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Doing a boundary walk isn't easy for two reasons. Firstly, the pathways don't always follow the boundary lines. So sometimes I have to walk around the border into other areas or walk within the boundary. Secondly, I have a variable mobility impairment so even when fully functioning cannot take rough tracks for very long without breaking down. So this walk is also about finding accessible routes in and around Hebden Royd for those who can walk, but not always very well.
Day One
We started from where we live down the steps into Colden Clough, over Colden Water and the Milking Bridge and up the perilous track on the other side that goes straight up to Jack Bridge Road. This marks the boundary with Heptonstall civil parish (CP). We were supposed to walk around the back of Savile Road but last time I tried that the path was hard and I was much younger and my legs worked all the time, so instead we walked down Savile Road, which follows more or less the same route, where my daughter found a stone wall with water tricking through tiny leafed weed.
After that we tried to join the pathway on the map but found ourselves going too far West into Erringden, so retraced our tracks and walked over the road by Stubbings Wharf, across the bridge over the canal and up the steps to the road to Horsehold.
Unfortunately, that nearly did for my wife, for her own medical reasons, and we had to sit on a bench and give her pain killers. She went yellow and grey and I was ready to send her back down the hill, but she continued in discomfort.
Rather than cut straight across to Stoodley Pike, so we could stay near the CP boundary, we walked to Old Chamber (rather than to Wood Top - my map skills at fault). Luckily, at Old Chamber we found a shed called 'The Honesty Box', which is an unofficial refreshment point, where you can buy farm free range eggs and make yourself tea and coffee, or help yourself to a tub of ice cream. You are asked to contribute a small amount for this service (hence the name). I made Aeisha, my wife, a cup of coffee and she started getting her colour back. Then I sat down with my daughter and ate some ice cream.
After this, we walked to Stoodley Pike along Pinnacle Lane, not by Rake Head as planned, as the route's too rough. I know Stoodley's in Todmorden but by going this way we encapsulate Hebden Royd. Pushing further on after a picnic overlooking the valleys, we continued down the Pennine Way before going East into Cragg Vale, passed Withens Clough reservoir.
I believe that there is a way over Withens Moor if you go by the storm drain. This takes in more of Hebden Royd than the route we'd chosen, but as you can see the land is barren and looks much as it did when the glaciers retreated. There's nothing there and I'm not confident that it would be accessible for me, so instead we aimed to skirt around the parts of the CP which humans have been able to inhabit.
We finished at St John's in the Wilderness, the church in Cragg Vale where Aeisha and I got married.
Day Two
We parked at Russell Dean's in Mytholmroyd and got the bus up Cragg Vale, getting off where we'd stopped the day before.
Taking the route passed the river and into the moors, by several ruined mills, we emerged at Trimming Dale, a very old West Riding working stone farmhouse, with angry tethered barking dogs. This place is like Wuthering Heights. Farming is the main occupation here and hard. There's a variety of farm machinery parked outside. On the day, there was also a pile of dead lambs. They looked like they'd been skinned, but who knows in what state nature'd left them? I had a young child with me and didn't want to go for a closer look (anyway, the dogs wouldn't have liked it if I did). So we walked up Sykes Gate, Sophie splashing in the nineteenth century setted storm drain that runs along the side of the metalled track.
Just after Sykes Farm, we turned right, then went up an old road, now just a rutted track between walls. We had beautiful views of Cragg, and beyond that, Stoodley Pike.
The track becomes Water Stalls Road and we'd have had an easy journey down into Mytholmroyd if we hadn't seen that the top of Little Crow Hill was circled by cows with a bull in the middle of them. Aeisha was all for going on but I can't run and I couldn't guarantee Sophie's safety so we took a longer route round, outside the CP, by taking some paths on the other side of Crow Hill. In fact, we more or less saw every side of Crow Hill except the side we were supposed to be on.
As it turned out, this was a good move because we came across a farm with horses and a huge cockerel that saw us and legged it up the track. The farmers were friendly and people smiled and waved at us from their cars.
We got onto Bower Slack Road and made our way down into the valley overlooking Sowerby and the beginning of Halifax, before turning left at Scarr Hall onto an old track called Tavern Road, passed a big jowly Boxer dog that looked at us sleepily before howling as we walked off. By this means, we more or less got back to where we were supposed to be, but then my map reading skills failed again. We started to struggle to find ways back down into the valley and my left knee became painful.
Rather than go straight down the CP border (to the white house you can see in the photo in the bottom of the valley), I limped along Scout Road, passed the old quarry and wood, and the cap over the asbestos dump from Acre Mill, stopping at the school, hugging my daughter to stay warm, as my wife went to collect the car and take us back home.
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