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WELCOME TO WEST RIDING AREA
Welcome to the website of the West Riding Area of the Ramblers’ Association. The West Riding Area takes its name from the days when Yorkshire was divided into three “ridings” a West Riding, North Riding and East Riding. The territory which the West Riding Area looks after on behalf of its members and the walking community is centred on Leeds and Bradford, and extends from Ingleton to Pontefract, and from Holmfirth to Wensleydale.
The landscape of the West Riding Area is attractive and varied. There are the high Pennine hills and moors, and these are incised by attractive steep-sided and well-wooded valleys. On lower ground there is a well-cultivated undulating landscape, much of which is surprisingly enjoyable when explored on foot. A great bonus of being in West Yorkshire is that there is attractive scenery on the doorstep of all the large towns, so there is no need to travel far for a good country walk. There are also many major scenic attractions, and these include The Three Peaks, Malham Cove, Fountains Abbey (a world heritage site), the Bronte Moors, and Hardcastle Crags near Hebden Bridge.
There is an extensive programme of walks exploring this attractive countryside, with distances to suit all capabilities. On Saturdays and Sundays several walks are organised, and there are also walks on weekdays. Monthly coach rambles often visit places further afield. The popular Take A Hike Group organises walks and social events for members in their 20s and 30s.
The West Riding Area of the Ramblers’Association does a vital job for the walking community in protecting the footpaths and countryside in its territory. The footpath work it undertakes does much to ensure that the network of rights of way is kept unobstructed and easy to use, and it liaises with other organisations to protect green lanes from illegal use by motorised vehicles. It is campaigning for a much-needed bridge over the River Wharfe at Burley-in-Wharfedale, and for the long overdue replacement of the bridge across the River Nidd at Skewkirk near Tockwith. The West Riding Area was at the forefront of the successful national campaign for access to the open countryside, and now walkers for most of the year can roam freely on the extensive moors of the South Pennines and the Yorkshire Dales. The West Riding Area also works for an attractive countryside for walkers, monitors planning proposals and is currently opposing the proposed opencast coal mine at Ledston east of Leeds.
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 Wakefield Ways
The Festival of Walks "Walking Wakefield Ways" is now online! Click here to learn more. JOIN US FOR A SUNDAY COACH RAMBLE !
If you fancy a change on a Sunday, why not try one of our monthly coach rambles. There are often some spare places. West Riding Area Coach rambles usually take place on the third Sunday of each month, and provide an opportunity to visit places a little further afield. Instead of having to drive you can have a relaxing journey and the opportunity to do linear walks. There is a pub meal at the end of the walk – a lovely way to round off the day.
There is usually a choice of a 6 to 8 mile walk at a leisurely pace, a not too strenuous walk of about 10 miles, and a tougher walk of up to 14 miles. Something to suit most tastes! The attractive programme in the next months includes Derbyshire (18 May); West Burton and Pen Hill, Wensleydale (15 June); Roseberry Topping, N.Yorks Moors (20 July); Swaledale Landscapes, N. Yorks (17 August); Malham and surrounds, N.Yorks (14 September); Hole of Horcum, N.Yorks Moors (12 October).
The coach rambles cost £10, collected on the coach, and the pub meal is usually between £7 and £8.
The coach starts at 8.30 from either Leeds or Bradford depending on the destination. It always picks up at Thornbury Barracks Roundabout, and other pick up points can be arranged if feasible. To book a place on a coach ramble contact Val Bamforth (01274 591678). Further details of the Coach Rambles and approximately 300 other walks can be found in the “Walks Diary” page of this website.
In Association with Burley Bridge Association
YORKSHIRE HERITAGE WALK FOR BURLEY BRIDGE
Saturday 12th April 9.00 a.m. 10 mile linear walk from Saltaire Railway Station to the bridge site at Burley-in-Wharfedale. Return by public transport from Burley-in-Wharfedale. Leader Peter Bayer 01535 656569. The walk is the first section of the provisional route of the proposed 32 miles Heritage Walk from the heritage site of Saltaire to the heritage site of Fountains Abbey. RA members, BBA members, and members of the public cordially invited.
SUMMER FESTIVAL OF WALKS UNVEILED
Make a note of Saturday 21st of June to Sunday 29th June. This is when this year’s Summer Festival of Walks will be taking place.
Not many visitors venture into the Wakefield Metropolitan District for their rambling, but the RA members who live there will tell them they don’t know what they’re missing. The walks in the festival will be exploring the relatively unknown countryside around Wakefield and Pontefract. It is a pleasant undulating landscape, full of charm and interest. It is also rich in history. A belt of magnesian limestone several miles wide runs north to south across the area and creates a distinctive countryside where many of the older buildings are in the local white stone. There is a good network of footpaths which the local RA members frequently monitor and ensure is kept in good condition. The Wakefield Way, a walk created by the Ramblers’ Association, encircles the area, and parts of its route are used by several of the festival walks. The festival contains half day walks, whole day walks, evening walks, themed walks and a family walk. Local historians and heritage speakers have been approached to join some of the walks. Places visited on the walks include the Aire & Calder Navigation, Bretton Country Park, Carleton and East Hardwick, Fairburn Ings, Midgeley, Notton, Pontefract Park and Castle, the Selby Horseshoe, Walton Park, and the Went valley. Further details of the festival are printed in the Summer Walks Programme of the West Riding Area and on the Area website, and there will be substantial local publicity with leaflets, newspaper articles and adverts.
