Penistone Hill Heritage Trail
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
How To Get Here City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council Haworth Village Situated 8 miles (12.8km) west of Bradford and 4 miles (6.4km) south of Keighley in West Yorkshire. From the North via Skipton and the Dales follow the A629. Heritage Trail From the South/East take Junction 26 off the M62 via M606. From the West take Junction 24 off the M62 and follow A629 via Halifax. By Rail Keighley train station on the Airedale line connects via Leeds to all parts of the country. Keighley train station is 1/4 mile (0.4km) from Keighley bus station. Penistone Hill Country Park, Haworth By Bus Frequent bus services from Keighley bus station to Haworth : 663 Oxenhope via Haworth / 664 Stanbury via Haworth. 665 Oakworth via Haworth / 500 Keighley to Todmorden. National Express call at Keighley bus station. HAWORTH MOOR Oxenhope Stanbury Route by car P P 11/4 miles (2km) from Haworth Water C Route on foot e Treatment m Plant Lumbfoot 1/2 mile (0.8km) e from Haworth t West End e r P Haworth y Cemetery R o a PENISTONE HILL d COUNTRY PARK P P Dimples Lane Bronte Parsonage Paths to WC Museum North St. Moors & e P n Penistone Hill a L Balcony Lane t P s e = W L o r d Lane P Tourist Information HAWORTH P Centre P MytholmesVILLAGE Ln. P d a o R Main Street on wd Ra We hope you have enjoyed the Industrial Heritage Walk around Penistone Hill Country Park. If so, please tell your friends, if not or have encountered any problems please tell us. Bradford Metropolitan District Council, Countryside and Rights of Way Service, Jacobs Well BRADFORD BD1 5RW Tel: 01274 432666 e-mail: [email protected] www.bradford.gov.uk/tourism/countryside Acknowledgements Dennis Gillson & Son. Naylor Hill Quarry, Haworth The late Bill Packer who worked on Penistone Hill and loved these moors. Front Cover photos. Main photo : View across Lower Laithe Reservoir towards Stanbury Moor from marker 11. Top : Carved stone seen at marker 4. Middle : Water pump at marker 10 There were a number of buildings Walk Information erected on this site to service the 1 This circular walk is 1 /2 miles (2.4km), you should allow 2 hours if you quarry. This large, upright stone wish to make the most of the landscape, views and industrial heritage. marks the location of the Blacksmith's Being a circular walk there are various starting points. However, for the forge. The outline of the Blacksmith's purpose of this leaflet we are assuming you have either arrived by car and shop can be seen in the form of parked on West End car park or alternatively you have walked up from grass-covered mounds of rubble. Haworth Village via Balcony Lane and joined the walk between markers six and seven on the map. Looking south, the village of Soft sandstone rock face at marker 2 Oxenhope nestles in the lush Due to the very nature of the countryside this walk is not suitable for the less mobile area. The soft sandstone shaped landscape of the valley bottom. and pushchairs. Strong shoes or wellington boots are recommended, along with wind Which then gives way to the harsh and waterproof clothing. A light snack with a drink is also advisable. by the weather, shows that the structure of the rock cannot easily South Pennine Hills encompassing be worked as building stone. The the hamlets of Leeming and Sawood. more evenly bedded rock lies deep 4 Continue along the track and 1 After parking your car at West the intake fields above Lower Laithe below. West End Quarry, where we follow the fence on the left as it End car park, start by walking back Reservoir; this takes in Bronte are standing, was in operation from bears left, to walk between the to the top of the car park access Waterfalls before reaching Top the 1840's to the 1960's. The stone quarry edge and the dry-stone Trig point 1026ft (314 metres above sea level) at marker 5 track and between the large Withins Farm 21/2 miles (4km) from extracted was used for the wall. The building on the other boulders. Continue straight here. The outcrop, on which you are construction of the mills and houses side of the wall is West End Cricket 5 forward and slightly uphill onto a standing, is made of quarry waste. in the nearby industrial towns. Keep on this path as it bears and east where the Worth Valley Club, thought to be the highest grassy outcrop, where, after a If you look around there are other right to the junction of several travels down towards Keighley in based cricket club in Yorkshire. short distance you will find marker similar outcrops of rock strewn land. other