Keeping the boundary stone on the right walk take the left hand road up the hill on Blue Ball Road. This stretch of the route is approx.2km long. Start and Finish. After approximately 1km you will come to the junction with Ripponden Old Lane (on your left). You can divert up the bridleway on the right to visit 1.The Beehive Inn opened in 1830. From here you have two options. site C. See back of leaflet. Option 1 is to walk down Royd Lane to the first set of houses on the left, here you will see a footpath that cuts across the fields to Once you can see the reservoir in the distance start to look out for Blue Ball Lane on the right. Turn down this road, please be aware at the corner it turns into a Town. This footpath leading from Royd Lane to Soyland cobbled road. At the bottom you meet the Rochdale Road. Do not cross over but turn right to get to the reservoir. Cross the road carefully once you can see Town is called Chapel Fields. Originally it was paved but the flags the reservoir carpark. were removed during WWII when the field was used to grow crops. 5. Baitings and Ryburn Reservoirs. Construction of Option 2 is to remain on the road, walk up Cross Wells Road to the Ryburn Dam was authorised by an Act of Parlia- turning on the right in to Hob Lane. Take this road to the bus ment in 1924 for the City of Wakefield. Building stop, and you turn right into Soyland town. Walk until you reach started in July 1925 and it was officially opened in the red telephone box and pick up the route as described above. 1933. Construction work on Baitings Dam started in 1948 and it was officially opened in November 1956. It covers 64 acres and hold 775 million gallons of Coming from the footpath you will turn up the hill water. towards Soyland Town. Just before the Red Telephone box is the site of the 2. Ebeneezer Chapel – (Methodist New Connection) 1818. The Chapel was formed after a split from Stones Wesleyan Chapel. It had a water powered organ and so had one of the first water meters. It was demolished in 1979 and all that remains are the original gates next to the telephone box. However the Ebeenezer graveyard is still in use and locals can choose to be buried there. At the end of the footpath you reach 7.Swift Place – (upper and lower mills) these were Walking back to the telephone box , carry on along the road into fulling mills sited just below the dam wall of Soyland Town. The town was only connected to the mains water supply Ryburn reservoir. They became the in 1902 along with Lane Head, Redan Corner and Stones Chapel. Ryburnedale Paper Mill in 1896 and Blue Ball Road manufactured high class wrapping paper and Continue through Soyland Town and you will pass 3. Making Place newsprint. Rebuilt after destroyed by fire in Hall – 1624. Bought by Samuel Hill in 1706, the West Riding’s wealthiest 1903, making high quality white paper and domestic clothier and merchant, as a home and business premises. It many other printed papers including for never functioned as a mill but was a workplace and warehouse. Samuel dictionaries and bibles. Demolished in 1997 and Hill also employed numerous homeworkers, hand spinners and weavers, 11 houses built on the site. Swift Place Mills to whom he sold raw wool, he then bought the finished cloth to sell in earliest recording is in 1803 for spinning cotton bulk in the UK and overseas. Making Place has had several roles; a but was demolished in 1872. Swift Place you ladies’ boarding school; a commercial and business academy (with can still see parts of the mill and warehouses international students, however the most famous student is former UK that have been converted into cottages. Prime Minister Herbert Asquith (1852-1928), a farm and finally being Walk back up to Rochdale Road and cross over. Walk up Swift converted into the homes and apartments seen now. Further along Place Road to Rochdale Road and carefully cross to the entrance of the road on the right is Top ‘o th’ Town Farm and Holly Royd the sani- The carparks at either of Nursery Lane and Smithy Clough Lane. torium and teachers’ houses for Making Place Academy. the reservoirs can be used as alternative start points. From Making Place continue through the last buildings of Soyland Here you can walk right up Nursery Lane or left up 8. Smithy Clough Town, continue pass the Soyalnd in Bloom stone and up the hill, at the Lane – previously known as Stanningden, this area is roughly the land road split keeping left, pass the bus stop and Soyland in Bloom Stone, 6. Hanging Lee – 1788, called ‘Little Britain’, was a between Blue Ball Road and Rochdale Road running along to Lower until you reach a staggered junction. scribbling mill (the first stage of mechanised card- Lighthazels and down to Baitings and Ryburn reservoirs. It is rich in c17th ing process). When textile production ended in and c18th clothiers’ houses. This area was also known for it’s black- This is know as Redan Corner and is the site of 4. Redan Pub and Milestone. 1897 it became a brewery, it was then used as a smiths, wealthy and usually very influential craftsmen.. They made items The pub closed in 1937. The pub follows a popular naming convention of the hostel for workers building Bogden Reservoir, the here for animals, transport, farming equipment, mill machinery, build- time, that of naming pubs, streets and buildings after battles. The Battle of the reservoir disappeared when the Bogden valley was ing product and tools. Great Redan was a major battle during the Crimean War, fought between flooded to create Ryburn reservoir. Hanging Lee At the top of Smithy Clough Road turn right into Great House Lane, you can see 9. British forces against Russia on 18 June and 8 September 1855 as a part of manufactured cardboard tanks and Great House (private) c1624, shows architectural features common to many clothiers’ the Siege of Sevastopol. The large stone you can see