With New Year behind us and the weather remaining cold but turning sunny we felt it was time to work off some of the festive food by heading out to explore a new walk. Looking at our options I plumped for another water walk, this time around the Digley reservoir near Holmbridge in the Holme valley, near the well-known town of Holmfirth (the setting for the long-running TV series ‘last of the summer wine’).
The drive over to Digley takes about 45 minutes cross-country, which isn’t bad, although the closer we got the more ‘interesting’ the country roads became due to a mixture of shallow snow and black ice which was cunningly hidden in the shadows. Digley is actually two reservoirs, with the smaller Bilberry up above it.
Bilberry has an interesting history. It was the original of the two, and in 1852 it burst, spilling 86 million gallons of water down the River Holme, causing 81 deaths and a large amount of property damage. The disaster caused a change in the way dams were built from then on.
In contrast, Digley wasn’t opened until 1954, despite being planned in the 1930s. The waters now cover the site of two mills and a pub, amongst other buildings. Here’s how the area looked in 1915.
There plenty of car parking at either end of the dam. The walk’s very pleasant as it passes through woodland and also dips and climbs as the well-maintained paths don’t follow the reservoir edge too closely so you get a variety of views. Here’s a few pictures from our trip.
Looking down on Digley with the dam in the distance. Looking down on the Digley reservoir from Greaves Head. The edge of the Bilberry dam can be seen at the very right hand edge of the picture. As you can see, there’s some gorgeous views across the Holme valley from here. Looking back the opposite way from the dam itself, with the large and ornate dam drain in the foreground (which isn’t open to the public, for obvious reasons).
There’s nowhere to buy food or drink near the dam, so bring your own. However, the Fleece Inn in nearby Holme does food and a range of real ales and other drinks.
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The new year has started slowly here at Bigland Towers. After the excitement and fireworks that saw the end of 2025 we’ve taken the day off to potter around and enjoy the warm coziness of home before starting 2026 in earnest. January’s brought cold weather and threats of snow, so a day off seemed sensible.
New years eve was more productive. Despite the chill we ventured out by car to do some exploring. The railways annual Christmas shutdown has seen a lot of engineering work take place up and down the country. Some of that work will run well into January, but there was one local Trans-Pennine Route upgrade (TRU) project I wanted to have a look at. Mirfield station.
Over Christmas the rebuild of the island platform was completed and track through platform one was reinstated. Hording blocking it off were removed with passenger trains reintroduced from December 27th. There’s still a lot of work to complete as the new footbridge and lifts have yet to be commissioned, but the place looks very different to how it did just a few weeks ago.
Here’s how the station looked on November 25th. The lift towers were still swathed in scaffolding and the majority of the island platform was hidden behind hoardings. Here’s how it looks now.The hoardings have vanished, along with the scaffolding. They’ve been replaced by new lighting and platform shelters, which whilst rather basic at least offer some shelter from the elements. The rebuilt island has been lengthened to be able to accommodate 6-car trains. The other major change is that the direction of the tracks has been reversed. Platform 1 now caters for Eastbound services as platform 2 has reverted to serving Westbound trains – although none are scheduled to use it at the moment until platform 3 is abolished. Looking East from platform 3 you can see that the former Fast line has been disconnected and slewed to run through platform 2. The track running through the station’s been left in situ ready from when this becomes four-tracks again. 158782 and 158789 call at the reinstated platform whilst working 2L13, the 11:49 Wigan Wallgate to Leeds.Almost ready. The new footbridge and lifts are seeing the finishing touches being completed and lifts commissioned. The lift in the right-hand tower will descend below the platform to the new entrance to provide level access from the street.
Having frozen to death in the wind to get these pictures we headed back to Halifax and home, but not before stopping off to photograph moody skies providing a backdrop to Castle Hill near Huddersfield.
Back home, Dawn busied herself in the kitchen to experiment with making her own thin-crust pizza bases. I’m biased (obviously) but I think they were a great success and tasted delicious when topped with seafood or chorizo, vegan cheese and chilli. I suspect these will become a regular feature in the Bigland household this year!