The festival is jointly organised by the RA Groups at Castleford and Pontefract, and at Wakefield. RA members throughout West Riding Area are invited to join the walks and discover another part of Yorkshire.
KW
HELP KEEP MOTOR VEHICLES OFF GREEN LANES
PUBLIC CONSULTATION ON PROPOSED TRAFFIC REGULATION ORDERS ON 8 GREEN LANES IN YORKSHIRE DALES NATIONAL PARK
If you know the following 8 Green Lanes - among the finest in the Dales - please write straight away to Mark Allum of the Yorkshire Dales National Park saying two things: that you support the imposition of Traffic Regulation Orders on the 8 Green Lanes, and that you think that the Traffic Regulation Orders should be total prohibitions at all times on recreational motor vehicles. When you write, you must specify the routes by name, and you may, if you wish, add supplementary details about particular routes. Closing date for communications is 5th March 2008.
The 8 Green Lanes are Street Gate to Arncliffe Cote, Harber Scar Lane (northwards from Horton), Stockdale Lane, The High Way, Old Ling to Cam End (also known as Ling Gill), Gorbeck Road, Horton Scar Road/Foxup Road, Cam High Road.
Every positive response from the public will bring closer the time when the Green Lanes are freed from the blight of motor vehicles. .
Write to Mark Allum, YDNPA, Yordale, Bainbridge, Leyburn, N.Yorks DL8 3EL mark.allum@yorkshiredales.gov.uk
JOIN US ON A COACH RAMBLE
If you fancy a change on Sunday, why not try one of our monthly Coach Rambles. There are often some spare places. West Riding Area Coach Rambles usually take place on the third Sunday of each month and provide an opportunity to visit places a little further afield. Instead of having to drive you can have a relaxing journey and the opportunity to do linear walks. There is a pub meal at the end of the walk - a lovely way to round off the day.
There is usually a choice of a 6 to 8 mile walk at a leisurely pace, a not too strenuous walk of about 10 miles, and a tougher walk of up to 14 miles. Something to suit most tastes!
The attractive programme in the next few months includes Wharfedale in Winter (20th January), Twixt Two Dales: Swaledale and Bishopdale (17th February), Following the North Yorkshire Esk to the Sea (16th March), Jenny Twigg and Her Daughter: Wensleydale and Nidderdale (20th April). The Coach Rambles cost £8 collected on the coach, and the pub meal is usually between £7 and £8.
The coach starts at 8 30 a.m. from either Leeds or Bradford depending on the destination. It always picks up at Thornbury Barracks Roundabout, and other pick up points can be arranged if feasible.
To book a place on a Coach Ramble contact Val Bamforth (01274 591678).
Further details of the Coach Rambles and nearly a 1000 other walks a year can be found in the Walks Diary page of this website, and the Microsoft WORD document available on the same page (West Riding Area Walks Programme November 2007 - April 2008)"
New Wharfedale Trail Proposed
A new trail, from Ilkley to Bolton Abbey, has recently been proposed by the “Wharfedale Trail Forum”. The proposed trail builds on a scheme that was researched by the pioneering group SUSTRANS.
The proposed route starts at the old bridge in Ilkley, follows the Dalesway as far as the river bank at The Hollins, and then threads its way alongside existing roads into Addingham. From there, it would break entirely new ground by going along the old Ilkley to Skipton railway line as far as Bolton Abbey station. From the station, the route would work its way under the A59 and round to the car park at Bolton Abbey, using a mixture of existing rights of way and new trail, separated from busy roads.
The new trail would be open to walkers, equestrians and pedal cyclists. Its surfacing and lack of steep gradients would make it attractive to wheelchair-users, pram-pushers and the less mobile.
Ramblers can be a rather conservative bunch. Sometimes they will oppose any scheme that is not designed exclusively for walkers. And, in support of this conservative instinct, there are plenty of anecdotes of disagreeable – sometimes even dangerous - encounters between walkers and inconsiderate cyclists and horse-riders. But in other countries, such as Denmark and Holland, mixed-use trails are standard practice, and they operate with a large measure of mutual tolerance between the various groups that use them. In Britain, the tradition of the footpath, threading across the fields, punctuated by stiles is precious: there can be no general case for turning footpaths into bridleways. But we should be flexible when we see cases for significant improvements in the amenity and safety of the non-motorised public. The West Riding Area Footpath Sub-Committee considered the Wharfedale Trail scheme in detail, and while it recognised that for a short section, along the Dalesway, there might be a diminution of the appeal of the route for walkers, it considered that the prospects for walkers along the full length of the route were so attractive that the scheme should have the RA’s full backing.
When the trail will finally see the light of day is another matter. It will require close liaison between Bradford Council and North Yorkshire County Council, and it will require some hefty funding. But if it comes off, there will be a very useful new route, running through one of our most popular landscapes.