is a boundary stone planes during WWII, which were used houses in the area. At the junction of Smithy at the junction of Great house Lane and erected by Ripponden Parish Council to mark the Millennium. Look down the as decoys on the south coast, before Ripponden Old Lane turn right passing 10. Stones Cricket Club founded in 1884 and hill towards Clough House Stables – site of Clough Mill (1578) initially a fulling moved, in the 1920s, from it’s original site nearer to Stones Chapel to this location. In its mill, turned to cotton spinning by 1855. There were two mills on the site., the early days the entire team had the surname ‘Whiteley’. It is one of the highest cricket oldest mill burned down in 1875, whilst the new one, though never used in its grounds in the area. Continue along this road passing the houses used in Sally entirety was six storeys high. Wainwright’s “Last Tango in Halifax” series 3 & 4. Continue along this road until you reach the finish point of the Beehive Pub. Printed by Ripponden Parish Council Other Sites of Interest. Other information

Marked by a Letter on the map. Mills – earliest record of mills in Ryburn valley is 1479, now, none of the 41 mills in total that were built, exist in their HERITAGE A. Lane Head Farm – this farm has been occupied by the original form. Not only did the Ryburn valley have a plentiful water supply, it also had access to raw materials same family since 1875. Grace D. Mallinson was the Soyland and good transport links (canals, railway, turnpike and post lady during WWII walking some 11 1/2 miles per day. Opposite Lane Head Farm is Lane Head Hall which was a packhorse routes). produced the largest amount of the earliest type of cloth, ‘Kersey’, a coarse wool. WALK nightclub called Edelweiss. The mills served a variety of roles from grinding corn to B. Millbank – in 1907 were 5 mills in the village, though 3 textile production (wool, silk and cotton, synthetic fibres for were disused, 7 pubs and several shops including a Co-op carpets, velvets and clothing) to paper. Of the 10 started in 1865. The village fell into dereliction and was remaining in their entirety all have been converted into saved from destruction in 1976 when it was granted either business premises or residential living. The others Conservation Area status. The oldest mill in the area dating stand derelict, have reverted to farm or wasteland, or are from 1275, Soyland Mill, was located on the junction of two underwater. Many of the mills fell victim to fire: the packhorse routes: Ilkley to Manchester; and Elland to combination of lamps with open flames, grease, oil,

Barkisland. It was compulsory for residents in a 2-mile radius flammable fabrics and wooden floors were to be their SOYLAND to grind their corn here until 1621. The Water Mill (as it is now downfall. named) produced wool, silk, cotton, worsted and high-class knitwear that was exported worldwide. A young Jean Muir The c16th, c17th and early c18th saw the ‘domestic system’ of making cloth. Farmers would work the land during fine worked here as a designer. After its closure in 1973, it was converted into apartments. Severhills Mill – dam still exists weather then weave woollen cloth during bad weather. By the c18th when clothiers were building water-powered and part of the water tower. mills, people migrated down to the valley bottoms where Shirley Crabtree Jr, better known as Big Daddy retired here the mills were located as their home production could not and when he died he was still a large man and had to be compete with mass production. carried out through windows. Population and Governance C. Flints Moor – an RAF Starfish site used during the Blitz to In 1801, the combined population of the townships of divert the enemy from Railway Goods Yard and Barkisland, and Soyland – each of which had its to protect civilian targets, industrial facilities and important own Parish officials - was 4647 and had expanded to 7619 transport hubs by lighting decoy fires that simulated burning by 1861 when life expectancy was 40 years for men and 43 Difficulty level — medium. Footpaths are cities; and a reservoir that supplied Mill Bank. for women. The combination of long and hard-working uneven and not paved. Hills can be hours with unsanitary living conditions and poor food took D. Whitegate Head Farm – the setting for the 2009 drama, its toll. Today the population is some 11 000 plus residents. steep. Some roads have no footpaths. ‘Unforgiven’ written by Sally Wainwright who used to visit a friend that lived here. Architecture – although only 1/6th of the area of , E. Blue Ball Inn – around 1919, the pub was owned by Fat the Upper Calder Valley which includes the Ryburn Valley Ann, a large lady weighing 22 stone and her husband who has ½ of the houses with date stones from 1600-1750. Distance — 9 Kilometres / 5.6 miles weighed 24 stone. She sat on a wooden settle and used to Many were built by Yeoman, rich and independent men spit across the room into the fire. who were usually also clothiers. There is also a wealth of millworkers cottages, Millbank is a particular example, as is F. Beestonhirst (Beeston Hall/Thrum Hall), Gig Mill – earliest Wood Terrace in Ripponden. records show mills in 1595 owned by the Royd family. Used initially for spinning wool, then cotton and by early 1900s The changing face of industry is also reflected in the more manufacturing canvas barge covers and even jam, umbrel- modern housing which has sprung up around Ripponden las and camouflage fabric. The only remaining building is reflecting its central position between Leeds and Manches- Gig Mill on Rochdale Road which is now a private house. ter which enables people to easily commute to both cities for work and leisure . It was made considerably easier with the building of the M62 across the Pennine hilltops in October 1971. Printed by Ripponden Parish Council