Through Britain

Day 25 Sunday 26th July 2026

This is my first time on Through Britain since 8th May but that is not for want of trying.

Twice I’ve booked the Barnsley Travelodge and twice incurred rail fares to Rotherham and back from Wakefield. The first time I had a cold and the forecast was for torrential rain. The second time the temperature was due to reach 35 degrees in a heat wave with high humidity. Both times I cancelled. This time I’ve planned it differently and the forecast is mild with the possibility of light showers.

I caught the 8.24 at Bury St. Edmunds and reached Rotherham Central around noon having changed at Peterborough and Doncaster. With some slight difficulty I found the A633 heading north. It was reassuring that I cast a shadow in front of me as this confirmed my direction. I crossed the River Don and received further reassurance from a couple of railway bridges in the expected places. Rotherham became Rawmarsh with hardly a gap between. When the road escaped the conurbation there was Victoria Park to my left as I entered a deep cutting. There were trees on steep banks on either side of the road (Warren Vale). Later I passed a private woodland protected by CCTV and I skirted round Swinton.

At Wath upon Dearne I turned into the High Street just before a roundabout. Three young girls approached on my side of the street. The leader greeted me and, after I’d muttered a response, wished me a fine day. I was now on the last lap but I stopped by a roadside shrine to a motorcyclist. There were two helmets and a photo of a middle-aged man with a long ginger beard. The messages, including that from his wife, were all standard texts bought from a shop but none the less heart-felt, I’m sure, for that.

Soon after I reached the Premier Inn at Wath uponDearne on a busy roundabout close to the Trans Pennine Trail (TPT). Dinner was available so I stayed in for the rest of the evening.

Distance today 7.5 miles; total 298.42

The Premier Inn I stayed in last night is between Wath upon Dearne and Darfield. The Trans Pennine Trail (TPT) is shown as passing by quite close behind the hotel. However, it was inaccessible as an industrial estate stood in the way. Each unit was surrounded by high metal fences as security was essential. I asked a local how to get onto the TPT. He directed me to a supermarket in Wombwell saying one could get onto it there. Not seeing any supermarket I veered off onto the B6096 and passed high above the TPT on a bridge. It was next to a Karting track but another high metal fence denied access. I turned round and proceeded a short way along the A633 which ran parallel to the TPT. A path down a slope took me onto it.

The TPT is asphalted which allows use by cyclists and electric buggies. It has a number of branches and extends over much of northern England. It’s a vital resource devised early this century. It passes through 27 local authority districts and each authority is responsible for the upkeep of the TPT in its own area. The TPT took me to Stairfoot just short of Barnsley and to the south east. The signage was unclear when the path split. One fork went into Barnsley and the other north towards Wakefield. I consulted a couple of walkers and then showed me the route to Wakefield 12 miles away.

At Mark Bretton the TPT had no apparent continuation when it reached a road. I walked through the village to a roundabout and found the continuation just beyond a railway bridge. The path ran alongside a railway but turned away from the railway when I reached a road. This took me to a section of the TPT along the towpath of the Barnsley Canal. This canal had taken coal from Barnsley from 1799. Commercial use had fallen away with the advent of railways. The last time a boat used the canal was 1953. An angling club had adopted it and there were upwards of 40 stations for anglers constructed on the canal side. Two of these were in use as I walked by. The canal continued through Royston. Segments were choked with reeds and bullrushes. Others, particularly where the anglers congregated, showed clear water.

Soon after Royston I went wrong. The canal crossed underneath the railway. The TPT came to a road. On the far side of the road a narrow path looked down on a trail which I assumed was my route. Later signs indicated that I was no longer on the TPT but following a disused railway called the Chevet Branch Line. This led to Newmillerdam so I decided to turn back to the road. The TPT continued along the canal. I passed Cold Hiendley Reservoir and entered a wooded area called Haw Park. Soon after this I passed close to Walton Hall.

Walton Hall was owned by the same family for 800 years. Charles Waterton (1782-1865) was a member of that family. He has been called by David Attenborough “the first environmentalist”. He built a nine foot high wall three miles long around the estate to exclude poachers and foxes. Within those walls he banned shooting and fishing. The estate became a haven for wildfowl. 123 species of bird were recorded on the estate. Visitors were encouraged and, one year, 18,000 people came.

The family had plantations in Guyana, a British colony in South America. He went out there for a while to manage a plantation owned by an uncle. Slave labour was used. Waterton didn’t approve of slavery but he didn’t join any abolitionist movement.

Waterton was an eccentric and deceived some visitors to the estate by pretending to be one of the estate workers. Sometimes he’d bark like a dog but it isn’t clear whether he was acting as the owner or an estate worker when he did this. He was able to scratch behind his ear with his big toe and was still climbing trees at the age of eighty.

At Walton I left the TPT and took a path beside the railway to Sandal and Agbrigg Station. From there I approached the centre of Wakefield. On the way I passed a chapel on a bridge over the River Calder. It was built shortly after the bridge which itself was built in 1352. According to a notice at the chapel there are only four such bridge chapels in England.

Distance today 17.5 miles; total 315.92

I travelled to Wakefield yesterday from Bury St. Edmunds and stayed in the same hotel as last time. Their advertised rate was £76 but an extra £37 was slipped in for taxes and services. I don’t care how their charge is calculated but I really do want to know the total charge. This element of sly deception caused me some resentment.