Whilst we weren’t bothered about spending midnight in the pub, we did pop out for a sociable few drinks in our local, the Big 6, before returning home to see in the new year sat in front of the fire, watching the fabulous London fireworks display. That brought back a lot of memories as I was there on the Embankment on the opposite side of the river to the wheel for the millennium display in 1999. There’s been a lot of water down the Thames since then…
Now it’s 2026. A year I’m looking forward to with cautious optimism. The world’s still a very uncertain place but there are grounds for hope. Russia’s war in Ukraine is going badly for them, and there’s signs that one of their key allies (Iran) is beginning to fall apart due to civil unrest. Of course Trump is still a major disaster, but the narcissistic old fool and his MAGA morons are in trouble in the polls and likely to have bad mid-term elections this year. In the UK, the wheels are starting to come off Nigel Farage’s latest bandwagon (Reform). His Russia connections are coming back to haunt him and the councils Reform run show every sign of being a fiasco waiting to unfold. Plus, despite all the Reform and media frenzy and speculation over Keir Starmer, the idea that there’s going to be a general election before 2029 is for the birds. And if a week’s a long time in politics, 3.5 years is an age.
The Labour government have proved to be a disappointment due to a lack of bravery, squandering a huge majority that they could have used to make important changes without fear of opposition. But, they’re nowhere near as bad as the media love to make out. They’re doing good things but the media resolutely refuse to highlight anything positive and concentrate on a stream of negativity. I’m hopeful Labour can get their act together on messaging, stop being timid and cut through to highlight the positive changes they are making.
If only the media spent as much time looking at how Nigel Farage’s girlfriend managed to pay nearly a million quid in cash for ‘his’ house in Clacton as they did obsessing about Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves tax affairs we’d be far better informed as an electorate.
On a personal front, I’m looking to spend January concentrating on some projects that have taken a backseat over the past year or so, which includes finishing scanning a lot of old slides which have never seen the light of day for decades. Then there’s travelling. I may not be heading outside of the UK for the next month, but plans are certainly afoot for later in the year.
I’m also intending to up the ante on blogging. Things slipped a bit in 2025, but now I’m back with a lot to say – and things to do…
In the meantime, let me with all my like-minded readers the very best for 2026. I hope you all have a fabulous year.
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Apologies for absence over the past week and festive reason but blogging has taken a backseat to Christmas and life here at Bigland towers. We’ve had a very relaxed and stress-free break with just the two of us – a real change from the past few years. In fact, things have been so relaxed I’ve hardly used my camera at all, even when I’ve taken it out with me.
Christmas day was easy as most of the food for our veggie feat was already cooked. I only had one dish to complete, whilst Dawn sorted out desserts. We’d made plenty, which lasted us for a few days in different permutations. No thinking about what the hell we do to use up leftover turkey!
Sadly, we didn’t get snow, or sunshine. Most of the time we’ve laboured under leaden skies but as there’s been no rain and the temperature’s been mild we can count our blessings. We did escape the confines of the valley on Sunday as we drove over to Southport to see my sister and her partner to spend a very convivial afternoon in Churchtown, a village to the North of the centre. The village has moved upmarket since I was a lad, but it’s still a very pleasant place to while away a day.
Neither of us have returned to work this week, instead our time’s been spent pottering around at home, watching the year draw to a close from a distance, which is more than some folks have been able to do. I’ll write up my thoughts on how 2025 has been tomorrow. Much as I don’t want to wish my life away I can’t say I’ll be sorry to see the year go and it morph into 2026.
I doubt there’ll be much carousing in New Years eve. We’ll probably pop up to our local pub for a couple of drinks before returning home before things get too mad. New year isn’t the same here in West Yorkshire as it was when I lived in London, but that’s life.
In the meantime, here’s a few pictures from the festive period.
Christmas day Thali, with all the trimmings! All that glitters isn’t gold, but a Halifax jeweller’s done their best to get into the festive spirit.– as did our local pub who kept drinkers few with free mince pies…– and relax. Feet up in front of the fire abd chance to enjoy duck in plum sauce with pancakes, spring onion and cucumber.
