The Valley of Red Beck, near Brighouse

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Creative Commons License Text by Humphrey Bolton, August 2022 ; This work is dedicated to the Public Domain.
Images are under a separate Creative Commons Licence.


[map SE 11 25]

1.5 Wakefield Gate

1.5.1 Barrowclough Lane and Dark Lane

[smallmap SE 105 252]

SE1025 : Barrowclough Lane by Chris Heaton
From the top of the climb out of Halifax a length of 340 yards (about 310m) of the old track was widened, c.1826, by 2 yards (1.8m) as far as Marsh Delves Lane. A stone wall was built on the north side, as can be seen in this image.


SE1025 : Dark Lane from Marsh Delves Lane by Humphrey Bolton
This is Barrowclough Lane after passing the end of Marsh Delves Lane. Here it is the access lane to Upper Place Farm, beyond which is the old packhorse track, which has been renamed 'Dark Lane'. It is a scheduled ancient monument.


SE1125 : Pump Lane at Dark Lane, Southowram by Humphrey Bolton
Pump Lane (see 1.5.2) is a branch path that goes down to the site of an ancient house called Pump, which was demolished in 1982 (see 1.4.3).


SE1125 : Dark Lane and a gateway, Southowram by Humphrey Bolton
This is the entrance to what was a field and is now a wood. Lower Place Farm was to the right of the lane..
by Humphrey Bolton


SE1125 : Ruin of Upper Place Farm, Dark Lane, Southowram by Humphrey Bolton
This was the original Upper Place Farm. It was declared unfit for habitation in the 1950s and has become a ruin. The name now applies to a farm further up the lane.
by Humphrey Bolton


SE1125 : A bright part of Dark Lane, Southowram by Humphrey Bolton
Bluebells are in flower on the left.
by Humphrey Bolton


SE1125 : Dark Lane, medieval holloway by michael ely
Dark Lane is one of the best preserved examples of a medieval holloway route in Yorkshire. Where it once carried traffic between Halifax and Wakefield as part of the Magna Via, it now carries Ancient Monument status.
by michael ely


SE1125 : Magna Via, Southowram by Humphrey Bolton
This is the medieval 'main road' from Wakefield to Halifax. The paving has been renewed, of course; people used to leave money in their wills to keep it in good repair. Its preservation is due to the difficulty of widening it for coaches in the 18C. A new road was built past Shibden Hall instead. Most of the paving has been overgrown, but this section has been restored.
by Humphrey Bolton
Shared Description


SE1125 : Lower Place Farmhouse by Kevin Waterhouse
Lower Place Farmhouse was built in the 17C or early 18C and was part of the Lister estate. It has been refurbished recently. It has a 17C barn and both house and barn are listed, Grade II.


SE1125 : The eastern end of Dark Lane, Southowram by Humphrey Bolton
There is an explanatory plaque about the 'Magna Via' - the old main road, here no more than a packhorse track, from Halifax to Wakefield. Looking back towards Halifax the track keeps straight on where the driveway turns right to Lower Place Farm.
by Humphrey Bolton


SE1125 : Junction of Norcliffe Lane and Dark Lane, Southowram by Humphrey Bolton
The Wakefield Gate meets Norcliffe Lane and follows it to the left to cross Red Beck.


SE1125 : Dixon Clough downstream of Dark Lane, Southowram by Humphrey Bolton
Near to the Norcliff Lane junction the lane crosses Dixon Clough, a small stream, but with quite a big valley upstream (see views from Norcliffe Lane).


1.5.2 Norcliffe Lane

[smallmap SE 118 252]

SE1125 : Norcliffe Lane, Southowram by Humphrey Bolton
This part of Wakefield Gate is also part of Norcliffe Lane.


SE1125 : Houses on Northcliffe Lane by Ian S
At the bottom of Norcliffe Lane there is a block of eight back-to-back terrace houses, called Undercliffe Place, built for workers at the adjacent Hipperholme Mill. Opposite here was Dumb Mill, which became the Dumb Mill Inn.


1.5.2 Badger Hill

[smallmap SE 119 253]

SE1125 : Red Beck upstream of Badger Lane by Humphrey Bolton
Red Beck looking upstream from the foot of Badger Hill, strongly coloured by ochre.


SE1125 : Mineral tramway channel, Badger Hill, Hipperholme by Humphrey Bolton
Over a wall on the left is the short surviving part of the tramway from Allen's Brickworks to Hipperholme station. It is in a channel bounded by stone retaining walls; the trucks were pulled by an endless rope. It is shown on the 1930 revision of the 1:2500 map


SE1125 : Badger Lane below Hipperholme by Stephen Craven
This is the bottom of Badger Hill, with the driveway to the derelict brickworks on the left and the parapet wall of the bridge over Red Beck on the right with the entrance to the footpath to Halifax Old Road in front of it. The road straight on is the Wakefield Gate, here called Norcliffe Lane.


SE1225 : Badger Lane - viewed from Station Road by Betty Longbottom
The old way came up Badger Hill, which was probably widened when Hipperholme Mill was built next to it and further widened near the top when Station Road was constructed. The old route turned up the hillside before the present road junction and when the railway was constructed a level crossing was provided but this proved to be dangerous and the railway company were persuaded to construct Station Road and the railway bridge.