paths. Here take the second Airedale with the distant skyline Where the path opens out onto 1. This waste rock was abandoned path off to the right. Walking level dominated by Rombalds and Ilkley moorland take the second, well- during the search for better stone. between the heather, heading Moor. defined path to the left, after From here you can see most of the towards the overhead electricity approximately 100 yards (91 western edge of Penistone Hill, with 2 To continue, turn around and posts ahead. Marker number 5 is 6 From the trig point continue metres) look out for marker 4 on Haworth Moor stretching out before re-trace your steps off the outcrop near the white painted straight forward to the junction of the left, hidden amongst the you up to the Pennine Ridge. On a back towards the large boulders. triangulation (trig) point. several paths, turning left down abandoned stone and grass. clear day the ruins of Top Withins Just before you reach the boulders the second path on the left, Farm, the supposed location for turn left down the wide track into Surrounding the trig point (originally between the heather clad mounds used by the Ordnance Survey when of quarry waste. Lower down, Wuthering Heights, can be seen from the quarry. At the bottom of the Abandoned waste rock here. Access to Wuthering Heights hill, in front of you, on the large compiling maps, but now redundant cross over another path and head is by foot only and there are several exposed rock face is marker 2. 3 Once again, retrace your steps due to aerial photography and for the ponds below. Number 6 routes across the moor. The most to the top of the hill to turn left to satellite navigation) is a wide marker can be found on the left at popular is to your right and follows This rock face clearly shows why walk between the boulders back expanse of heather, seen at its best the edge of the larger pond. the track running along the edge of there is so much waste rock in this into the car park. Continue by in late July through to early following the right hand edge of September. Heather dominates the car park for approximately 100 these upper slopes where the yards (91metres), near the large underlying rocks are well-drained upright stone on the right you will gritstones. The lower slopes are find marker 3. covered in acidic grassland where The stonemasons often worked the the drainage is not so extracted stone on site; some good. Panoramic examples of this can be seen views are amongst the piles of abandoned especially rocks. The finer stone was shaped good to into lintels and sills and the rougher the north Ponds at marker 6 into flagstones, roofing slates These ponds are known locally as and gravestones. Look the 'Forth Ponds' and are part of an for the method of extensive drainage system for this splitting the rock by part of the hill. The largest pond is using plugs and thought to be the depression caused feathers, evident in by the shaft of an early coalmine. many of the stones (see photo above). Vegetation is well established in the ponds, and associated fauna is Plugs and feathers still in use today at Naylor Hill developing which includes Quarry, Haworth View across Haworth Moor from marker 1 Site of the Blacksmiths Forge at marker 3 dragonflies, beetles, frogs and pond skaters. 7 To continue, walk across the powered mills took over on sites 12 Walk along the edge of the drain between the ponds and take adjacent to upland streams. Steam escarpment towards the piles of the path to the left. At this point power enabled bigger mills to be abandoned stone, to pick your walkers from Haworth start and sited in the valleys near canals and way carefully straight forward finish their walk. Cross over the railways, eventually leading to the through the surface boulders to track and follow the path as it growth of the industrial towns. Note find marker number 12. bears right downhill into Dimples the use of stone for buildings, walls Quarry. Walk between the trees and flagged pavements. The abandoned stone was discarded towards the rock-face, here, because it was of very poor quality, hidden amongst the grass is 9 Continue along the same path much of it formed in running water. marker number 7. as it gently rises to the left, leaving This 'current bedding' prevented it behind the escarpment and breaking 'true and square'. Another At the foot of the quarry another crossing several other paths, type of stone found here is a very small pond can be found supporting heading for the wooden electricity soft sandstone known locally as wildlife similar to the Forth Ponds at pole ahead.