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Yipee! We’ve now passed the shortest day of the year. There’s no noticeable change for a little while but the days will soon be getting longer. Not that you’d notice anything in this neck of the woods we’ve existed in perpetual twilight these past couple of days. I’ve hardly been able to make out the opposite side of the valley due to fog and low cloud. No wonder some people suffer from SAD (seasonally adjusted disorder) when there’s so little sunlight around.
Still, I’ve had enough to occupy me here at Bigland Towers as we gradually wind down (or up, depending on your perspective) to Christmas. Whilst Dawn’s spent all day slaving away in the office, I’ve been busy in the kitchen to keep her supplied with lunch and also cook some of the dishes that will make up our Christmas feast. I’ve managed to get two off the list, none of which I’ve ever cooked before, so that’s been fun. Now the kitchen’s redolent with the smell of mustard seeds, garlic and coconut after preparing dishes from Kerala (S India) and Sri Lanka. First up was the one where the ingredients form today’s picture. Carrot and Beans Thoran.
Tomorrow I move on to dishes from Northern India whilst Dawn joins the party to bake and make desserts…
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Yesterday (Thursday) the sun shone bright here in West Yorkshire, making a change from the dank and dismal weather which seems to be the norm nowadays. It spurred me on to get out and about for a few hours to look at some of the Trans-Pennine Route Upgrade work sites that I hadn’t visited this year, as well as some I’ve been popping into regularly. I was also driven by the fact Ravensthorpe station closes this weekend so that the site can be cleared for the new fast lines flyover. Here’s a selection of pictures from the day.
802204 speeds through Batley as 1K16, the 1103 Hull to Liverpool Lime Street, passing the platform extensions which are being added to both Up and Down line platforms at the North end. Looking down on Batley station from Soothill Lane bridge. It’s hard to believe this was once a junction, with the GNR Chicken Heath branch running off to the left towards Ossett.A 1915 OS map shows the station and goods yard. The dingy Batley station subway is due to be replaced by a footbridge with lifts which is being constructed at the Southern end of the platforms. I’ll span the tracks between the two lamp posts on the right. Meanwhile, at Ravensthorpe, hardcore is being laid between the two side walls of the flyover. This will be the location of the slewed lines to/from Healy Mills.Foundations of the Northern wall of the flyover are almost complete. A last view of Ravensthorpe station which closes this weekend. 150215 approaches with a service from Leeds to Bradford Interchange. That’s progress! Here’s the new bridges over the Calder and Hebble navigation. Since I visited on the 25th November two of the Eastern side girders have been put into place. A closer view of the two new girders. The pillar nearest the camera waits to receive its girder, which is already hooked up to the crane nearby. Passing under the new girders. The last train I’ll ever catch from the old Ravensthorpe station. 15020 calls on the 14.02 from Bradford to Leeds.
On the way back I stopped off at Brighouse to get a couple of pictures and to visit the renowned Blakeleys take-away and restaurant, which is famous for the quality of its fish and chips. It’s next door to another Brighouse institution, the Market Tavern. It seemed rude not to wash my food down with a pint, so I called in for a ‘swifty’. The beer was in great condition and the pub busy, but I couldn’t help noticing that the clientele were almost all pensioners (shit, that includes me now!). Admittedly, most younger people would still be at work, but I wonder what the place would look like at 16:00 in say, 10 years time? Times are changing, and so are demographics…
Back at the station I couldn’t resist getting a picture of this history board. I’ve mentioned the tale of the man who broke the bank of Monte Carlo before, but here’s the full story…
If you want to see more TRU construction pictures, you can find the complete gallery by following this link to my Zenfolio website.
I’ve a small favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
Well, here were are in the final month of the day, and in a new week to boot! What hasn’t changed here in the Pennines is the weather. It’s still wet, wet. wet – but with the added fun of high winds which are rapidly stripping last last remaining leaves off many of the trees. Winter is approaching but (on the bright side) that means the days will soon start to get longer!