Before leaving I wandered around the town and came across the site of the Bull Inn. There’d been a hostelry there since at least the 17th century. It’s heyday had been the coaching era. It then had 50 rooms and stabling for one hundred horses in the back yard. Although the building survived from the 18th century, it now went by the name of “Cosa Nostra.”

I set off intending to follow the A61 for a while. This would lead me in the direction of the Aire and Calder Navigation. I soon reached the town’s bus station but I was confronted by a gate that I just could not open. A bus driver came up and said that I was attempting to leave an area reserved for Arriva staff. I explained that I had no idea I was trespassing and that, if I’d seen a notice that I was venturing onto private property, I would certainly have respected it. Seeing that I was harmless, the driver allowed me through the gate. Soon afterwards I passed the Queen Elizabeth School founded in 1591. A few years ago it celebrated its 425th anniversary.

The A61 wended its way through a densely populated area. The districts of Outwood, Lofthouse Gate and Lofthouse blended into each other. After the road crossed over the M62, everything changed. I left the A61on a minor road passing through fields that had already been harvested. I was heading for Carlton and memorised a sequence of left and right turns to save myself the trouble of constantly changing spectacles to scrutinise the map. The first turn was left so I turned right. The first indication that I’d erred was the unexpected and unwelcome manifestation of the M62. The map showed I was in Ouzlewell Green so I had to turn round.

After Carlton I entered Rothwell. I spent longer there than I expected so had to check my position on my recently acquired O.S. device. This revealed that I was where I should be and about to reach the A639. This I crossed and made for Woodlesford. The Aire and Calder Navigation skirts the northern side of this village.

At the point I joined the Aire and Calder Navigation, there was a substantial community of narrow boats moored. The scene was almost domestic. A man mowed the grass between the towpath and the canal. Washing was hanging up to dry. People lived here.

In 1699, when William 111 still reigned, an Act of Parliament allowed the straitening and deepening of the Rivers Aire and Calder plus the construction of locks (16 in number) between Wakefield and Leeds. This facilitated the transport of coal out to the North Sea on larger vessels. The locks were much bigger than those built later during the age of canals

In the less populated area that followed I sat on the horizontal branch of a tree at the canal side and ate a large bun of white bread into which grated cheese and sliced tomato had been inserted. I’d purchased this at a shop called “The Meat Hook” whilst still on the A61. The attraction was that sandwiches were made up to order. A queue at the shop had formed indicating local approval of the service.

Once again I was on the Trans Pennine Trail doubling up as the canal towpath. Its asphalted surface enabled all manner of users. At intervals I encountered walkers, runners, bicyclists and those using electric buggies and scooters. For me a key point of the Navigation was that it took me into the heart of Leeds. I passed under the M1 and walked between Navigation on my left and River Aire on my right. Navigation was wide and smooth with locks whereas the river was in a deep gully with weirs to cope with the changing level. As I entered Leeds there were depots and works on either side followed by blocks of flats. When I was surrounded by towering buildings on all sides I stopped to use Google Maps. This showed that I was only 0.6 miles from my hotel. The hotel was in the street next to Briggate with arcades on either side in the pedestrianised area in central Leeds.

Today 14.69 miles; total 330.61

The cheapness of the accommodation, which I’d booked for two nights, should have warned me what to expect. I had inadvertently booked a windowless room. The only piece of furniture was the bed. It did have a large mirror and a T.V. The shower room was as big as the bedroom and clearly designed to accommodate a wheel chair. There were numerous hand rails and a chair fixed in position within the shower. A message to my wife yesterday that I’d reached my hotel was never delivered causing her some anxiety. It had been impossible to get online in the room. I’d decided to find the main railway station where I could ring her and check various things online. I’d almost reached it when my wife phoned in an agitated state. She’d received no message and I’d accidentally turned off the device which enabled her to track me. I quickly reassured her.

I had some difficulty in getting to sleep last night. I had this idea that I’d be using up the oxygen in a sealed room with adverse consequences. More than once I got up, opened the room door and moved it back and forth to replace the foetid air.

I went to the main railway station quite early to secure the papers. A youngish man was ahead of me in the queue. He bought a number of highly coloured boxes. I had to ask the attendant what they contained. He told me they were pokemon cards. He volunteered the information that another customer had spent £100 on pokemon cards for his son. I’d just seen in the Press that a 14 year old English boy had won an international pokemon contest in the United States. What Pokemon is remains a complete mystery.

My original plan to reach Harrogate on this trip had to be abandoned. To be feasible I had to have walked part of the way to Leeds on Tuesday. Then I could have done today’s walk yesterday. This had not been possible as someone had been hit by a train (euphemism for suicide?). The delay was at least two hours. My revised plan was to walk out of Leeds today thus minimising the distance to Harrogate next time I come north. I therefore set off about 9.30 a.m. seeking the A58. I reached it via the bus station. At a roundabout I branched off onto a road which took me through an area of run down businesses that no longer bothered to keep their premises clean and smart.

I re-connected with the A58 which took me through Gipton Wood, Oakwood, Holin Park and Monkswood. Just before a roundabout, where the A58 crossed the A6120, I reached a bus stop. The X99 bus took me back from there to the centre of Leeds. The plan now is to catch the same bus back to where I stopped and resume my walk. Ahead lie Shadwell, Scarcroft, Bardsey, Collingham and Wetherby. At Wetherby I can take a path to Spofforth and from there a minor road into Harrogate.

Today 5.08 miles; total 335.69.