Posts

287 Friday3rd to Sunday 5th October 2025 Runcorn weekend

Image
 For  our  next weekend away, we chose the Campanile Hotel, Runcorn.  Warnings of a storm over the weekend overshadowed it. The  journey there was uneventful and we found the hotel without too much trouble. Simon had some chips and I had some ice cream in the restaurant before we turned in for the night.  In the morning the weather was pretty wild and we ran across to the main building for breakfast. After that we raced across to the station for a train to Chester. Ours was one of the few  trains still running. We  huddled in the waiting room until the last minute. By the time got to Chester, the weather had calmed down considerably and there were no delays to our train to Rhyl. We caught the bus to Rhuddlan but when we got to the castle it had been closed due to the weather conditions. this seemed like a disaster but I had noted the bus was going on to Denbigh. I found a number for the castle there and got confirmation it was still open so we mov...
Post a Comment
Read more

286 Saturday 27th September 2025 Wycoller Country Park

Image
 This  was my  choice although necessitated by our YouTube schedule. We  drove to Wycoller Country Park  and  the video we filmed can be seen here. After that, we walked a route from Paul Hannon's "Walks In Bronte Country" . This  took us past  the  rocky outcrop of Foster's Leap.  There was a good view over to Boulsworth Hill. Simon posed on the rocks. We passed the  sadly now closed and  converted Herder's Arms and walked along the road to Haworth  for  three quarters of a mile. A  track to the right dropped us  down  into  the valley and we made quick progress to the ancient bridge where we did some additional filming.  We  then passed the picnic site on the right. As the tea room in Wycoller has now closed we drove to a cafe in Trawden for lunch. Then we drove home.
Post a Comment
Read more

285 Sunday 21st September 2025 The Calderdale Way. Clay House to Ripponden

Image
 This  was something I'd recently  mooted to Simon, walking the Calderdale  Way, something the old LTS  did in 1979. We  drove to Todmorden then caught the train to Halifax, Simon bought a bacon butty from the  kiosk at the station before we caught the bus to West Vale. We bought some provisions there before crossing over to Clay House. The building itself now looks empty and forlorn. Before we set off , I showed Simon the alcove where Mick, Steven and I had sheltered after completing The Calderdale Way in October 1979. There is now a signost to mark the start There was a bit of uncertainty near the start where a concrete yard is now disused and fenced off  but we eventually got on the right track and  enjoyed the view over to Wainhouse Tower. A gren lane led us to the start of the section along  the top of North Dean Woods At points, there were  views through the trees across Copley and its railway viaduct to the Tower. Later on , ...
Post a Comment
Read more

284 Saturday 13th September 2025 Wainhouse Tower

Image
 This  one was a genuine hangover from the "Classic" LTS period.  I always wanted to go inside Wainhouse Tower or at least do the history trail around it  but we never got round to it in the old days, This was brought home by the surprise discovery of our  draft trips programme for 1979  within the pages of the history trail booklet when I dug it out ( although ironically Wainhouse Tower was not on that programme). As  the climb up the Tower had to be pre-booked, we left plenty of time to get there . We drove to Halifax  and parked up nearby.  We were just over an hour early so after checking the exact route from the car to the Tower, we started doing the history trail. Simon had some misgivings as it was spitting but it stayed fairly dry. The  text in the trail being around 50 years old didn't make it that easy to follow  but  we were able  to find some of the features. This is the view towards  Sowerby Bridge from T...
Post a Comment
Read more