Sandal, Agbrigg, Heath, Kirkthorpe, Woodhouse, Stanley Ferry, and Wakefield

Another later start this morning and so I went on a local walk again. I caught the Leeds train and got off at Sandal and Agbrigg station, just a couple of miles south of Wakefield.

It's not far to Heath Common from the railway station. I took a few photographs and then found a nice spot to sit on the grass and eat my sandwiches.

I then walked up to the village and took a lot more photos there; Heath's an unusual village, quite scattered with a massive central village green...plus many pretty cottages, an old hall, a pub, and some tearooms.

I couldn't find the footpath I was looking for to use to leave the village and so I opted for the road going down to Kirkthorpe until I reached the TransPennine Trail which took me mainly through the woods to Kirkthorpe, a much nicer walk.

I needed to walk through the entirety of the village until I reached the next footpath...and this was where things started to go wrong. The map I'd printed out from the internet was obviously a few years out of date; where I was expecting an easy route over to the River Calder I encountered a household waste recycling centre and a large landfill site. Fortunately the high voltage overhead electricity lines were where they should be and since the individual pylons are prominently marked on the Ordnance Survey maps I was able to navigate my way to the Catholic church at Woodhouse at the western edge of Normanton - it's got a tall spire and so that helped me. 

The building is quite impressive and rather unusual - it looks very Dutch to me. It was built in 1904 and I really liked the look of it.

I used the pylons again to make sure I selected the correct footpath for Newland Hall - but maybe it would have better if I'd got lost here. The hall is derelict and it seems that the lake is no longer maintained since it has expanded quite a bit and flooded the area where my footpath went; I had to turn back and find another to reach the road.

I walked down the road to Stanley Ferry, the point where the Aire and Calder Navigation crosses over the River Calder.

I was able to walk part of the way back to Wakefield along the canal towpath. At Morrison's supermarket in The Ridings shopping centre I got two very good bargains; I paid 6p for two Cadbury's Caramel doughnuts and 8p for four large raspberry and white chocolate cookies.