Today’s been a good one here at Bigland Towers. Dawn was up early to travel to Holmfirth for a Reiki treatment whilst I stayed at home and caught up on some work, then gardening. The weather’s taken a change for the better here in the Pennines. Whilst we’re not back into heatwave territory the sun has made a welcome return, which has made all the difference.
This afternoon we decided to take time out and explore part of the area we’ve never walked before. This was the moors West of the Warley Moor Reservoir (which is home to the Halifax sailing club) onto Midgeley Moor, . The views up here are really good. You can see for miles in most directions. This time of year the heather is just springing into bloom which adds even more colours to the landscape.
Here’s a few pictures.
Looking East from Midgeley Moor. In the middle distance you can see the sails of yachts and sailboards on the reservoir whilst in the background are the wind turbines on Ovenden Moor.The footpath we traversed follows a catchwater drain which is crossed by several old stone bridges like this.Taking a break on the moors.
Having walked several miles we retraced out route back to the car to drive down the other side of the hills to nearby Oxenhope where we called in at the Bay Horse Inn, a lovely little pub which we’ve passed several times before but never visited. Today we put that omission right. They serve a great selection of well-kept real ales which you can quaff outdoors in their large seating area at the front of the pub. It’s a lovely sun-trap where you can watch the world go by.
Now we’re back at Bigland Towers, having a quiet night in and putting our (tired) feet up. Tomorrow’s weather’s looking good so we’re planning to catch up with a few chores before getting out again before the working week starts again. Watch this space…
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Today, after a busy morning at home sorting out various chores we decided to abandon Bigland Towers and make the most of the cooling weather to get out for a walk and explore somewhere new. The state of the counties reservoirs is a hot topic as we’re one of the few places with a hosepipe ban – despite the fact you can’t walk far in Pennines without falling over a reservoir!
We decided to drive up the the hills above Walsden and Mytholmroyd, where the Calder valley snakes around the moors and head for a trio of catchments, namely the Warland, Light Hazzles and White Holme reservoirs.
But first we stopped off at a location we’d visited the other week. Baitings Reservoir (at the bottom right of the map), where the level has dropped a good 2-3 feet since our visit on the 7th. The old bridge in the picture has become quite a tourist attraction!
Heading on up the hill we parked the car on the road down to Cragg Vale before heading off along one of the dirt roads that form much of the walk, which isn’t strenuous as the area is actually pretty flat. The area’s popular with dog walkers, but that brings me on to a real gripe. The gate from the main road is a dumping ground for bags of dogshit. I mean – why? Do these people believe in the existence of a poo-fairy, who will magically remove them because they’re too lazy to dispose of them or don’t want their precious cars contaminated?
Take it home with you – or don’t have a dog. Why should the rest of us have to put up with yours and your dog’s mess?
First stop was White Holme reservoir, which – was only down by a few feet, not bad compared to some. The levels left these little beach areas exposed, which would have made a pleasant place for a picnic.
Next was the Light Hassles Reservoir, a narrow body of water that bridges and connects the other two bodies of water. This seemed to be at its normal level.
Before heading on to the third and final reservoir we took a detour to admire the views, which would be superb on a clear sunny day, because you can see right across to Manchester – and beyond. En-route to the viewpoint we passed a few dozen cows which were grazing or drinking, supremely unbothered by the odd human walking past, disturbing their idyll.
Cows ignoring us and the views, with the skyscrapers of the city of Manchester visible on the horizon. Hollinwood lake in the foreground, the warehouses of Milnrow in the middle-distance and the city of Manchester on the horizon. I’d love to pop back here on a clear sunny morning to see how the view looks.
Having taken time to soak up the scenery we continued on to the last reservoir – Warland, which was suffering from the lack of rainfall.
That’s a lot of missing water!
This particular reservoir was bult in the 1850s by the Rochdale Canal company to ensure a ready supply of water to keep the canal across this part of the Pennines open. It was extended in the 1920s by Rochdale Corporation Water Works, who left their mark with stonework like this.
