Google Street View Virtual Walk: Hulme End To Hartington

I would have been using Hulme End as a base for several of my walks, being only about eighty minutes  on the planned X71 bus service from  Sheffield... there are so many nice walking areas in all directions.

On this walk  I had planned to head over to the west, staying north of Warslow and then going south to Butterton. This rather bland image is all that I could lift from Google Street View when virtually exploring the village, the church is hidden behind trees when viewed from the road, quite a bit of the imaging is distorted...and to be honest, the village looked rather uninteresting.

I would have followed the path that runs alongside Hoo Brook down into the Manifold Valley at Wetton Mill, a delightful sheltered spot -  fortunately there is Google Street View coverage of the area, but I've decided to only use this image of cows. When the Google car drove down there there were a lot of people about...who I don't want to be featuring on the blog.

This image is a few hundred yards further along the walk.

The next path would have taken me over higher ground; I'm sure there would have been  some lovely views. Coming  back down to the river and walking along the trackbed of the old railway line for half a mile I would have then climbed up to Wetton.

This was the only image I could retrieve when visiting online. 

I'd have been  able to use footpaths to reach Gateham Grange but then have needed to walk along the road again to reach Narrowdale.

I'd finish the walk by heading north to Beresford Dale and then immediately climb back out at the other side of the valley and take the direct route across the fields to Hartington. 

New Walking Areas Close To Home

There's a substantial area of woodland, a landscaped former colliery spoilheap and the more open landscape of Cantley Park just beyond the racecourse. Much of this area I haven't explored and so that's where I went this morning.

To get there I needed to pass through my local park; it's actually quite attractive.

There were quite a few people out at this time, a couple of hours later than I normally do my daily exercise walk; mainly dogwalkers and joggers. I heard a loud high-pitched shrieking noise coming from one family group and didn't know if it was the toddler or the chihuahua.

There was one section of the walk I particularly enjoyed; quite close to the houses at Cantley there's a heath-like area which seems to be an old abandoned orchard - certainly there were quite a few fruit trees there...and the blossom was lovely.

This was the only other photograph I took today, it's at the back of The Dome sports centre...it's something to do with the heating, the freezing system for the ice rink or the air conditioning I should think.  

Venturing A Bit Further Afield

I decided to go a bit further for my local exercise walk this morning, all the way to the Amazon.... the Amazon Distribution Centre, about three miles from my home.

I headed out past the Lakeside area and caught a spectacular sunrise over the water.

Just beyond the Lakeside area I took a path which leads to some quite open countryside, mainly meadows and woodland; I call these flowers that I photographed whitebells, but I've also heard them called 'white bluebells'...there were a lot of them. 

I crossed over two railway lines and under a motorway and a dual carriageway until I reached the furthest point of my walk. I was hoping to find I way back to Lakeside without going back the way I'd just come but ended up taking two dead-end footpaths and so abandoned that idea. I didn't have a map, I don't have an up-to-date map of my local area and didn't print out an online copy yesterday.

I returned to Lakeside and completed my circuit of the lake and arrived home at 9:30, quite a bit later than planned, meaning that I missed my daily Facebook group chat with my family and friends. We schedule it at this time so that it's convenient for my sister who lives in Australia.

My thigh muscles are aching a bit, so I'm assuming I'm not as fit as I was before lockdown.

Google Street View Virtual Walk: Chapel Haddlesey to Selby

My first six virtual walks have featured the areas of the Peak District that I could have reached by travelling on the X71 bus rom Sheffield. I would have been able to get to the start of today's Google Street View virtual walk by catching a bus from Doncaster. When I was planning this walk it wasn't my intention that in some way it would become another of my featured walks, but when I noticed on the map that towards the end of the route there were several farms with names featuring trees or bushes I had to include it.

The plan would have been to travel on  the Selby bus to Chapel Haddlesey and head west out of the village, first taking the road and then a footpath which crosses over the Selby Canal. I'd then be walking in a northwesterly direction  until I reaching Gateforth and passing near to the hall, which is now an hotel; a few yards further on is Hambleton Hough, a wooded hill.

I would have walked down the road to Hambleton, same as is the case with Gateforth there doesn't appear to be a parish church there. There's a complicated railway junction just north of Hambleton and the footpath has to cross three busy main lines - it would have meant walking for nearly a mile just to get a few yards closer to Scalm Park, my next intended destination.

It was then over a mile down the road to Wistow and then a rather indirect minor country road to Selby, passing by Sycamore House Farm, Ivy Grange, Laburnum Farm, Mulberry Farm, and Lilac Farm. Surely these names can't be a coincidence? There's also an Elm Tree Farm at Wistow, and the name 'Selby' means 'a farm by the willow tree.'

Selby Abbey is a magnificent building, both inside and outside...this was the only angle of it I could lift from Street View though.

Google Street View Virtual Walk: Hulme End To Longnor Circular Walk

Today's virtual walk would have been another one starting from  Hulme End, taking me to the north as I'd be going to Longnor. I would have walked along the road which is a section of the Manifold Way or Manifold Trail [it's difficult to work out which it is on the Ordnance Survey map] and then a footpath, passing just to the west of the hamlet of Brund. Staying on the trail all the way to Longnor  the walking looked as though it would have been easy and I could have made good progress meaning that there would have been plenty of time for me to pop into the tearooms and order a bit of something to eat.

It's definitely the Manifold Trail that heads to the west out of Longnor and I had planned to remain on it until the first opportunity for me to head off to the south and start the return route back to Hulme End.

There are a lot of footpaths in the area I would have been walking and I probably wouldn't have been able to remember  exactly which way I went, but I would have ended up at Warslow and then headed east, finally returning to Hulme End, approaching from the south.