Having returned to Leeds, we now head along the Huddersfield Line, to stop off at a couple of stations before the line leaves the City of Leeds and heads into Kirkless. The first of these is Cottingley, but it provides something of a dilemma…
Cottingley is a suburb of Leeds consisting almost entirely of a council estate and as such has little history of note, despite the name having existed since at least 1538. Nevertheless, there are a couple of historic buildings on the walk, which also includes Churwell, an adjacent suburb and former village, which has existed as a settlement since at least 1226. It also passes the large and popular White Rose Shopping Centre, named after the White Rose of Yorkshire, and opened in 1997. The shopping centre has expanded at least once since its construction and remains hugely popular – enough to justify building a new railway station to serve it. And therein lies the dilemma: Cottingley Railway Station – a two platform, unstaffed halt – opened in 1988, but is considered relatively inaccessible to commuters; White Rose Railway Station is due to open in late 2023, and since the two are only half a mile apart, Cottingley is due to close when White Rose opens. So how best to do the walk? As it is circular and passes both the existing station and the site of the new one, it currently starts and finishes at Cottingley. But since that station’s days are numbered, the walk directions below are based it starting and finishing from White Rose. However, whilst work on the new station is completed, it is currently necessary to take a detour due to a footpath closure, which is described in brackets.
From White Rose Railway Station (the site of which is marked on the Google Map), turn right and follow a footpath to a junction. Turn left and follow the signed “Woodland Walk” between White Rose Office Park on the left and the White Rose Shopping Centre on the right. When the Woodland Walk reaches a road, cross over and continue straight ahead, passing a small pond on the right to reach Millshaw Road. Turn left to reach the nearest pedestrian crossing, cross the road, then turn right and follow a path parallel with Millshaw Road past houses to reach Dewsbury Road. Carefully cross both lanes and then bear slightly right to follow a signed footpath into a belt of trees.
Follow the path uphill, shortly reaching Stank Hall and Stank Hall Barn on either side of the path.
Stank Hall Barn
Currently derelict and boarded up, Stank Hall is a timber-framed house dating from the fifteenth century and is Grade II-listed; the Grade II*-listed barn, similarly derelict, includes a chapel and dates from the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century. Both are located within the Stank Hall quasi-manorial site, a Scheduled Ancient Monument. A dedicated “Friends” group is campaigning to restore the hall and barn for public use. Continue straight ahead and cross a bridge over a railway line, then turn right and follow a path through a belt of trees next to the railway line for approximately half a mile. At a junction of paths on the edge of a grassy meadow, turn right (still roughly parallel with the railway line) and continue to follow the path until it starts to curve left; here, turn right along a path running downhill through trees, eventually reaching a track running downhill between the buttresses of a former railway bridge on a now disused branch line. Continue straight ahead, passing under a railway bridge, and then follow the track to Dewsbury Road.
Turn left and just before reaching a roundabout, cross the road and turn right, following the pavement back in the direction of White Rose Shopping Centre. Just before reaching a drive on the left, turn left and follow a signed footpath through a band of trees running along the edge of a field. When the footpath reaches the edge of a housing estate, turn right and follow another path through trees, shortly turning right and then left to reach a junction of paths. Cross the stile on the left, then immediately turn right and follow a path along the edge of another field (with a hedgerow on the right) until it ends at a junction by the railway line.
Turn right and follow the path, then turn left to cross a bridge over the railway. Follow a path between fields to a fork (the partially constructed White Rose station can be seen across the fields on the right0, then bear right and follow the path to Back Green. Turn right and walk to a junction, then turn left along Little Lane and follow it to Elland Road in Churwell. On the left, the surviving sign of a now vanished pub (The Old Golden Fleece, demolished in 2010) can be seen, whilst the New Inn can be seen to the right. Directly opposite, just down Old Road, is another public house – Bar 27 – and a war memorial can be seen in the wall on the opposite corner.
Turn left and follow Elland Road uphill, shortly passing first the old Poor House on the left (Grade II-listed and dating from 1865), then the Commercial Inn on the right, and finally a former Mount Zion Chapel (also Grade II-listed and built in c.1861) on the left.
The Old Poor House
Turn right along Crossland Road, then right again along Daffil Avenue, immediately bearing right along a path into Churwell Park. Walk downhill across the park, exiting on William Street. Turn left and walk to Hepworth Avenue, then turn right. Turn left again along a signed footpath and on reaching a junction turn right and follow a path beside a field until it ends at another junction.
Turn right and walk to New Village Way and continue straight ahead to a mini roundabout. Turn left along Digpal Road and follow this to Cottingley Railway Station. Turn right and continue past the station, following a path parallel with the railway track, which shortly turns right and crosses a bridge over Mill Shaw Brook to end at Marchant Way. Turn left and follow another path beside this to New Village Way, then bear left again to reach another mini roundabout. Continue straight ahead along Old Road, following it as it bends left under a railway viaduct to end at Elland Road. [Due to the current status of the two railway stations and current footpath closure, turn left along Elland Road, then right along Millshaw and follow it to Ring Road. Follow this to a roundabout, then take the second right, turning left again almost immediately to follow Woodland Walk past the lake and continue the walk as described above].
Cross Elland Road and turn right into Millshaw Playing Fields, following a signed footpath straight ahead to a grille over Mill Shaw Brook. Turn right with the footpath and continue across the edge of a second playing field, then turn left and follow a path beside the railway track to return to White Rose station.
From Cottingley and White Rose, we now continue towards Huddersfield, for one more stop before heading back to Leeds, for a visit to the town of Morley.
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