SE0020 Great Manshead
Great Britain 1:50 000 Scale Colour Raster Mapping Extracts © Crown copyright Ordnance Survey. All Rights Reserved. Educational licence 100045616.
Introduction
This article was revised in December 2021. New images have been added and the area covered has been expanded to include Manshead End to the south and Liberty Rush Bed to the west. The images have been arranged so as to go along the footpath from Slate Delfs, to the north, along the ridge to the highest summit at Manshead End. Images off the path to the north-east and on Liberty Rush Bed are in separate sections.
The locations of the images can be seen by clicking on them to open up the image page.
To see the browse page, the 1:25000 map in a popup window, or various other options click on 'Links for SE0020' and select the appropriate link. These include the National Library of Scotland website on which old ordnance survey maps can be viewed; note that the old-maps website is no longer available.
[map SE 00 20]
This square is almost entirely moorland, with 'right to roam'. The triangular area of fields (see 1:25000 map) is in Hebden Royd CP (Civil Parish), formerly in Sowerby CP, and later in Mytholmroyd Urban District. The moorland is in Ripponden CP, formerly in Soyland CP. The main feature of the square is Great Manshead Hill, with a summit at 404m AOD (above Ordnance datum) on which the 1850 map shows a triangulation pillar. The highest point on the hill is Manshead End, which still has a triangulation pillar at 417m AOD). The underlying rock is millstone grit, but there are no outcrops in the square, apart from a few boulders. The double pecked lines on the western side of the hill are for a track named on the 1850 six-inch map as Liberty Gate. Other tracks are marked on this map; Great Gate along the southern edge looks to have been an old route from Sowerby to Blackstone Edge and Lancashire, and a track captioned 'Foot Path' ran North-South down the centre of the square.
The path along the ridge
This is the path from Slate Delfs Hill that climbs up onto the ridge over Great Manshead to Manshead End.
One of a series of stones on the old boundary between Sowerby and Soyland townships. Here the boundary leaves the wall and goes across moorland to a recumbent stone shown in the 'Moorland to the north-east' section below.
The boundary is along the face of the wall, turning the corner to the next stone. It is captioned on maps and must be one of the series inscribed 'SB' on the old boundary between Sowerby and Soyland. The field on the other side is in Mytholmroyd, but was in Sowerby before 1894. Unfortunately this one has fallen onto the inscribed side and needs a very strong man to lift it back up.
by Humphrey Bolton
The bridge crosses a moorland stream, which was dry at the time of the photo, its course being marked by the cotton grass.
by Stephen Craven
The 'permissive path' along the spine of the hill is part of the Calderdale Way. The route does not match the black pecked lines that presumably represent the actual path. The path is shown on the 1850 six-inch map and named as Manshead Gate, gate meaning a way. The vegetation is tussocky grass, with patches of heather, and rushes in the wetter parts around the hill.
Top the southwest of the cairn the hill drops sharply towards old enclosures around Manshead and Greenwood Clough. Beyond the line of pylons the valley hides the main A58 road.
by Phil Champion
Moorland to the north-east
A recumbent boundary stone inscribed 'SB'. This stone is one of a series on the old boundary between Sowerby and Soyland townships.
This catchwater channel fed Flints Reservoir. It is overgrown, and breached in some places. There is a rough path along the eastern bank.
The channel fed Flints Reservoir, and this part of it was accompanied by a dry-stone wall. This view is looking upstream. A path comes in from the left, and then follows the left (east) bank of the channel.
by Humphrey Bolton
Liberty Rush Bed
I think the predominant grass is purple moor grass, Molinia caerulea, which is difficult to walk through. There are patches of rushes, especially along the hidden streams, and here a lone clump of tormentil. The wall is the edge of access land, and the boundary between Soyland and the part of Mytholmroyd that was in Sowerby before 1894.
by Humphrey Bolton
Not its usual habitat but there are several patches amongst the purple moor grass and rushes.
by Humphrey Bolton
This is one of the types of stream on this very wet area. The grass tussocks are surrounded by pools of water. The dead grass leaves from last year have been burnt off by a recent moorland fire, and fresh leaves are appearing. The orange colour is the scorched leaves of a plant that I have not yet identified. The grid reference and view direction are not reliable.
by Humphrey Bolton
This must be the same stone as I photographed in May 2013 SD9920 : Boundary stone on Great Manshead Hill, although its surroundings look rather different as there had been a grass fire and now the grass has recovered well and is tall enough to make the stone look shorter. My GPS reading is not quite the same as last time. The 1850 six-inch map shows a dot captioned 'Stone' in this area. Who was W.B.? Did he buy the land in 1827?
by Humphrey Bolton
Inscribed 'T Sunderland 1906', perhaps the landowner - not many tourists visit the Liberty Rush Bed!
by Humphrey Bolton
Great Britain 1:50 000 Scale Colour Raster Mapping Extracts © Crown copyright Ordnance Survey. All Rights Reserved. Educational licence 100045616.