Leeds

Leeds Town Centre, Kirstall, 

Distance: 6 miles.

Difficulty: Flat and Easy,.

Weather: Clear blue skies, baking hot, around Gas Mark 5 or What a Scorcher as the Man Eve News would say 

A walkers: 

Tom Cunliffe, George Waites and John Jones.

Leader: Cunliffe Diarist: Cunliffe

Starting point: Piccadilly and Stalybridge Railway Stations

Starting time: 7:40. Finishing time: 17:00.

Today’s walk should have been a pleasant historical journey starting at Ribblehead Station (North Yorks) where a FOC guided tour had been organised which would take us back in time to the construction of the Ribblehead Viaduct. Alas, the fickle finger of fate stuck its oar in (*pardon the mixed metaphors) and ruined our original plan as a fatality on the track meant our train arrived two hours late for us to catch our connecting train.

We ended up with a semi-pleasant walk along the Leeds Liverpool Canal, it wasn’t our normal lung busting, ankle turning, knee jarring, hip wrenching cardiovascular workout through the Peak District, but more of a leg stretching amble along a canal, however due to the debilitating heat, we were sweating like three Scousers in a job centre.

Nevertheless couple this tame walk with the agreeable company and lively chat (occasionally) the day wasn’t a complete waste of time after all. Once again the WW moto of “In principium in executione firmus flexibilia” (Firm in Principle Flexible in Execution) prevailed. 

GW and JJ boarded the 7:40 from Piccadilly Station (neither were aware of each other’s presence on the train), your diarist joined same train at Stalybridge at 7:53. GW and your diarist sat in carriage No 3 whilst JJ sat in carriage 7. We were now the three Amigos!

The train left Stalybridge and the Manchester region and entered the Dark Side, as we left the village of Slaithwaite (pronounce Slowit), a clattering noise was heard from the underside of our carriage, within seconds the train had come to a halt. Your diarist’s initial thoughts were that the train had ridden over the branch of a tree or similar but no, the tannoy announcer informed us that the train had collided with a person and we would not be going anywhere for some time.

It transpired that the train had hit a 70 year woman, described in the Huddersfield Examiner as a “missing pensioner” click on link

http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/woman-killed-train-slaithwaite-believed-7489739 

We all felt much sympathy for the old dear and her family, however, as we sat there for two hours and pondered our next move your diarist got to thinking about how much inconvenience this sorry episode had caused to hundreds of thousands of people – not least to the Three Amigos. 

Our deepest sympathy goes out to the family and friends of said Missing Pensioner but just think how much anguish and distress her suicide has caused them, the inconvenience to the hundreds of thousands of Trans Pennine commuters as no trains ran in either direction for the next two hours, the undoubted PTSD inflicted on the traumatised female Train Driver who had to be relieved causing further delay, the Emergency Services who had to deal with it, the loss of income to the train operator, the additional costs to the train operator ….. and so the list goes on. I think there is a salutary lesson for us all here, don’t commit suicide on the railway. Enough said!

As we sat there for the next two hours with our free cups of tea, coffee and biscuits, we decided we would press on to Ribblehead regardless, buy a map and have a mooch round. Eventually we reached Leeds 10:30 after having made an unscheduled change at Huddersfield due to “possible damage to sensitive equipment” underneath.

We checked the information board which informed us the next Ribblehead train would be leaving from platform 4b at 10:49, we hurried over there and as 10:49 came and went so did our excitement - as there was no train. One of the workmen told us we should have been on platform 9, we then checked with another workman at the information point who told us he couldn’t help us because the computers had gone down due to the huge number of delays caused by ……. you’ve guessed it. 

So picture this, here we are in one of Yorkshire’s Hell Holes (Leeds) with no train to catch, no historical walk, no idea how we would get home given the amount of disruption. The next train to Ribblehead wasn’t for another two hours (if at all) so we decided to retreat to the nearest watering hole and contemplate our next move. We found a Yates pub within 100 m of the station, a most welcome sight with most the welcome prices, a pint of Gold at £2.40. The beer was satisfactory.

We consulted a town centre map and observed that the Leeds Liverpool Canal terminated in the City Centre; we decide we would pick up the canal and work something out as we went along. The three Amigos proceeded along the canal and at 12:30 we took lunch whilst sitting by Lock No 6 and marvelled at the clarity of the water. The water was so clear you could see the bottom, you could even read the labels on the coke, diet coke and tango cans, the traffic cones lost none of the elegance sat on the bottom, even the needles on the syringes could be easily seen, a credit to Yorkshire folk everywhere. 

The Three Amigos continued along the canal for another couple of miles and then left it to find the nearest pub (it’s important to keep up one’s fluids in weather like this). Eventually we came across the Kirkstall Bridge pub where we consumed pints of Yorkshire Best Bitter by Kirkstall Brewery at £2.90,  the beer was very good but then it should be as the brewery was only ¼ mile away.

By this time we’d had enough of this energy sapping heat and decided to turn around and make for the station hoping the train timetable had sorted itself out. We reached the station around 3:00pm, caught the next train to Manchester after a 10 minute wait. 

B Walkers' diary

Walkers: Alan, Geoff, Tony, Wally, Pete.

Apologies:  John Laverick (sprained ankle), Ken Sparrow (Super de-luxe Baltic Cruise), Gaz (duvet day).

Journey:  10 am Trans Peak Manchester - Nottingham bus from Rising Sun to Ashford-in-the-Water. Return on 3.04 pm from Ashford to Buxton, then 199 bus. Our enjoyment of the trip was limited by the absence of both John and Gaz - the only potential fare-payers. Alan thought it was our fancy-dress day, which he would have won by a mile with his shorts.

Weather: Hot and sunny, pleasant breeze.

Route: Walk along banks of the Wye to Bakewell, early lunch in the park, followed by first pint of the day in The Castle. Beer OK, price not noted. Since some of the walk is new to us, and we needed to get back to Ashford before both pubs close at 3 pm, pressure to have a second pint was resisted. We retraced our steps to the footbridge crossed earlier, and headed up through a quarry in the direction of the Monsal Trail.  As the climb levelled out, we took a left at a signpost labelled Great Longstone, and headed for Rowdale House through a wood. At a main road, we turned left for Ashford, and somehow missed a path to Churchyard Farm and Churchyard Hall which might well have been nicer than the road we took. As it was we reached a hotel with 15 -20 minutes to spare. Theakston's Black Sheep was £3.70 a pint !!!  Distance walked 5.5 miles average speed 2.2 mph, or 2.5 mpp (miles per pint).

    At Buxton the 4 pm 199 bus pulled in behind us, so we boarded it, forsaking the chance of a £2.00 pint of Hydes at The Eagle. The least said about the journey the better - it was hot, crowded, smelly, and the legroom made Ryanair look like club class. An awkward, foul-mouthed, old idiot refused to move his bag to let a standing passenger sit, and the driver came back to sort him out, picking on Pete at first before giving up.

Pictures by John Jones below.

Next week the walk will begin from the Lantern Pike Inn at 9:40 stopping at the Little Mill at Rowarth for refreshments. 

Happy Wandering

Tom  -  6^th scribe