Captain's Log

Last Of The Summer Whine

It hasn’t been the best summer for walking. It’s either been too hot or too wet. I suppose I did complete two long distance walks: the Pennine Way and Coast to Coast. The weather prevented me from doing much more. I hardly did any walks at all during September. Maybe I should embrace the bad weather and stop whining. Today’s weather forecast looked okay and so I decided to do another walk on my Penistone Line Venture. The route would be a circular one from Brockholes railway station and pass through the villages around Holmfirth. The route follows the one described by The Holme Valley Hills And Hamlets Walk as described by the Long Distance Walkers Association. They suggest doing the walk clockwise, but my version goes anti-clockwise; there’s no particular advantage or preference either way. It passes through Holmfirth, the film location of the long running BBC comedy series, Last Of The Summer Wine. I therefore fully expected to find three men sliding down one of the steep roads in a bath tub at some stare, or Nora Batty putting her curlers in.      

I was surprised at the narrowness of the platform at Brockholes. There was not much space to stand back from the edge. At least the trains don’t go fast through the station. In fact every one stops. The old station house was on the other side of the line and still had some of the old railway signs up. The windows looked new and it so must be used now as offices or maybe even somebody’s house. I followed the exit to the street and managed to hit it during the chaos of the kid’s morning drop-off time at the primary school. 4WDs competed for space on the narrow road. I reached the bottom of the valley and crossed to the west side of the River Holme and started following it upstream on a pleasant woodland path.  

Thongs

I reached the Holme Valley Camping And Caravan Park and left the river, heading uphill through Hagg Wood. There were a lot of Thongs in this area. I don’t mean those budget knickers that stylishly disappear up the crack of your arse. I mean villages with thongs in their name, such as Thongsbridge,  Netherthong and Upperthong. Thong actually means a narrow strip of land or a long, thin valley spur.  I bypassed Thongsbridge, but my route took me up to Netherthong. This was a pleasant enough village, but I soon got to the other side and into the fields. I was quite high up now and the elevation allowed me to see Castle Hill in the distance. I’d visited this on a recent walk, see Captain’s Log, Racing The Berry-Den Showers. I could also see the top of the Emley Moor mast of course.     

I missed a turning at this point and so deviated from the official route. By the time I realised my mistake, I’d walked quite a distance and couldn’t be arsed to turn back. It was easy enough to devise an alternative, but slightly longer route to Upperthong. The official route went through Brownhill Farm and Wolfstones. My route went through Carr Farm. I rejoined the official route in the hamlet of Upperthong. I was no sooner in the village, then I was out of it again. That was my Thongs completed for the day.

Holme Valley

The views ahead started opening up now. I could see the massive bulk of Black Hill with the Holme Moss mast on the skyline. I crossed the trans-Pennine A635 and followed a narrow winding road to Hogley Green. Road signs indicated that the road ahead was closed. ‘It won’t be a problem, I’ll be able to squeeze past’ I told myself. When I saw the roadworks with a lorry spanning the road from stone wall to stone wall, I realised the road wasn’t an option. I got my map out again and sorted out an alternative route that allowed me to rejoin the official route at Cold Well Lane. A few field-hops later, I was back on the official route again and it led me down the hillside into the Holme Valley. It was a long descent, but eventually I reached the A6024, the Woodhead Road. I crossed it and found the River Holme again. A huge construction project was being carried out on the Hinchliffe Mill. It looked like it was being made into residential homes. 

‘I think I've just seen a Dipper over there. I’m not sure whether it was a Dipper though,’ the woman dog-walker informed me.
‘Was it dipping up and down?’ I asked.
‘Yes. Well, I suppose it was,’ replied the woman.
‘Then it was a Dipper’ I informed her with an authoritative tone.  During our conversation, the Dipper had departed since there was no sign of it now. The route headed up the side of the hill on the south side of the river. There weren’t many flat bits on this walk. After I escaped the woodland, wonderful views opened up along the valley. The other side of the valley was covered with houses from the top of the hillside, to the river. Looking at the map, this area was Upperthong, which I’d briefly passed through half an hour ago. I joined Brow Lane and this turned into Cemetery Road (and yes, there was one) and this gradually descended into Holmfirth. 

Holmfirth

It was lunchtime and so I bought a spinach and feta pasty from a bakery. There was lots of puff pastry and not much filling, making the eating experience ultimately unsatisfying. Near Victoria Square I came across Sid’s Cafe, one of the main locations in Last Of The Summer Wine. It was closed today. I climbed up through steep, narrow streets. One could almost imagine Nora Batty chasing Compo out of one of the houses with a broomstick. The ascent was relentless up Bunker Hill, Cliff Lane and Cliff Road. The clue of the type of terrain was in their names. I reached the last of the zags on Wooldale Cliff Road where it turned into an edge path. There were tremendous views from the edge down into the valley. I would have been quite happy if this edge path had taken me back to Brockholes, but the route turned abruptly east, bypassing most of the surrounding houses. Eventually I reached urbanisation at New Mill. There was then some  pavement walking alongside the A635 and A616 to get through the centre of the town. 

Return

I was glad to depart the A616 and take a path that climbed uphill. This turned into a pretty section of the walk as it headed back into the countryside again, as it made its way over to Thurstonland Bank. This was a  bit of a climb, but had the advantage of great views westwards towards Meltham Moor. It was the last real ascent of the day. I started making a gradual descent back into the valley again. I reached the outskirts of Brockholes and started making my way through the streets to the railway station. I didn’t really need a map since I could hear the noise of  the kids screaming at the school next to the railway station. It was obviously playtime, since the streets were now free of Range Rovers and other urban tanks. I was 20 minutes early for my train. Better too early, than too late; especially when the trains are hourly.

I’d enjoyed today’s walk, but the route had been quite intricate. A lot of it wasn’t signed and so I followed my gpx plotted route for most of the time. The best bits of the walk were high up when I escaped the houses. This opened up the views to the distant Pennines. The villages tended to have grocery shops and so there were opportunities to buy snacks. Holmfirth was full of cafes and bakeries.