I’ve not ventured out of the valley today as I’ve work to do at home, plus, there’s no point in taking the camera out in these conditions. Instead I’ve pottered around the house and begun the preparations for the festive season here at Bigland Towers. The pair of us will be having Xmas at home this year, which will make a pleasant change. It won’t matter what the weather throws at us as we won’t need to venture far and the car can stay where it is.
I’ve begun to investigate various recipes as the plan is to eschew traditional festive fayre and go mostly vegetarian instead. Our Xmas day meal will more resemble an Indian thali than anything else. I have a collection of katori and other stainless steel ware so we can make it realistic. One of the beauties of this choice is that we cam prepare many of the chosen dishes in advance, making Xmas day far less stressful and busy, so more relaxed and enjoyable. There’s going to be no panicking over getting the turkey cooked on time or any of that nonsense!
Of course, there’s still a few weeks to go yet and other events on the calendar to tick off. Tomorrow I don my judges hat for the last category of the Community Rail awards that I’m involved in. ‘It’s Your Station’ always gets a lot of entries and this year we’ve had a bumper crop. After that I’ll try and get out for a day with the camera as the forecast is set to improve, although I’m not quite sure where I’m going to go yet. Later in the month I’ll be back in London again for a couple of events, including the annual railway carols service at St Mary’s Somer’s Town, Eversholt Street (details here).
So, there’s going to be lots to blog about in December, and that’s without any wry looks at the state of UK politics! I note that today 3 former Tory MPs have moved over to join ‘Reform’, one of which is former Deputy Chairman and butt of so much well-deserved lampoonery – Johnathan Gullis, the ex-MP for Stoke-on-Trent North. Now, you’d have thought that if you were going to accept defectors, you’d be picky over who you let in, but not Reform! Gullis is a running joke and political liability, the fact he’s been warmly welcomed into Reform says a lot about their lack of political judgement. The party looks more and more like a depository for recycled and talentless Tories. What was the Reform slogan? Oh, yes – ‘vote for change’! Quite how you do that when Reform is packed top to bottom with ex-Tories is a mystery! Looking at the polls it seems the Reform bubble has already burst. This latest round of defections could assist that slide…
Anyways, on to today’s picture. One of the things I was doing over the weekend was getting involved in some cooking therapy. I’ve been making several different soups recently and wanted to return to a recipe I’ve not made for ages. French onion soup made with a mix of onions, shallots, Dijon mustard and fresh Tarragon. Here’s the preparatory stage.
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The pair of us are now back in Bigland Towers after our Shropshire sojourn. Travelling home on Friday was fun but nowhere near as bad as we feared. Our part of the Welsh borders missed the worst of the storms. They weren’t so lucky a few dozen miles further South, with extensive flooding in places like Monmouth.
We left Church Stretton just before 10am to drive up to Oswestry. There’s very few towns in the UK I’ve never visited. If it’s got a railway station then I’ll have been there. Oswestry isn’t on that list. Sure, it has a railway preservation site based by the old Cambrian Railway works, but as there’s no mainline connection the town was never high on my list of places to get to. On Friday we put that right, and I was pleasantly surprised. We didn’t stay long due to the rain which never let up, but we saw enough to make us want to revisit another time as the town has interesting variety of shops, cafes and pubs – along with a market. Unlike some towns which are dominated by chains and charity shops, Oswestry still has a range of independent outlets. One place I particularly liked was the indoor market. It’s got an eccentric feel to it as it contains cafes, a bar, lots of antique and model shops – and even has its own barbers.
Llwyd Mansion is a Tudor building dating from 1464. It’s grade 1 listed and currently under restoration by the local council who now own it.
Moving on we looked to find a country pub where we could stop for lunch. We’d decided to avoid the motorways as much as possible, so we stuck off across country along the A495 through Ellesmere before crossing the border back into England to skirt the Western edge of Whitchurch.
By the power of Google I found a pub further on by the Shropshire Union canal which seemed to fit the bill, the Willeymoor Lock Tavern North of Whitchurch.
We got there just after opening, making us the first customers of the day. This gave us chance to meet to and talk with the three generations of the family who run the place. Oh, and admire the amazing collection of over 230 teapots collected by the matriarch of the family, who at 97, is still going strong.