Michael Bartholomew, Footpath Committee Chairman
What About Doing Something For A LAF?
A LAF is a Local Access Forum set up as a result of the CROW Act. In West Riding Area, there is a Yorkshire Dales LAF, a Leeds LAF, a North Yorkshire LAF, a Wakefield LAF and a West Yorkshire Pennines LAF that includes Bradford, Calderdale and Kirklees.
On all these LAFs we have Ramblers’ Association members, but now there is a strong possibility that in the near future several of them may not be re-appointed, and we think that it is the best interests of the RA and the walking community that at least one member of each LAF should be from the RA.
We therefore need a small pool of RA members with an interest in access and rights of way who can be put forward as LAF members. You do not have to be resident within the boundaries of the LAF. The work involves attendance at LAF meetings and we would also want LAF members to belong to the West Riding Area Access Committee (a sub-committee of the Area Exec) which meets three times a year. The LAF appointments are made by the relevant local authorities. Members of LAFs are not permitted to represent an organisation, and an RA member would be representing the walking community, not the RA per se.
If you are interested in applying to become a LAF member please discuss it further with our Access Officer, David Gibson, at cdgibson@talktalk.net or at 015242 61942
ACCESS STILL GRIM AT GRIMWITH
Yes there’s access to the adjacent moors – no there isn’t, unless you want to risk tearing your clothing and delicate parts on the plentiful barbed wire!
Grimwith Moor Reservoir is an extensive sheet of water high upon the moors between Grassington and Pateley Bridge, and it is in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. You can do an enjoyable 4 mile walk round it, and hardly get your boots dirty. It is a breezy upland circuit with good views of the surrounding hills and moors. However, if you want to venture further and on to the adjacent access land, perhaps to explore Appletreewick Moor and then to make your way up to Sikes Ridge and Combes Hill, you are not wanted. A similar state of affairs applies to those who would like to visit the attractive and virtually unknown valley of Gate Up Gill. The Ramblers’ successful Access Campaign culminating in the CROW Act of 2000 was waged to enable walkers to explore these moors and vales with ease, at least as far as getting on to them is concerned, not to have to battle through a barrier of active discouragement.
I walked the circuit of the reservoir on a sunny day in early November, and signs saying no access were plentiful. The first one I noticed is near Grimwith House, but this is legitimate as it is a private track into the long strip of land round the north east side of the reservoir from Rough Hill to west of Limekiln Ridge and it is not access territory (though some of it looks as if it should be. At several points along this strip of land there are locked barbed-wired gates with “Private No Access” notices. This means there is no access route up the track by Grimwith Beck, nor, a bit further on, via the track to Limekiln Ridge which would give a really good route up to Appletreewick Moor. From GR 059650 the right of way is actually in access territory. However the gate at GR 054656 which provides a good route on to the moors displays a forbidding “PRIVATE NO ACCESS” notice, but at the time of my visit was unlocked. The next gate, the one at the bottom of the Gate Up Gill at GR 053658 which provides an excellent entry point for walkers who want to explore the valley, had no notice but was securely locked and topped with barbed wire. However, there is good news as well as bad. The good news is that after pressure from West Riding Area of the Ramblers’ Association, Yorkshire Water which owns the boundary wall/ fence will almost certainly in the near future be removing the barbed wire and the no access signs from the gates which lead directly to access land. This includes the gates GR 054656 and GR 053658, plus two gates that lead on to Grimwith Fell. It will also be providing stiles or kissing gates beside them. In the mean time, it is highly desirable that these gates remain unlocked.
The bad news relates to the moorland most easily reached via the long strip of land that is not access territory. Nothing can
be done here at present because Yorkshire Water do not own it. However, Yorkshire Water has said that if the National Park were successful in negotiating access via the gate to Limekiln Ridge, then it would be prepared to provide a further access point, and it is highly desirable that this option is vigorously pursued. The situation at Grimwith is a useful litmus test in the implementation of access legislation after the CROW Act. There is now an enormous amount of moorland (marked in orange on the OS Explorer maps) where walkers can legally roam for most of the year. In some places, for instance many parts of the Yorkshire Dales National Park and in the Peak District, getting on to the access land is easy and there are an adequate
number of clearly marked access points. However, because of fencing, locked gates (often encrusted with rusty barbed-wire),
and extreme infrequency of access points, there is a considerable amount of access land that is physically very difficult to get on to; this applies particularly to some of the eastern parts of the Dales National Park, and to most of the Nidderdale AONB. Take the road north from Otley which soon goes into the AONB on its way to to Blubberhouses, and count the marked access points into Askwith Moor on the left and into Snowden Moor on the right. The answer’s easy – there aren’t any! Why not?!
The CROW Act gives walkers the legal right to enter access land where there are no convenient access points, provided they do not cause damage: “any person is entitled … to enter and remain on any access land for the purposes of open-air recreation if and so long as he does so without breaking or damaging any wall, fence, hedge, stile or gate”. However, struggling over a barbedwired wall or fence should be a last resort, not the only option.
Keith Wadd
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