St Thomas à Becket Church

Heptonstall's original church, dating back to the 13th century, was badly damaged in a storm in 1847. The congregation's answer was to build a new church next to it, which is still used. The old church remains as an atmospheric ruin within its crowded graveyard, reputed to hold 100,000 burials. 

We were amused by the sign glimpsed through one of the old church windows, which says 'Churchyard Bottom'. (A bit too small to read on my photo). 'Bottom' is a common geographical term in the UK and there are apparently at least 356 actual places with Bottom in the name, including Scratchy Bottom and Happy Bottom in Dorset, Flash Bottom in Staffordshire and Slap Bottom in Hampshire. Just along the road from Heptonstall itself is Slack Bottom. 

My daughter and I spent quite a while enjoying the carved lettering on the gravestones. Part of her job is designing websites so she has a 'professional interest' in fonts. I love the hand carved shapes and the huge variation you find. 

Meanwhile, my younger granddaughter disappeared, only to be spotted halfway up a tree. 🙈 Little monkey! She's always been an adventurer. That and the fact that she's good at maths makes me doubt sometimes that she can actually be a descendent of mine! There's no way you'd ever have got me up there.

Heptonstall revisited

My family live just down the hill from Heptonstall village, so when I went over to see them we had a mooch around there. There's a very nice café, which supplied copious amounts of tea and cake before we ventured out for a wander. It was really rather cold so we didn't linger long and, compared to my last visit with camera club companions, I was only taking quick snaps rather than considered shots. 

It's a moody and photogenic village, with its narrow streets and cobblestones. It was, historically, a centre for handloom weaving, safely perched on the high plateau above the flood-prone river valley. Hebden Bridge and the other towns and villages down in the valley only really grew when, in the late 18th century, industrialised textile processes in the water-powered mills began to take over from the home-based cottage industry. 

In the photo below, up the street on the right, you can see on the upper floors the serried windows typical of the weavers' cottages. The handlooms would have been up there and needed as much light as they could manage. 

It's an amazing place to wander through, with unexpected sights at every turn.

Harrogate spring

I met a friend in Harrogate recently for coffee and cake. It was lovely to catch up and inevitably we spent a long time chatting, leaving us little time to explore the town. Anyway, the weather was disappointing. The forecast had been for warm sunshine but in the morning and early afternoon it was misty, overcast and decidedly chilly. When we had finished in the coffee shop it was brightening up so we decided on a quick walk into the Valley Gardens. Harrogate has long been famed for its display of spring bulbs, and we enjoyed the colour and variety of blooms around the gardens. 

Night blossom

 There was something very attractive about the blossom, illuminated by street lights as the night drew in. 

Bingley's Myrtle Park

Between Bingley's main street and the river is a pleasant green space known as Myrtle Park, which has lots of amenities including a bandstand, café, children's play area, skateboard park and a large bottom meadow used for picnics, dog walking and various local events. For a long time Bingley Agricultural Show was held there but, since Covid, that has not taken place. They did, however, use the park for the finale of the Bradford City of Culture 2025 celebrations. 

The crocuses were blooming (this was a week or so ago) and there was a bank of daffodils in bud, which are probably flowering by now. It's cared for by the local Council and 'Friends of Myrtle Park' put in many volunteer hours in the gardens and staffing the visitor hub, which provides activities for children and an information point. I've several friends who are heavily involved and I think they should all be very proud of their efforts, as the park looks lovely. 

They've added more 'focal points' in recent years, including a couple of rather lovely, whimsical, carved tree stumps that seem to entrance children. 

And so, back to the River Aire. There's a footbridge across and then it was a pleasant walk in the sunshine, past the allotments, past the cricket field, tennis courts and the golf course, up Beckfoot Lane to where I'd parked my car. It was a delightful walk.

Throstle's nest

I walked back a little way along the other side of the river from Ireland Bridge and then climbed up steep stone steps from the river bank into Bingley's town square, where there was a lovely display of crocuses. 

Bingley was granted a market charter by King John in 1212. By the 1300s it was probably the largest town in the Aire valley (more important in those days than what are now the cities of Bradford and Leeds). The old town was sited around the church and the Old White Horse coaching inn, by the Ireland Bridge river crossing, and the market would have been set up along what was then the main street. 

The market hall, dating to the late 1600s (when a second market charter was granted), is a long, low, open-sided building with stone columns and an oak roof covered with stone slates. When the main street was widened in the 1800s, it became redundant and was moved to a Bingley park and in the 1980s it was relocated again to what is now the town square.    

Behind it is the buttercross, thought to date from the 13th century (the original market charter) and later given a canopy. Vendors would have laid out their butter and dairy produce on its steps. There is also a set of stocks preserved beside it. 

An early historian noted: 'Ancient houses round its venerable parish church, the little place lays deeply embossed amidst high craggy hills and embowering woodlands and well does it deserve its title of: The Throstle’s Nest of England.'  On the riverside there is a stone plaque illustrating this old title, showing a thrush (throstle) feeding its young in the nest. 

River path

From Beckfoot Bridge I took the footpath along the river that leads round towards Myrtle Park. There are lovely views across the park and up into the woodland around Bingley St Ives. You wouldn't know you were only half a mile away from Bingley town centre.

There's a point where you look down and glimpse water between the trees. This isn't the river (which lies beyond). There are a couple of small lakes that at one time I think were fishing lakes, though I'm not sure they are used now. It's all quite attractive, though there are few clear views through fences and trees. 