I ordered gammon, egg and chips whilst Dee had the home-made steak pie. Both were really good meals and very good value.
Tearing ourselves away we made a non-stop run across country to the M6 at Lymm. Needless to say, the motorway was chokka. Conditions weren’t much fun due to the rain and they got worse by the time we transferred to the M62 to head East across the Pennines. High winds didn’t exactly help matters but Dee’s excellent driving skills and my extra pair of eyes got us home safely. We were relieved to be home, but wistful too, as we weren’t really ready to leave Shropshire. We’ll be back…
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Today, the weather Gods smiled upon us! When we woke and looked out on the world (well, the Long Mynd) we saw clear blue skies and sunshine, with visibility clear for several miles. It wasn’t a day to waste, so as soon as we’d scoffed some toast washed down with coffee we donned our walking gear and headed down into Church Stretton. After a brief stop to pick up some goodies from Steele’s family bakery (their chocolate brownie is excellent, as is the fruit flapjack) we headed up to the Burway before striking off across country to follow the town brook path uphill.
Not a place you want to get trapped on in winter.The town brook burbles adjacent to the footpath towards Long Synalds – on the lower sections anyway, after that, the footpath begins to gain height. – as this view shows! Here, we’re looking back towards Church Stretton with Caer Caradoc on the horizon and the Devil’s Mouth in the mid-distance. Having made it up to 425 meters we swung round to the South side of Townbrook valley in order to get to look back over the valley and towards the North. Looking back down over Church Stretton with Caer Caradoc to the left. One of the ‘wild’ horses that can be found wandering the Long Mynd. They’re not actually wild, but the area is common grazing land.Looking West across Yearlet towards Long Synalds. This time of year the colours are amazing as all the bracken is dying back. Dawn atop Ashlet just before we began our descent to Ashes Hollow and the footpath towards Little Stretton. What a contrast in weather, we’d have been in cloud level with zero visibility if we’d been up here over the past few days! Considering it’s nearly mid November temperatures were a balmy 12 degrees, with very little wind. Almost there! We’ve followed Ashes Hollow and the stream to the edge of Little Stretton. This house is the first sign of human habitation, but still within the area managed by the National Trust.
Having been walking for several hours we made a welcome pitstop at the Green Dragon pub. This friendly little pub serves a good selection of real ales and decent ‘pub grub’. I treated myself to the scampi (because it’s not something I’d cook at home) whilst Dawn plumped for the fish and chips.
Scampi, chips and peas with Tartare sauce. I felt I’d earned it!
Fed and watered, we continued our walk back into Church Stretton and home via another pitstop in our ‘local’ the Kings Arms. Now we’re back at the ranch, relaxing and wondering what tomorrow will bring. This Shropshire sojourn is coming to an end, we leave in the morning to head back to West Yorkshire, but the weather forecast is promising torrential rain for most of the journey – bar a small window in the morning that we may be able to make the most of en-route. Let’s see what happens…
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We knew the weather forecast had predicted wet weather today, so we were in no hurry to rush out of the house this morning. Even so, I was up not long after 07:30 in order to throw back the curtains and greet the day. It scowled back, making me wish I hadn’t bothered! This is how the view across to the Long Mynd looked.
I’d had half and idea to wander down into the village to get pictures of passing trains but driving rain make me think twice and the idea of staying in the warm and dry seemed much more attractive. So, whilst Dawn was at her toilette, I prepared porage with coconut flakes, fresh blueberries, sultanas and served with honey. After all, it was the weather for comfort food!
We’d planned to catch the 11:30 train down to Ludlow in order to spend a few hours exploring the town but the weather was so crap we decided to take the car instead as that way we’d have some flexibility. It turned out to be a wise decision.
