Outwood is a former pit village that remained tiny until the nineteen seventies, when urban sprawl caused by the building of new houses resulted in it merging with neighbouring settlements and becoming a suburb of Wakefield. It has little left to identify it as a village, with the oldest buildings (including a small number of pubs and a couple of churches) strung out along the main road running through it. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, it was little but a hamlet and doesn’t appear in historical records until well after the Domesday survey, unlike the neighbouring village of Lofthouse, a much older settlement that is named in the Domesday Book (as Locthuse and Loftose) and to which Outwood is inextricably bound by the previous existence of Lofthouse Colliery, which provided employment for the whole area at one time.
Outwood station is another of the simple, two wooden platform affairs with which have become familiar, and was originally opened by the Bradford, Wakefield and Leeds Railway in 1858 as Lofthouse. It was renamed Lofthouse and Outwood in 1865, closed in 1960, and reopened in more-or-less its present form in 1988. From the station, we walk to Station Terrace, then follow this away from Lingwell Gate Lane, turn left and follow a path into trees, crossing a plank bridge over a brook and climbing steps to reach a playing field. Turn left, then right and then right again to follow the edge of the playing field, and at the far corner turn left and then left again to follow a path to Lofthouse Pond, a delightfully serene haven for wildlife.
Lofthouse Pond.
Walk anticlockwise around the pond to the far end, then bear slightly left along a muddy path through trees to enter a heather-rich meadow at the heart of Lofthouse Colliery Nature Park. The nature park (which includes the pond) is on the site of the aforementioned Lofthouse Colliery, which as will as being a major employer is famous locally as the site of a mining disaster in 1973 that claimed seven lives.
The “Nature Park” is essentially yet another of those collieries-turned-country parks that we have visited several times in our tour of Yorkshire so far, but on a much smaller scale than the others. Follow the path straight ahead across the summit of the park, and when it ends at a junction turn right, descending steps to reach a track, Lingwell Nook Lane. Cross straight over and follow another path out of the nature park and next to a golf course, eventually reaching Westgate Lane. Turn right and follow the lane until it ends at Leeds Road. We are now in the tiny centre of Lofthouse; take a short detour to the left to see Lofthouse Methodist Church, and a short detour to the right to visit the Castle pub, next to which is another – now former – public house, the Waggon & Horses.
Cross straight over Leeds Road and follow a signed public footpath along a farm track between fields of crops. Stay on the track as it turns left, then turns right at the edge of a field and becomes a path running next to the M62 motorway. At the end of the field, the path crosses a bridge over Lee Moor Beck, then bends right to end at a metalled track. Turn left and follow this to Castle Gate, then turn right and right again and follow Lee Moor Lane until it becomes Common Road and ends at Lee Moor Road. Turn right here and follow the road until it bends left; here, bear slightly right and follow Moor Road, which also soon bends left and ends at Canal Lane (despite the name, there are sadly no canals on this particular walk).
Turn right and follow Canal Lane until it ends at Leeds Road, passing the Victorian red-brick Outwood Primary Academy on route. We now turn left along Leeds Road, which runs through the centre of Outwood for over a mile. We pass first the Sun and then shortly afterwards the Woodman pubs, both on the right, and as we climb slowly uphill, look out for the Kirklands Hotel and the Parish Church of St. Mary Magdalene (which dates from 1858), both also on the right.
Church of St. Mary Magdalene.
Just past these, as the road begins to run downhill, the former Outwood Empire cinema can be seen on the left, followed by the St. Leger public house on the right. The Outwood Empire opened in 1921, closed in 1964 and – like many former cinemas – later become a bingo club and then a carpet warehouse. Unlike most former cinemas, it is currently a huge fish and chip restaurant!
Soon after passing Parkside Methodist Church on the right, turn right along Victoria Street, looking out for the Lofthouse Colliery Memorial on the corner, which is yet another pit-wheel memorial. Just past this, a little further along Leeds Road, is another pub house, the Deep Drop. Turn left into King George Street and follow this as it bends right and runs through a typical post-war council “garden city” estate. At the end of the street, continue straight ahead into Outwood Park. Bear left and follow the path to another entrance to the park. Do not leave the park, but instead turn right and at a fork turn right again, bearing left at the next junction to exit the park on the corner of Ledger lane and Potovers Lane. Finally, turn left and follow Lingwell Gate Lane back to the station.
With Outwood, our tour of the City of Wakefield borough of West Yorkshire is now complete. But our tour of West Yorkshire – let alone the West Riding – is far from over. And thus we now leave Wakefield behind and head up the Wakefield Line to the City of Leeds…
Comments