Exploring SE0023

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Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved]   Text © Copyright November 2011, Humphrey Bolton; licensed for re-use under a Creative Commons Licence.
Images also under a similar Creative Commons Licence.


Footpath 115

This path starts at the bottom of Marshaw Bank. It has stone paving, and might have been a packhorse track. It goes past Plod Well to High Lane, and is part of the Calderdale Way.

1:50,000 Modern Day Landranger(TM) Map © Crown Copyright
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1:50,000 Modern Day Landranger(TM) Map © Crown Copyright
These 'causey stones' were laid on packhorse routes to avoid muddy conditions and erosion. This seems to be an alternative to the route via Bank Top, and meets High Lane near Plod Well.

The path is mostly enclosed by woodland, but here there is a gap in the trees on the lower side, giving a view across the valley.

Here the path emerges from woodland to run along the edge of a derelict field being invaded by scrub.

Five paths meet here, although not all are obvious. In the foreground there is some stone paving, the top end of the 'causey stones'. The Calderdale Way (FP115) slants up the hillside to the right. FP114 goes through a gap in the wall, to the right just before the stile. Its continuation goes left at the waymark post beyond the wall. FP112 goes straight on, to the right of the tall trees in the distance.

The path climbs up quite steeply, with stone flags peeping through the grass in places, and reaches this little gate.

This is a view of the area crossed by the path as it climbs the hill.

Over the stile FP112 goes to the left and right. FP115 is the Calderdale Way, and to continue on it eastwards turn right here and follow the driveway round to the left. It then bends to the right and joins High Lane.

I thought at the time that this path is blocked by the retaining wall. The rights-of-way map suggests that it goes up the slope from the corner of the yard, but it does not look to be an easy scramble. It is part of the Calderdale Way, but it seems that people walk along the driveway of Plod Well (FP112 and then FP113) instead. FP113 goes to the north-east to Deacon Hill where FP115, on the driveway, turns to the south and stops at the invisible FP109. There is a short length of the driveway, and the Calderdale Way, that is not shown on the rights-of-way map as a public footpath.

1:50,000 Modern Day Landranger(TM) Map © Crown Copyright
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1:50,000 Modern Day Landranger(TM) Map © Crown Copyright

Footpath 116 - Four Gates End, Marshaw Bank

The path starts at Four Gates End. It is part of an ancient highway from Elland to Rochdale.

1:50,000 Modern Day Landranger(TM) Map © Crown Copyright
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1:50,000 Modern Day Landranger(TM) Map © Crown Copyright
Ancient highways around here were not necessarily wide enough for wheeled traffic; this one is rather narrow even for horses.

The path is sunken, with rough retaining walls each side, and has uneven steps.

Here the path emerges from its narrow confines and continues up the hill in open woodland. A track goes off to the left in a cutting. It is shown on Myers's map of 1835, and would appear to have been the main route up the hill at that time, leading directly to the bottom of High Lane. It is still shown on the OS map as a broken black line. However the 1850 map shows yet another variation, leaving the Marshaw Bank path further down and joining Myers's route at the position shown in the following map.

1:50,000 Modern Day Landranger(TM) Map © Crown Copyright
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1:50,000 Modern Day Landranger(TM) Map © Crown Copyright
FP116 climbs steadily through young woodland (mainly birch). The track is terraced into the hillside.

The path crosses FP109 here as it turns to the east. Just before the gate into the yard of the derelict 17C Bank Top Farm an unofficial path runs alongside a wall through heathland a short distance to the Bull Fall Stone (just out of the square), a rock with a view next to a radio mast.

The path goes through a field gate into the farmyard of Bank Top, a group of 17C building sadly derelict. It emerges onto FP114(A), which is along a very muddy track. Bank Top Farm is at the top of a spur of land, projecting from the hillside, a typical siting for a medieval farmstead. The present house was built in the mid-17C at the time of the 'great rebuilding' when timber houses were rebuilt in stone. It is listed Grade II and the listing details state that the date on the Tudor-style lintel is probably 1668. However I am not sure whether that is the building shown in this image.


Footpath 131 Kirby Cote Lane at Owlet Hall

Where FP110 leaves Kirby Cote Lane, the lane becomes FP131 until it meets FP112.

1:50,000 Modern Day Landranger(TM) Map © Crown Copyright
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1:50,000 Modern Day Landranger(TM) Map © Crown Copyright
This gate is on a short link between FP131 and FP112. FP131 continues on the lane round the corner to join FP112.


Bibliography

Stephen Walsh, Cragg Vale, a Pennine valley, Mytholmroyd 1993

Colin Spencer, The History of Hebden Bridge, Hebden Bridge Literary & Scientific Soc. 1991

ed. Bernard Jennings, Pennine Valley - a history of upper Calderale, Otley, 1994

G R Binns, Water wheels in the upper Calder valley Transactions of the Halifax Antiquarian Society 1972

Frederic A Youngs jr., Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England
KML

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