale, whilst a rail replacement bus service worked between the two points.
My rail replacement bus was this ex-Transport for London vehicle which I many well have used when it worked on the capital’s route 25!
With Todmorden station in the background, ‘team orange’ are replacing track over the new Taylors bridge. Concrete sleepers had been put into place earlier and the engineers are busy clipping new rails into place over them.
The days of moving rails using teams of men have largely disappeared. Nowadays the work has been mechanised. Here, a road rail vehicle (RRV) has been fitted with a special extendable arm to move lengths of rail.
A few hours later the rails have all been installed and the RRV has changed tools. Now, fitted with a bucket, it’s being used to spread ballast over the new sleepers before a tamping machine arrives to consolidate the stones and adjust the line and level of the new track to ensure its fit for passenger service on Monday morning.
Meanwhile, here’s George Stephenson’s 1840 bridge over the Rochdale canal at Gauxholme. Most of the bridge has been cocooned in sheeting to protect the workers from the elements but also to cut down on noise and dust from the grit-blasting. As you can see, people are living very close to the work.
A closer look at the Todmorden end of the bridge. Track has been removed to allow inspections to take place whilst the parts of the bridge facing the track have already been grit-blasted and treated whilst the line’s been closed as it would be impossible to carry out this work with trains still running.

Despite the awful weather we’ve been having whilst the work’s been going on (including this weekend, there high winds and heavy rain as I’m writing this on Sunday evening!) it’s expected that the railway will be open to traffic on Monday morning.

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Thank you!