SE1225 : Entrance to Underwood, off Badger Lane by Stephen Craven
Hipperholme Mill was built in the late 1840s by Joseph Wood. It was a steam-powered textile mill, and by the early 20C it was a large group of buildings on the flat valley floor, hard to imagine now. The business became bankrupt in 1958 and the land became Mill Hill Farm, producing chickens. This lasted until 1969, and the buildings were then demolished, and then Underwood was built, with large grounds on the mill site.


SE1225 : Old road to Hipperholme Station by Humphrey Bolton
This is all that remains of the old track, which was closed soon after 1892. The retaining wall on the right supported Wood End Farm, which was demolished in the 1950s.


1.6 Paths between Wakefield Gate and the first turnpike road


There are four paths between these two routes.


1.6.1 The new path to Shibden Hall

[smallmap SE 103 253]

SE1025 : Gate on new footpath from Beacon Hill to Shibden Hall by Humphrey Bolton
This is the top end of the path, a little to the west of the junction of Long Lane with Barrowclough Lane


SE1025 : Gate on the new footpath from Beacon Hill to Shibden Hall, Halifax by Humphrey Bolton
Near the next gate there is a railway boundary stone over the tunnel.


SE1025 : Railway boundary stone, Halifax (Southowram) by Humphrey Bolton
This is one of many stones with the initials of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. it is on one side of the strip of land over the tunnel on the line from Halifax to Bradford, which was opened in 1851.
by Humphrey Bolton


SE1025 : Air shaft, Beacon Hill Tunnel by Ivan Hall
This is an air shaft on the tunnel.


SE1025 : Gate on the new path from Beacon Hill to Shibden Hall, Halifax by Humphrey Bolton
The tower straight ahead is an air shaft on a disused coal mine owned by the Shibden Estate.
by Humphrey Bolton


SE1025 : New footpath from Beacon Hill to Shibden Hall by Humphrey Bolton
The path curves round and goes down to Lister's Road near to the top entrance to Shibden Park.


1.6.2 Pond Lane

[smallmap SE 110 252]

SE1125 : Pump Lane, Southowram by Humphrey Bolton
This path would be wider without the vegetation but gets narrower further down and is only suitable for use as a bridleway. However it was the only access, apart from a field path, to Cold Well Farm and possibly the only access to the ancient house called Pump.



SE1125 : Shibden Hall Croft - Shibden Hall Road by Betty Longbottom
The bottom end of the path is in a housing estate that replaced Shibden Industrial School, which had been built around Pump (see 1.3, Shibden Hall Road).


1.6.3 Footpath passing the ruins of Cold Well Farm

[smallmap SE 111 252]

SE1125 : Footpath towards Shibden Hall Road by Chris Wimbush
You have to clamber up the bank at the side of Dark Lane to a stile, from where you walk over pasture next to a wall and soon get a good view over the valley.


SE1125 : Ruined barn at Cold Well Hill, Southowram by Humphrey Bolton
As the slope steepens you come to the ruins of Cold Well Farm. There was an access track from Pump Lane called Little Lane, but this has disappeared.


SE1125 : Spring at Cold Well Hill, Southowram by Humphrey Bolton
This is presumably the 'Cold Well' of the name of the farm that it supplied with water. I didn't dabble my fingers in the water to check. There should be another spring adjacent, but I didn't see it. The farm is shown on the 1930 1:2500, but the access was only by the narrow Pump Lane and Little Lane, The latter has disappeared although still shown on maps.
by Humphrey Bolton


SE1125 : Retaining wall for a tank, Southowram by Humphrey Bolton
This is shown on maps from 1890 onwards, but the 1930 edition of the 1:2500 map identifies it as a 'Tank'.
by Humphrey Bolton


SE1125 : Path in a ravine, Southowram by Humphrey Bolton
Coming up the path it looks as if the way is up this ravine, but the correct route is outside of the wood to the right. The ravine is only shown as a small wood on maps, and is not indicated by the contour on the 1850 six-inch map. There is an 'Old Shaft' nearby, and I have a theory that the ravine was dug to try to reach a coal seam.


SE1125 : Footpath joining the driveway to Dove Farm, Southowram by Humphrey Bolton
The path joins the driveway to Dove House, which goes down to Shibden Hall Road.


1.6.4 Footpath from Badger Hill to Shibden Hall Road

[smallmap SE 118 253]

SE1125 : Footpath to Halifax Old Road at Badger Lane by Humphrey Bolton
This is near the south-eastern end of Brighouse footpath link 23/10.
by Humphrey Bolton


SE1125 : Footpath through the field by Michael Steele
The middle section of the path is along the edge of a field


SE1125 : Steps up to Halifax Old Road, Hipperholme by Humphrey Bolton
This is on the footpath from Badger Hill. Note that the continuation of the path up to Halifax Road has been closed, presumably because of the level crossing where the path crossed the railway.
by Humphrey Bolton


KML

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