From Castleford, our next stop is at Normanton, a small town that feels rather more like a large village. In keeping with the other towns in the City of Wakefield, it thrived during the nineteenth and early twentieth century due to its brickworks and coal-mining industries, both of which had ended by the nineteen eighties. The typical post-industrial decline followed, but in recent years it has become a commuter town for people working in Leeds. Normanton is an old settlement, mentioned in the Domesday Book as Normantune, and in Norman times it was the site of an enclosed settlement surrounded by a moat. It isn’t a popular tourist destination, but there is plenty of interest to see on the walk.
Normanton station opened in 1840 and although commuters would be forgiven for not realising this today, it was once one of the most important stations in the north of England. The reason for this is that it was located on several different railway lines, making it a hub for trains serving the West Riding’s collieries and manufacturers. Those days are long gone, and so are all the railway lines bar the one on which we arrived. The station has also predictably been divested of its original station buildings. From the station, walk straight ahead along Market Place until it ends at a junction. A pair of pubs greets visitors to the town: the Junction Inn is on the right, just past which the Midland Hotel can be seen. Bear left and follow High Street, passing the town’s War Memorial, and continuing through the town centre. After passing Normanton Baptist Church and Normanton Town Hall on the left, the road then curves right to reach a cross roads. Another pub, the Black Swan, is on the corner to the left.
Continue straight ahead at the crossroads (still on High Street), looking out for the stump of a possibly-medieval market cross on the left-hand side of the road; this has a cast-iron lamp post on top of it, which was added in 1904. Follow the road until the Parish Rooms appear on the right, then turn right to enter the churchyard of All Saints Church.
All Saints Church.
This is one of the area’s older churches, dating from at least 1256 and of sufficient merit to have been granted Grade II*-listed building status. Bear slightly right past the church and exit the churchyard on Church Lane, then continue straight ahead and follow the lane until it bends left. Here, turn right and follow a footpath which soon turns left and joins the end of Mill Lane. Follow this past the plain, red-brick Normanton Methodist Church to reach Wakefield Road.
Turn left along Wakefield Road, then right along Newland Lane, passing the rather grand Saint John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church. We now head out into more rural surroundings, as Newland Lane as it becomes a rough track, shortly crossing a bridge over the railway line and immediately reaching a fork. We bear left here, still on Newland Lane, which soon turns right and then left, before passing a pond on the left. Just after a gate across the lane and an adjacent stile, the lane forks again; we bear left again and still find ourselves on Newland Lane, which heads towards ruined buildings and a wood. This is part of the site of the Newland Estate, which was originally a small township established in 1213 by King John as a preceptor of the Knights Templar, and was later transferred to the Knights Hospitaller in 1256. After Henry VIII sold the land in 1544, it had several owners and Newland Hall was last occupied in 1972; the ruins of the hall and its outbuildings, plus the remains of the estate, are now a nature reserve, and we will be walking through it.
Follow the lane as it bends left past a ruined stone outbuilding, and just past this turns left again to follow an overgrown and presumably little-used public footpath. The footpath immediately turns right past another ruined building, before running downhill to the edge of a lake and then running alongside it (and be warned that if the water is high, the path will be under a few inches of the lake and paddling may be required!). After navigating the boggy lakeside path, we turn right to reach another path, turning right again and following through the woods, ignoring any turns off and passing the ruins of Newland Hall.
Newland Hall.
The ruins loom hauntingly out of the woods, overgrown with trees, making this one of the most atmospheric and striking parts of the walk.
Eventually, the path leaves the woods and ends at a farm track, where we turn right and follow a tree-lined public footpath uphill between fields. The path soon turns right and runs gently downhill. When it turns right again, turn left through a gap in a stone wall to reach a track, then turn left. Turn right along the next signed footpath and follow this between fields until it ends at Patience Lane, where we find ourselves returned to Normanton once more. Continue straight ahead and then take the second right turn along Drury Lane. Follow this until it ends at Station Lane, then turn right and follow the road as it becomes Altofts Road and crosses a bridge over the railway track. Finally, just after crossing the bridge, turn right and follow a path next to a supermarket car park to reach Market Place, then turn right to return to the railway station.
Normanton is our penultimate station stop in the City of Wakefield. To reach the final one, we must now return to Wakefield Kirkgate and then set out again along the Wakefield Line, heading north towards Leeds…
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