Eventually I arrived at Ireland Bridge, which leads across the river to the oldest part of Bingley around the church. 

Beckfoot bimble

I had a stressful few days trying to get fibre broadband connected. How can BT/Openreach get things so consistently wrong? Eventually, after a lot of hassle, on the third day I did get the working connection I needed. Phew. It was a lovely day, unseasonably warm and sunny, with gorgeous light so the best way for me to decompress was with a walk. I decided I'd go to Bingley as I haven't walked that way for ages, though it's a familiar, favourite route. (I used to live over in that direction.) 

I walked down Beckfoot Lane to the gorgeous little packhorse bridge which has spanned Harden Beck since 1723, though there was a wooden bridge here before that. I've shown it several times before on my blog but I do think it an attractive spot, with the ford and the narrow bridge. Packhorse bridges were traditionally built without parapets so that horses heavily laden with panniers could cross unimpeded. Wooden balustrades have been added to the structure much more recently, as health and safety is taken more seriously these days. 

After recent rain the ford was quite deep and fast-flowing. Misguided visitors to the area, using sat-nav, have many a time come to a halt in their cars half-way across! 

I wanted a photo showing the bridge from the other direction. Beside the bridge, there are some lovely old buildings with a rich history: Templar Cottage and Beckfoot Farmhouse - but what with the sun being in my eyes and an abundance of brambles and shrubbery, that proved more than a difficult assignment! 

Nearby, on the banking, I spotted a really pretty little cluster of newly minted daffodils, the first I'd seen this year. 

Froth

Trees in the allotments have suddenly erupted in frothy white blossom. It only needs a little bit of sunshine to coax it out. I'm not exactly sure what trees they are. Google suggests that cherry plums are among the first to flower in the UK, in late February/early March, so that's a possibility. Blackthorn also flowers early but they tend to grow wild so I wouldn't have thought that likely in this spot. I couldn't get near enough to get a closer look. They looked very pretty where the sunshine was catching them. 

Shipley Glen and Trench Meadows

After my walk up beside the Tramway, I was intending to have a ramble along the moor at the top of Shipley Glen. The paths were, however, so muddy and slippery that I thought better of it, instead threading my way gingerly down the bridleway (also muddy!) to the Coach Road.

That path skirts its way along the side of Trench Meadows nature reserve, a rare lowland meadow habitat. It's owned by Bradford Council, who had it on their 'Disposals List' until it was included in the new Bradford Pennine Gateway National Nature Reserve, which covers eight different sites in our region and protects a variety of priority habitats. Launched in 2023 to mark King Charles III's Coronation, the King's Series of National Nature Reserves (NNRs) is a 5-year initiative by Natural England to create 25 new, significant nature reserves. The project aims to boost biodiversity, connect habitats, and improve public access to nature.

I was struck by the difference in the reserve's appearance when the sun was shining (above) and when it clouded over (below). I quite liked the soft, silvery look and have processed the photo below to emphasise that. 

Just at the edge of the reserve are some of the oldest buildings in the area: Trench House and Trench Barn. Both date to the mid 1600s, with some later additions, and are now listed buildings. They originally belonged to the Hudson family, yeoman clothiers - small holders practising a little subsistence farming but whose main income came from spinning wool and weaving cloth in their own homes.

Raising funds

Shipley Glen Tramway has hauled people up and down the hillside from Saltaire to Shipley Glen and Baildon since 1895. The oldest, still working, cable hauled tramway in the UK is now run on a shoestring by dedicated volunteers, who have a tough job keeping the old rolling stock and machinery safe and in good working order. They've recently raised an appeal for £89000 to repair the trackway that has, over the years, been patched to keep it safe. Recent bad weather has eroded it further and it now needs professional attention to preserve it for the future. 

Part of the fundraising drive was a 'Dinosaur Weekend', with brave souls leaping around in inflatable suits! It was popular with families, so much so that there were long queues for the trams. I abandoned my intention to ride up and walked instead. It's not actually that long or steep a path. 

I also abandoned my intention to take photos of the cars, as there were too many children for that to be advisable. Instead I've dug out a very old collage I once made... but the tramway's appearance doesn't really change over the years, faithful to its 130 year history.  

Lock work

I walked along to Dowley Gap Locks, which is a staircase of two locks on the Leeds-Liverpool Canal, completed around 1773. Not surprisingly, these structures need an increasing amount of maintenance to keep them in working order. It was difficult to see into the locks themselves, but they have been drained. Those blue tarps are holding back the water at either end and there were big pumps and pipes leading down into the lock chambers. It appeared that there was some repair work going on to the walls on either side and I think they are replacing some of the lock gates too. These kinds of scheduled works are mostly done in winter time to minimise inconvenience to boaters and holiday makers. It may be completed by now, as the Canal and Rivers Trust schedule says the waterway would be closed until 27 February. 

Springing

At last, it begins to feel like we're edging closer to spring. There's the faintest hint of colour on the trees... No leaves yet, of course, but buds start to appear and the lichen on the branches seems to brighten in colour. 

There are purple crocuses now, along with the yellow ones. Still a lot of mud rather than grass but they're a cheery sight. 

Some of the trees have catkins. A faint hint of sunshine and warmer temperatures tempted people out into the park. The river is pretty full but, around here at any rate, the inflow of water seems to have more or less kept pace with the outflow and there's been no flooding as far as I'm aware.

Snowdrops sit in the grass around the church. With no leaves on the trees, a new viewpoint is opened up... What looks simply like a tower (from the familiar front view down the church drive) is revealed to have quite a lot more building behind!