We really enjoyed the walk, which covered around 4 miles. We’d loved to have explored more (Stoodley Pike is only a short walk away) but we’d run out of time. Instead we headed home via Cragg Vale and a couple of drinks in the always welcoming Robin Hood pub where I managed to make the young lady behind the bar’s day. She spotted my camera which I lent it to her for a while so that she could have a play after she’d knocked off work. Having studied photography she was delighted to be able to muck around with such a serious piece of kit. I love being able to do that!
The heatwave is due to end this next week with rain predicted on Tuesday. I doubt it’s going to make much of a difference, so expect more reservoir blogs over the summer…
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We’ve had an interesting day here in West Yorkshire, and rather a sobering one -despite having visited a couple of pubs. We nipped out for lunch at the Robin Hood pub in Cragg Vale near Mytholmroyd, a hostelry where we’ve not eaten for ages. Funnily enough, we both plumped for the same thing. Home-made Haggis and black pudding pie served with chips and gravy. Talk about filling! Neither of us could finish our meals – even though we’d ordered one portion of chips between us! The rest of the repast came home with us in a cardboard ‘doggie bag’ to be savoured later.
Burp!
On the way back we decided to pop in to a local reservoir just to see how things are going. Whilst we’ve had some rain recently, there’s been nowhere near enough to top up supplies, and some reservoirs are getting dangerously low. Like this one. Baitings reservoir.
Looking East towards the dam and Ripponden. Here’s looking the other way. The old bridge you see has only reappeared a few times since the dam was constructed in 1956. This has happened twice since 2020.
Our curiosity was piqued, so we visited several more reservoirs. Here’s one many people will recognise as it can be seen from the M62. This is Booth Wood, with the M62 in the background. Not as bad a Baitings, but perilously low for July.
Our last port of call was another location visible from the M62. Scammonden.
What’s noticeable here is the way plants have colonised the sides of the lake, which shows just how long the levels have been low..
There’s no heavy or persistent rain forecast – the opposite in fact. So these levels are only going to get worse. Still think Climate Change is a myth and this is just normal and nothing to worry about? Think again.
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The 3rd day of our adventure saw us staying local to Church Stretton for most of the day, taking the chance to enjoy the dry weather and improving forecast in order to explore some of the excellent walks around the area. What’s great about staying in the town is the walks are literally on your doorstep, there’s no need to drive anywhere. Ours started by heading uphill from where we’re staying. En-route we passed this lovely little fairy grotto someone had installed in a tree.
At the top of Hazler Rd we left tarmac to head off into the hills and climbed up to our first port of call – Gaerstones. It’s not too strenuous a climb and it’s well worth it for the views.
The lone sign…
Moving on along past the stones we dropped down towards the valley between the stones and heavily wooded Helwith Hill which was full of bluebells. Skirting the edge of the woods we crossed over the steam at the bottom of the valley to begin our climb up Caer Caradoc. Despite the dry weather we’ve been having this area was still very muddy. That soon changed as we began the very steep climb – the toughest part of the walk – to get as far as here, Three Fingers Rock. It’s at the Southern end of the ridge so has great views over Church Stretton.
The rocks are at 360m above sea level, which means you gain just under another 100m as you walk along the ridge to get to the top of Caer Caradoc, which is the site of an old hillfort. Whilst walking between the two I caught this shot of a Transport for Wales service heading through the valley on its way from Cardiff to Manchester.
Whilst the weather was dry and not too windy there was a significant amount of haze which reduced visibility – as you can see from this next few looking North from atop Caer Caradoc.
Looking over to the Lawley (left) with Yell bank to the right.
We chose to descend via a different route which was another steep drop to little Caradoc then along the eastern base of the hill to gain access to footpaths which took us over the busy A49 and the adjacent railway to access All Stretton village and a blissfully flat walk along the road back into Church Stretton where we stopped for a well-earned drink before heading home.
