The closest town of any size to me, other than Leeds itself, is
Harrogate, and there's some beautiful countryside between the two. The small village of
Pannal has ancient origins, but is little more than a Harrogate suburb today. While there is a general demand for more housing, on the small island I share with nearly 67 Million other people, because of the affluence of the area, the demand for housing is different to the average (bigger wallets, bigger houses). Over the past few years, I've seen a massive encroachment onto the green land surrounding Harrogate, with so many new houses built in the fields around Pannal, that its population must have increased considerably, possibly even doubling. For now, the building has mainly been on the Leeds side of the village, with the countryside between Pannal and Harrogate largely untouched, so I thought I'd go for a hike there while there is still some green space to walk in.
I think most folks here will have heard of the fabric Crimplene, source material for so much dreadful clothing in the 1960's and 70's?
I was amazed to discover, a few years ago, that is was actually named for the tiny River Crimple or Crimple Beck, which is so insignificant that it is unknown, even to most folks in Leeds, having been named by the local ICI laboratory which developed the fabric.
Since I last walked in the Crimple Valley, a new park has been built to provide sports fields and a running track to the growing populace, so we started off there, skirting the edge of some surprisingly popular football pitches. Dropping down to the River Crimple, I usually ford the beck at this point, but with all the rain we've had over the past couple of weeks, it was running too high to cross easily.
Instead we continued along the river bank, then between hedges, into the centre of Pannal, which is almost as insignificant as the Crimple Beck.
Passing the 14th century church, we headed into open fields.
As we continued through the fields, the barley growing on either side of the path had me half-tempted to re-enact a scene from
Gladiator, or perhaps a former prime minister's "
naughtiest moment"
Eventually, the open countryside came to an end, and we entered dense woodland.
The little Crimple Beck was still with us.
After the first wood came even denser woodland, with a very narrow path. Unfortunately, just as we were about to enter, half a dozen cyclists came out. They had eschewed the numerous local cycle trails, cycle paths, bridleways, lanes, and roads, to churn up a narrow public FOOTpath. Despite the beauty of the wood, the next section of the walk was not very pleasant, with the narrow path having been reduced to quagmire
Eventually we emerged into an ancient lane alongside fields, filled with newly-shorn sheep, and this year's lambs.
A footpath took us between more fields.
This cheeky magpie had found a soft spot to relax
We continued along the foothpath, which eventually brought us to the outskirts of Harrogate, where we donned our masks to catch the bus back home
The WCLF Jigged Bone really hits a home run with me. They are really the only decent Jigged Bone offerings available in a current factory produced Lambsfoot.