The journey down along the A49 wasn’t too bad apart from heavy traffic and HGVs – hardly ideal on a road where the verges were beginning to resemble linear ponds. That said we made it into town just as the rain eased, which made our explorations easier – although conditions meant my camera stayed in its bag for most of the day. Rather than sightseeing we ended up shopping – a pastime neither of us are particularly fond of – but Ludlow possesses a branch of one of our ‘go to’ clothes shops, ‘Fatface’, so that’s our Xmas presents sorted then! As our purchases came in paper bags we were rather limited after that, who wants soggy bags spilling their contents all over the road? We decided to cut our wandering short and plumped for lunch instead, visiting a place we’d eaten at earlier in the year, Kin Kitchen. where we both plumped for the same thing – the fish platter.
Having eaten, and with the rain renewing its onslaught we dropped off our purchases in the car before heading to the Ludlow Brewing Co, whose brewery is located in an old railway goods shed adjacent to the station. The interior’s very modern and their range of beers excellent. The modernity’s contrasted by two amazing models of the old Ludlow town halls (both now demolished). The Victorian version lasted for just 100 years. It was flattened with indecent (and suspicious) haste in 1986. From descriptions it sounded like an amazing space, which had covered market on the ground floor but a spung dancefloor above. It had survived it would have been a real asset, compared to the sad market that exists today, where a few temporary stalls huddle together, looking rather lost amongst the fine buildings surrounding them.
Here’s a couple of shots from the pub;
The model of the Victorian town hall.
Whilst we were visiting I did manage a couple of railway shots. Locomotive-hauled services have disappeared across most of the UK nowadays but this line sees several such services operating between Cardiff to Holyhead and Manchester, using cast-off intercity coaches and hired-in locomotives that were built to haul 125mph mail trains.
67010 propels 1W57, the 10:53 Cardiff Central to Manchester Piccadilly out of Ludlow station, past the Ludlow Brewing Co on the left.
Oh, there’s another trick to these loco-hauled services. Some of them offer fine dining! They carry an onboard chef who prepares gorgeous 3-course meals on board. Watch out for a blog about this in the future.
As the rain was relentless we decided to cut our losses and head home to have a quiet night at Bigland Towers in exile, enjoying some home cooking with creature comforts. Tomorrow’s our last full day her and the forecast looks very different to what we’ve seen so far. We’re planning to stay local and maybe get a walk in – depending on conditions. We need to make the most of it before we head back on Friday when we have a yellow weather warning for (yet more) rain.
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Today Dawn and I were meant to be celebrating my official ascendency into old-fartdom as today’s the day I become a state pensioner. The plan was that we’d be up and out early to head to Chester by train, where we’d have lunch, a drink and a wander around the city walls before retracing our steps as far as Manchester where we’d go out for an evening meal to celebrate my new status (or drown my sorrows, depending on your viewpoint).
Unfortunately, the Gods had other ideas. Yesterday evening Dawn’s mum rang to say that her and her husband had been in a car accident. Whilst they were driving back from a day out along a country road a pedestrian appeared out of nowhere in front of their car. John (Dawn’s father) reacted in time and swerved to avoid them but the car hit a drystone wall and was a write-off (the drystone wall’s not looking too healthy either). Needless to say, Dawn dropped everything to be with her parents and stay with them whilst they were checked out in A&E, then get them home. Thankfully, neither of them were hurt, but the NHS staff at Huddersfield A&E were taking no chances and gave them a through check, which meant that Dee didn’t get back to Bigland Towers until after midnight, then had to spend much of today helping to sort out stuff with the car insurers.
So, no Chester (or Manchester) for us…
Instead, I’ve had a quiet birthday at home, wondering where the hell the last 66 years have gone! The day’s not been entirely wasted as I had time to nip out for a walk, do some shopping and cook a fiery Thai Red Curry, ready for when Dee got home. Now, I’ve time to write this whilst Dawn’s taken over the kitchen to bake a chocolate birthday cake in my honour, having already baked some stunning chocolate puddings. Thai curry and chocolate pud’ – sounds like a birthday treat to me!
Dawn’s stunning homemade chocolate puddings, with a melted filling.
Tomorrow, whilst Dawn’s back at her parents sorting out a hire-car, maybe I’ll apply for my bus pass…
I’ve a small favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
Paul Bigland 