That wasn’t the end of our day as we decided to explore further, only this time in the car by driving to nearby Much Wenlock in order to explore the town. It’s a pretty little place with some amazing half-timbered old buildings like this, but it was dead. All the shops seem to shut at 4pm, leaving the place bereft of life. Whilst looking pretty as a picture, it’s not a place I could imagine living as there’s little to do there. I can’t imagine what it must be like to be a teenager growing up in such a place. Still, it allowed me to get a few useful pictures like this.
Much Wenlock Guildhall dates from 1540. Sadly, it was closed when we arrived as the rooms inside sound fascinating (see link). The area underneath is still in regular use for the town’s market.
By now it was time to head home after a tiring an enjoyable day in order to enjoy a quiet night at home and recharge our batteries for another hill walk the next day.
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It’s getting late here at Bigland Towers meaning I don’t have enough time to do the day justice in a blog – especially as we’ve had a great day exploring. Instead I’ll you with a series of pictures as a teaser for a longer blog tomorrow when I have time to write.
We made the most of the glorious weather today by nipping out for a walk around Ogden water country park which is north of Halifax on the road to Haworth and Keighley. The area offers some outstanding views across West Yorkshire. Here’s a few pictures. Firstly, and oddity…
We noticed this collection of old tram rails that had been used to build a platform in a field adjacent to the A629. They must be pretty old as the Halifax network closed in 1939 whilst Bradford trams finished running in 1950. Looking South-East across the Ogden reservoir from the moors above. The cliffs at Ogden Clough.The view from atop the cliffs.Having walked across the moors to Ogden Clough we walked back along the wooded stream which feeds the reservoir.Looking back across the reservoir from the dam, we’d walked up high above to near the wind turbines you can see in the background.
After the walk we decided to explore. I looked up a nearby real ale pub in the Good Beer Guide and we headed off to try somewhere different in an area neither of us had explored before. I’ll blog about what we found at length tomorrow, but here’s a taster.
En-route we discovered this magnificent 20 arch Thornton railway viaduct which was built by the Great Northern Railway and opened in 1878 in but abandoned in 1966. Thornton’s the birthplace of a rather famous Yorkshire literary family – as we found out…
OK, more tomorrow,
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/
Sorry, I got a bit lost on our return from Surrey as there’s been a lot to do – hence the lack of blogs. The journey back was fine. It’s the first time when we’ve travelled to and from West Yorkshire to Surrey and back when we’ve had wall to wall sunshine in each direction – even the traffic played ball and the absence of roadworks ‘up North’ (where converting the M1 to a ‘smart’ motorway took years) was a welcome change. The only thing that made the journey a bit edgy was Yorkshire drivers who saw lane discipline and speed limits as optional.
Friday was a chance to revel in the glorious weather and adjust to being back home. Dee had the day and pottered around at home whilst I managed to get out for a walk whilst preparing to edit the hundreds of pictures I’d taken over our Southern sojourn. Admittedly, I did get chance to indulge in the Friday night quiz in our local pub and catch up with Friends.
However, Saturday saw me glued to my office as I edited picture after picture ready for adding captions -another marathon task as I identify locations and individual train workings. Now that task is done and the pictures have been added to my Zenfolio website. You can find the images in these falleries.
The only shots I have left to list are the ones from my HS2 site visit. Expect those to appear tomorrow.
Today’s been rather a more active day as we travelled over to Huddersfield to see Dawn’s parents (dropping off supplies and staying for a chat) before heading back to the Calder valley and a stroll around Norland Moor, which we spy across the Calder valley from our bedroom window. Admittedly, we were up there late in the day but it’s the first time we’ve seen it so devoid of other walkers – and their dogs!
Now we’re back at home and preparing for the week ahead, which will see me based at home, catching up on lots of stuff whilst planning for future trips (we’re off to Shropshire soon). Right now I’ll leave you with today’s picture, which is a view from the edge of Norland Moor looking home.
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 