Hiking and walking in South Yorkshire and beyond

New Crofton  RFM Blue Line  Walking with Peter 31/10/25 New Crofton, Wakefield, part of the heart of the old Yorkshire Coalfield, was a totally different proposition to our usual Pennine hill walking. This is the end of the summer season and the start of the winter season when the walks are more low level and let us explore parts of Yorkshire other walkers don't reach. In so many of these old mining villages the only thing left of the pits is the winding wheel. Time has moved on and the mining legacy is fading fast. New houses, new and young people that have no knowledge of coal many have never even seen it, have altered fundamentally these villages. Commuters are starting to dominate the scene with new developments and good transport links these are the dormitories of the cities and towns of West and South Yorkshire and further afield. And I personally welcome the change. Walking along the main street through Crofton this post box was joyously decorated, brightening everyone'...

  Irontongue Hill RFM Blue Line  Walking with Peter 2510/2025 This walk started in the village of Carrbrook near Stalybridge.We compared notes on the journey over Saddleworth from Yorkshire and both agreed the thick fog and light rain was a nightmare to drive through in the early morning darkness. This prompted us to decide that this would be the last high level walk of the season unless the forecast was for a sunny day. The hills have a magnetism of their own. We followed the Pennine Bridleway up to Slatepit Moor. Descriptive names just remind me so much of the early OS surveyors mapping the country, using local names now fossilised in the landscape. Buckton Vale Quarry in the gloom on the opposite hillside would be our way back down into the village in about 4 hours. Meanwhile the way up was a struggle up a bracken infested hillside along a rocky very wet, almost a stream, path. Not an easy ascent but it was good to get altitude quickly. Looking back the sky seemed to be bri...